Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

[Afrobean]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

I knew what he was trying to say, it was just a test to see if he would say "what I just posted meant" meaning that there is a past.

The past doesn't exist.

Only your memory of it does. Time does not exist. It is just a means of measuring duration.

Actually, a good example of this is in the flash string theory video. They say a 2D creature would only see 3D things in cross sections... We see things in the "4th dimension" only as cross sections. For us, time only exists one "frame" at a time.

Think about this: If time travel were possible and we found it before the end of humanity and if it is beneficial to society, someone would have have come back in time to tell us so and how to do it.

Not if time travel works linearly. There are different theories of how time travel would affect the space time continuum. Popular theory in time travel fiction is that backwards time travel would in a sense constantly reboot the future to the future of the past. Back to the Future is a good example of this. Another theory I personally prefer if backwards time travel is possible is a skewed timeline. They use this in DragonBall Z. One character goes back in time and skews the timeline, but when he returns to the future, it is still the future as it was before he left. I think this is the only way backwards time travel could exist, because otherwise time paradoxes would happen far too easily and as Doc Brown said "a time paradox ... would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum and destroy the entire Universe." Obviously this is just conjecture, but I don't think a time paradox would be anything to be ****ing with regardless.

[PinoySkillz]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

A wormhole is not the same as a blackhole. Think about it this way:

Draw two points on opposite ends of a sheet of paper. What's the shortest distance between those two points? A straight line yes? Well, if you believe in the possibility of wormholes, no.
Fold the paper in half and punch a hole in the paper through those two points. Now you can travel from point A and B pretty much instantaneously.

Wormholes are like shortcuts. Blackholes are massive forces of gravity that crush matter into nothingness and from which there is no escape.

As far as time travel goes...I don't think it's possible to travel back into the past, but it is possible to travel into the future if you can travel at or near the speed of light...

[All_That_Chaz]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

The past doesn't exist.

Only your memory of it does. Time does not exist. It is just a means of measuring duration.

Actually, a good example of this is in the flash string theory video. They say a 2D creature would only see 3D things in cross sections... We see things in the "4th dimension" only as cross sections. For us, time only exists one "frame" at a time.


Not if time travel works linearly. There are different theories of how time travel would affect the space time continuum. Popular theory in time travel fiction is that backwards time travel would in a sense constantly reboot the future to the future of the past. Back to the Future is a good example of this. Another theory I personally prefer if backwards time travel is possible is a skewed timeline. They use this in DragonBall Z. One character goes back in time and skews the timeline, but when he returns to the future, it is still the future as it was before he left. I think this is the only way backwards time travel could exist, because otherwise time paradoxes would happen far too easily and as Doc Brown said "a time paradox ... would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum and destroy the entire Universe." Obviously this is just conjecture, but I don't think a time paradox would be anything to be ****ing with regardless.

For that dbz theory to work, there'd have to be an infinite number of timelines. and since you purport that time doesn't exist, it's only a measure of duration, which i agree with, i don't imagine how you can think there can be more than one timeline.

[Afrobean]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

For that dbz theory to work, there'd have to be an infinite number of timelines. and since you purport that time doesn't exist, it's only a measure of duration, which i agree with, i don't imagine how you can think there can be more than one timeline.

This is all if backwards time travel was possible.

I don't believe it is possible, but if it was, that's how I think it'd work. Does that make more sense?

As for wormholes: Shoe me one. How do you suggest that we "punch" a hole through the 4th dimension when we're stuck in the 3rd?

Going back to the "flatlander" on a newspaper example from the string theory video: How would this flatlander fold his newspaper in the third dimension? As far as this flatlander is concerned, there is no 3rd dimension. This is the same thing as us and the 4th dimension. As far as we're concerned, it doesn't even exist, because we cannot actively perceive it.

Oh and by the way, black holes are tied to the concept of wormholes. I think it's just that some people say that wormholes are within blackholes or something. As far as I'm concerned though, wormholes are compltely theoretical and physically impossible, and blackholes are just things with immense mass and nothing more.

[PinoySkillz]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

I can't show you a wormhole because nobody's ever seen one before. It's all just theoretical. And if I knew how to punch a hole through the 4th dimension, I sure as hell wouldn't be a Kinesiology major hehe.

Just because we can't perceive it and nobody's proven it's existence, doesn't mean that it's impossible. Even just 100 years ago, nobody would have been able to perceive the concept of "the internet" and yet here we are.

[Afrobean]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

Advanced electronic systems and networks are a joke compared to modifying the structure of space time to allow for instantaneous travel or theoretical time travel.

[darkdragoness]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

I read a theory once that every moment is a new dimension, so theoretically if you had a wormhole you could return to any moment that has ever existed before the present. I don't think, however, that you could go into the future unless we're actually in that past and the future has already happened. How could you travel somewhere that doesn't exist yet? Wouldn't you cease to exist by going there?

[Izzy-chandess]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

You have a good point, darkdragoness. That is very curious... Hmmm...

However, I think that time is, indeed, a human form to keep track of things. There is a past. If we could go into the past, there would probably be some sort of space-time paradox... Ah... yeah, it's already starting to confuse me... But I have logic in my mind somewhere... I'm just a little too tired to access it yet...

I think that if any attempt to enter the past would be prevented by the people in the future so then the past doesn't change and the future will remain the same. Entering the past is pointless. What happens if your meddling kills someone that could have influenced... etc. etc. etc.? Therefore, we have the butterfly effect...

I'm off subject... I don't really think that time travel is possible and if it is, there are some regulations, I'm sure. What would happen if you or I went into the past and changed things? Our lives, even our world, may be different.

