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

[lolTorrent]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17544598...15829?GT1=9145

I opened the internet, and BAM!. This article was the first on the page. So I quickly clicked (heh, that ryhmed). It's pretty interesting, IMO. So I decided to share.

Also, this sparked even more interest.

To punch a hole into the fabric of space-time, Kaku explained, would require the energy of a star or negative energy, an exotic entity with an energy of less than nothing.

Discuss.

[Billydude]

I don't believe in time travel personally, but I think that is a good thing. I mean, have you ever seen the movie The Butterfly Effect? He just goes back in time to change the past for a better present, but it destroys his life even more. I think changing just a small thing in the past can cause an extremely different present.

[bmah]

My sister told me once that black holes can distort time, but I wouldn't fathom going into their event horizons ("point of no return") for time travel.
Take a look at http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/lea...over_1197.html for more info on time distortions.

[RandomPscho]

http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...ad.php?t=57258

Might want to skip the first few posts.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by Billydude

I think changing just a small thing in the past can cause an extremely different present.

That's what they call the butterfly effect. That's where the name for that movie comes from. It's a basic principle of chaos theory.

As for time travel, I don't believe backwards time travel is possible, but forward "time travel" should be. It wouldn't really be time travel though... more like a time jump. The same effect on the "time traveler" could be achieved if cryogenic freezing worked.

ok reading article now... Time is not the 4th dimension. It is a fourth dimension in terms of measurement, but the concept of the 4th dimension is different from time.

They talk about wormholes... Isn't that word a synonym for black hole? Even so, if the concept was possible, it wouldn't be time travel. It'd be instantaneous travel through the 4th dimension. Anyone seen the movie Event Horizon? They explain the concept fairly well I believe. Something about an ant and a newspaper I think. Check it out if you haven't seen it. That flash video about string theory would be great too, if anyone has the link for it.

[petpro32]

http://www.tenthdimension.com/medialinks.php

Explains String Thoery into 10 dimensions.

Uses many assumptions, but explains very well.

[sjoecool1991]

The past and future don't exist, only the present.

[pntballa18]

Originally Posted by sjoecool1991

The past and future don't exist, only the present.

Explain what you just said.

[Afrobean]

He's saying that the past and the future don't actually exist and that they're merely a way for us to imagine not only a 4th dimension to reality, but also to allow us ease to remember past experiences and plan for future ones.

As it is, the only thing that exists is now. The past and the future exist only in another dimension.

[sjoecool1991]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

He's saying that the past and the future don't actually exist and that they're merely a way for us to imagine not only a 4th dimension to reality, but also to allow us ease to remember past experiences and plan for future ones.

As it is, the only thing that exists is now. The past and the future exist only in another dimension.

Basically yeah, I did not know quite how to explain it, thank you.

[pntballa18]

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.

[Windscarredfaith]

To me, there are just too many possibilities. It's best to stick to what we know.

[sjoecool1991]

Originally Posted by pntballa18

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.

There is no past, but that does not mean things that happened in the past don't exist anymore.

[pntballa18]

Well, I'm definitly going to need more explaining of that statement =\

[All_That_Chaz]

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.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by pntballa18

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.

Originally Posted by All_That_Chaz

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

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]

Originally Posted by All_That_Chaz

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]

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.