Thread: Time Machine

hm... I guess if there really was a beginning of time, then you would just disappear, but I don't think there was a beginning. I think existence is just kind of like a circle, which has no beginning or end.

but hey, no one really knows, do they? you can't exactly prove it.

thats interesting....
Do you think we could go back in time to witness the Big Bang/God creating Earth/or whatever your creation theory is?

You can't go back in time, so this is null and void.

Forward, on the other hand, to AFTER the universe ends... Hmmph.

You don't know that there isnt some way to go back in time.

Yes he does: Time can only move in one direction, and is affected by velocity, so the faster you more, the faster time passes, so you could go forward, but not backward.

At that same rate you could also slow down so much that time seems to stop moving.

how slow would you have to be going to "stop" time?

No speed at all.

Which is , of course, impossible to attain in a universe like ours which is expanding in every direction.

ah.
thanks for clarifying.

Sure thing

I'm sure this sounds stupid....
but is that how cryogenics works?
(not sure i spelled that right)

No, cryogenics is containment by freezing. Usually liquid nitrogen.

oh.
well...i feel smart now!!!........

Originally Posted by Seismosaur

Yes he does: Time can only move in one direction, and is affected by velocity, so the faster you more, the faster time passes, so you could go forward, but not backward.

At that same rate you could also slow down so much that time seems to stop moving.

I love it when bratty little 15 year olds are so smug about subjects they really know nothing about. Time travel is still very much a possibility according to modern theoretical physics, and you would do well to do some research before making such confident assertions.

suggested search queries;
Alcubierre metric
Traversable wormholes
closed timelike curves


The best way to be proven wrong in the the realm of the physical sciences is to say that something cannot be done.

If there was a begining, before that there would be no existence. Without time there is no space. No space for a 15 year old Dr. Who wanna be.

Originally Posted by Xaqaria

I love it when bratty little 15 year olds are so smug about subjects they really know nothing about. Time travel is still very much a possibility according to modern theoretical physics, and you would do well to do some research before making such confident assertions.

suggested search queries;
Alcubierre metric
Traversable wormholes
closed timelike curves


The best way to be proven wrong in the the realm of the physical sciences is to say that something cannot be done.

I may be bratty but I'm not fifteen.

Time travel backwards is impossible because there's no possible way it can happen, according to the laws of the universe. Spacetime -both defined and ever expanding at a continuous rate- would not allow it to happen. These are things that can be proven, and are not just experimental... To a degree, anyways.

Space and time are not independent. If you ask someone to meet you somewhere, they say, "What time?" and if you ask someone to meet you at three o' clock, they say, "Where?"

The same applies to time travel forwards: If you travel to a point at fifty miles per hour, you would get there faster then going at twenty. If we can get fast enough then it will seem as if we are traveling in time, eg, one year for you is one hundred for Earth.

However! Stopping is as slow as you can get. Reversing wouldn't effect time since you are simply getting back to your starting point: And still moving.

I may be bratty but I'm not fifteen.

Get a physics degree or go away.

Time travel backwards is impossible because there's no possible way it can happen,

worm hole

Spacetime -both defined and ever expanding at a continuous rate- would not allow it to happen.

Have you got a degree in physics, I think not.

If we can get fast enough then it will seem as if we are traveling in time, eg, one year for you is one hundred for Earth.

Einstein would be crying now if he read this,

However! Stopping is as slow as you can get. Reversing wouldn't effect time since you are simply getting back to your starting point: And still moving.

I wish people who knew nothing about physics, would shut up and admit they know jack. Seriously, every kid who can access wikipedia acts like he has a degree in theorticle physics. I'm the first to admit I don't understand much of modern physics, since I have not studied it at Uni.

Reading popular science books, is not good training in physics.

Originally Posted by wendylove

Get a physics degree or go away.

worm hole

Have you got a degree in physics, I think not.

Einstein would be crying now if he read this,


I wish people who knew nothing about physics, would shut up and admit they know jack. Seriously, every kid who can access wikipedia acts like he has a degree in theorticle physics. I'm the first to admit I don't understand much of modern physics, since I have not studied it at Uni.

