Time Travel Possible?

[iGuest 3]

HiI've been thinking about Time Travel lately, and I've come to the conclusion that it isn't possible, for the following reasons:If we did travel through time (at a different pace, because technically we're constantly travelling forward through time), We wouldn't just stay exactly how we were, in the exact same place. We would go back in time too, to wherever we were at that particular moment in time. We would also have the exact same memories as we did then, so we wouldn't remember time travelling, because it hadn't happened yet, but we would still travel in time at the same time we already did (although we haven't yet). To explain this more simply:At 12:00 John eats lunchAt 3:00 John Travels back in time to 12:00John's back at 12:00, eating lunchwhen 3:00 comes, he travels back in time to 12:00 again...And we have an infinite loop, although we have no idea it's happening. We cannot fell or notice the passage of time, for all we know, while I've been writing this topic, time could have stopped and started again a million times, and nobody would ever notice.Say we somehow managed to go back into the past, in our current form, and with our current memories. This couldn't be possible either, because someway or another, we've changed the past by just being there. Say we do something in the past which means we will never be born (e.g., you kill your parents). This would mean that you wouldn't exist in the present, so you couldn't possibly have travelled back to the past, yet you would be there. That is an impossible set of circumstances.And travelling into the future wouldn't be possible, simply because it hasn't happened yet. You would have to believe in fate, and that everything is meant to happen.And finally, do we even know there is a whole dimension of time? We have no proof that time is anything but a construct of our imagination? What if there isn't a dimension of "time" that we "travel" along? What if things just happen? If you know what I mean.What are your opinions? Do you think Time travel is possible? (And don't say, "Yes, they did it on 'Back to the Future'!").

[Sten 0]

well no its not possiblelike on futurama once when fry kills his dad in an explosion and finds out that hes the professors uncle, LOLwhen people think of time travel they think of a lil time machine and when they travel back in time they still have the machine to travel back to the normal time, but if you travelled back to soem time then that would be normal time. and changing history wouldnt be the best thing to do according to the simpsons. cos you just wreck everything and you might wreck something that made you who you are or something like that.

[iGuest 3]

"Oh darn! I forgot my keys! Nevermind, I'll just pedal back in time on my time-cycle and remind myself to grab them!"

[Mordent 0]

In which case you wouldn't have forgotten them, so you wouldn't have gone back in time to tell yourself, so you would have forgotten them, meaning you went back to tell yourself, so you wouldn't have...

 

Point made?

[polarysekt 0]

The most common example is the guy who goes back in time to kill himself, but just as he's leaving a man shoots him in the eye, disabling his sight... he's then forced to try to shoot himself being unable to see but results only in him shooting himself in the eye...as far as backward time travel is concerned I as well would doubt it... while you may be able to analyse a picture of the past, I don't think you could change anything... but it might be useful to send a giant mirror out to the edge of the universe ....the only problem is that due to relativity, forward time travel involves one party turning around... while the others continue as normal... but that's merely the displacement of time while holding the speed of light constant....there really are too many paradoxes to such a problem, although there were as well many involved in the fundamental theorems of the calculus... additionally there's the one:as you approach a wall, you must first cross the midpoint... however, from that point, you must again cross the midpoint... and so on, approaching the wall... according to most number theory, there exist an infinite number of subdivided midpoints, thus seemingly making it impossible to reach the wall... however common sense tells us that we can just walk on over there...the point is the way you look at it... plus i think it's safe to say that one "step" will eventually put you much beyond the midpoint...perhaps it's our binary logic that holds us back... ternary boolean anyone?

[Quatrux 4]

I also don't really believe in time travelling, but I also can say that everything is possible, but if somebody changed the past, how do we know about that? I just believe the current logic that you can see the picture of the past or you can travel forward in time, but can't really change anything, as I imagine time traveling, you would need so much power to move the light back and etc. etc. etc. and if somebody changes something, what will happen to us? for example if somebody goes back and kills me and come back, so I could live further in this future or dimension or whatever.. it may be possible, but I don't believe it. ;]

[ethergeek 0]

Here's why I think time machines will never exist...Let's say you want to go back in time to assassinate Hitler before he comes into power...like, drown him as a baby or something. If you create a time machine, go back in time, and do it, one of two things can happen.1. He's dead now, most of WW2 doesn't happen, world events changed. In this eventuality, where time would coalesce back into itself (i.e., not break off onto a tangent of alternate events), what point would your future self have to make the time machine in the first place? Taking the limit of this logic, nobody ever has any reason to build a time machine, so nobody ever makes one.2. An alternate timeline is generated, but the timeline you came from is untouched. This can happen 2 ways. Let's say you go back to the timeline you came from...life has not changed for you, and all you did was create a better timeline that didn't exist in the first place, so you didn't really repair anything. Now what if your trip back to your own time period landed you in the parallel, alternate timeline? Well...you'd be there, but everyone you knew would be in the other one, and most likely you wouldn't even exist in the alternate timeline, so you'd have to start your life over from scratch.In any of these cases, you personally don't see any net improvement with your own life...seems kinda pointless unless we have really backwards ideas on time and of course its nonlinear.

