How can time travel possibly work?

RedFormanFITA

We'd all like to think we could do that, travel back and forth in time but in reality would it be actually possible. I think there are a few problems that it would throw up and make it impossible.

The first is, would you still exist if you travelled back in time to a date before you were born or would you simply disappear or would you be absorbed into that time and become your father, your grandfather or an alternative version of yourself?

Would having a time machine, where you were enclosed in it, protect you from being absorbed into that time, lets say it's 2013 when you leave, therefore inside the time machine it will always be 2013 but outside it the time will have changed. If you step outside the time machine, what will happen?

So what about going forward in time, would that be possible? Again, I see the same problems, stepping outside the time machine in a date that was past the date you were supposed to die wouldn't you simply disappear and therefore make it pointless travelling forward in time.

wazky

Who said it could work?

MadsL

The Barman says "We don't serve Time Travellers"

MarkR

I'll tell you yesterday.

MadsL

A Time Traveller walks into a bar...

Kylo Ren

You need a flux capacitor

Banjo String

This made it all clear to me O.P

Captain Chaos

You can go forward in time, the laws of physics allow for this but they do not allow for going back in time. This has been proven on earth with two synced clocks on two aircraft and fly opposite directions around earth before landing back together again, the clocks are then shown to be out of sync with each other proving time travel into the future is possible and we do it every day, some more so than others at a very very tiny level. Basically the faster you travel, time passes slower for you relative than a person who does not move.

kowloon

I go forward in time constantly. I'm not happy about it.

Captain Chaos

Captain Chaos wrote: »

You can go forward in time, the laws of physics allow for this but they do not allow for going back in time. This has been proven on earth with two synced clocks on two aircraft and fly opposite directions around earth before landing back together again, the clocks are then shown to be out of sync with each other proving time travel into the future is possible and we do it every day, some more so than others at a very very tiny level. Basically the faster you travel, time passes slower for you relative than a person who does not move.

Time dilation is actually an everyday problem, for instance if it wasn't accounted for GPS wouldn't work due to time passing slower on the satellites.

theblaqueguy

I do hope that one day it will work so I can go back in time and save all my long lost brothers and sisters from slavery

Blackjack

something like this

Dman001

Captain Chaos wrote: »

You can go forward in time, the laws of physics allow for this but they do not allow for going back in time. This has been proven on earth with two synced clocks on two aircraft and fly opposite directions around earth before landing back together again, the clocks are then shown to be out of sync with each other proving time travel into the future is possible and we do it every day, some more so than others at a very very tiny level. Basically the faster you travel, time passes slower for you relative than a person who does not move.

That's still a bit of a mindf**k tbh.

Wibbs

Yep forward in time is a goer. We're doing it as we speak, only a bit sluggishly. Backwards is the problem. It might be possible. Going on current theories it looks unlikely(though there are possible mechanisms involving bending spacetime and shít), but current theories will be changed in the future and may allow it. In a many universes theory causality wouldn't be an issue, you could go back and shoot your grandfather and the you of that reality would cease to exist, but the you from your origin reality wouldn't because in that reality your grandfather wasn't killed. This could explain why we don't meet time travelers, because they're visiting other realities.

The other option is simulated time travel into the past. In the far future we or other hyper intelligences could fully reproduce and simulate past realities that are indistinguishable from reality. One could then "travel" to one of them, either knowingly or you could choose to be fully immersed, like GTA for real, minus the madness of course(or not). Some(and we're talkin serious brainiacs here) have even suggested we ourselves might be living in such a simulation. In such a case the vast majority of us would be self aware "bots", part of the simulation, with a tiny few actual travelers from the future.

Legs.Eleven

I've travelled through time. Fairly disappointing.

Lone Stone

I saw some thing on netflix where this guy was talking about traveling at 10% the speed of light and that to the person traveling it would only be a few days or weeks what ever and when they would return time would have passed at a much faster rate.

flynnlives

Time travel forward is a fact of life.
The speed of light is a finite speed or so its been since near the big bag. It has been suggested it might have been a different speed at some point in the past close to the big bag.
The faster you travel the slower times passes relative to an onlooker. The difficulty is actually getting anywhere near the speed of light. We are constrained by e=mc^2.


