Thread: Proving The Impossibility Of Time Travel

Speaking of going back in time...

Cast reanimation...

Rolls a twenty...

Successful Necro attempt!

I don't care that this thread is old. I'm going to disprove it anyway.

Okay so; We can all agree that it is possible to dilate time in such a way that one can travel through time into the future at an accelerated rate. This has been proven, and can be accomplished by simply going faster than your reference point (usually earth).

Once you make that agreement though, you've already agreed that it is possible to travel backwards in time as well. Why? Because speed, time, and space are all relative. From your perspective in this scenario, you compared to earth are traveling forward in time. From Earth's perspective (compared to you), however, Earth is traveling backwards in time to you.

I realize that this isn't how most people think about the issue, but this line of reasoning opens doors. Everyone says backwards time travel is physically impossible, but I've easily disproven that basic statement. Once you realize that, it becomes easier to accept that a specific individual might possibly be able to travel into Earth's past, which is what everyone is really talking about.

Except that earth's merely travelling slower in time rather than going backward.

At near C speeds, time dilates considerably. All this means is that time moves slower, but never backwards. You can't simply change the direction and somehow be travelling back in time.

So if person A goes on a ship and travels for a year at near C speeds, whilst person B remains on Earth, when person A returns from the said journey and is compared with person B, person A would have aged less than person B. That is the essence of time dilation. Note, time does not reverse.

Originally Posted by bluefinger

At near C speeds, time dilates considerably. All this means is that time moves slower, but never backwards. You can't simply change the direction and somehow be travelling back in time.

So if person A goes on a ship and travels for a year at near C speeds, whilst person B remains on Earth, when person A returns from the said journey and is compared with person B, person A would have aged less than person B. That is the essence of time dilation. Note, time does not reverse.

I never understood how going really fast can change how you experience time. I can't get my head around it.

I never understood how going really fast can change how you experience time. I can't get my head around it.

Experience of time doesn't change, it has nothing to do with perception or the mind. Its to do with the fact that the frame of reference is different. Basically, its too do with the fact that things can't move faster then the speed of light and that there is not one frame of reference.

Also, experience of time is caused by the entrophy, its a different thing.

Originally Posted by bluefinger

At near C speeds, time dilates considerably. All this means is that time moves slower, but never backwards. You can't simply change the direction and somehow be travelling back in time.

So if person A goes on a ship and travels for a year at near C speeds, whilst person B remains on Earth, when person A returns from the said journey and is compared with person B, person A would have aged less than person B. That is the essence of time dilation. Note, time does not reverse.

Their is no direction of time, just as there is no intrinsic direction of space. There is only position in relation to something else, in both time and space. If one thing is to move forward in time from the reference point of something else, then the 'something else' has to move 'backward in time from the reference point of the 'one thing'.

There is a direction of time, because the macroscopic world is clearly not time symmetric.

Take for example; expansion of universe; laws of thermodynamics (free energy decreases with respects to time); human perception.

Once you make that agreement though, you've already agreed that it is possible to travel backwards in time as well. Why? Because speed, time, and space are all relative. From your perspective in this scenario, you compared to earth are traveling forward in time. From Earth's perspective (compared to you), however, Earth is traveling backwards in time to you.

This really doesn't make much sense. There are two perspectives. From your perspective, Earth will be travelling forwards in time faster than usual (years and the events in them will occur faster, etectera). From Earth's perspective, you will be travelling forwards in time slower than usual (you will age slower, etcetera). However you can never move so fast people on Earth percieve you to be ageing 'so slowly' that you're actually going back in time.