Reading popular science books, is not good training in physics.

Einstein would be crying, mostly because he believed in a steady state universe that has always existed and will never end. We have since proved him wrong and used his own science to prove him wrong.

I don't need a degree in physics, young man, only a rudimentary understanding of physics gained from a common schooling.

Reading popular science books goes the same for you: Wormholes are theoretical. We don't know if they exist, but if they do, you would die before you get out.

I go one minute back in time and shoot myself before I go back in time, ohmigawd.

Easymode solution: Travelling back in time is not possible.

Hardmode solution: The time I travel back to is another instance. What happens there does not affect the future that I know. This is because time is a line, and going back and affecting one part of the line, doesn't affect other parts of the line, it spawns a new line going out from where I affected the line, thus a timeline forking into 2.

This is however based on hypothetical thinking, and does, even to me, look indredibly stupid. I believe that travelling back in time is not possible. However, travelling forth in time certainly is, we've even proven it.

Originally Posted by Xaqaria

I love it when bratty little 15 year olds are so smug about subjects they really know nothing about. Time travel is still very much a possibility according to modern theoretical physics, and you would do well to do some research before making such confident assertions.

suggested search queries;
Alcubierre metric
Traversable wormholes
closed timelike curves


The best way to be proven wrong in the the realm of the physical sciences is to say that something cannot be done.

And multiple spacial dimensions are a possiblity mathematically but there is still nothing to suggest that they really exist now is there?

Originally Posted by Seismosaur

And multiple spacial dimensions are a possiblity mathematically but there is still nothing to suggest that they really exist now is there?

There is evidence that you can go ahead of time but not backwards.

Anyways even light couldn't survive in the first seconds of the big bang.

Originally Posted by Dreamworld

There is evidence that you can go ahead of time but not backwards.

Anyways even light couldn't survive in the first seconds of the big bang.

That's what I said.

I also believe that time travel backwards is impossible, however with time dilation, you can travel forwards, or even slow time down. If you were traveling at speeds close to the speed of light, one year for you could be 100 years for an observer on earth (traveling forwards in time). To slow down time, you would have to decrease your speed when compared to the motion of Earth through the Universe. In that case, it is more like the earth is traveling forwards in time, resulting in an hour on earth, to be 10 hours for you (depending on the speeds).
That brings up the question, would time in a universally stationary reference frame even exist? If you were somewhere in the universe, not moving at all with respect to everything else, you could seem to exist for only the blink of an eye to an observer on a planet. If you were not moving at all, 100 years for you could seem like 0 seconds to someone on an astral body moving through space at relativistic speeds. Although for you, you would have lived your entire life.

Closed timelike curves are a possibility raised by some guys about 50 years ago, that imply a theoretical possibility of making a time machine. Whether or not it is possible remains disputed.

The Alcubierre metric is just a theoretic concept. It is an interesting one, but many aspects of rely on other theoretical concepts as well, such as exotic matter moving at locally faster than light speeds.

Traversable wormholes are also theoretical concepts which require negative mass, or exotic matter, which may or may not exist, depending on what you believe. Or you'd have to move one end of the wormhole at relativistic speeds (sounds easy). Also another interesting theory, but unlikely to be used for time travel.

With those in mind, I would like to propose my own theory: just use magic to travel through time

Imagine: you log the whole of your brain's activity throughout your entire life using a computer. You then use the computer to emulate this brain activity, and 'play' it back. Presumably there is somebody 'inside' the computer, consciously experiencing your whole life.

Question: what if you play the log backwards?

Imagine: you log the whole of your brain's activity throughout your entire life using a computer. You then use the computer to emulate this brain activity, and 'play' it back. Presumably there is somebody 'inside' the computer, consciously experiencing your whole life.

Imagine if it's your brain activity it could be you consciously experiencing.

Question: what if you play the log backwards?

How do you play the log backwards? You reverse the way you think.