Time travellers from the future 'could be here in weeks' - Page 2

ikthius · 11-02-2008, 10:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jefferson T

The effect is not limited to riding in concorde. (See here)

that made perfect sense

11-02-2008, 11:00

Time is purely a human invention due to our mortal existence and everything we perceive having a beginning and an end of course the opposite is true time as we know it is infinite both past and future as is distance its just because we are born live then die we have no way of grasping infinity. As for time travel and paradoxes we could be in one as we speak we would not know. If something was changed we would have no conscience knowledge of it. Germany may well have won WWII but someone from the future may have traveled back in time and constantly spiked Hitlers drinks with LSD for all we know

handyman · 11-02-2008, 11:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by jem

Actually it's the opposite way round. Time travel into the future is not only real but many many people do it every day. Fly across the Atlantic and because you are further away from the gravitational pull of the Earth, for you time runs slightly slower compared to someone on the surface. When you arrive, in a very real sense, you have travelled a tiny fraction of a second into the future. Do the same thing around a neutron star and for you a few minutes might have passed but when you return to Earth, you could find yourself millions of years in the future with no way back.

Theroretically there is nothing forbidding time travel into the past but doing so can potentially cause so many paradoxes that many physicists believe that there will be some as-yet unexplained mechanism which will prevent it.

Are we getting closer to the sun? If so would an object with that mass be able to speed up time as we got closer to it? I'm sure at some part of the orbit we must be closer than others?

dilli-theclaw · 11-02-2008, 12:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikthius

that made perfect sense

I didn't say it was easy

TheNorm · 11-02-2008, 12:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by jem

... Fly across the Atlantic and because you are further away from the gravitational pull of the Earth, for you time runs slightly slower compared to someone on the surface. ....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jefferson T

The effect is not limited to riding in concorde. (See here)...

Why was there a greater difference going in one direction rather than the other?

KaySquirrel · 11-02-2008, 13:33

Okay I'm not doing the fancy quote-a-dozen-people thing. In point form:

- If you're going to write a serious article about time travel and have a pic of the delorian in it, I'm sorry but your target audience is most likely at a higher level of maturity than I am.

- The comment made about wombles vs. wormholes did not help me re-read the article in a serious manner. For which I thank you.

- I'm not entirely sure on the details of the Twins Paradox, but there's a smutty comment to be made about that in there somewhere.

Ever since I read A Wrinkle In Time as a child I've hoped that time travel would one day be possible and perhaps even commonplace.

But realistically? I won't see it in my lifetime. Which is a shame, because I am curious about a few things. If you want your hubby to bring home milk & eggs, does he run to the future and grab a cow and a chicken?

Edited to add: I don't want it to become 'Year Zero', I've only just gotten used to writing 2008..

TheNorm · 11-02-2008, 13:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by KaySquirrel

... Ever since I read A Wrinkle In Time ...

A most excellent book! I loved it so much I read it from cover to cover in a day - not bad a for a pre-teen. Now that I am (much) older the title has taken on a different meaning.

Quote:

.... If you want your hubby to bring home milk & eggs, does he run to the future and grab a cow and a chicken?

....

That is such an irritating cartoon. Almost as bad as Ed, Edd and Eddy.

mentalis · 11-02-2008, 13:58

If someone did travel back from the future, would you believe them? Especially if it's like the Terminator where only living organisms can travel - they wouldn't easily be able to prove it.

bw41101 · 11-02-2008, 14:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Incognitas

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/mai...scitime106.xml

Yeah of course they will...

Well having read the technical details all I can say is that it's doomed to failure, why? because there is absolutely no mention of the device which is so (integrally) fundamental to the design of a time travelling machine, namely: the Flux Capacitor.

Sigh.......................!

Pierre · 11-02-2008, 14:12

The mistake you are all making is assuming that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff.

So there.

handyman · 11-02-2008, 14:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheNorm

Why was there a greater difference going in one direction rather than the other?

Could be 2 things.

1. There are Atlantic air flows that can increase the air speed if you are travelling with them as opposed to against them.

2. On way you will be flying with the earths rotation (back?) and another the earth will be rotating towards you. Theoretically you could go up and stay in the same place and the earth would do all the moving. That would make for a longer flight though.

KaySquirrel · 11-02-2008, 14:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by mentalis

If someone did travel back from the future, would you believe them? Especially if it's like the Terminator where only living organisms can travel - they wouldn't easily be able to prove it.

Of course no one would believe them. The first wave of time-travellers would not only have to deal with the technical details of time-travel, they would also be treated as if they were mentally ill.

**Maggy** · 11-02-2008, 15:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

Time is purely a human invention due to our mortal existence and everything we perceive having a beginning and an end of course the opposite is true time as we know it is infinite both past and future as is distance its just because we are born live then die we have no way of grasping infinity. As for time travel and paradoxes we could be in one as we speak we would not know. If something was changed we would have no conscience knowledge of it. Germany may well have won WWII but someone from the future may have traveled back in time and constantly spiked Hitlers drinks with LSD for all we know

Scary thought zingy..scary thought.

Saaf_laandon_mo · 11-02-2008, 17:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by KaySquirrel

Of course no one would believe them. The first wave of time-travellers would not only have to deal with the technical details of time-travel, they would also be treated as if they were mentally ill.

I think if they came 'back' with some physical examples of great advances in technology/science then they might attract some interest or curiosity before being thrown in the local 'nut house.'

cookie_365 · 11-02-2008, 19:05

Er, assuming time travel was possible, why can't you travel back further than when time travel was first invented?

If you fly to America, the plane doesn't drop out of the sky when you get to Ohio (where the Wright Brothers made the first powered flight).

That sounds more like a movie plot device to me