time travel

[Minion133]

gay

[Tps222]

Ever heard of alternate timelines in which the altering of something could create a new sub-timeline in which your past self is affected and not yourself?

I hope I didn't just make that up, I'm pretty sure there is some crackpot philosophy on it.

[terence1357]

Originally Posted by Tps222

Ever heard of alternate timelines in which the altering of something could create a new sub-timeline in which your past self is affected and not yourself?

I got lost completely in the middle.
The I caught back on at the end.

[jewpinthethird]

Originally Posted by Tps222

Ever heard of alternate timelines in which the altering of something could create a new sub-timeline in which your past self is affected and not yourself?

I hope I didn't just make that up, I'm pretty sure there is some crackpot philosophy on it.

No, that's pretty much the basis of Back to the Future II.

Honestly, I dont believe in time travel. I only believe in the present. Though, if given the chance to go back in time, I would in a heartbeat.

[SethSquall]

Originally Posted by jewpinthethird

No, that's pretty much the basis of Back to the Future II.

Dammit. I was going to say that then I scrolled down and found you already did.




GREAT SCOTT!

[-Izzy-]

Personally i dont think time is something that really exist. Just a manmade mesurement and isnt really there to go back or forward in.
And dont say im retarded cause you have no idea yourself.

[Tps222]

Oh, that's right.

I'm not sure if that diminishes the integrity of it, although they are all theories, so I suppose it doesn't matter.

I'm not really educated in the matter, all I think of is something with time being relative and wormholes and stuff.

[trillobyite]

Einstein's special theory of relativity basically explains that time travel is a unique possibility, but only if we can create a machine which would cause us to travel at close to the speed of light. That will not happen for at least a few millenia, so I doubt we have anything to worry about.

Originally Posted by Minion133

c. if time travel were real in a "future", the world would probably have asploded already. if one person gets his hands on a craft, what's to stop him from going back and changing history to how he pleases. if this was so, we'd probably be all bowing down to our nerd overlord by now. :P

There are plenty of movies and games which deal with that theory. Have you ever heard of the JourneyMan Project? It's a series of computer games in which humanity discovers the secret to time travel and numerous measures are taken to contain its power to specified facilities. Of course, something goes wrong. If you're interested in that kind of stuff I recommend you check it out.

[Reach]

Trilliobyte, time dilation isn't time travel. Time dilation is changing the relativistic effect of time to cause it to pass slower or faster, relatively.

I don't think time travel into the 'past' or 'future' is possible. For a couple reasons, but to cut to the chase I don't think either exist. I believe the problem is choice, making something in the future inevitably uncalculable. Ergo, I believe it is flawed to assume anything will happen, therefor, traveling 'forward' in time is impossible because it is undeterminable.

And for some reason I don't feel that going back in time is possible, for the simple reason that going back in time would therefor effect events preceding the building of your 'time machine', and therefor exist effected because you chose to build the time machine, so you wouldn't actually be going back in time at all.

It is kind of dependant on wether choice is something real or not. If it does not exist then time travel might be possible.

But obviously all of this is pure speculation XD And I hope that made sense

[dore]

Time is nothing more than a measurement; ergo, time travel is impossible. You can't bend measurements. It would be like making a 7 inch long object 8 inches long without changing the object.

[SethSquall]

Originally Posted by dore

It would be like making a 7 inch long object 8 inches long without changing the object.

You should of thought of a better example hahahaha.

Or is that just my dirty dirty mind.

[Reach]

Originally Posted by dore

Time is nothing more than a measurement;

As much as I agree, it is impossible to prove this, since how time actually functions is not properly understood.

A measurement is defined as such by whoever is measuring. We define time as we understand it, but it could be something more complex, even though I doubt it.

[GuidoHunter]

Originally Posted by dore

You can't bend measurements. It would be like making a 7 inch long object 8 inches long without changing the object.

Uh, problem with semantics here.

You can't measure an eight inch long object as seven inches long.

You can, however, make an eight inch long object seven inches long simply by accelerating it, as per Lorentz Contraction.

The reason you couldn't measure it is because the measuring device would also contract, as it is moving at the same speed, and if it were moving at a different speed the object couldn't be measured due to the impossibility of simultaneity with regard to time and space dilation (the two objects would have to be colocal).

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[trillobyite]

Originally Posted by Reach

Trilliobyte, time dilation isn't time travel. Time dilation is changing the relativistic effect of time to cause it to pass slower or faster, relatively.

When you think about it, what is time travel? It is one traveller experiencing time relatively different to another. Einstein's theory explains that a person on a train going near the speed of light will experience a second pass by, while the bystander will experience 60 years pass by. Creating such a "train" (though to build a contraption that could achieve such a speed or "carry" a human is insanely difficult) would ultimately result in the creation of a time machine.

