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Time Travel

Kevin

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We're actually closer to traveling back in time than to traveling the speed of light.
I've never actually looked into time travel that much since a few years back, but that is definitely interesting. Going faster than the speed of light does seem like a daunting task and if infinite energy is needed to power that speed, I guess it won't be happening anytime soon. I just looked up Mallett and he seems to have a good reason for wanting a time machine, interesting indeed.

Sorry I haven't read through the entire thread, but has anyone discussed the idea of paradoxes and how they could be big problems/resolved if traveling back in time ever were to succeed? The idea of just breathing in air changing a huge part of the future is a concept I find pretty interesting.
 

manhunter098

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I would put my money on the fact that the past is the past and we definitely cannot travel to it, if it even really still exists per se. And I dont think we can travel into the future with conventional means, all we can do really is use relativity to slow down time relative to the perspective of our matter and use that as a means to travel into the future (even though your really still just in the present).
 

Vorguen

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Yeah I believe something like what happened in the movie Idiocracy to be possible.

It was something like freezing your bodies for many years then waking up in the future and your body will not have aged almost anything, so you can go many years into the future you normally could not have lived to.
 

Frown

poekmon
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I've never actually looked into time travel that much since a few years back, but that is definitely interesting. Going faster than the speed of light does seem like a daunting task and if infinite energy is needed to power that speed, I guess it won't be happening anytime soon. I just looked up Mallett and he seems to have a good reason for wanting a time machine, interesting indeed.

Sorry I haven't read through the entire thread, but has anyone discussed the idea of paradoxes and how they could be big problems/resolved if traveling back in time ever were to succeed? The idea of just breathing in air changing a huge part of the future is a concept I find pretty interesting.
Travelling at the speed of light won't happen. Travelling at 0.9 times the speed of light might happen. Just like you said, infinite energy is required to move matter at 1 C.
 

Lazlo Falconi

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Cartoon Hell
The basic concept is that all things are relative to the observer. It explains why time seems to slow down as you reach lightspeed.
 

Nintendood

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Sep 25, 2008
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61
doubt it. if so, someone would have gone back and admitted Adolf Hitler into art school.
 

Azua

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You know, if people would stop fantasizing about "what if" regarding past events and start trying to do better things for the world, we wouldn't need things like time travel.
 

jber4life

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So let's stop "What if'ing" about the past and start "What If'ing" about the future. Where Time Travel is pointless.

However, i think time travel would be awesome, but impossible.
 

Ryan Ludovic

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
217
America will find some way to **** it up. Just wait.
"WE WAGE WAR, ON THE YEAR 2024!!"

"Uh, question.. Ysee, my grandfather was born in 2026.. and--?"

"AND WHAT?"

"Well, you know.. I don't want to not exist.. and such.."

"WELL YOU ARE EXISTING NOW, SO ALL IS WELL, KRIEG!"
 

Mazaloth

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Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Messages
759
You know, if people would stop fantasizing about "what if" regarding past events and start trying to do better things for the world, we wouldn't need things like time travel.
So let's stop "What if'ing" about the past and start "What If'ing" about the future. Where Time Travel is pointless.

However, i think time travel would be awesome, but impossible.
Honestly, this thread isn't talking about time travel for a solution to any problem, but rather talking about time travel in general.

Azua, you are correct, but who says that we aren't trying to help the world?

Jber we are time travel can refer time travel towards the future, not only in the past.
 

Azua

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I'm just saying, our attempts to 'help' the world via time travel will likely do more damage to it.
 

SuperRacoon

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It's a Secret to Everybody!
I present to you TIME TRAVEL At the risk of getting an infraction for minor spam



Users have the ability to move freely between seven years and the ability to repeat up to 3 days as many times as they need to. [/joke]

Seriously, is there even a definitive definition of time? Perhaps it is only an illusion perceived by humans to make sense of motion and change. Thus, to go back in time, you must move all the matter and energy to fit an exact configuration, how could that possibly happen?
 

Azua

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Pff, I wouldn't infract you for that, it's actually somewhat relevant to the topic!

[unlike this post]




Actually, time isn't an illusion, either lol
 

Takumaru

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Muncie, IN
You don't need to go back in time for that, Azua. Just embrace the present! The past and future mean little without the present! That's all that matters! Oh, and abuse the gaydar, it helps a lot.
 

dawgbowl

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I'd go back in time to stop halo from ever existing, what a terrible shooting game (can you call it a shooter? I call it failure. Half Life/Counterstrike/TFC/ DO IT)

Ahem, I've already gone back in time. For you see, Darren Hayes wrote a song on his newest album "how to build a time machine" and well... I followed it and it worked surprisingly well.
-----------------
If I have understood correctly,
Velocity equals the distance traveled divided by time,
I've read every word ever printed,
on quantuam physics,
and now it is time to try.

