# Time Travel Related: Does The Past Exist?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-related-does-the-past-exist/653168
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 17, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-related-does-the-past-exist/653168 "2013-03-17T14:25:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 9

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### Author: ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-related-does-the-past-exist/653168/9 "2013-03-17T20:28:31Z")

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> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> Most discussions about the possibility of “Time Travel” posit that the 4th dimension (time) is similar to the spatial dimensions-i.e. one can reverse along the time dimension, and re-enter the past. But does the past exist in any meaningful sense? I would say no- someone who lived in the 1700’s is dead and his body is dust-his house might still exist, but it is in a state of disintegration-just as entropy increases. So, based upon our experience (of the mundane world) time travel would seem to be impossible-unless the universe is a lot stranger than we can imagine. Is the present the only state that can exist?

> **[Does the past exist?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=528277)**
>
> A common illustration that the past, present, and future all exist is a raft on a river. You’re sitting on your Huck Finn raft floating down the middle of a river. Since the raft is being carried along with the current, the river appears...

> [@Does the past exist?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-past-exist/506595/6):
>
> Nope, the past is gone; all the atoms that comprised the past have been recycled into the present. This is why time travel is impossible: becuase you and i contain millions of atoms that were once part of other people. Take my body-I have several million atoms that were once part of Julius Caesar-he doesn’t exist anymore.

😃

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