Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

I think if it is ever invented the first persons head will explode due to the sheer impossibility of what just happened. Its like trying to think of whats at the other side of the end of the galaxy. Its just not possible

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

Weren't there various theories out a while ago - one being that only time travel forwards is possible?
Also wasn't there one that said they'd only be able to travel back as far as when the time machine was created?

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

Ok. Just to get a few things straight.

Time travel is not impossible, but it is impossible to go back in time and do any damage.

Let's take the Back to the Future example.

Marty goes back in time, stops his parents falling in love, stops them having him, and therefore stops himself being born.

Not possible.

If he had never been born he couldn't go back in time, therfore his parents would still have met, therefore he would have been born.

So, what can we sumise? Well.....

If someone goes back in time to 1950 and changes something it won't alter anything in their current (future) timeline. Why not? Easy, in their original (future) time 1950 has already happened, along with all of the things that they supposedly went back and changed. The version of time they are living in in the future has already been affected by the consequences of their time travel.
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So, what about time travel into the future then?

Again, a fairly easy thing to work out.

Travel into the future is possible. The problem is that the future you arrive in will only be the future as it would have been at the time you set off.

Every decision we make, every action we take, directly influences our future (and, to a limited degree, the future of the world generally). The second you come back to your own time you have already begun to change the future that you saw.

Unlike travel into the past, the future has not happened yet (duh) and is therefore flexible.

It should be possible to craft your future in any way that you see fit. Unfortunately you cannot rely on any knowledge you gain from travelling into the future time to be accurate as it will begin changing the moment you arrive back in your own timeline.

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

That makes a bit more sense. The second it happens though time becomes totally different. At the moment time is an absolute. It is so solid. If that becomes changeable then all sort of wacky fun-filled mis-adventures could take place.

It means any time can be accessed up to the end of the world, also all tech will be the same across the time zones (tech from the future brought back). Same with everything else. Time will simply become an extension of area instead of a measurement of movement. People could move back and forth at will, you could get a job in 2967 and come back home to 2309. No difference. History (or the future) will become absolute as it will already be known about. People born in 3000 could marry someone from 2045. And they would have lived the same amount of years.

You wouldnt have a birthday as you could happy work before the date of you birth and after the date of your death. So time as a measurement will become useless. The only thing it would be used for is a extension of area and to measure the age of someone. So the fabric of time as a forward moving object would be over, and millions of years will act as one single moment. Not actually possible as the end of the world will have to happen (time will still work in the fact that the sun will age) so the secound you make time that single moment the world ends.

Invent time travel = instant death

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

The danger with travelling into the future is that it doesn't actually exist.

From a purely technical point of view, the only time that actually exists is here and now. Anything else is simply speculation. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that there is no future - only a passing of time. If this speculation was to be born out you could easily find yourself travelling forward (or so you think) when in fact you simply cease to exist.

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

Think of time like a switch... If we take your original example of a person discovering that a plane crash was about to happen and tries to prevent it.

Well, the more that person tries to prevent the plane from crashing the more he affects the future time line, in which case the person who came back to prevent the plane crash never came in the first place and thefore the crash happened anyway bacuase he was unable to prevent it.

Why? What actually happens is that the person who comes back to try to prevent the crash from happening starts to forget about the crash the more he tries to prevent it form happening and therefore the crash still happens but the traveller is none the wiser as he has already forgot all about it.

Which probably means he's standing around somewhere right now wondering what the hell he's doing.

You do get that feeling too sometimes dont you - you know - what he hell did i come in this room for etc...

Thats because you were going to prevent something from happenign that you had been warned about - but forgot all about it and it happened anyway.

Tara!

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

but then you remember. DaJa vu is the only thing that suits that idea

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

I adjusted my method of travel for clarity... :D, but your right though - Deja Vu is simply when the plane crashes twice but even though you forgot about it happening the first time you kind off remember somewhere in the back of your mind but it dosent fit because you went back to stop it happening.

Where this really gets screwed up is when, ignoring DeJa Vu the traveller goes back for a second time to try to stop the plane crashing and forgets again - this is known as the Theory of the Mobius - a twist in the fabric of space - where time becomes a loop, where time becomes a loop, where time becomes a loop... :p:


(I've always wanted to be able to do that!)

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

but then you remember. DaJa vu is the only thing that suits that idea
but then you remember. DaJa vu is the only thing that suits that idea
but then you remember. DaJa vu is the only thing that suits that idea

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

Haven't we discussed this before?

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

I knew you were going to say that.....

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

Is that why chavs have such a vacant look on their faces ?

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

That would mean that Chavs are time travellers.

As time travel won't be possible until the future, that would suggest that Chavs are the next evolutionary stage of the human race.....


Oh dear God, Noooooooooooooo!!

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

BTW Raistlin, slightly OT, but did you at any stage in the last week raise your right hand? Because i've been trying all week and i think if you did ever raise your right hand it was probably me that did it.

I just wanted to know if i managed to get you to do it...

Re: Time Travel - should we?
 

Not last week, sorry.

If it helps at all, you do manage to get me to raise my right hand next week. ;)