A mind-boggling thought about time travel...

Discussion in 'Science and Technology' started by Dizzy Man, Jun 1, 2004.

  1. Dizzy Man

    Dizzy Man Member

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    Assuming time travel is possible (and according to Dr Ronald Mallet it is) — one of the following facts must be true...

    1. There is only one reality, and time cannot be altered.
    So, if you go back in time and try to change something about the past that you remember, you will fail every time. If you go back and try to stop your dad from being hit by a car, something will happen to stop you every time. Also, no matter how many times you go back to the same place, you will never see more versions of yourself than you originally remember. 'Destiny' will make sure that time travel never actually changes anything.

    Hard to believe in that one, huh? So the following must be true:

    2. There are an infinite number of realities, and everything that could happen does happen
    There is a universe where a future you appears right now and changes something. There is a universe where two future yous appear right now and change something. There are universes where other people appear right now. There are universes where aliens from other worlds appear right now. Every combination of stuff that could happen in the universe, does happen somewhere.

    Okay, that one is too hard to believe. Too mind-boggling! So it must be the first one. Destiny prevents people from changing time. No, wait, that one's too mind boggling!

    Aaaaargh!!!!
     
  2. Flowerian

    Flowerian Senior Member

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    Well, concerning time travels I always quote Stephen Hawking: "Time travel must be impossible. Look around you, do you see any tourists?" :D There are too much paradoxons to deal with when it comes to time travelling ;)



    btw. the two points you speak about are two completely different things... according to 1, destiny prevents us from changing actions in time. Now take your example of your father being killed by a car. According to 2, this decision ("Do I rescue him or not?") would cause two new universes to become reality: The first one, in which your father is killed (and in which you will never exist) and the second one, in which you exist due to the continued life of your father. This would mean every little decision and action would cause the creation of a new universe. Hard to imagnine, but not impossible. But this would be contradictory to Nr. 1 :)
     
  3. Dizzy Man

    Dizzy Man Member

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    Human decisions can't create new universes since a person would always make the same decision under identical circumstances. The only thing that can make a new universe is if someone travels into the past, thus changing events.
     
  4. shaggie

    shaggie Senior Member

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  5. shaggie

    shaggie Senior Member

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  6. Shakra

    Shakra Member

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    Do you mean that by travelling back into the past, you would not travel back to the past of the universe you had left, but rather, arrive in an alternate universe, one that was created simply by the fact that you had arrived within it and one in which you simply had not existed within until your arrival? But then that would not constitute time travel into the past, rather travel to an alternate universe so I guess I just answered my own question that it can’t be what you meant. Oh well :p Not that I believe travel back into the past is possible or indeed that I have a clue about the concept at all :p But it’s fun to have a go and try to fathom it all :)

    Also are parallel universes transitory so that when a destined decision is made all other universes cease to exist bar the correct one? I don’t understand the concept of destiny :(


    "Help me obi wan, you're my only hope!" I want to understand but my brain won't let me :p

    "Explain to me as you would a child."
     
  7. Dizzy Man

    Dizzy Man Member

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    shaggie,

    I'll have a look at the experiments you mentioned, they sound interesting. Although I don't think quantum experiments have anything to do with time travel and alternate realities. If there are multiple realities then the whole of each reality has to be self-contained, we can never use physics to see outside our own universe, or prove that others exist.

    Just to clarify: by "universe", I mean the whole thing that we exist in. As far as we're concerned, the universe is everything there is. The word "universe" is sometimes used to describe other planes in the 5th,6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, or 11,th dimensions, but these aren't actually other universes, just other dimensions of our own universe.
     
  8. We_All_Shine_On

    We_All_Shine_On Senior Member

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    if the human race ever made a time machine(in the future), we'd be seeing ppl from the future by now. they'd come back to tell us.
     
  9. Dizzy Man

    Dizzy Man Member

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    Not necessarily. With the method of time travel currently proposed, you have to be contained within the time machine to go back in time, so you can never travel back before the machine was built.

    Dr Mallet, the inventor, says that he'll probably know if his machine will ever work when he first turns it on because he will expect to see unknown particles coming out of the machine (sent from the future).

    We may know if time travel is possible within our lifetime!
     
  10. darkstar8413

    darkstar8413 Member

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    Time, as I see it, is that infinite boundary of all reality. I could see time being altered slightly (slowed or provoked) perhaps, but not moved around (time travel). Nature cannot ultimately be controlled and of course, time is the basis of nature and all life.
     
  11. shaggie

    shaggie Senior Member

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  12. shaggie

    shaggie Senior Member

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  13. sky_pink

    sky_pink er... what's the time?

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    I believe the current consensus is that there is a teeny-weeny problem of only incredibly, and I mean incredibly, small particles at least POSSIBLY being able to travel in time.

    If you want to go back and correct the math text you handed in today, don't get your hopes up! :D :D
     
  14. DarkLunacy

    DarkLunacy Senior Member

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    I remember reading a study a college conducted where they isolated groups of atoms and shot them into the future like 8 seconds. The atoms traveled from their target point into a sealed box. It was pretty cool to read
     
  15. Dizzy Man

    Dizzy Man Member

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    The thing about going forward in time is: is it a jump in time (like the Back To The Future delorean disappearing for 1 minute), or is it just moving through time quicker, so it doesn't disappear at all?

    If nothing disapears, then I don't think this kind of "time travel" has any resemblance to travel into the past, since to travel to the past something would have to actually disappear.
     
  16. loverofthewoods

    loverofthewoods Member

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    look into project Montauk...and the Philedelphia expirement.

    these were secret government expirements in time travel that most have no idea about...iv actually spoken with a man who worked on project montauk...interesting stuff
     
  17. sky_pink

    sky_pink er... what's the time?

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    What you described is not travelling in time (not to mention anything with mass cannot, by definition, travel at the speed of light, and it is doubtful anything human-created will ever be able to move at anything close to the speed of light). If it was, we would have to say everything is travelling in time - after all, gravity has the same effect as speed.
     
  18. sky_pink

    sky_pink er... what's the time?

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    Don't see a "near" here. Just thought I'd clarify.

    I understand what spacetime is perfectly well, as well as the effects of gravity and acceleration on it (the warping of space and slowing of time). But, as I pointed out before, it can hardly be called time travel.
     

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