Time Travel

[jerseydevil]

I've thought about starting a thread like this for a while. Anyway - I was watching a show on Egyptian mummies on Discovery Channel which were being used to study the diseases and immune systems of the ancient Egyptians and it got me thinking about whether Time Travel is possible.

After watching the show about the Ancient Egyptians and how 3,000 years ago the viruses that we deal with everyday - were extremely weak in their time. The show went on to say how if something like today's common cold was introduced to Ancient Egyptians - it could kill thousands. It's sort of similar to what happened when the American Indians first came into contact with Europeans. Diseases which Europeans carried around with them and thought nothing about - wiped out whole villages of Indians. A similar thing could happen if a person from the future went back into time.

I used to always think about the ramifications of time travel and whether UFOs are actually visitors form the future as well as a bunch of other theories on Time Travel.

What are your thoughts on Time Travel? Is it possible and what are the ramifications of it?

I've always believed that even if we could go back into time - we can't change the past - because the action which we'd take to change it - has already taken place.

[Insidious Rex]

Trippy.... Well from what little I understand about Quantum Mechanics and string theory I heard it may be THEORETICALLY possible to leave this time and travel to another but A) you would have no control over where you went B) you would need an energy source of incredibly vast power that would basicaly be impracticle to harness in any conventional way (we are talking black holes, super strings and such) and C) it would only work if you were the size of an atomic particle. So yeah it sounds like they still have a lot of work to do.

[Andúril]

IR:
B) you would need an energy source of incredibly vast power that would basicaly be impracticle to harness in any conventional way (we are talking black holes, super strings and such)

Time Machine
By Andúril

A few years back, myself and a friend were discussing how we would modify a Mini. We started off by plonking in one of those lightweight Toyota 4A-GE engines. Then we measured the power/weight ratio, and estimated 0-100km/h acceleration times and max speed. Then we decided to fit fatter tires (205s) on 15" wheels.

Now we needed more power (for acceleration, not top end) so we stuck on a turbocharger. Not fast enough, so we made that twin non-sequential turbos. Not fast enough, so we made that four non-sequential turbos and four superchargers. We then uprated the tires and gearbox.

We were nowhere close to the amount of power needed. Therefore, we added nitrous....BIG TIME. We also found that our Mini was running low on traction, so we gave it Monster Truck wheels and tires. We then decided to increase the power/weight ration, so we stripped the Mini's interior, leaving only two seats. We did this after replacing the 4A-GE with a Supra motor.

Still, not enough power. We threw an exact duplicate of the contents of the engine bay into the back seat area (the Mini was now a Mini panel van -- no windows behind the B-pillars).

We were seriously low on power. We then fitted a jet engine to the back of the Mini. This proved to be insufficient. We installed a massive rocket engine.

Bare in mind that our Mini was running on a standard suspension, and the normal bad brakes.

After installnig the massive rocket engine, we added a performance air filter and polished the cyclinder heads, also chipped the engines.

We were running out of things to add, so we did a few calculations. We knew that our Mini would be capable of flying into outer-space, the question was: how fast is a Mini in outer-space, but with NITROUS? Our calculations surprised us -- very, very close to the speed of light. So close that all we needed to do was replace some of the components with lighter versions. This was so easy. It was quite exciting too.

Finally, we had replaced enough parts to successfully reach the speed of light.

But then we thought, wait a minute, surely if we travel at the speed of light, we are teleporting? If I had to drive from one set of robots to the next at the speed of light nobody standing still would be able to see us traveling those 100 meters! They would think we just disappeared (our Mini reaches maximum speed instantaneously due to its excellent power and torque curves) and re-appeared at the next set of robots. Yay! Now we can win any dice.

This was not enough, however. We knew what we had to do. We increased boost pressure on the turbos, and our calculations changed. We now had enough power to travel at speeds faster than the speed of light. To us, this meant that if it took x picoseconds for light to get from y to z, and our Mini was doing it in x-n, then surely it would look like we were travelling from one set of robots at 21h00 to reach the other set at 20h59?

We had created the first time machine.

The End.

P.S. I will never forget that endeavour until the end of my days.

[Wayfarer]

Actually, yeah. What Anduril describes is theoretically possible.

It wouldn't be possible to go back in time and alter events, but it would be possible to observe events long after they happen. If you could outrun the speed of light, then when you stopped and looked back you would see things as they were before you left.

[azalea]

My $.02
I don't believe time exists, so unfortunately I don't believe time travel is possible (but I'd love to do it if it were). If anything, travel to the future would be possible, but not to the past (which is what I'd want to do).
But forget time travel, I want someone to perfect "beaming" technology. It would have so many more applications that would change life as we know it (in a useful way, unlike time travel, which would end up having negative effects aplenty).

[Insidious Rex]

Hey Andúril want to work on my transmission for me? Any maybe take a few thousand miles off the odometer while yer at it....

[Spock]

What about HGW theory : you'd stay in the same place but in a different time? No viewing of anything that took place outside of that sphere unless you "locked up" the machine and traveled after arriving.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Spock
What about HGW theory : you'd stay in the same place but in a different time? No viewing of anything that took place outside of that sphere unless you "locked up" the machine and traveled after arriving.