Originally Posted by dore

Time is nothing more than a measurement; ergo, time travel is impossible. You can't bend measurements. It would be like making a 7 inch long object 8 inches long without changing the object.

Well, another of Einstein's theories explains that time is actually a component of outer space (that is why space is sometimes called the space-time continuum). A rip in space-time will result in a black hole, where even time itself is screwed up. The concept of seconds, minutes, hours, etc is invented by humanity and not by nature, thus, the measurement of time is technically false, but time itself is a natural force.

[dore]

ROFL @ SethSquall, I didn't think about that before posting.

[Reach]

Not quite trillo. I would define time travel as being able to pass THROUGH time. Understand this - by dilating time (special relativity), you are not traveling through time, but rather along time as things would normally happen. Everything around you would continue to happen as it would, just at a different rate, and then alas, you would arrive at your destination thousands of years in the future as it were, choices made, lives lived, unable to go back because you simply changed the perspective of measuring time pass. You didn't 'time travel'!

If you would define that as time travel then it's defintely possible because time dilation has been observed.

[businessman07]

Originally Posted by trillobyite

Einstein's special theory of relativity basically explains that time travel is a unique possibility, but only if we can create a machine which would cause us to travel at close to the speed of light.

I was thinking about that, and even if we could travel at the speed of light how would that enable us to go backwards in time?. Not questioning you, just einstein.

Originally Posted by trillobyite

When you think about it, what is time travel? It is one traveller experiencing time relatively different to another. Einstein's theory explains that a person on a train going near the speed of light will experience a second pass by, while the bystander will experience 60 years pass by. Creating such a "train" (though to build a contraption that could achieve such a speed or "carry" a human is insanely difficult) would ultimately result in the creation of a time machine.

this does make sense, but wouldnt the person on the train still be moving foward in time even if just one second passes? I guess I can't see it because no matter how fast you move time is still going to stay the same speed. thats why I agree with this.

Originally Posted by reach

As much as I agree, it is impossible to prove this, since how time actually functions is not properly understood.
A measurement is defined as such by whoever is measuring. We define time as we understand it, but it could be something more complex, even though I doubt

[Reach]

Buisnessman, Traveling near the speed of light causes time dilation, because of mc^2/(1-v^2/c^2). Time dilation at high speeds means that time outside of your perspective will pass very quickly (like on earth, 1000 years could pass for 1 of your years). So yea, it is impossible to go backwards with this method, and impossible to come back, because you're just changing how time is observed, thus it's not really time travel. As an example, I would compare this to living for thousands of years. If you lived for thousands of years, things would pass, people you know would die, and the times would change all while you barely age at all. You're not time traveling by doing this either, you're changing how fast your internal clock ticks. If someone outside your super fast ship could see a clock inside of it, it would not move, and if you could look out your window near the speed of light everything around you would be happening in the blink of an eye (theoretically, though because of how light works things will become increasingly 'white and you won't see anything, not to mention you're going to be dead XD).

For this reason near the event horizon of a black hole you could theoretically see the end of the universe, however, this is not a practical application. You'll die long before any of these time dilation effects take place, because time only dilates extremely as an energy approaches infinity.

As an example, at 97% the speed of light time is only going to be happening 15 times as fast outside the ship from your point of view, and 50x as fast at 99% the speed of light, which is 297,000 km/sec, so good luck going that fast.

[businessman07]

very insightful reach. so does it exist??? and does anybody know how many theorys there are?

[Idonnoimconfused]

Originally Posted by trillobyite

Einstein's special theory of relativity basically explains that time travel is a unique possibility, but only if we can create a machine which would cause us to travel at close to the speed of light. That will not happen for at least a few millenia, so I doubt we have anything to worry about.



There are plenty of movies and games which deal with that theory. Have you ever heard of the JourneyMan Project? It's a series of computer games in which humanity discovers the secret to time travel and numerous measures are taken to contain its power to specified facilities. Of course, something goes wrong. If you're interested in that kind of stuff I recommend you check it out.

I'm sorry, but your first statement is wrong.
Theory of Relativity states if we go the speed of light - Time as we know it, will stop. Also, as we go faster (Near the speed of light) time slows down and things APPEAR to get shorter. And going faster then the speed of light would make it seems that we're heading back in time.
Example of that: Your traveling 4x the speed of light to another planet. You land there. Now since you're going faster then the speed of light, the light that would first get to you is when you first landed, so you would see yourself going backwards. Bad explanation, but deal with it.
You obviously never read about the theory of relativity.
You lose, sorry.