time travel, is it possible?

[amazingdm]

to naysayers here: pwned

 

[black_dust]

Maybe maybe not i just think when they make one it will be like the Flys teleporter and when they turn it on they will be getting messages back from the future, cause you cant send them further back before the machine was made...

 

[Dave McFly]

the ONLY way to time travel

 

[elgaz]

The main problem with time travel is that old one, the Paradox effect ................... yet again. You will never see a time travel discussion without it being mentioned. It's a simple fact of life that our current laws of physics (I say current as scientists are breaking new ground every day) cannot provide an adequate explanation as to what would happen if a time paradox occurred.

You are born.
You grow up and build a time machine.
You go back in time, shoot your Father in the head while he is a young man.
Your father dies, so you are never born, and never build a time machine.
Your father thus never dies as you are not alive to shoot him.
You are born.
etc....

What would happen? Would the Universe implode or explode, tearing apart space and time as it gets caught in the equivalent of a 'loop' in a computer program? Perhaps things wouldn't happen in just an explosive way - perhaps you and your father would simply cease to exist, or be removed from this reality while the rest of us plunder on regardless. Perhaps fate would determine that you never actually manage to build a time machine (perhaps you will meet challenges and obstructions along the way) and thus never initiate the paradox.

The current Quantum theory proposes that there are millions of Universes, each one the result of a different outcome from a certain decision/choice. This is mind boggling and hard to comprehend, in terms of pure numbers : how many combinations of posible outcomes are available from every reaction between 2 or more elements in the entire universe? Multiplying trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions wouldn't even bring you close to the truth.

I am not a scientist and I have no answer for this conundrum. However, I do find it hard to believe that whatever force was responsible for the creation of the Universe - nature, God, the big bang, whatever - can manage the infinite number of universes. Of course, an omnipotent being (by their definition) has no limit to their power, but one must still question the need for a limitless number of entire Universes just to counter this time paradox effect. And if it is nature controlling it and not a 'god', how exactly does nature implement such a device? How does it create entire new Universes based on whether I turn left or right at the end of my road?

You could dig this hole even deeper by exploring the spiritual and moral side of it too, particulaly if you're a believer in God or a supreme force which judges us all. Let's assume there are multiple universes, designed to compensate for paradox effects caused by time travel. Lets say that in one universe, I grow up to become a murderer/rapist and in another, I am a good and lawful person.

How am I judged when I die? Is there more than one of me? Do I have one soul, or numerous souls? Does the good one go to Heaven and the bad one to Hell, or are all the trillions of me from all the universes judged as a whole?

You can see why I have trouble with this multiple universe theory. Of course, if you believe that we simply turn to dust when we die then the matter of us being judged by a supreme being is irrelevant. Nevertheless, it's hard to accept that there is no 'definitive' me out there - just millions and millions more of me, each one with an equally valid claim to my being.

Now if I was God and I was designing the Universe (just one!) then surely it would be much simpler for me to instil a small failsafe. Just a little device which ensures that the paradox effect never occurs and stability is maintained. What would this device be? Who knows. Personally I think it will be our totally inablity to ever manufacture a time machine. We will always be faced with obstacles and eventually deem it to be impossible, thereby protecting the integrity of this universe. Another possibility is that it could be a simple matter of instantly removing the cause of the paradox immediately after it happens - you go back in time to shoot your father and before you can pull the trigger, you disappear from existence.

After all, modern computer programmers build failsafes so that software doesn't get caught in loops. The software is governed by a set of rules/protocols that eventually kick in and end the loop - usually by rebooting the the software ..................... now there's something else to think about!

Long, long post - sorry!

 

[Mr. Credible]

You people can't possibly be saying I'm crazy for saying time travel is possible, or at the very least that there is no reason to say it is IMpossible?
geez

nobody thinks you're crazy for thinking it's possible. we think you're crazy for saying there's proof. there's no proof. it's a theory.

 

[Keymaker]

About the paradox...wasn't there another theory that when you go back in time to do something that will screw up the universe something always stops you?

 

[Ice-man]

i just wana go to the past and make a few great financial investmeants, such as investing in sony, or the internet, id be filthy stinkin rich.

than id hide rare coins and money in my backyard in the future ill dig it up and id sell em.

or id go into the future by madd furutistic **** than come to the preasent and be the only one to have any of it.

 

[Darthphere]

The Illuminati knows all.

 

[FaT_tONle]

... Do you have any proof of this?

That's practically like saying if I roll down a hill faster than someone does, I'll age more quickly than that someone.

You're watching an incredibly high amount of science fiction, I think. Keep in mind, dude, it's called "science fiction" for a reason.

Space-time is the constant is space.... four dimensions.... its a linear line with the x coordinate being your space coordinates and the Y being time...

