Time Travel - Pure Science Fiction

[markearthling]

Hello All

 

As there seem to be so many conflicting ideas about this subject and

because many of these ideas seem to fall into the realm of speculation

I decided this was the best place for this post.

 

Various ideas/concepts of time travel seem to have been around

on this planet for a very long time so I think I'll skip

the history tour.

 

It seems possible as we are travelling forwards in time every

unit of time ( split/second, minute, hour day etc )

already that given time dilation/relativity that perhaps in the

future we may be able to "jump" forwards in time

by varying units of time

( although if future time is being set up each split/unit of time

then it is not clear that by jumping too far ahead

we may not land in some kind of "as yet undefined state" ?

We could end up by jumping forwards to a future time

which does not yet exist ?).

 

So forwards time travel may become possible for us in the future

BUT we may have a lot of work to do in solveing all the problems.

 

Some have suggested that time is like a loop in the

fabric/structure of space time. This may be so and needs further

examination.

 

From what I read it also seems to me that even if we could travel

to points in time in the past we very likely would only

be able to observe and not CHANGE events we witness there.

 

I once had a weird idea (and have since discovered that others

have similar ideas ) about time travel and time machines

i.e. Imagine a machine ( possibly with computing/storage capacity

way beyong any concepts we have now of supercomputing

( millions of cores or perhaps large scale cloud computing,

something fast beyond belief almost - Quantum Supercomputing ?)

which could take a Universal snapshot of the location/coordinates

of every sub atomic particle, atom, electron [matter], force

relationship etc in the Universe

( and we haven't covered dark matter, energy etc)

every given time period

(which could probably be variable).

 

Then there is the idea that each quantized snapshot

is sampled and stored in our time machine so we would have a

series of everything which has happened since a partcular point

in the past when we started sampleing the time snapshots

of our Universe. Now we have to somehow merge this series

of snap shots with the correspondingly dynamic nature

of the space/time continuum and all it's various energy/forces

and relative positioning in the continuum.

 

Our time travel pilots so to speak would have to be

translated into their quantum particles/sub atomic

and atoms/molecules etc.. A complex map like the

time travel snapshot series above

and merged with the snapshot info above

at a particular time in the past

( to come back we kind of reverse the process).

 

We not only have to create our merged snapshot

 

Series we literally have to be able to

 

Manipulate every sub atomic particle, force relationship

 

For all matter ( plus dark energy/matter etc)

 

In the universe ( or perhaps this could be

 

Done locally like only for the areas of space/time affected ?).

 

Definitely sounds to be in the realm of the impossible.

 

I do realise that the above sounds way beyond

possibly what science/tecnology could achieve

( in the future who knows ?).

Possibly sounds like the movie, The Fly/Time Tunnel.

If it were possible to go back and change

what happens in the past then we create

the various time conundrums/paradoxes

(what if I kill my father etc).

 

If such amazing technology were available in the

future then it could have other

applications like possibly

matter transportation/teleportation.

 

I realise the above is highly speculatory

just interested to know what others think.

Edited June 26, 2011 by markearthling

[Moontanman]

Time travel has always fascinated me, the idea, to me anyway, postulates some things that we at least think cannot be true.

 

#1 would be that you can step outside of time into some sort of higher dimension that is separate from time or able to see the entirety of time. This also seems to indicate there is universal time that is independent of time as we know it and non relative to what we would call time.

 

#2 I think the idea also would have to allow FTL or at least the idea that time is not relative to motion but has a constant quality we just cannot detect that is above what we see as relativity. Lets call it T1 and what we experience as t2.

 

#3 this would allow a time traveler to go back in time, any travel back in time would have to change the future in some way, this would imply the time traveler would appear out of no where with no past or future once he had traveled back, this would eliminate the problem of causality.

 

If these three things could be some how gotten around them time travel would be possible but since we don't see individuals popping into existence from nowhere with no past or future then i think this would imply that there are no time travelers nor can there be.