[iGuest 3]

The only real way to do it would be to somehow jump to an alternate dimension of time that was exactly like ours (which probably has it's own identical dimension of space), and if you want to get anything out of it, you'd have to travel to the present in that dimension of time and space. Then you'd have to explain all this to the alternate-universe you.And of course, none of this is possible, because you cannot take or gain mass to space!It just gets so confusing, you wonder who would bothe in the first place.

[PhilosophiX 0]

It's not possible, I do not think. The illusion of time travel is created because of the way our minds are structured, storing representations of past events and carrying them forwards in time, and being able to tap into them forever more or until forgotten. Somehow, to us, it is as if that past even still exists, nor is it a far leap to see how H G Wells and his time machine story came about, sparking the whole genre.

 

Time to us seems like a flow. Analogue and continuous, a mysteriously alluring realm. To physicists it is yet more alluring due to relativity - someone sitting in an office at the top of a tall office block is proceeding through time marginally faster than someone whose office is at the bottom of the office block (because the earth's gravity well slows down time).

 

Time actually proceeds forwards in discreet units (or quanta). These units are so small that they are imperceptible to us. Think about that for a moment, because visualizing that happening was what made me realize that time travel is impossible: Time marches forwards in discreet units. Each step wipes out the previous step as the universe hurtles ever forwards towards enthropy. Time and entrophy are just two facets of the same thing. Time is just the steps the Universe is taking to arrange itself into the most energy efficient configuration. haha

[iGuest 3]

I agree. It's like you're in a train hurtling forward at an extremely high speed, that can't stop, and you ask the driver if he can go back and let you off at a previous stop.

[Mordent 0]

Before I forget to mention it, I assume you folks know what deja (with the accent that I can't remember the code for ) vue is?

 

I've always been intrigued with it, and got a huge spurt of it today. It's really weird when you could swear you've seen exactly the same thing again. Still, I suppose that's some trick of the mind or somesuch, rather than something a little less easy (or perhaps moreso ) to comprehend?

[iGuest 3]

Interesting theory... Deja Vu's really weird, it sort of plays with your memory. When something happens, it's as if the exact thing has happened before, and you were just thinking of it!Perhaps we've seen that exact same thing in a dream? One of the ones we can't remember?Weird.

[PhilosophiX 0]

Deja Vu... interesting. Our minds are clusters of neurons. Neurons that fire together wire together. Deja Vu is probably a little cross over from one unique event triggering something else from much earlier that gives us that sense of having experienced it before. Okay I'm cheating, I could nip over to google and find you the research that demonstrates what we think a Deja Vu is, but I'm busy hammering out some steampunk right now and neurology is a bit too modern - it would take me out the mood. So my advice is - if you are really interested in what Deja Vu is, then you'll probably find the answer in the field of Neurology, in particular find out about the way connections are formed between neurons, and the ability of the brain to store imagery incredibly well. Somewhere among all that stuff is the answer.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

No, time travel will never happen as it defies all laws of physics. Time is NOT linear, you can't go backwards, it's just impossible. Also, you can't fast forward either. You can be faster in relation to others, but you can't jump time.Time is circular, it will eventually end, loop or collapse.xboxrulz

[sparkx 0]

It is not possible to stop or go back in time (at least I don't think it is). Hover I think you can slowdown time. I agree with you that going in time would be an un-ending loop of events unless somehow we found out that time wasn't always linear (which in that case may be possible but the human brain probably couldn't understand it). That would be a good base for some sci-fi movie. Anyway... It is thought that as you speed up time slows down (I don't know how or why). I figure if you could find a way to go the speed of light (which is not possible because of pressure) you could "stop" time. But the closer you get to that limit the slower time passes. Now this has no real meaning other then transportation to some far off location (as in not in this solar system). If time travel was possible what (as in going back in time), the government would probably keep it real secret, so I guess the average person like me will never know if this is possible or not.Thanks,Sparkx