Well I always thought that was sort of odd. What happened if you stopped inside a wall or something?

[Dunadan]

Originally posted by azalea
My $.02
I don't believe time exists, so unfortunately I don't believe time travel is possible (but I'd love to do it if it were).

I tend to agree. I'll admit up front that I know nothing about string theory and that, but it seems that, if you were to travel backwards in time to murder your father (etc) you'd be adding to the total amount of matter in the universe which is an a priori no-no in physics.

[Evenstar1400]

problem is... if time travel were possible... and it fell into the wrong hands... someone could go back in time and kill someone really important that affected the world in some way shape or form.... yeah so we would have a problem

i think its best to leave time travel as is... where there is no such thing.

[Wayfarer]

What about HGW theory : you'd stay in the same place but in a different time? No viewing of anything that took place outside of that sphere unless you "locked up" the machine and traveled after arriving.

Well I always thought that was sort of odd. What happened if you stopped inside a wall or something?

There's an even bigger problem to think about. The earth is rotating at a high speed, and obiting the sun at a high speed, and the sun is travelling through the galaxy at a high speed, and the galaxy is moving at a high speed... So jumping even a few years into the past could land you in deep space.

[Legolas_Frodo_Aragorn]

i dont know if time travel is possible..but i do beleive in ufos

[Evenstar1400]

anyone read a wrinkle in time?
in that book they state the shortest way to get from point a to point b is to go in a straight line. but the way they time traveled was to wrinkle the line, or make it curve under, making the distance shorter. heres an example:
okay maybe not.
but the point is maybe madeline l'engle had a point... so to make time travel possible maybe we should explore that theory

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Evenstar1400
anyone read a wrinkle in time?
in that book they state the shortest way to get from point a to point b is to go in a straight line. but the way they time traveled was to wrinkle the line, or make it curve under, making the distance shorter. heres an example:
okay maybe not.
but the point is maybe madeline l'engle had a point... so to make time travel possible maybe we should explore that theory

yeah - I read that a long time ago. It was a cool book

[Insidious Rex]

Originally posted by azalea
My $.02
I don't believe time exists, so unfortunately I don't believe time travel is possible

Well have you heard this recent theory about the possibility that time, rather then flowing linearly, might actually posses more than one dimension. This second dimension has gone unnoticed so far because it might only exist at the centers of black holes.

But anyway what exactly do you mean when you say time doesnt exist? Isnt space-time a proven physical phenomenon?

[BeardofPants]

I think she means that time is a human observation. I'm not a big believer of it myself; time is linear only in so far as we observe it. I subscribe to the multiple dimension theory myself.

[Insidious Rex]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
I think she means that time is a human observation. I'm not a big believer of it myself; time is linear only in so far as we observe it. I subscribe to the multiple dimension theory myself.

ok so you are talking about that whole arrow of time conundrum ive read about. About time being an illusion which I agree with. Someone once said something like "the past and future do not exist and the present has no duration so where is time" which is true if you think about it. Its kinda like free will is an illusion but hey thats another topic. Now as to why time travel would be impossible if time is an illusion, wouldnt it be more likely because then you could bypass the normal restraints imposed on us by the concept of a one directional time scheme. If its simply dimensional then we just need to find a way to shift dimensions.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Insidious Rex
...if time is an illusion, wouldnt it be more likely because then you could bypass the normal restraints imposed on us by the concept of a one directional time scheme. If its simply dimensional then we just need to find a way to shift dimensions.

Sort of sounds like the ability to bend spoons in the Matrix. All you have to do is just realize that the spoon (in this case time) isn't real.

BoP - I have thought about the multi-dimentionality of time - it's just mindbogling though. There would be an infinit number of dimensions. Each split second we make decisions that change our life and each spilt second there are others (either in our life or strangers) who make decisions which change our life.

There would be a way to calculate an estimate of the number of dimensions - but it would be a HUGE HUGE number. It would probably make the calculation of the most precise PI calculation look like calculating 2+2 in comparison..

[Anglorfin]

We all know it's been done to death in sci-fi movies and books, but what about the real thing? I take great interest in the laws of the universe and although I know that I'm not nearly an astrophysicist sometimes I do ponder the possibility of time travel or any other supposedly science "fiction" type ideas. I would like to have a serious debate on this matter and not have this turn into a "If i could go back in time . . ." thread please.

Personally, even if you are quite skeptical of time travel I don't think it is a possibility that can be ruled out. We understand the universe to an extent. But there is so much that we don't know that it is impossible to reach a final verdict on whether or not time travel is possible. Until then, I leave this thread open to speculation, doubts, objections, and affirmations about the possibility of time travel.

[Sheeana]

If time travel is possible, then why haven't we EVER come across someone time-travelling from the future? Just think - according to our current assumptions of time, there is the whole future out there ahead of us, so shouldn't there be at least some indication that time travel is occuring?

An interesting essay:

http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Is%20t...vel%20possible