I read your book,
I found your notes,
I dusted this thing off and turned on the key,
The rumbling motors, the buzzing,
incredible gadgets the hissing electricity...

and now the moment has come, we're traveling back in time.
----------

I followed that, the problem was it only goes back on your past and makes you feel really bad watching yourself when you were 5 years old.

(Completely on topic, now)

I would go back to the time of the dino lizards if I had time traveling powers. For obvious reasons, to ride a dinosaur.
 

Vorguen

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I agree with Azua if we COULD go to the past (if it was possible but not yet accessible) I would hope we never figure it out because I believe things can get severely messed up.





Edit: speaking even terrorist wise, what if it became accessible to terrorists, what is to say they can't time travel with modern weapons and wipe out say a country ... USA for arguments sake... during colonial times before it had a chance to grow into what it now is.
 

Mic_128

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Also Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is a completely accurate representation of how time travel works.
Exactly. Same with Back to the Future.

Though the explanation of an alternate timeline from that is a pretty decent (if basic) explanation, imo.
 

Ryan Ludovic

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Dec 29, 2008
Messages
217
Don't wanna sound obnoxious in any way, but here i go.

In the current theories available, if they are at all accurate, then time travel is possible. There are, in accepted theories, more than three dimensions, one of which being time. Just setting some global understanding variables, moving along--

A common missconception is that everything in life, is one straight line. If you go 'back in time' and change something, well then everything in life will be changed. If i go back in time, and bludgeon my neighbors dad with a bat at his age of 3, then my neighbor will not exist, and I would have changed history. What is not too commonly considered, is what a ten dimensional theory explains regarding this.. This would create an entire new branch of time, with entire new set of chances or events. Every single moment in time, there is infinate choices for reality to take, relevent to everyone and everything everywhere, and this repeats every moment, ready to explode our time in another direction always. So if you go back in time, and 'change' something, this timeline will still carry on unaffected, while you are on a different timeline all together. Let me get more simplistic.


The first Three Dimensions:
Firstly, you have a length. A length, which may be quite obvious, defines the length of a given object.
Secondly, you have a width. This is what makes a 2D object a plane. Yes, annoying garbage you hear in geometry im sure.
When you add Depth, you now have a three dimensional object, such as ourselves. When you are 2D, you can only percieve the given two dimensions presented to you. A 3D Object may, unlike the 2D object, it may percieve 3 dimensions.

The following, in consideration of time travel

The next important dimension: Duration
Duration, is basically what we consider time. As mentioned earlier, Time is NOT a straight line, it is another dimension higher than the dimension we belong in. Like 2D objects could not properly percieve as observers the 3rd dimension, us 3 dimension creatures cannot percieve correctly as observers the 4th dimension, and so on. Thusly, we could not percieve time in it's pure form. Dimensions can be folded. Like you can fold a 3D object to manipulate its effects in a 2D enviornment, you can do the same with time. The issue, however, is that as 3D creatures, there are quite a lot of blindspots preventing this..

There are also interesting theories, such as Itzhak Bars' two time physics theories. These state that there is not one dimension of time, but infact, two. This is a theory I haven't the time to read up on, but hopefully it will prove to be an interesting read.


Google Itzhak Bars if you want more info on him or Two Time Physics since i have little to no info on that.

Google video, and youtube are very good sources to get documentaries on this information, ranging between 5 mintues and 3 hours each

There are also highly inspired acts such as the faint whose lyrics have creative and well thought out pieces such as:

Every time i move im in another dimension \ everything i do changes what i want
I see a choice I make explode in thousands of pieces \ Everytime I choose I become a shard

I can step outside, and walk in any direction \ Everything I chose erases ghosts of potential
But it makes new ghosts that i can fill \ i can only choose one as far as I can tell

And dr. steel, whom touches on different aspects on quantum physics


See you in the future! zooooooom
 

AltF4

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Exactly. Same with Back to the Future.

Though the explanation of an alternate timeline from that is a pretty decent (if basic) explanation, imo.
You're not being serious are you? Tell me you're joking. Back to the Future and Bill and Ted are the the perfect examples of how time travel does NOT work, lol.
 

GoldShadow

Marsilea quadrifolia
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AltF4, I respect you as a poster and a science person.

But I cannot and will not tolerate you dissing the Time Travel Gospel According to Bill and Ted (and to a Somewhat Lesser Extent, Back to the Future).

