Editing Faster-than-light communication (section)

===Superluminal transmitters and ansibles===
The terms "ultrawave" and "hyperwave" have been used by several authors, often interchangeably, to denote faster-than-light communications. Examples include:
*[[E. E. Smith]] used the term "ultrawave" in his [[Lensman series|''Lensman'' series]], for waves which propagated through a sub-ether and could be used for weapons, communications, and other applications.
*In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s [[Foundation (book series)|''Foundation'' series]], "ultrawave" and "hyperwave" are used interchangeably to represent a superluminal communications medium. The ''hyperwave relay'' also features.
*In the ''[[Star Trek]]'' universe, [[technology in Star Trek#Subspace|subspace]] carries faster-than-light communication (subspace radio) and travel ([[warp drive]]).
*The ''[[Cities in Flight]]'' series by [[James Blish]] featured ultrawave communications which used the known phenomenon of phase velocity to carry information, a property which in fact is impossible. The limitations of phase velocity beyond the speed of light later led him to develop his Dirac communicator.
*[[Larry Niven]] used ''hyperwave'' in his [[Known Space]] series as the term for a faster-than-light method of communication. Unlike the hyperdrive that moved ships at a finite superluminal speed, hyperwave was essentially instantaneous.
*In [[Richard Morgan (author)|Richard K. Morgan]]'s [[Takeshi Kovacs]] novels human colonies on distant planets maintain contact with earth and each other via ''hyperspatial needlecast'', a technology which moves information "...so close to instantaneously that scientists are still arguing about the terminology".

A later device was the [[ansible]] coined by [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] and used extensively in her [[Hainish Cycle]]. Like Blish's device it provided instantaneous communication, but without the inconvenient beep.

The ansible is also a major plot element, nearly a [[MacGuffin]], in [[Elizabeth Moon]]'s [[Vatta's War]] series. Much of the story line revolves around various parties attacking or repairing ansibles, and around the internal politics of ISC (InterStellar Communications), a corporation which holds a monopoly on the ansible technology.<ref name="vatta1">{{cite book |last=Moon |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Moon |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780345447616 |title=Trading in Danger |date=September 2004 |publisher=Del Rey |isbn=0-345-44761-1 |edition=mass ppb. |page=111 |quote=Attack on instersystem ansibles is just...just unthinkable.}}</ref>

The ansible is also used as the main form of communication in [[Orson Scott Card]]'s [[Ender's Game]] series. It is inhabited by an energy based, non-artificial sentient creature called an Aiúa that was placed within the ansible network and goes by the name of [[Jane (Ender's Game)|Jane]]. It was made when the humans realized that the [[Ender's Game (novel series)#Formics|Buggers]], an alien species that attacked Earth, could communicate instantaneously and so the humans tried to do the same.