I am not sure if this is the right board to put this on…this post might be more of a rant, but I figured time travel is something that has been debated quite a bit, so…
I think you can tell a lot about a person’s open-mindedness by discussing the idea of time travel with them. I CAN NOT stand people that are so close minded to think that timetravel is impossible. I mean with what we know now it may be impossible, but to be so pompous as to think that we know everything in the universe is just ridiculous!
Maybe aliens are evolved humans who have traveled back in time to study their past? Who am I to say that this notion is impossible?
Where would the human race be today if cave men just decided to stop learning about their surroundings? As we explore deeper and deeper into space and deeper and deeper into technology who knows what we will find.
Well, you can apply this criteria to anything. How could anyone be so pompous as to state that the Invisible Pink Unicorn doesn’t exist. Maybe we just haven’t found her yet? We don’t know of everything in the universe! Maybe she exists!
When someone says something doesn’t exist or is not possible, the qualification of our current understanding (i.e. that time travel as we currently understand it) is impossible.
When someone says something doesn’t exist or is not possible, the qualification of our current understanding (i.e. that time travel as we currently understand it) is implied.
[sup] That’s what I get for working and posting at the same time…[/sup]
Keep an open mind–but not so open that your brains fall out.
Time travel clearly is possible–we’re all time travellers, albeit at the piddling rate of one second per second.
Neither Einstein nor quantum theory rule out the possibility of time travel, although IIRC Hawking is currently under the impression that theory only supports movement in our subjective future.
I’m happy to delve deeper, if that’s at all what you’re interested in, Jorge. But I suspect you’re mostly interested in justifying credulity.
That’s no proof. Maybe our time is just not as interesting as other possible times. After all, the lack of tourists in North Dakota doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist…
(I know, I know. There is a strong case that North Dakota doesn’t exist. )
Sorry about that OP, it was a bit over the edge, but I was really fired up about this last night…and yes, Quicksilver, I was slightly intoxicated.
Anyway, I hear ya, Zev. I guess it has to be kept in the context of our current knowledge, but the reason the argument was so infuriating to me was that I had admitted that I could not prove how time travel would work, but you have to admit that there is an inkling that it can exist. We were talking about Chuck Yeager and time differences relative to your position to the earth…I am by no means a physics man, but I see that there is evidence pointing towards the possibility of time travel. All I really wanted was for my roommate to acknowledge that evidence as valid, and he WOULD NOT do it. ahhhhhhhhhhh
Not necessarily, but I’m sure he finds it hard to accept evidence he doesn’t see. I mean, someone waking up to me and saying that fairies exist, without showing me any proof, is hardly worth my time.
Grab yourself some ammunition before you try to discuss it with him again. Here’s a decent start: Time Travel for Beginners.
Actually I can understand exactly what you are saying about time travel and your room mat ebeing close minded. Personally it is difficult to tolerate close minded people, and no not everyone that is close minded is that way all the time. But I am sure we all have met a few.
There are several books that illustrate that time travel is very feasible but quite a distence off in our future. Here are a couple definitely worth checking out.
The Tao of Physics, The Tao of Immortality, Atomic Structure of Matter-Space, Faster & Faster, just to name a few.
There are quite a lot of theories out there and any one of them can be valid, we don’t know. I think the most widely accepted model points to parrallel dimentions and universes, And utilizing the energy we are made up from to move in and out of these parrallel planes of existence. Pretty much take your pick, anyone could be correct.
As for your alien deal. I have heard that our natural human progression in evolution would be the most common type of alien sighted today. Large black eyes due to the changes in ur sun, huge craniums because we use a much higher percentage of our brains, small mouth and nostrils because communication travels on energy waves that have always existed but never utilized. instead of from vibrations of our voice boxes. Its interesting to think about and even more interesting when you think about it with open-minded fairly intelligent peoples…
Time-travel is impossible because time is relative. The only reason time exists is because our minds create it. If you’re ever in an accident, you’ll notice that time seems to slow down. It does, in a sense, because your mind speeds up so that you can make decisions. Why not be like this all the time? Because it takes alot of energy and it is taxing on your brain. This goes for being bored and having fun, also.
It may be possible to travel to different periods in time through parallel universes. The book Timeline is about this. You should read it.
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