Time Travel - An Impossibility? Is time travel possible? Will we ever manage it? What are the dangers?

[Tran-Gate 0]

A very interesting topic...... Though, consider these paradigms:

"[Man will never reach the moon]regardless of all future scientific advances."

DR.LEE DE FOREST, INVENTOR OF THE AUDION TUBE AND FATHER OF RADIO, ON FEB. 25, 1967

 

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."

CHARLES H. DUELL, U.S. COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS, IN 1899

You are probably thinking that these quotes are STUPID!! But these people can't predict the future......

Charles H. Duell probably thought that technology could not advance or progress because he probably thinks that everything is top-notch. Well...If technology didn't advance, then we wouldn't have computers, cell phones, and all those good stuff. =)

 

Well....in the future, I predict that time travel would be possible. This doesn't mean that this is not true!! But it could be possible. Actually, asking if time travel is possible is as hard as asking what time is.

This preceding paragraph looks very interesting and is a must read!!

 

Today, we know that time travel need not be confined to myths, science fiction, Hollywood movies, or even speculation by theoretical physicists. Time travel is possible. For example, an object traveling at high speeds ages more slowly than a stationary object. This means that if you were to travel into outer space and return, moving close to light speed, you could travel thousands of years into the Earth's future.

So if mankind or any living things in the future could create a capsule or some kind of high speed device, they might be able to travel into the future. I bet that mankind at this very moment as you are reading this are developing a way to time travel without defying the laws a physics.

 

Accurately predicting future technology is nearly impossible, and history is filled with underestimates of technology:

 

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." (Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895)

 

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." (Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943)

 

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home." (Ken Olsen, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977)

 

"The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." (Western Union internal memo, 1876)

 

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." (Marshal Ferdinand Foch, French commander of Allied forces during the closing months of World War I, 1918)

 

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" (David Sarnoff's associates, in response to his urgings for investment in radio in the 1920's)

 

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." (New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work, 1921)

 

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" (Harry M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927)

 

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." (Charles H. Duell, commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899)

[ihost 0]

Hello!!!

 

Pretty interesting question =D

 

I say that Einstein was a genius and that his relativity theory of E=mc² was awesome. Thinking that he got this idea while taking a taxi and watching the huge Watch...

But well back to the topic! First, it is going to be necessary to solve the problem of going faster than the speed of light to know this. First, we gotta test on matter and see what it does and if it is ever possible.. maybe even electrons, but it would be much easier to see differences with matter, but anyways, I believe that with all those experiences scientists are doing, they going to find it, but I don't think though that we are ready to receive some machines like this though. We will just destroy our world if we ever able to control time.

 

Tim.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I'm going to break down and say that time travel in it's movie-given state is fake. There is no way anyone would ever be able to effectively go back to something that has already happened, physcially. This does *not* mean that there is no possible way that they can create a way that you can go back into the past mentally. Maybe, remembering what happened when you were 2 or something. This is more psychology based though, but everything that you have seen is permanently stored in your brain. The reason that we 'forget' things is because we are not linking them together effectively.The reason that "time travel" would not work is because it would mean that there are more than one dimension running simultaneously, and the person going back in time would somehow have control over what happens to *you* as well. This means that you could just be driving down the road one day and someone disappear out of their car or something, just because something changed in the past. It does make for great movies and books, but in the honest look at it, it is not, and could not ever happen.

[csp4.0 1]

You cannot go back in time. Though you can go forward in time. Technically it is not time travel. Time isn't relative. In the different parts of the universe, events are happening at different speeds. We can't create time. But we can manipulate it. A black hole will slow down time. The close you get to the black hole, the slower time would go. And if you go to the event horizon, time stops completely. Meaning that a person will probably never actually feel themselves reaching the event horizon, because if this theory is correct, then there probably wouldn't be enough time for the nerves to send their "messages" back to the brain for the human to recognise it.So... It is impossible to physcially go back in time. But we can go forward in time. Technically it isn;t going forward in time, because all the events pass at a normal "speed" but you're merely in a "dilation field" where time is warped... So... Although time would seem to be going very fast around you, to them, you would be "moving" very slowly... While to your it is normal... Heck.... Some extremely advanced aliens might be trapping us in an artificially created dilation field just to stop us advancing at a "normal" pace... :?