Not to mention, what happens after we alter what's in our past? Do we forget what was in the future, or do we remember it all? What about other people? Hmmmm... I just don't know... and I'm just rambling so ignore me... ^o^;

[Morehead_Kid]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

BTW, wormholes are different from black holes. Black holes are supposed to absorb energy/mass through their massive gravity and obliterate it. A worm hole is a hole that would accelerate you to the other end of the hole thus allowing almost instantinous travel...

But I think that time travel, with the proper specs and technology is possible either forward or backward, we just do not percieve the change due to alternate diminisions...since after all, we are in our own small bubble universe. What if the time travel causes us to jump bubble universes in proportion to time? Why would time be the only thing affected? Why not the 3 diminsions of space (as well as the many we don't percieve).

We shift between universes millions of times per second...(study your electrons...they just "phase out" and disappear.) so if they our jumping back and forth between bubble universes then if time is the only factor, which bubble universe would the time machine be landing in?

The depth of this question is almost unbearable at this time.

[Afrobean]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

Not to mention, what happens after we alter what's in our past? Do we forget what was in the future, or do we remember it all? What about other people? Hmmmm... I just don't know... and I'm just rambling so ignore me... ^o^;

This is an extension of the premise of "would the future 'reboot' or not?"

You can go two ways with backwards time travel. One way leads to time paradoxes and the possible destruction of the very space time continuum. The other gives you awesome adventures and a skewed time line that doesn't affect your own time line.

Black holes are supposed to absorb energy/mass through their massive gravity and obliterate it.

Oh so black holes are made of antimatter now? Quick guys. Tell those scientists doing experiments and creating very very small amounts of antimatter that they needn't bother! Immense mass and made of antimatter... well ****.

Too bad it's not truly possible to destroy energy or matter. You can "neutralize" matter with antimatter, but it cannot be truly destroyed.

A worm hole is a hole that would accelerate you to the other end of the hole thus allowing almost instantinous travel...

Actually, I would say the concept is best described as it is in the movie Event Horizon. "The shortest distance between two points is nothing". This is all assuming that we could bend space time sufficiently and punch a proper hole in it, and this is also assuming that the energy exuded by such a punching of hole would be not only possible to be performed by man in this 3rd dimension, but that it would also not kill them much the same way a black hole would kill them. There's no way of knowing for sure, and as far as I'm concerned something like this is all theoretical: that is to say, I believe it's not even possible to be performed. As for "almost instantaneous travel": It'd have to be instantaneous. If it wasn't, where you would be during the time of your trip? Your matter would have to exist in the third dimension at all times during this trip through the 4th dimension, even if your body's matter is being "bent" across the universe.

[jecht3009046]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

Unless i overlooked it, i didnt see anything about high quantities of mass distorting space-time. taking that into consideration, there is such thing as time acceleration, which is essentially the same as traveling forward in time. Personally, i dont beleive that the past is an existance anymore, and that it only exists as what we call the past. So with that theory, it would be impossible to travel backwards in time. Also seeing as the future doesnt exist at the same time as the present, then direct transportation from present to future is impossible as well. But then that leads to the question that if one person take a route to a destination via the high-mass route (with accelerated space-time/distance) and another person were to take a route avoiding such large masses, but covered the same area on a 2d plane, would they arrive at the same time? On a different note, as stated before, woemholes and black holes are completely different entitys, which can, coincidentally, accomplish the same task. That task being getting from one place to another faster than any other means of travel. Sadly, the amount of mass held by a black hole would, as we all know, tear apart every form or matter we can comprehend, and a wormholes acceleration would leave any being in a quite a mess... But one concept of the universe it that all edges of it are actually wormholes, such as an invisible pipe system throughout the edge of a likely spherical universe, each wormhole leading to a corresponding wormhole somewhere else in the universe. That being a simple way to immagine it, but in reality (or so we think) wormholes are direct transportation to another place, so the invisible pipes are more of invisible teleportation devices, if you will. Now, on the other hand, if the universe is a continuous body that exists infinitely in every direction, then the acclaimed wormholes would likely be in supposedly random areas throughout the universe leading to anotehr random area. Neither theory has been tested nor proven, as we can clearly tell, that would be slightly difficult to accomplish. Anyways thats all i have to say on the topic.

[Morehead_Kid]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

Afrobean....it OBLITERATES mass...converting it to energy...I am well aware of E=mc^2.

But I do like your definition of a worm hole better, i understand the concept but my explanation was skewed.

[Afrobean]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

Afrobean....it OBLITERATES mass...converting it to energy...I am well aware of E=mc^2.

But I do like your definition of a worm hole better, i understand the concept but my explanation was skewed.

You are aware of E = mc^2, yet you're talking about converting matter into energy? Regardless, I have yet to hear of anything which seriously discusses converting matter into energy, and unless I'm mistaken, such a change would violate both laws of conservation.

As for immense mass bending the fabric of space time: You really think we could punch a hole and control where the hole comes out on the other end? You think the immense mass needed to punch this hole would even be possible to travel through without the body of any human passenger of a vehicle simply being crushed into a singularity.

[Chrissi]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

Am I missing something, or doesn't matter get converted to energy every day all around us? Take cars for example?

[Afrobean]

Re: Time Travel Makes for Good Fiction, But is it Real?

Am I missing something, or doesn't matter get converted to energy every day all around us? Take cars for example?

Not the same. It takes potential energy in the fuel and turns it into kinetic energy. The energy changes forms, but doesn't get created or destroyed.

As for the fuel: it also changes forms. Cars might not have been the best example. Let's look at humans and eating. We eat food and digest it to take it's potential energy and turn it into energy we use to live. The food doesn't cease to exist however, it just changes forms. It goes from nice delicious food with potential energy to feces.