# Let's talk about time machines.............. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2019, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158 "2019-03-15T01:38:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/41 "2019-03-15T14:44:44Z")
The DeLorean, classy though it may be, has a serious drawback, the whole 88 MPH thing. And unless you’ve got the deluxe package having to come up with plutonium for every trip can be a real hassle. Just thought of another one, the timebelt from “The Man who folded Himself”. Some nifty features on that one, including a recall button which takes you back to your last point of departure just in case you land in the middle of nasty goings on. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/42 "2019-03-15T14:49:28Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > The DeLorean, classy though it may be, has a serious drawback, the whole 88 MPH thing. And unless you’ve got the deluxe package having to come up with plutonium for every trip can be a real hassle. Just thought of another one, the timebelt from “The Man who folded Himself”. Some nifty features on that one, including a recall button which takes you back to your last point of departure just in case you land in the middle of nasty goings on. Another serious drawback is that it can be programmed for Year Zero. There was no such thing; the calendar went directly from 1 BC to 1 AD. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/43 "2019-03-15T14:50:49Z")
Does _stopping_ time count as time travel? If so, I would go with the gold watch from “The Girl, The Gold Watch And Everything” by John D. MacDonald. “_Tempus unum hominem manet_” - “Time Waits For One Man” ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/44 "2019-03-15T14:58:25Z")
I vote Ziggy from _Quantum Leap_. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/45 "2019-03-15T15:00:42Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Another serious drawback is that it can be programmed for Year Zero. There was no such thing; the calendar went directly from 1 BC to 1 AD. 1 BC = 0 AD; problem solved. Just hope that Doc never slipped up on any Y2K compatibility or Julian calendar conversion or precession of the equinoxes or something, or you could end up in big trouble. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/46 "2019-03-15T15:08:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Does _stopping_ time count as time travel? If so, I would go with the gold watch from “The Girl, The Gold Watch And Everything” by John D. MacDonald. > “_Tempus unum hominem manet_” - “Time Waits For One Man” If stopping time counts, I’m reliving certain parts of Nicholson Baker’s _The Fermata_. Only certain parts though. I’m not sick. Well, I’m not \*that \*sick. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/47 "2019-03-15T15:29:45Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Just hope that Doc never slipped up on any Y2K compatibility or Julian calendar conversion or precession of the equinoxes or something, or **you could end up in big trouble**. During the Bicentennial, the USPS issued a stamp commemorating the Boston Tea Party. A collector asked my college Astronomy professor to verify that the phase of the Moon it showed was correct. He did a string of calculations that demonstrated it wasn’t and submitted the story to \*\*\*Astronomy \*\*\*magazine, which printed it. After a few days, he got a call from the stamp’s designers saying he’d gotten it wrong. When he asked what was wrong with his method, it became clear they hadn’t the faintest idea—they were just plugging numbers into some computer program. He eventually realized he’d forgotten to allow for precession of the equinoxes. He redid the calculations and found the phase was indeed correct. Just goes to show… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/48 "2019-03-15T15:35:21Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > In _Futurama_, there’s Professor Farnsworth’s one-way time machine. It can only go forward in time to prevent paradoxes… hopefully. In my experience, Tequila works in much the same fashion. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/49 "2019-03-15T15:35:50Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Just thought of another one, the timebelt from “The Man who folded Himself”. Some nifty features on that one, including a recall button which takes you back to your last point of departure just in case you land in the middle of nasty goings on. Now that is one of the best time travel books I’ve ever read. The logic of changing time, layer after layer, and multiple instances of oneself is explored in detail. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/50 "2019-03-15T15:36:03Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > 1 BC = 0 AD; problem solved. Jeepers, Mr Peabody! He can’t do that! That’ll f\*\*k everything up! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/51 "2019-03-15T15:41:20Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I would vote against the TARDIS. You’d think they could have fixed the “stuck as a police call box” flaw by now. Six tried. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/52 "2019-03-15T15:48:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Extremely Interesting multiple Science Fiction Nexus: It could mean that this show inherently contains some sort of cosmic significance… Almost as if it were the junction point for the entire space-time continuum. On the other hand it could just be an amazing coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/53 "2019-03-15T17:23:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Folly** : > > Do you mean “A Pebble in the Sky” or did he use the same mechanism in “The stars Like Dust.” :smack: My thought process went something like “What was the name of that novel? No, it wasn’t _The Currents of Space_; it was the other one.” Now that I stop to think about it, _The Stars Like Dust_ was the one with the hamhanded resolution based on the US Constitution. Which was utterly forgettable, which explains why I forgot it (but then had an orphaned title without a plot attached floating around in my brain). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/54 "2019-03-15T17:36:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > _The Stars Like Dust_ was the one with the hamhanded resolution based on the US Constitution. You mean, like “The Omega Glory”? :dubious: 😕 ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/55 "2019-03-15T18:09:05Z")
Since we’re talking about time machines, that reminds me of the Omega-13, that turns back time by 13 seconds in _Galaxy Quest_. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/56 "2019-03-15T19:50:31Z")
Did I miss a mention of Abraham Lincoln’s time machine, as shown on SNL? It gets extra points for starting out as a paddle boat. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/57 "2019-03-17T22:43:26Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > The best, without doubt, is the DeLorean in _Back to the Future_. took 21 posts, but yes, at least it has the best style:D ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/58 "2019-03-18T00:04:06Z")
Flash’s Cosmic Treadmill - Dammit, if you’re gonna break the laws of physics, you’re gonna work for it!! also The Mobius Chair - Nothing shows you’re the master of time and space like a throne! Badass and chill at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/59 "2019-03-18T00:20:59Z")
Something not often appreciated about the **Land of the Lost** was that _the whole thing_ was one big time machine. An artificial spacetime bubble that worked by briefly intersecting with our universe at different points in space and time. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/60 "2019-03-18T00:28:08Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I would vote against the TARDIS. You’d think they could have fixed the “stuck as a police call box” flaw by now. > [@Skywatcher](#): > > Six tried. Four tried, although that turned out to be a subconscious suggestion planted by the Master and the whole effort was sabotaged. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158.md?page=4)