Edited October 21, 2008 by csp4.0 (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Heh, interesting theory up there above me...Manipulating time? Well I don't think that it's possible as you say, however it is possible in the sense that not everyone understands time the same.For example, my understanding is that people thousands of years ago lived just as long as we did, but due to their time/calendar being different from ours that's how we come up with the conclusion that they were alive 800-900 years.So it really depends on how you look at it. In all honesty there is no going forward or backwards, we are stuck in the present.

[HDuffRules 0]

There's some theory somewhere that I'm not too familiar with, but it involves falling into a black hole and there being some possibility of you traveling backwards in time. Although with what we know about black holes, people are unlikely to want to test this theory... I think going backwards in time is theoretically possible, since time is basically just another dimension, and if its possible to travel in the three physical dimensions we're familiar with, it should be equally possible to travel through time. Unfortunately, the dynamics of going back in time and the consequences of what might happen would basically cause it to be outlawed as soon as the technology for it exists. Governments certainly wouldn't want people to have the ability to randomly go around into the past, simply because we're not sure if its possible to alter the past. Two views exist on that: 1. If you're going to go back in time and change something, then in the past you've already done it, so when you return to the future, nothing will have changed. 2. If you go back in time, you are physically doing something and changing stuff, so the future will be different. I prefer not to think about this theoretically, but more thinking about particles. Everyone is made up of atoms, etc. whatever. So when you go back in time, the atoms that make up your body appear in a different time. But those atoms already existed at that time ie. in the past. Some law of physics says the same particle can't occupy two different positions at once, so you didn't really visit the past, you basically created an alternate universe that's exactly the same except for the molecules are comprise you. This would explain why "time travel" would cost enormous amounts of energy, since you're basically causing a ton of quantum calculations to happnen in order to create this new universe you travel "back" to. Now as to whether or not you'd actually be able to return to the "present".. that's something I actually can't decide...

[csp4.0 1]

It is just purely impossible to travel backwards in time... Imagine a rocket ship with rockets positioned at the back... There is no way for it to "reverse" same thign with time... Meaning the reversing time would be impossible...We can't actually go forward in time... But by manipulating time (Well, not actually US manipulationg time, the black hole would be and we'd be just using the black hole for good use...), we can possibly seal some things/people in like a "Time Capsule" which time will go normally for them, but the world around them (Outside of the dilation field), Time would seem to go extremely fast...Black Holes distort time... And if white holes do exist, here's a theory... If time goes slower the closer you get to a black hole, then once you get inside (i.e. past the event horizon), then time should go backwards, meaning if white holes do exist, they are probably from the future... Let me put this into an example... Imagine a cassette tape... We are currently moving along at "Fast Forward" speed... We enter the time dilation created by the black hole, and we go into "Play", as yo uenter the event horizon, it goes to "Pause"... The cassette (i.e. Time, stops altogether...)... ... Now we start going backwards as you're inside the black hole, travelling through the wormhole... We go to "Rewind"... Time goes along like normal for you, but it is changing on the outside world... Time rewinds faster and faster until you exit the white hole (You won't be alive, so... eh... Theory can't be proved... ) To you, it would've been normal time, but... Time would've reversed...The only flaw to that, it (the whitehole), should eject you at the same period of time you entered the dilation field... Since time is sped up, and then reversed... So.. Yeah...

[joeblogg 0]

i think it is definetely impossible to be able to travel to the past and change things. i mean it doesn't make sense.

 

so if you go back in time and kill your grandmother she won't be able to have your mom and you mom won't be able to have you so you won't exist right? if you don't exist how can you go back and kill your grandmother?

 

that is just one of the reasons why you can't just travel back in time.

