Time Travel

johncmcleod · August 20, 2003, 13:53

Consider this. It is pretty much safe to say that no one has come back in time to visit us. This means that in the future of intelligent life, not a single being will ever travel backward in time to our time. If someone will ever travel to us in time and try to let us know about it, it would happen. The fact that this never will happen could be because a)no one develops the technology. I highly doubt this because of the growth of human knowledge (let's just keep this part of the discussion focused only on humans for now) is exponential. Look at the difference in technology from 1200-1300. Or even 1,000 B.C. to 1 A.D. And look at the difference between 1950-present. The more we learn, the faster we learn new information. It is probable that in the next 100 years, the new technology discovered will make the leaps and bounds of technology during our time look like nothing. We will probably be much more advanced. So at the rate we're going, if we survive just another few thousand years, think of how advanced we will be. And if we survive many more years then that, then wouldn't it be probable that we will discover the technology to travel forward and backward in time? We've already discovered that the closer towards the speed of light you travel, the more time slows down. Yes, there is always the chance that despite the technology time travel will always be impossible, but I doubt it. Is anything truly impossible?

The fact that no one will ever come backward in time to us could also mean b)that we decide not to find out how to travel backward in time because we think it would be a bad idea. I highly doubt this would be the reason, because humans are hungry for new information, and time travel has fascinated us for a long time. I am sure that we would try to find out how to do it.

It could also mean that c)we find out how to travel backward in time but we decide not to do it because it could change the future. I doubt this also. Once a new technology is discovered, it always becomes more available to the people as time passes. Take the airplane. In 1910, very few people owned one. During the present, many people do. The same goes for time travel. Eventually, many people will have the ability to travel through time. Even if we try to stop the average person from doing it, it is probable that sometime in the future some people would get their hands on whatever is necessary to travel to time. If this happens, then it is very probable that some idiot would decide to go back in time for whatever reason, just as there will always be some idiot that doesn't take all of his medicine for TB and it becomes drug-resistant.

The finaly reason that no one will ever visit us could be d)we are wiped out before we discover how to travel through time. Because there are billions of stars in just our galaxy and billions of galaxies in the universe, chances are that there is a lot of life out there, and some of it wouldn't be good. So, there is a gooed chance that some day, aliens will come and try to destroy us. Also, we are very stupid and there is a good chance we will destroy ourselves. And unfortunately, I have no reason to belive that reason d could not happen.

Just some food for thought.

The diplomat · August 20, 2003, 13:56

it would certainly be really cool if time travel were possible. I'd love to go back to Ancient Rome and see what it was like.

However, time travel is probably physically impossible.

Soul Survivor · August 20, 2003, 13:59

well its quite possible that time travel does exist, but there are simply very strict codes about not interfering. I'm sure by then we will have figured out how to make ourselves invisible etc. So in fact we may be being watched right now by people who wanted to see "what ancient times looked like."

Spiffor · August 20, 2003, 14:02

It is also very possible that some time travelers are here incognito, and are messg with our timeline right now. After all, how could we notice thigs don't go in the "right" direction ?

The diplomat · August 20, 2003, 14:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Spiffor
It is also very possible that some time travelers are here incognito, and are messg with our timeline right now. After all, how could we notice thigs don't go in the "right" direction ?

That's the thing. We would have no way to know if time travellers were messing with the timeline. If someone did change the timeline, we only experience the "new" timeline. We would never know that there even was an "old" timeline.

johncmcleod · August 20, 2003, 14:10

You guys might be right, they might be invisible but I think that sometime in the future someone would go back in time to our time and make themselves known. But this won't happen because no one has done this in our time, so I think that means that probably the answer is reason a or reason d, and I think it is probably reason d.

johncmcleod · August 20, 2003, 14:13

Quote:

That's the thing. We would have no way to know if time travellers were messing with the timeline. If someone did change the timeline, we only experience the "new" timeline. We would never know that there even was an "old" timeline.

This gives me an awesome idea for a novel. Mankind is about to wipe itself out. So some smart people are sent back in time to steer the world leaders away from destroying ourselves. Of course they wouldn't tell the public or anything.

And obviously, Bush didn't get one of these advisors.

tinyp3nis · August 20, 2003, 14:18

What makes you say that there have been none? There was a guy who abused the stock and got a lot of money out of it, in his defence he tried to convince that he was from the future.

Spoiler!

Time travel backwards is not possible.
Sorry.

Spiffor · August 20, 2003, 14:20

Quote:

Originally posted by johncmcleod
This gives me an awesome idea for a novel. Mankind is about to wipe itself out. So some smart people are sent back in time to steer the world leaders away from destroying ourselves. Of course they wouldn't tell the public or anything.

I've read a comic like that. The only difference is that the envoys from the future were scientists who intended to kill a present scientist (absolutely innocent, but he'd make a major breakthrough that would make the future destruction of Earth possible). The heroin wasn't too thrilled at the idea of killing an innocent despite the consequences.

Whaleboy · August 20, 2003, 14:20

Anyone who could hypothetically travel back in time must know that it would be a one way trip.

As soon as one enters a past timeframe, minute changes happen instantaneously, and the timeline deviates from the way it happened in ones history. That universe then continues on a separate path to the original, and one cannot return to the original.

Its rather like the "sum over histories" theory. If it was hypothetically possible, it would be idiocy at best. Still, I am working on a theory that it would impossible to travel back in time in a linear sense in the first place, but thus far it is analogous to going into a parrallel universe. As such, time travel is a contradiction in terms.

tinyp3nis · August 20, 2003, 14:21

Quote:

Originally posted by johncmcleod

This gives me an awesome idea for a novel. Mankind is about to wipe itself out. So some smart people are sent back in time to steer the world leaders away from destroying ourselves. Of course they wouldn't tell the public or anything.