 

I think there is no past or future as a real place you can travel independent of "now" We all travel to the future but it is not independent of the "now" we are currently in nor does the past exist as a place, only the now exists, no past or future.

 

Of course that is just my speculation, no data to back it up what so ever...

[A Tripolation]

We can travel forward in time right now. Get into a spaceship, accelerate to .99999c, travel for a few years, and then return. You will have aged very slowly while everything else would be have aged at the "normal" rate. This is a mathematically proven idea. We only lack the technology to do so.

[Moontanman]

We can travel forward in time right now. Get into a spaceship, accelerate to .99999c, travel for a few years, and then return. You will have aged very slowly while everything else would be have aged at the "normal" rate. This is a mathematically proven idea. We only lack the technology to do so.

 

 

That is true but you still age at the rate that is normal for you and you still spend time in time, just a slowed down version in relation to others who are not moving in relation to you. When i think of time travel i think of simply stepping into a machine and arriving at a destination as though you are going to the mall or the next room. You have a valid point but to me that is not visiting the future independent of time but still with in the "Now" of everyone else. You simply age slower, there is no disconnect with time that time travel implies.

[md65536]

That is true but you still age at the rate that is normal for you and you still spend time in time, just a slowed down version in relation to others who are not moving in relation to you. When i think of time travel i think of simply stepping into a machine and arriving at a destination as though you are going to the mall or the next room. You have a valid point but to me that is not visiting the future independent of time but still with in the "Now" of everyone else. You simply age slower, there is no disconnect with time that time travel implies.

Traveling relative to a universal time is impossible because there is no universal time. Time travel "independent of time" makes no sense. Existing anywhere but (your) "now" makes no sense.

 

The time travel you describe (stepping into a machine or going to the mall or next room) and the time travel that A Tripolation describes can be united. If you travel close enough to the speed of light, then even a small duration for you can mean a large duration for whatever you're moving relative to. Whatever you do, you will age along with your own clocks, and the actions you described (stepping into a machine, going to the mall or next room) take time. Even if you spend only a second in the time machine, if you travel fast enough, you could have years pass outside the time machine.

 

Not only does the technology not exist, the energy requirements would be ridiculous, and it involves changes in velocity that would probably turn you into a "quark soup" or worse.

 

At 0.99999 c, 1 second in such a time machine would get you only about 3 minutes 43 seconds into the future.

 

0.99999999999999 c for 1 second would get you 81 days into the future (if my spreadsheet remains accurate to those decimal places). Each extra "99" tacked on gets you about 10x farther into the future, so

0.9999999999999999999999 c for 1 second should get you over 2 thousand years into the future.

 

Or just spend a minute at 0.99999999999999 c to get 13 years into the future.

 

No guarantees at all on the accuracy of these numbers.

 

given time dilation/relativity that perhaps in the

 

future we may be able to "jump" forwards in time

To jump forward in time by only exploiting special relativity, you'd have to travel at the speed of light.

 

 

[A Tripolation]

That is true but you still age at the rate that is normal for you and you still spend time in time, just a slowed down version in relation to others who are not moving in relation to you.

 

This is exactly what true time travel is. The science fiction stuff is just that. Fiction. From what I've read about time travel in the past, it requires crazy stuff like exotic-matter-powered wormholes and such. I'm not going to pretend like I understand it. But it seems the consensus is that it too may be possible in some form. Or, maybe I just misinterpreted it.

[Moontanman]

Oh I agree whole heartedly that time travel is indeed science fiction, well actually science fantasy but why quibble over such a small detail. I wasn't saying I thought those things i numbered where true only that to actually time travel they would need to be true which if our assessment of reality is even close to being real they are not...

Edited June 27, 2011 by Moontanman

[Pincho Paxton]

It's strange that perspective looks into the past. The further you look into the ever decreasing distance, the older things get. If you could look at a tree in the distance, and suddenly appear there, you have jumped forward before the light got to you. Distance is relative to where you are standing, and time is relative to how long it took light to reach you. Velocity can alter the scale of time particles. If you can alter the distance between you, and an object, you can alter time.