[Unknown_99 0]

There's some theory somewhere that I'm not too familiar with, but it involves falling into a black hole and there being some possibility of you traveling backwards in time. Although with what we know about black holes, people are unlikely to want to test this theory...
I think going backwards in time is theoretically possible, since time is basically just another dimension, and if its possible to travel in the three physical dimensions we're familiar with, it should be equally possible to travel through time.

Unfortunately, the dynamics of going back in time and the consequences of what might happen would basically cause it to be outlawed as soon as the technology for it exists. Governments certainly wouldn't want people to have the ability to randomly go around into the past, simply because we're not sure if its possible to alter the past.
Two views exist on that:
1. If you're going to go back in time and change something, then in the past you've already done it, so when you return to the future, nothing will have changed.
2. If you go back in time, you are physically doing something and changing stuff, so the future will be different.

I prefer not to think about this theoretically, but more thinking about particles. Everyone is made up of atoms, etc. whatever. So when you go back in time, the atoms that make up your body appear in a different time. But those atoms already existed at that time ie. in the past. Some law of physics says the same particle can't occupy two different positions at once, so you didn't really visit the past, you basically created an alternate universe that's exactly the same except for the molecules are comprise you. This would explain why "time travel" would cost enormous amounts of energy, since you're basically causing a ton of quantum calculations to happnen in order to create this new universe you travel "back" to. Now as to whether or not you'd actually be able to return to the "present".. that's something I actually can't decide...

Exactly what I had been thinking. So all I am going to do know is to agree with him right? If you went back in time to do something you feel like you should be doing, then that would already be a part of the past. Everything you are to be doing in the past, no matter when you came from, as long as it is executed in a previous time, is part of the past. It will be considered a future action done in the past, or a past action done in an even earlier past. Its just like digging a hole inside a hole.

[Echo_of_thunder 1]

who knows if someday we will be able to go ahead or back in time. But as for today there is no way to tell. we would have to not only go faster than the speed of light but to barrow a phase from star trak Faster than warp speed Mr Scott. Besides why would we want too. to change history? that could be dangerous. things have been set in stone to happen and they will happen. You think you can "change" it but are you? No your not. because it was already ment to be.Thank about it

[cemeteryrecords 0]

I originally belived time travel could be possible, but think about this: If, in the future, we figure it out. Wouldn't we have some type of evidence of someone in the future coming back to now? I mean, think about it! Lets say, in...2100, they figure out how to send a person back in time. Wouldn't they come back to now and be like, "Ha! We got it!" Maybe even tell us how? Or If something bad happens, or somebody does something dumb (*cough* nukes *cough*) They could wrn us! I mean, if you look at time as a linear, people 500,000 years from now STILL havent figured it out, because I'm sure they would've cam back to now. (unless our time just sucks) OR! Earth didn't even make it that far in time, cause the rate we're going, we're gonna blow this baby up! Or kill each other, whatever comes first. This is why I don't quite believe in time travel.

[DeM0nFiRe 0]

Well, here's the problem with time: How is it measured? Like, if you want to make a rope shorter, you take out some rope. What is rope? Well it is matter, you just decrease it's mass and you've got less matter. How do you do that with time? Well, theoretically, time in a system can be measured by the amount of entropy (The tendency of a system to try to change it's state from current to an equilibrium) in a system. For instance, if you were watching a video of a ball bouncing and there was no light changes or other movement in the scene, how would you know which direction time is flowing in the video-- how would you know it is not being played backwards? Well, as the ball runs out of entropy, it is going to bounce less and less each time until it can eventually reach equilibrium (Which would be the ball not being pushed back by the ground with a force greater than the normal force due to gravity). That being said, the only way to reverse time would be to add entropy to a system. The problem with that is that, unlike every other quantity in the universe, once you run out of entropy it is gone. Entropy is not conserved in a system like mass or energy.EDIT: Sorry, I explained that backwards. As the ball continues, more entropy is added to the ball but at some point no more entropy is added because the ball will reach equilibrium. We would have to take out entropy from the universe in order to turn time back.Entropy is added to a system as it tried to reach equilibrium, but once it reaches equilibrium, no more entropy is added.

