I do not know how many of you out there would have heard about Quantum Physics . It is one of the hot-and-happening topics in the field of science . For those who have not heard about lt , who would be very few , I will share what little I know and I will be brief.
According to Quantum Physics , for every second that passes , a parallel universe is created . Not even a second , for every miniscule fraction of time passed , another universe is created . Then imagine the number of universes that would have been formed by now and are forming now , even as I am typing and even as you are reading.
The following information , I will be quoting from Michael Crichton’s novel “TIMELINE”:
" There is no such thing as time travel . The only way to go into the past or into the future is to travel to another parallel universe . In one parallel universe(also referred to as multiverse) Adolf Hitler is dead , in yet another he may be alive."
The above information I have not quoted exactly from TIMELINE but the content is the same as far as I can remember.
And those who are interested in the topic of multiverse , TIMELINE is a must read. Excellent book.
For those who believe that time travel is traveling only through time and quantum physics is rubbish , please post your arguments.
And others who support the theory of quantum physics , please do give additional information.
Um, if you’re getting your understanding of quantum physics from Michael Crichton, I fear that you will find that actual quantum physics is much, much different.
I’m certain a few of our actual physicists will be along soon. While I hold the same degree as Crichton, I won’t presume to muddy the waters with an oversimplified explanation.
That’s only the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics; there are others that don’t involve parallel universes. And no one knows which interpretation is true, as of yet.
That’s . . . a novel. Not a physics textbook.
You aren’t defining quantum physics correctly, or time travel. Those are arguments.
And to answer the question, “Is time travel possible ?”, no one knows. I’ve noticed over the years that physicists keep tossing up ideas for time travel, and others keep shooting them down. I’m reminded strongly of the era before the laws of thermodynamics were formulated, and a perpetual motion machine was considered a reasonable thing to try to invent, and many smart people tried; they didn’t know why it was impossible. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some undiscovered law of conservation that prevents time travel.
Or, perhaps not, and time travel really is possible. Bottom line, we don’t know for sure.
Quantum physics just means “physics involving things that are really, really small”. It doesn’t suggest or prove that there are zillions of parallel universes, only that there MIGHT be zillions of parallel universes.
The definition of “universe” is “everything that observes, is observed by, or interacts with anything”. Different universes would exist separately from ours. If it were possible to move between universes or observe them or interact with them in any way, they wouldn’t be universes anymore, but rather just one singular universe.
If universes can affect and be affected by other universes, they wouldn’t be separate universes. The hypothetical is kind of loaded though. It would be like saying “hypothetically, if we could violate the conservation of mass/energy laws and create matter out of nothing, we could burn it as fuel and never have to use oil again!”
Well, yeah, we could, but the big deal isn’t the oil independence, it’s the fact that literally everything we know about physics has just been proven false. It would be impossible to learn or know anything, because the universe wouldn’t be consistent or permanent anymore.
As I have pointed out earlier my knowledge on this subject is limited. And I too am not telling that there is definite proof of multiple universes existing, I only quoted the content of TIMELINE.For that matter , isn’t almost everything in physics theoritical? Is there proof that we are the only inhabitants of this universe? Leave aside the universe , is there proof that we are the only inhabitants with the so-called six senses on earth? We do not know what lies beneath the bowels of earth. We are assuming that just the lower strata of organisms are living below, what if thay were a superior race to us.
Ok . Coming back to the present topic. I know that TIMELINE is not a textbook ,but in each and everything is there not an iota of truth ?
And comparing time travel with the existence of multiverse , I think knowing that we do not even know the size of our universe,the probability of a multiverse existing becomes even higher.
Larry Niven once wrote an article on the thesis: If the physics of a given universe of discourse permit time travel, no time travel will be discovered in that universe of discourse. Reason being, so many people have so many reasons to want to change the past, they’ll keep doing it – until some time traveler’s interference shuts down the process by producing a timeline where nobody ever discovers time travel.
This thesis, of course, was based on the unspoken assumption that changing the past would be the only reason anyone would want to visit it, which is obviously not true. We can imagine a universe of discourse where time travel is possible but changing the past is impossible – if you try to stop Booth before he shoots Lincoln, something will happen to prevent you. Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love is set in such a universe – Lazarus Long takes a trip back to 1917 just to visit his old family; he has no history-changing mission, nor is he the least bit concerned he might change history, because he knows he can’t.
Everything in science (which includes physics) is based on observation and evidence.
Sure scientists form theories and make predictions. And wait patiently for confirmation. We haven’t studied a black hole up close, but we can make assumptions based on distant observations.
Is there proof that we are all living in a computer simulation, controlled by computers and that we are waiting for Neo to rescue us?
Well, no (to both). Who says we are the only inhabitants of the universe?
You may be confused by the fact that some people claim that alien UFOs have visited us, but scientists point out there is no proof of that - which doesn’t mean they are ruling out aliens everywhere.
Who says we only have six senses?
Can you detect heat? What sense are you using?
Can you tell when you are being tilted? What sense are you using?
Can you feel pain? What sense are you using?
Can you touch your nose blindfold? What sense are you using?
How do you know TIMELINE is not a secret textbook?
How do you know the Illuminati are not controlling all the countries in the World and using time travel to enforce it?
How do you know that the the author isn’t pretending it’s fiction, because it’s the only way to fight them?
If there is truth in everything, then the statement ‘We know nothing’ must be true.
But if we know we know nothing, then we know something. Therefore there is no truth in the statement.
But if we know the statement is false, then we know something. Therefore the statement is both true and false simultaneously. (And that beats the hell out of Quantum Physics.)
Please ignore any scientific claims made in Timeline. In fact, please ignore any scientific claims made in any of Michael Crichton’s novels. Crichton, despite having a medical degree, tends to mess up any science he uses in his novels. It always sounds to me that he’s using information that he read five years before in a newspaper article that was a bit vague itself. If you want to learn about quantum physics, get yourself a popular introduction to the subject and read it. Don’t try to learn science from novels. Perhaps other posters can suggest some good popular introductions to quantum physics.
As I said in the other thread on this topic I think it IS possible…theoretically. However all of the various schemes I’ve seen to actually do it require pretty much magical technology (you know the drill…to paraphrase ‘Any highly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ to the poor slob trying to observe it). The one most interesting I’ve seen lately was on the Science Channel where a physicist (who’s name currently escapes me) is trying to create a time machine using bended light. As Great Dave says it could only go back to the point it was originally turned on at (assuming it was left running)…and currently they are trying to send a PROTON back through it…and even that is probably years away. Not exactly Timeline…
As to the many worlds thingy…again, it’s theoretically possible that A) There ARE many alternative universes, B) That universes that has time that moves slower than our own but otherwise is similar, C) That we could travel between these universes in some magical fashion someday.
However the technology to even DISCOVER if there are alternative universes is centuries beyond our current capabilities…let alone having the mechanism (if it’s even possible) to travel between them.
For the foreseeable future it’s simply an interesting topic without anything more than very tenuous underpinnings. Just something for physicists to talk about at cocktail parties and such…
What other definition of universe is there? There’s nothing archaic about calling it “the whole of the causally connected spacetime”, which basically means “everything that observes or interacts with everything else”. If two universes were causally connected by something like time travel, what definition of “universe” could you use to justify identifying them separately?