# Time Travel is impossible because **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 9, 2019, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218 "2019-02-09T05:24:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218/41 "2020-07-26T19:14:02Z")
Physics aside (which I don’t much understand anyway), what bothers me the most about the idea of time travel is what it does to the free will of _non_-time-travelers. Let’s say you observe me stealthily for 24 hours and note everything I do and say, every decision I make. Then you travel back in time one day, and therefore know in advance everything I’m _going to_ do and say, and every decision I’m _going to_ make. That implies that I have no actual control over any of my actions, which is a horrifying concept that I simply cannot accept. ---
**Author:** ![paulmarkj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9e8a1a/32.png) [@paulmarkj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulmarkj)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218/42 "2020-07-28T16:58:57Z")
Your mind is affected by your environment. If I travelled back in time and re-visited you, you would react differently. If I said ‘hello’ to you at 8 a.m. and travelled back to say hello at 8 a.m. again, I couldn’t say ‘hello’ in the exactly the same way, so you would react differently - using your free will. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218/43 "2020-07-28T17:06:23Z")
@ the OP: You aren’t arguing that time travel is impossible, you’re arguing that it wouldn’t be a good idea, which is a completely different thing. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218/44 "2020-07-28T17:46:36Z")
If I travel to the future I am no longer in the present. My body and everything it is composed of is in the future, and no longer be in the present. So how can I go back in time to before I left, to a present time where my body is already there? Is a time machine a duplicator? Where would the particles making up a duplicate of my body come from? I don’t think the past exists in that sense, everything in the past has moved into the future so you can’t go back to it. Time travel into the future is possible, we’ve always been doing that, Maybe we can get to the future faster somehow though. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it until I think of a different one. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218/45 "2020-07-28T23:09:38Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > You mean the concept of space-time? That basically means you can specify an event by giving its coordinates of where and when it happened, not such a stretch to wrap one’s had around IMO. People do it all the time. It’s true that the “present” moment will depend on the observer and therefore où sont les larmes d’hier soir but spacetime is just a mathematical model of the universe and does not deal (directly) with questions such as the psychological perception of time, arrow of time, and the like, or even weird ways of contriving timelike loops One possible future. From your point of view… I don’t know tech stuff. ---
**Author:** ![deeahn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f19dbf/32.png) [@deeahn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deeahn)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218/46 "2020-08-05T19:35:01Z")
Very thought provoking idea. Shall ponder more on this. Thanks much. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218/47 "2020-08-05T19:41:39Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Physics aside (which I don’t much understand anyway), what bothers me the most about the idea of time travel is what it does to the free will of _non_-time-travelers. > > Let’s say you observe me stealthily for 24 hours and note everything I do and say, every decision I make. Then you travel back in time one day, and therefore know in advance everything I’m _going to_ do and say, and every decision I’m _going to_ make. > > That implies that I have no actual control over any of my actions, which is a horrifying concept that I simply cannot accept. Well, look on the bright side. The time traveler probably doesn’t have any free will, either. ---
**Author:** ![deeahn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f19dbf/32.png) [@deeahn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deeahn)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218/48 "2020-08-05T20:02:56Z")
Hello Tom. I recently reregistered here a SD. Been here off and on since 2001. Amazing place. Don’t know if you’ll read this. You wrote on 2/19 and I just found this thread today at the top of my list. Anomalous events are my middle name in this life. 🙂 I’ve taken notice of them for awhile now. I followed and download ed [radio.com](http://radio.com) so I could listen to the show. Even read your bio. I DO have a belief/theory about this. Not yet written down. You’ll be my inspiration… Bright blessings and VR/virtual hugs. Stay safe. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218/49 "2022-01-10T23:49:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > All electrons are interchangeable. If you were in the process of going back in time, that might potentially make your electrons positrons (and your protons and neutrons antiprotons and antineutrons), which would make touching _anything_ , including air, extremely ill-advised. But once you “arrived” and started moving forward in time again as normal, that shouldn’t be an issue any more, no more than it’s an issue for your particles to touch other particles in our normal timeline world. To clarify, are you saying that during the “trip” one shouldn’t interact with anything or that as one manifests one shouldn’t interact with anything? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2022, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218/50 "2022-01-22T15:24:24Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > You cannot go forward in time. I invented a time machine, but it only goes forward at normal speed. - Stephen Wright ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2022, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218/51 "2022-01-22T15:28:13Z")
Looks like this thread managed to travel back in time to 2020. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-is-impossible-because/829218.md?page=2)