Einstein proved this in the early 20th century.... increase your speed... and you decrease the slope of that line. Traveling at the speed of light gives you the lowest possible slope.... but the time differences are substantial. Eveyone on earth experiences time in one straight motion parallel to the Y axis cause we all move together... people that have traveled in space however are a few micro seconds younger... anyone even not familiar in basic physics and math should understand the concept of relativity... you should know this already... if not hopefully you learned something.... these are the facts and its all in the text books

 

[TNC9852002]

-TNC

 

[Halcohol]

trying to find the article, but a few years ago the world of science was rocked by a team of scientists who successfully sent lihgt particles backwards in time. they went something like 1/1000th of a second or something like that. It was recorded using one of those nano second cameras that capture like a trillion frames per second.

They did this by putting beams of light into a particle accelorator to make them travel faster than the speed of light. They woud put them in one end and make them emerge from the other end afterwards, or in this case prior to.

The beam of light would emerge from the one end, before it was even inserted into the other end.

Obviously traveling to the future is possible, since were doing it right now, and astronauts have done it at even faster rate. but now it's also been proven that you can travel back to the past.

I suspect that the reason we aren't being disturbed by tourists from the future is simple.

A. we annihilated ourselves before we developed the ability to do so
B. It requires mega resources, that only the government can come up with, and our future leaders are extremely opposed to it. most people would be. you make one tiny change in the past, and you end up never being born.

C. Maybe we are being visited and we just don't know it.

Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Especially not light.

 

[Immortalfire]

of course time travel is possible
time is just as much a tangible plane/dimension as space
anyone who says otherwise is braindead
besides they've already proven a way to travel to the future

How appropriate that Ice-man made this thread then, lol

 

[WorthyStevens]

We've got flying cars now, so who the hell knows what else can be thought of.

 

[dpm07]

Space-time is the constant is space.... four dimensions.... its a linear line with the x coordinate being your space coordinates and the Y being time...

Einstein proved this in the early 20th century.... increase your speed... and you decrease the slope of that line. Traveling at the speed of light gives you the lowest possible slope.... but the time differences are substantial. Eveyone on earth experiences time in one straight motion parallel to the Y axis cause we all move together... people that have traveled in space however are a few micro seconds younger... anyone even not familiar in basic physics and math should understand the concept of relativity... you should know this already... if not hopefully you learned something.... these are the facts and its all in the text books

I agree with this.

 

[Mike_D202]

 

[redmarvel]

Apparently Time Travel may be possible... a scientist has a workable theory and now he's trying to build a device to do it.

He wrote a book:
"Time Traveller
A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality"
by Dr. Ronald L. Mallet with Bruce Henderson

Thunder's Mouth, $24.95 (US): ISBN: 1-56205-869-1​

He's an African-American physicist who read H.G. Well's "The Time Machine" after his father's death in 1955. He thought that if he could build a time machine he could save his father's life... so he studied and studied hard.

According to the article I read in Asimov's June issue, Stephen Hawking, Frank Tipler and Kip Thorne have all been ivestigating situations in which relativity (time) appears to move backward.

 

[rodhulk]

Actually, we are time travelling. In two minutes from reading this, you will have travelled two minutes into the future!

 

[Spider-Bite]

Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Especially not light.

Yes it can. After this happened and made it in discover magazine, a few weeks later they were talking about it on Discovery Channel, asking the question was Einstein wrong? Becuase it's man's understanding that Einstein said nothing could travel faster than the speed of light, but if it did, it would go backwards in time.

They all said Einstein was not wrong, because of all the loopholes and everything in the Theory of Relativity.

Anyways things can move faster than the official speed of light, and if you disagree, then tell it to those light particles, because somebody forgot to tell them.

 

[Super Kal]

is it possible?
I hope so

 

[JP]

OMG.. I'm in the future.. right.. now.now.now.now.now.now.now.now.now.now.

 

[Fried Gold]

... Do you have any proof of this?

That's practically like saying if I roll down a hill faster than someone does, I'll age more quickly than that someone.

You're watching an incredibly high amount of science fiction, I think. Keep in mind, dude, it's called "science fiction" for a reason.

No, it's true...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity

 

[Fried Gold]

Don't tell Einstein. He'll be pissed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Relativity

And that one too.

 

[Fried Gold]

So in other words, Machx72, you've been made to look a little bit of a spastic.

 

[Danalys]

some one should have mentioned the term time dilation ages ago rather than just describing it with situations from flight of the navigator.

 

[Machx72]

So in other words, Machx72, you've been made to look a little bit of a spastic.

I look "a spastic," huh?

I'm still not very convinced that it is yet possible. You gave me a bunch of theories Einstein had. Not that he was an idiot by any means, but like he even proposed, they're theories. I've yet to see any proof of them.