When you look up at night at the stars you are actually looking back in time. The light you see left those stars possibly billions of years ago and is only reaching us know due to the massive distances involved.
This might also expalin why we havent found or communicated with distant alien civilisations. They may have evolved to our level of technology and are now sending signals into space but it might be thousands of years before we pick them up and vice versa for our signals.
So by the time we pick the signals and return the message that civilisation could have ended!

kneemos

Abbey Travel works?

IvaBigWun

Some serious brains and their thoughts on it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au5i1Bw725o

I reckon Area 51 or similar has figured out *some* of the future travelling mechanics but back in time cant happen. Even 100 years from now if they figure it out it'll never be revealed to the public, think of all the things that a Head Of Defence could use this for in a war

Jawgap

wazky wrote: »

Who said it could work?

Einstein

Travelling back in time is theoretically possible using an Einstein Rosen bridge - it's how Santa delivers all those prsents

wexie

Sadly disappointed nobody's mentioned the bus to Leitrim yet

take everything

Wibbs wrote: »

Yep forward in time is a goer. We're doing it as we speak, only a bit sluggishly. Backwards is the problem. It might be possible. Going on current theories it looks unlikely(though there are possible mechanisms involving bending spacetime and shít), but current theories will be changed in the future and may allow it. In a many universes theory causality wouldn't be an issue, you could go back and shoot your grandfather and the you of that reality would cease to exist, but the you from your origin reality wouldn't because in that reality your grandfather wasn't killed. This could explain why we don't meet time travelers, because they're visiting other realities.

So basically time travelling back in time necessarily involves crossing between parallel universes (because would it be fair to say it's the only way one could travel between parallel universes).

Wacker The Attacker

Its all about time and sh1t

Rubeter

take everything wrote: »

So basically time travelling back in time necessarily involves crossing between parallel universes (because would it be fair to say it's the only way one could travel between parallel universes).

Not necessarily, because that is only one theory.
Another would be that time is "set" and cannot be changed, so for example say you went back to kill your Grandfather the man you shoot will turn out not to be your actual grandfather, because your Grandmother had an affair that nobody knew about which resulted in your Father.

The idea that time is set like that I personally like, all of time and space is just one "lump", the past, present and future all exist together and we just experience each moment giving the illusion of time passing. Think of a film on a reel, the whole movie exists as a whole but you only experience a bit (the now) at a time. This is quite a popular theory at the moment, because it's supported by most of our current theories on the nature of space and time.

Wacker The Attacker

wexie wrote: »

Sadly disappointed nobody's mentioned the bus to Leitrim yet

That only come up in conversations about black holes.

Wibbs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY_Ry8J_jdw

Mike 1972

Here comes the Godwin........

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/nazi/adolf-hitler/

Universally hated since World War II, Hitler is our best evidence for the infeasibility of time travel. The obvious killer app for a working time machine would be to murder this guy before he could set the Third Reich in motion.

[Handy tip for would-be chronoassassins: Don't bother trying to infiltrate the fortified bunker; instead, plan on catching him asleep in that Viennese flophouse during the homeless years.]

xabi

If it was possible, wouldn't someone from the future have been back to "now" to let us know?

csallmighty

If time machines are going to be invented in the future wouldn't we already have them now?

Rubeter

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Here comes the Godwin........

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/nazi/adolf-hitler/

Maybe time was changed because of the 400,000,000 who died when Stalin took over all of Europe in 1942 and had all those brilliant German scientists build him some big big bombs. Adolf was put in to counter that, after the previous attempt failed of course and nearly killed everyone on Earth.
As Wibbs "mentioned" wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

Mike 1972

Rubeter wrote: »

Maybe time was changed because of the 400,000,000 who died when Stalin took over all of Europe in 1942 .

There WERE that many people in Europe in 1942

Why would Stalin kill them all ?? I mean theres still people living in Eastern Europe ?