From this point on, consider us no longer on speaking terms :mad::mad::mad:
 

AltF4

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But what will happen to our secret plot to mis-inform the users of SWF about math and science?! Who will be my evil cohort? Who will stand by my side when our plans come to fruition and the evil robot army rises?! WHO?!
 

Mic_128

Wake up...
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You're not being serious are you? Tell me you're joking. Back to the Future and Bill and Ted are the the perfect examples of how time travel does NOT work, lol.
I was joking for the first sentence (Bill and Ted would have destroyed oh so much), though I do think that the Doc's explanation of Timelines skewing off to be pretty decent.
 

thanortinzak

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Jan 10, 2009
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Sacremento, CA
I don't think it's even possible. We only live in a 3-dimensional plane. There should never be a way to travel through the fourth.
We live in a 3-dimensional plane, but there ARE four dimensions. Why does everyone think it's impossible to travel through the fourth?

I'm sure one day it'll be possible.
 

GoldShadow

Marsilea quadrifolia
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But what will happen to our secret plot to mis-inform the users of SWF about math and science?! Who will be my evil cohort? Who will stand by my side when our plans come to fruition and the evil robot army rises?! WHO?!
I never wanted an evil robot army, but you just couldn't listen! I wanted to create an army of genetically enhanced superhuman clones that would use their superiority to enslave the planet!

We live in a 3-dimensional plane, but there ARE four dimensions. Why does everyone think it's impossible to travel through the fourth?

I'm sure one day it'll be possible.
It is possible. We're currently traveling through it as we speak.
 

AltF4

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Okay, everyone. Fine. I'll bite.


Yes. You can travel through time. I really mean that. You can, in many ways which I will explain a bit now. Time is a real thing. You can bend it, compress it, expand it, spin it into loops, and even break it.



Time Travel Method #1) This one is kind of boring. You're doing it right now. All matter has momentum moving through time. So you are traveling into the future as we speak. But this isn't really what people talk about with "time travel", so I'll move on.

Time Travel Method #2) Speeding up and slowing down time. One of the huge things that Einstein discovered was that the faster you travel, the more time slows down for you! Wave your hand. Right now. I'll wait...

...


Your hand is now a (very very) tiny amount YOUNGER than the rest of your body. This is because time had slowed down for it as it moved fast. This effect only becomes noticeable when you start going REALLY fast, however. If you were to hop into a spaceship and whiz around traveling at nearly the speed of light for a while, you could return back to Earth to find that a thousand years have past while you were gone.


Time Travel Method #3) Travel into the past. You cannot *poof* disappear from the present and reappear into the past. This violates locality and thus causality. It just cannot happen. But you can travel backwards however in time. Allow me to illustrate this:

Imagine time like a road, and you driving on this road in car. Suppose that you wanted to go back to somewhere behind you on the road. Can you just hop into some machine (or travel 88mph) and *poof* appear behind you? No. But you can put the car in reverse and travel backwards.

This happens in nature all the time, in fact! I'm sure you've all heard about how empty space isn't so "empty" right? That reportedly, particles and their respective anti-particles spring up out of nowhere, travel around a bit, then collide back into nothingness. This is only half the story!

What it really going on is that there is not two particles, but rather only one. One particle moves forward in time, reaches a certain point, then moves backward in time (a particle moving backward in time is called an antiparticle), only to reach the point at which it started originally.

But now I must confess that this is not actually like going in reverse in your car, but rather more like driving on a road that loops. To you, you're always moving forward. But you are moving forward TO somewhere you've already been, and is thus essentially traveling backward (if you see my meaning).

The obvious problem now is one of "Free Will". You see, when you go back in time in this manner, you are unable to change anything in the past. Why? Because it's already happened! It's called the Principle of Consistent Histories. Essentially it states something obvious: There can only be one past. The past determines the present. And since there is only one present, there can only be one past. You cannot change the past, it has already been determined.

So what would it feel like to travel into the past? Well it would kind of be like Terminator 3. *spoilers ahead* Because in the movie, the characters travel to the past to try to change it. But little do they know that what they are doing not changing it, but rather acting it out. They are unable to actually change anything.


Time Travel Method #4) This part isn't actually time travel, but I'll mention it. Some suggest that we might be able to travel to a different part of the universe (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "dimension") and that it will be in the "past". But of course this is nonsense.

If I built a copy of your bed room right now, waited 5 years, and then had you walk into this copy of your old bedroom, would it be time travel? Of course not. It may seem like it, and may for all intents and purposes act like it. But it's just an illusion.


I hope that helps. I would welcome questions.
 

Takumaru

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How to travel to the future:
Step 1) Take either benedryl, nyquil, or drink LOTS of alcohol.
Step 2) black out
Step 3) Wake up in the future!
 
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