?warp nine, Mr. Sulu?

[rtharbaugh1]

I am banishing myself here from general physics forum. Here is my latest wild idea. Imagine an engine driven by tidal forces in an ocean. Translate it into an engine driven by tidal forces near a black hole. It is tidal forces which rip apart objects near black holes, preventing most of us from wanting to imagine wandering into one. But if there were an engine which was driven by the tidal forces of the black hole, could it not carry information (or a ship?) beyond the singular limit? You see it would use the tidal forces up in driving the ship, so that the local effect of the tidal forces would be negated. This would be something like what a surfer does when racing down the face of an ocean wave. If the surfer were tied to a rock face she would be torn to pieces by the forces in the waves, but by riding free on a little slip of a board, she may evade the rocks and travel with amazing agility and speed to places ordinary mortals like us would never dare to go.

Surfing the darkness.

Does anyone else miss the good old days of SF?