Couldnt the Chronoassisins get Stalin too ?

wexie

Rubeter wrote: »

Maybe time was changed because of the 400,000,000 who died when Stalin took over all of Europe in 1942 and had all those brilliant German scientists build him some big big bombs. Adolf was put in to counter that, after the previous attempt failed of course and nearly killed everyone on Earth.
As Wibbs "mentioned" wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

Scary concept that all the previous versions were so bad the 'time lords' looked at WW2 and figured :'yeah that'll do'

Rubeter

Mike 1972 wrote: »

There WERE that many people in Europe in 1942

Why would Stalin kill them all ?? I mean theres still people living in Eastern Europe ?

Couldnt the Chronoassisins get Stalin too ?

I think you missed the jist of the post.

Thoie

Read this, then go back to earlier today and change the title of the post to let us know it worked.

wexie

Thoie wrote: »

Read this, then go back to earlier today and change the title of the post to let us know it worked.

nothing to see here, move along

Thoie

wexie wrote: »

nothing to see here, move along

Nope, nothing here either, keep going.

Rubeter

xabi wrote: »

If it was possible, wouldn't someone from the future have been back to "now" to let us know?

csallmighty wrote: »

If time machines are going to be invented in the future wouldn't we already have them now?

According to the ole theoretics you wouldn't be able to go back to before the time machine was invented, so we won't be seeing any visitors from the future till the day we turn one on, then the fun should start.

wexie

Rubeter wrote: »

According to the ole theoretics you wouldn't be able to go back to before the time machine was invented, so we won't be seeing any visitors from the future till the day we turn one on, then the fun should start.

What's the logic behind that then?

Ten of Swords

Rubeter wrote: »

According to the ole theoretics you wouldn't be able to go back to before the time machine was invented, so we won't be seeing any visitors from the future till the day we turn one on, then the fun should start.

Sounds like you're calling John Titor a liar!

kneemos

xabi wrote: »

If it was possible, wouldn't someone from the future have been back to "now" to let us know?

The future hasn't happened yet.

Maybe I'll invent one in twenty years.

gar32

Time is only 1 part of timespace which could have many other parts. You could travel back to kill your grandfather but you would disappear in 1 universe but goggles more of possibilities could happen in the mutualitiverse.

Expand you minds please. Time is so limiting!!!!

Rubeter

wexie wrote: »

What's the logic behind that then?

We would need a "tunnel" through time kept open at both ends (by some sort of exotic means), so the ability to keep the tunnel open must be there at both ends/times.
Think of a large passenger jet, you can't just fly to a random spot in a 747 because you need a runway first in order to land.

LordSutch

"The past is another country" 1987 is just the Isle of Wight

Classic time travel into the past scene from Doctor Who (Fathers Day) with Christopher Ecclescakes as the doctor.

Time and Relative Dimension in Space

wendell borton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R6xCWcf_VU

evolving_doors

Rubeter wrote: »

According to the ole theoretics you wouldn't be able to go back to before the time machine was invented, so we won't be seeing any visitors from the future till the day we turn one on, then the fun should start.

Thats so true, a time machine has yet to be built...and funnily enough I haven't seen one from the future either!

evolving_doors

Rubeter wrote: »

According to the ole theoretics you wouldn't be able to go back to before the time machine was invented, so we won't be seeing any visitors from the future till the day we turn one on, then the fun should start.

Thats so true, a time machine has yet to be built...and funnily enough I haven't seen one from the future either!

kneemos

How can we build a time machine in the future if we don't exist yet in the future?

YellowFeather

kneemos wrote: »

The future hasn't happened yet.

Maybe I'll invent one in twenty years.

Yeah, but if you invent one in twenty years and then then travel back twenty one years and tell us all about it, we'd already know - even though it hasn't happened yet.







Or something.

kneemos

YellowFeather wrote: »

Yeah, but if you invent one in twenty years and then then travel back twenty one years and tell us all about it, we'd already know - even though it hasn't happened yet.







Or something.

But nobody can travel back then as it hasn't been invented yet?

YellowFeather

kneemos wrote: »

But nobody can travel back then as it hasn't been invented yet?

Well, either:

1. you can travel back, but time is set so you won't actually be changing anything;
2. you can "time travel back through the multiverse";
3. you can CHANGE THE PAST :eek:;
4. ya can't be time travelling backwards yo.

Or possibly some other ones that I missed!

RossieMan

it's too early for this.