Edited January 7, 2009 by DeM0nFiRe (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Well, here's the problem with time: How is it measured? Like, if you want to make a rope shorter, you take out some rope. What is rope? Well it is matter, you just decrease it's mass and you've got less matter. How do you do that with time? Well, theoretically, time in a system can be measured by the amount of entropy (The tendency of a system to try to change it's state from current to an equilibrium) in a system. For instance, if you were watching a video of a ball bouncing and there was no light changes or other movement in the scene, how would you know which direction time is flowing in the video-- how would you know it is not being played backwards? Well, as the ball runs out of entropy, it is going to bounce less and less each time until it can eventually reach equilibrium (Which would be the ball not being pushed back by the ground with a force greater than the normal force due to gravity). That being said, the only way to reverse time would be to add entropy to a system. The problem with that is that, unlike every other quantity in the universe, once you run out of entropy it is gone. Entropy is not conserved in a system like mass or energy.
EDIT: Sorry, I explained that backwards. As the ball continues, more entropy is added to the ball but at some point no more entropy is added because the ball will reach equilibrium. We would have to take out entropy from the universe in order to turn time back.Entropy is added to a system as it tried to reach equilibrium, but once it reaches equilibrium, no more entropy is added.

Something else to consider regarding this though is that everything is as we perceive it in our brains. We could theoretically go back in time. How? Because it is up to our brains what we see, feel, hear, touch, and smell.

If our brain wanted us to think that walking out our front door led off a cliff(how it was 1 million years ago) it could do so, causing you to think that you really fell and have a heart-attack.

So what is time, really? If time is nothing but our perception of a state of matter, our brain is what determines how fast time is, how slow it is, etc.

This wouldn't explain the whole "going back in time" thing, or even "going forward in time," because there are many more factors added in to those, but regardless, I feel that somehow, it's a possibility.

[adriantc 0]

I do believe someday we will be able to travel back in time, but not in the hollywoodian sense. Hollywood gives a very romantic view of time travel, a very optimistic view. Press a button, change history, make everything better. If time travel is possible I don't think you can change it in the classic fashion. I think time is like a tree with branches. When you go back in time you create a new branch. That also resolves the "grandfather paradox" as when you go back to your time it's not actually the same timeline.More probable is the time travel in the view-only sense. You can see the past, but not change it! That would still be great as history will have no secrets anymore. And in some way that is easy to do. The only thing we have to do is travel faster then light. If you send a beam of light into space and then travel faster then light and overtake the beam of light you actually see the past. It's not time travel as you only see a reflection of things that happen. In fact we can travel back in time every day when we look to the starts. It takes so much time for the light to get here that what we actually see is what happened millions of years ago. Of course it's not time travel, but the result is still exciting.

[DeM0nFiRe 0]

rpgseacherz, that's a nice theory, however it's kind of hard to argue. How can you prove or disprove that theory (Which is called solipsism, the idea that everyone's reality is independant of another's) Either way, I am talking about physically travelling through time. Time, physically speaking, isn't something that is percieved by humans, but is something that is measured. (of course, that assumes that time physically exists. There's still no agreed upon way to define time, as far as I know)adriantic: Your idea is actually pretty farfetched XD You see, the speed of lht is the theoretical speed limit of the universe. Electro magnetic waves all travel at the speed of light, and theoretically the fastest matter can move is approaching, butnever reaching the speed of light. What you are thinking of is called the (I think) Twin Theory, although you butchered it a bit XD. The closer you are moving to the speed of light, the slower time will pass. The Tiwn Theory states that if two twins are born, and one is put in a spaceship going close to the speed of light and the other stays on earth, in 20 earth years, the one on earth will be 20 years older, but the other will not have aged as much. Now, this is just a thoery mind you.