The Speed of Light is NOT About Light

PBS SpaceTime has a treatise on relativity. There are a dozen videos worth watching on this topic alone. The video about “the speed of causality” is the one that caused me to level up: [VIDEO] Here is a 12 video playlist on relativity: [LINK] Here is a six video series on measuring space and time: [LINK]

There's an episode of PBS Space Time about this, "The Speed of Light is NOT About Light" [1], which comes pretty close to making the same points you are making. It might be useful to watch this earlier episode, "Are Space and Time an Illusion?" [2], first. There is a later episode (or maybe a couple of them) that go into how interactions with the Higgs field make it so things with mass travel slowed than the speed of causality. To tie back to the warp drive news, they have an episode that would be a good place to start on warp drives, "Is The Alcubierre Warp Drive Possible?" [3]. There's also "Superluminal Time Travel + Time Warp Challenge Answer" [4], and "Will Wormholes Allow Fast Interstellar Travel?" [5]. A non-warp unknown physics drive that comes up a lot also got an episode, "The EM Drive: Fact or Fantasy?" [6]. There is at least one episode covering interstellar travel without using any unknown physics, "5 REAL Possibilities for Interstellar Travel" [7]. The scope of the series is basically anything vaguely connected to astronomy, cosmology, and quantum mechanics, and the episodes are all pretty short (5-12 minutes), so it is a great thing to watch when you've got a short wait for something. Here's the series home page [8], and their YouTube channel [9]. Also on the PBS streaming app, for those who like to get their physics on their big screen TVs. [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK] [4] [LINK] [5] [LINK] [6] [LINK] [7] [LINK] [8] [LINK] [9] [LINK]

These PBS Spacetime episodes should help: The Speed of Light is NOT About Light - [VIDEO] Is Quantum Tunneling Faster than Light? - [LINK] The Quantum Experiment that Broke Reality - [LINK] Pilot Wave Theory and Quantum Realism - [LINK] The Future of Gravitational Waves - [LINK]

Something to head off likely confusion: The Speed of Light is not about the Speed of Light. [VIDEO] Don't get these two things mixed up: - The speed of electromagnetic waves in the local medium - The maximum speed our reality allows for causal phenomena

Speed of light is not really just speed of light, but universal speed limit of causality. Light (electromagnetic waves just happens to be one of the few things capable of hitting that limit. Even the effect of gravity is limited to speed of light. PBS Space time has a good video on this - [VIDEO] . So to answer your question, no it is not possible for anything to affect us any faster than the universal speed limit of causality (that light happens to be able to hit).

@mesid asked in a now dead comment: > What does speed of causality mean? And how is light so close to that? Take a look at this video by PBS Space Time on the topic: [VIDEO] You may need to go down the rabbit hole and watch the earlier videos on relativity and related topics.

Some of the confusion is, I think from referring to speed of light as "speed of light". When it really is speed limit of causality between 2 points in space. And light (em waves) just happen to be able to hit that limit. Now since expansion of space is itself not going to allow one point in space to cause any effect on another, it (the expansion) can be faster than speed of causality. PBS space time has a good video on this - [VIDEO]

Posted this to a point above, but probably more pertinent here, so reposting - Some of the confusion is, I think from referring to speed of light as "speed of light". When it really is speed limit of causality between 2 points in space. And light (em waves) just happen to be able to hit that limit. Now since expansion of space is itself not going to allow one point in space to cause any effect on another, it (the expansion) can be faster than speed of causality. PBS space time has a good video on this - [VIDEO]