Writing Prompt Faster than Light Racing

[Thraben]

Me and my friend wrote a song (you can't see it because I don't have the file) about the concept of a car/hovercar/spaceship race at massively FTL speeds.

So, the prompt is this.

You are the pilot of a one-man Hyperlight spacecraft in the year 5XXX, participating in a Massively FTL Race from one end of the galaxy to the other, and must train for not only the actual obstacles along the course's path, but also against the unique mental challenges of FTL racing.

 

[Nolff]

Me and my friend wrote a song (you can't see it because I don't have the file) about the concept of a car/hovercar/spaceship race at massively FTL speeds.

So, the prompt is this.

You are the pilot of a one-man Hyperlight spacecraft in the year 5XXX, participating in a Massively FTL Race from one end of the galaxy to the other, and must train for not only the actual obstacles along the course's path, but also against the unique mental challenges of FTL racing.

So... What's there to do? Training?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

So most of the work would be rapid-fire mathematics and keyboarding. The latter I could still handle, the former I would need a really good computer or great assistant to handle now.

 

[Lloyd]

How would you even have a faster than light race? At that speed, you'd phase through all physical matter.

 

[Alfir]

I raced light so fast that Light forgot I was already standing on the finish line.

 

[laccoff_mawning]

Ha. You thought you could slow me down by shooting my quazar engine with a hyperspace warp missile?

Pathetic. What you hit was merely my afterimage...

 

[CharlesEBrown]

How would you even have a faster than light race? At that speed, you'd phase through all physical matter.

They kind of addressed this in a Doctor Who serial in the 80s, "Enlightenment" - a group of Celestials build FTL ships (that resemble 1800s sailing vessels but can fly in space!) and kidnap "ephemerals" (humans) to crew them for a race across the galaxy.

 

[Thraben]

How would you even have a faster than light race?

We originally envisioned combining multiple different themes and such, for example having black holes as obstacles and other such shenanigans like wormholes as lap markers. Perhaps graveyards of dead eldritch gods as setpieces and other nonsense.

We also had the concept of it being 'a race that ends before it begins' due to the strangeness that arises from theorizing how something truly FTL would look to non-FTL observers.