Time Travel

[Sapper]

What are your thoughts on it?

Every blue moon, when my roommates and I are drunk, we veer off into lengthy discussions on this subject. Obviously, 'time travel into the future' is possible (via Einstein's relativity theory in regards to time dilation and length contraction).

This is possible only because time is relative and velocity slows down the passage of time...therefore the faster you go, the slower you age.

But what are your thoughts on backwards time travel? Scientists say that the only plausible way to travel back in time is to transcend the speed of light, but Einstein's special theory of relativity states that no object can reach that speed without at infinite mass (E=mc^2). C (the speed of light) is absolute, but what if someone disproves this scientific certainty? Will special relativity collapse on itself?

So what do you think? I love talking about time travel because everyone has a different perspective (grandfather paradox, twin paradox, etc...)

Thoughts?

[tarheelblue89]

I need to be drunk to read this.

[scpanther22]

I think there are some special "medicines" out there that can take you back in time.

[I AM]

Personally, I feel like Time Travel, although theoretically possible, is impossible...

If it were, as I keep an open mind, you'd only be able to move backwards...

I don't want to go into all my reasons, but I posted a long explanation a while back on another website... I'll go look it up and return by quoting it...

[scpanther22]

Personally, I feel like Time Travel, although theoretically possible, is impossible...

If it were, as I keep an open mind, you'd only be able to move forward and not backwards...

I don't want to go into all my reasons, but I posted a long explanation a while back on another website... I'll go look it up and return by quoting it...

You better hope its real.Then you could go back and get rid of all of your Peppers is staying and anyone else who thinks other wise is a idiot post.

[I AM]

from 2006... lol.. my post on another forum...

Well, the recent thread about time travel had me thinking on the subject, and I have come up with the conclusion that it is inprobable and maybe even impossible..

Here are my observations....

1. The concept of time involves the past, present, and future.

2. The present is only a moment in time. Think of a line. The present is one dot on the line. Within moments, the present has become the past and "the future has become the present which has then become the past".

3. The theory of future would seem to be influenced by variables in the past. A "Cause and Effect" relationship, if you will.

4. If this theory is correct, it would be impossible for the future to even exist in a sense that we could jump years ahead, because the events that shape the future have not yet happened. You could not go 15 years into the future and see your presently unborn child alive and playing, because in this plane of existence we call the "present", you have not yet had a child. What if a "Cause" steps in 6 years down the road and has the "Effect" that you are not able to have that child? If you were to move into the future, your present self would cease to exist, unless there was a way to stop time, thus causing all types of effects that would reshape not only your personal future, but those who know you as well.

5. Jumping to the past, however might seem more logical, although, still impossible. It is the same effect as the future jump, only in reverse. If you were to go back in time, you would not be able to return to the future without everything being different, because you would have to return at the exact moment you had left. That calculation is one that would not be fun, as again, you would have to stop time itself for nothing to be different. The past would still be moving towards the future, and then you have the numerous paradoxes(is that even a word?) of creating a rift in time such as when your present self (the one that jumped into the past) is re-created by your parents. The only way to prevent that paradox is to prevent your parents from creating you. Logically, if you were never created though, you could have never been alive to travel into the past in the first place.

To me, after getting this enormous headache thinking about all these logisitics, time travel would be impossible due to the ramifications it would have on our existence...If the future is shaped by Cause and Effect, then we could not travel to the future because it isn't pre-determined.....we could not travel to the past because of the changes it would make to our "present" and "future".....If the future IS pre-determined by some known/unknown force (such as a God), then neither the future, present, nor past could be changed anyways...

Therefore, to me, time travel has not, is not, and will not be accomplished...

I am open to the many flaws I am sure can be found in my theory though....So please share, as I haven't done any research or anything...I think if we sit down and discuss this, we might be able to make some headway for the argument for or against Time Travel....

rip it apart...

[Delhomeboy]

Michael Crichton's Timeline. 'nuff said.

[I AM]

In my spare time, I pen books under the pseudonym Stephen Hawking... Don't tell anyone though... kthxbai

...oh yeah, and I do a pretty good vocal impression of a robot, and I can do it without opening my mouth..

[charlotte49er]

Future Travel: I don't this is possible because the future is yet to be written. There are infinite possiblities for the future.

What if Kim Jong-Il is laying in bed one night and decided to lanch his nuclear equiped rockets at South Korea in the morning. He wakes up feeling refreshed and looks around. He desides to redecorate the house instead.

The past is always written from the stand point of the winners and may not be 100% accurate. I could see going back in time, rather than going forward.

[cookinwithgas]

You can travel forward in time, This is a proven concept in regards to the theory of relativity. Travel at a significant percentage of the speed of light and the universe around you will appear to speed up.

You are not going to break any "cause/effect" things because you are in the ship traveling.

Traveling backwards in time is something that does not exist in any theory to my knowledge.

[Skew]

First of all, most scientists believe if you could travel back in time, you could only go as far back as to the day the time machine was invented.

But, time travel is possible, yet at this point, man has not discovered the energy source to make it happen.

This is how it was explained on Nova (one of my favorite shows) on PBS.

First, man has to be able to identify a worm hole.

Second, man has to be able to capture the ends of a worm hole and hold it open, which would take a vast amount of energy.

Now that man has the two ends of a worm hole, we get a set of twins to hold one end each, standing next to each other.

Then we send one of the twins with his end of the worm hole into a spaceship that can travel close to the speed of light and the other twin stays on Earth in the same spot for a 24 hour period.

The twin returns to Earth in a matter of seconds to the original spot. He then goes through his end of the worm hole and comes out of the end his twin is holding 24 hours into the future.

The other twin can go through his end of the worm hole and come out of the end that went into the spaceship, 24 hours in the past.

It's that simple.

[pstall]

I think there are variables that you would have to incorporate to begin to understand the ability to do so.

Time is a standard that we have been taught and it has multiple dimensions that our feeble minds grasp.

Can there be counter cycles of time that removes weight or gravity and totally bends all rules that we currently understand?

Sure.

But you can't measure that so because of that variable and the INABILITY to build it out, the only way to truly do time travel, or two ways is either mentally or from the OUTSIDE.

No way you can construct a mechinism to promulgate this.

So either mentally but there again the tumblers all have to still fall into place which leads to...the OUTSIDE.

Something either acting outside of time or acts in an immediate repel of time and thus no rules apply to it, would have to initiate the travel because it's or their understanding of time travel is more of a reality because there are a different set of rules that govern that method.

[davos]

It was already made possible thanks to Dr. Brown's Flux Capacitor:

[CarolinaKid704]

Yall better hurry up before 2012