And obviously, Bush didn't get one of these advisors.

Awesome idea? From top of my head T1, T2, T3.

johncmcleod · August 20, 2003, 14:30

Quote:

Still, I am working on a theory that it would impossible to travel back in time in a linear sense in the first place

Are you a scientist or something or are you working with that at your leisure?

johncmcleod · August 21, 2003, 15:16

Quote:

Time travel backwards is not possible.

We don't know much about space and time so I don't think it is safe to rule it out.

I thought this was an interesting thread and would get more replies. I'll bump it.

Dom Pedro II · August 21, 2003, 15:23

I could tell you guys the truth, but then I'd be killed upon my return.

geeslaka · August 21, 2003, 15:46

Too late Dom, I've already informed the Boss of your betrayal.

Dom Pedro II · August 21, 2003, 15:47

And I've already gone into the future and stopped you...

tinyp3nis · August 21, 2003, 20:26

Quote:

Originally posted by johncmcleod

We don't know much about space and time so I don't think it is safe to rule it out.

I thought this was an interesting thread and would get more replies. I'll bump it.

And you don't know enough about me and yourself to rule the out the possibility I am you. It's just that it's not very rational to believe I am you.

mrmitchell · August 21, 2003, 21:12

IIRC, it's far easier to move forward in time (at a faster pace then you are now of course

) than to move back.

That said, the only real reasons for them would be historian expeditions, scientific studies, and bringing back tech from the future right? I mean, I'd LOVE to eat with, say, King Henry VIII--seems quite a feller--but it would change history, and certainly that's not good.

Inverse Icarus · August 21, 2003, 21:42

actually, there was a news report of a man to have claimed to come back from the future. he made 80 something stock trades, and made millions and millions within a few weeks.

people suspected insider trading, but he did it with over so many companies, i doubt he knew someone in all of them.

last i heard he was detained in a federal prison and claiming to be from the future.

mrmitchell · August 21, 2003, 21:48

Quote:

actually, there was a news report of a man to have claimed to come back from the future. he made 80 something stock trades, and made millions and millions within a few weeks.

You've accidentally come across a story from that pinnacle of accuracy in reporting, the Weekly World News.

Always check the source, man.

Nubclear · August 21, 2003, 22:21

I'm from the future.

Elok · August 21, 2003, 22:27

There's also the possibility that we didn't make it long enough to develop time travel, or that our descendants don't feel like toying with something as big as the space-time continuum. The latter would be a rare victory for common sense, but it could happen.

Odin · August 22, 2003, 00:21

Maby the Gods of polythiestic religions were actually time travellers.

I would like to talk and have lunch with Darwin.

Father Beast · August 22, 2003, 02:24

Actually, The current theories say that time travel is a possibility, but you could only travel back in time to a point when the time machine existed.

So much for conversing with Darwin.

See "massive rotating cylinders and the possibility of global causality violation"

see also the novel "Timemaster" by Robert Forward.

Dom Pedro II · August 22, 2003, 02:30

Well, I'm about fifty years older since I last posted here.. God, it seems so long ago...

I've been dodging the Time Police ever since... I spent a brief time in the Old South... I really gave Lee some bad advice, I think he might have lost the war in this timeline. Oh well, I'll fix it later. Damn! Here comes the fuzz! Tata!

Gatekeeper · August 22, 2003, 02:55

The only way time travel should be possible is if, when you go back, you cannot physically interact with the past. Failing that (or on top of that), every time you go back, you spawn a separate timeline from the one you came from. These timelines all remain "bundled" together (think individual lanes in a super-super timeline highway of human possibilities), but passage among them is even harder than traveling through time.

It's all SF. Or is it?

Gatekeeper

Dale · August 22, 2003, 02:58

I think that if time travel was invented, no one would come back to our time frame because it's SO GODDAM BORING!!!! I mean come on!!!!

When looking at history in its entirety, you can't exactly say that the last 50 years have been earth-shattering eh? Not compared to WWI/II, or the crusades, or Napolean, or the Romans, or Ancient Egypt, or Alexander's Greece. Geeze, there's so much more exciting things to see before the 1950's - now. Would YOU time travel back to now? I wouldn't.

That's what I think.

Gatekeeper · August 22, 2003, 03:02

Supposedly, feelings of deja vu or instances where you *swore* you had a pen in your pocket (but now don't) are "signs" that you may be "flipping" among closely related timelines where there are only minor differences (thus their proximity and "easiness" of sliding into).

Gatekeeper

Dom Pedro II · August 22, 2003, 03:54

Seriously though, as the area is rather deep inside the realm of speculation, I have used largely deductive reasoning with regards to time travel, and it doesn't seem logical to me.

In fact, I call into question the whole notion of time being some kind of physical thing, or at the very least that it exists within the universe...

If time (past, present, future) exists inside the universe, then, in theory, all three should be obliterated instantaneously, no? Because when the universe ends, all three will be destroyed including what was, what is, and what will be. Therefore, everything that was will also be destroyed. In this case, either there is no physical "time" so to speak in that all moments in time exist in such a way that you could move through it other than as we already do... or that the universe does not end... or the third option, that the universe does end, but time goes beyond the universe.

Now, as I said, this is merely my own deductive reasoning. If there has been some kind of empirical analysis on the matter, I would love to hear it. If it disproves my conclusion, fine. I'm always a willing student.

Sikander · August 22, 2003, 04:12

Quote:

Originally posted by geeslaka
Too late Dom, I've already informed the Boss of your betrayal.

Umm, haven't you heard? The boss was mysteriously assassinated and Dom was promoted to Boss.