That’s merely the perception of time. Time itself, however, progresses steadily, independent of perception. Just think of the first however many millions/billions of years that time progressed before living organisms came to be.
That may be true, but that doesn’t mean we can move through it like we would water. There is only one point in time which you can ever be: the present. You can’t go to the past cuz it already happened and it gone, and the future has already happened so we can’t go there yet.
Say what?
Isn’t there a hypothesis that says that there are infinitely many possible universes, and that any universes where time travel has been acheived would sort of “collapse” in their relative pasts, presents and futures as soon as a paradox was established (like shooting your grandfather before your father was born) which in turn means that any universes that have not collapsed are universes where time travel never happens?
I could have this all wrong. May you all feel free to abusively correct me.
like ssjman said, you should read timeline then blab it to your roommate… interesting book
“Quandum foam, makes me roam”
Time travel can only go as far back as when the time machine was invented. The time machine itself exists in a time.
The time machine that I’ve read about is a wormhole which links two regions in space. To turn it into a time machine you must accellerate one to close to the speed of light, then bring it back at close to the speed of light.
Because of relativistic time effects, the one end of the wormhole now resides at a different time relative to the other end.
Obviously this method cannot be used to travel to arbitrary times in the past. It is also not clear whether it can be used at all because of an amplification effect which may destroy the wormhole the second it acts as a time machine. Kip thorne’s “Black holes and Time Warps” spends a chapter or so on this time machine and the possible problems it faces. I’m not certain I know of any other time machine, or that I’ve ever heard of one that allows travel to arbitrary times.
Oh, yes ultrafilter and conversely:
the past hasn’t happened so we’ve already been there
Woops. Let me say that again.
The past has happened already, so we can’t go there, and we can’t go to the future cuz it hasn’t happened yet. There, that makes more sense.
I think the multiple universes theory with paradox’s and stuff makes sense. As soon as paradox happens, the universe collapses. I think we can all say that paradox is the main problem with time travel.
Something I’ve wondered about, and I’m not even drunk.
When paradox occurs and the affected universe collapses, do the inhabitants of that universe have any awareness that a collapse is happening?
Actually I think time travel is possible. Anyone with a time machine can go back into the past and change things to their liking, become king of the world, etc. The only problem is that those changes are cumulative. You go back into the past to make sure that the South wins the civil war, but after that someone travels back into the past to make sure that the Babylonians defeat the Assyrians. Each act of time travel creates a new future. This keeps on happening, the timeline is fluid until finally something happens that freezes the timeline: in this timeline, it just so happens that no one will ever invent and use a time machine. That is the timeline we live in, because if you could change the past it would have already been changed.
So time travel is impossible only because it has happened so often.
Hey. That actually makes sense. We have no way of knowing if our timeline is the way it is because of someone with a timemachine or not. Whoa.
kaylasdad99:
Nope.
The problem with the idea that temporal paradox will somehow cause the universe to end is that time is an inherent part of the universe–and vice-versa.
For the universe to “collapse,” time itself would have to also be destroyed. Since time is just another dimension, the entirety of that dimension would end–past as well as present and future.
In other words, in order for the universe to cease to be, it muct simultaneously cease ever to have been.
There is no paradox, there can be no paradox. What will happen has happened. Even a basic working knowledge of quantum theory shows us that the very idea of paradox is a conceit of our perspective as physical and temporal minds. For example, photons exist in multiple places at once. It’s not a paradox, it’s just the way the universe works.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: no god or alien or other fairy tale can come close to comparing to the wonders of the universe in which we live.
Okay, we’re told not to gush about Cecil’s remarks, but are we allowed to show a little fawning to anyone else? I’d just like to acknowledge QuickSilver’s enjoyable post at 07-17-2001 12:44 PM, which caused me a merry ol’ LOL!
[/fawning]
One of the more interesting arguments against the possibility of time travel is the argument from economics: using interest rate arbitrage and other investment tricks, people in the future would long ago have robbed all known history of its wealth!
There are only two rational explanations for why we don’t see the effects of such vast transfer of wealth into the future:
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Time travel is impossible.
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Time travel turns out to be possible, but the first time it is tried it destroys the known universe (or at least the planet Earth).
In either case, horhay_achoa my friend, you should ground your fantasies with a strong dose of reality. Otherwise, you may just end up to be the very person who precipitates option 2!
Aiieee! Get him before he pushes the button!!