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Is Time Travel Possible? »
Posted by: capn_caveman 1 year, 10 months agoNot all scientists agree but according to Einstein and quantum theory, time travel could be possible.
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Comments: 40
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geographer47
Nov. 12, 2006, 10:12 p.m.No one has proved that it's impossible; that gets us part of the way.
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deathray
Nov. 13, 2006, 8:37 a.m.There are some string theorists who believe that time is not an immutable part of the fabric of the universe, so if it is mutable, it can be tampered with.
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Maldovar
Nov. 13, 2006, 9:27 a.m.Einstein proved that the closer to the speed of light we move, the slower time is relative to us. It's been proven by atomic clocks in orbit around the earth, which were off by just microseconds after spending time up there moving faster than the ones on earth. The problem is, that in order to travel back in time you would have to surpass the speed of light, which is impossible for anything with mass. As anything speeds up its density increases, to the point where when you reach the speed of light you would basically have infinite density.
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deathray
Nov. 13, 2006, 11:09 a.m.I think you are referring to time dilation and both the special and genereal theories of relativity have a take omn that:
Time dilation is the phenomenon whereby an observer finds that another's clock which is physically identical to their own is ticking at a slower rate as measured by their own clock. This is often taken to mean that time has "slowed down" for the other clock, but that is only true in the context of the observer's frame of reference. Locally, time is always passing at the same rate. The time dilation phenomenon applies to any process that manifests change over time.
In Albert Einstein's theories of relativity time dilation is manifested in two circumstances:
In special relativity, clocks that are moving with respect to an inertial system of observation (the putatively stationary observer) are found to be running slower. This effect is described precisely by the Lorentz transformations.
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deathray
Nov. 13, 2006, 11:10 a.m.In general relativity, clocks at lower potentials in a gravitational field-- such as in close proximity to a planet --are found to be running slower. This gravitational time dilation is only briefly mentioned in this article but is described elsewhere (see also gravitational red shift).
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deathray
Nov. 13, 2006, 11:11 a.m.See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation for further information...
but I believe we are not talking about one way time travel, into the future. Two way time travel requires a different sort of physics altogether.
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Taganan
Nov. 13, 2006, 10:12 a.m.Some particles, which have density, apparently do move faster than light. If they had infinite density, then they would absorb the universe.
Either you can travel in time and have no effect on the past, only observe or you can change the past, thereby changing the present [see "The Technicolor Time Machine", "Paratime Police"]. Or every change creates a parallel universe[see "Sliders"]. Then there is the paradox problem, step on a Jurassic butterfly and return to a world of Neaderthals.
The problem is we would never know if such a thing were to happen unless an anachronism occurred. A person killed by a weapon obviously not of the right time or some advanced artifact left behind where it doesn't belong. In that case the knowledge would cause another time trip to erase the anachronism and we would never know it. Therefore we can never know if people from the future have visited, all traces would have been erased.
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DeadHead13
Nov. 13, 2006, 3:10 p.m.I think you are confusing the philisophical concept of a human-being actually traveling back to a point in time on Earth, with the quantum mechanics model of the subatomic universe that seems to be not restrained by the limitations of time. Two very different things.
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contrast
Nov. 13, 2006, 10:23 a.m.time and space are relevant so I guess moving space would in turn move time?
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ListenUP
Nov. 13, 2006, 1:04 p.m.Proof we have people from the past who have travelled to our time: Conservatives
Proof that there are infinitely dense substances :
Georg W's brain
Btw, I have personally travelled to the past and it was a total been-there-done-that experience for me.
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FreeToThink
Nov. 13, 2006, 1:35 p.m.Yes we travel thru time every day we just cant manulipate it as yet. I hope time travel will be possible some day but it's just like stem cell research we have the power to alter the natural order of things. Just my observations. Have a nice day....
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evemo
Nov. 13, 2006, 1:47 p.m.Yes it is possible and my brother, Dr. Ronald L. Mallett is the leader in time travel research. This link will take you to a page about him: http://www.walterzeichner.com/thezfiles/timetravel.html
He also just published a book called "Time Travler" which is available at Amazon.com or most major book stores. Check it out!
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Mulder
Nov. 13, 2006, 1:53 p.m.Or you can check out this book.
The Philosophy of Time Travel, a book written by Roberta Sparrow.
Signed,
Donnie Darko
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evemo
Nov. 13, 2006, 3:35 p.m.Trust me Donny Darko, Prof. Mallett is the leader in this field. They have done programs about his work on the Learning Channel and Discovery channel. Not to mention numerous articles in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Rolling Stone and science journals. Check it out!
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edromar2
Nov. 13, 2006, 2:24 p.m.The problem with killing your own grandmother by traveling in time is not just that your will not be born, but that you will not even likly get a chance to met her. For the effects of causes you set in motion well before you get to see her will have already so altered the universe from what the universe would have been without time travel will have already ceased beyond regognition. Existence is the ralization of all the various aspects of the logically infinite possibilities. Logic not only binds space and time but is bound by it. Only infinity limits existence and as it is un limited, neither is existence in its infinit possibilities.
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ind06
Nov. 13, 2006, 3:36 p.m.The idea of going back in time to avert a crisis contains within itself a logical paradox.
Say you want to stop World War II, so you hop in your time machine and zip back and do whatever thing or things need to be done and ta-da! No more World War II. Except NOW there is no World War II to get you to go back in time to stop it, so you don't and da-ta! World War II again.
You cannot fix any problem of the past without running into this paradox, the best you can do is make the problems less severe, while maintaining enough of a level of severeity to assure you'll still go back to fix things.
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geographer47
Nov. 13, 2006, 5:37 p.m.Do you really want to go back and do it over? How about the fountain of youth or the tree of life?
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Christalline
Nov. 13, 2006, 4:49 p.m.Ind I have often looked at it that way as well. But somewhere along the way we have to believe it is possible to take the trip. Prophets of old took this trip, not backwards, yet forward, to catch glimpses of the future (if you believe seeing the future is possible). Does that mean that man in energy form can make this trip, leaving his solid mass behind for brief moments? And if you believe in a spiritual plane of existence, can these beings existing on those planes make this trip, as they are not confined by the laws of manmade physics in our plane? I guess what I am getting at, just because we as humans can not do it yet, does not make it impossible, but maybe we will have to make an evolutionary step before we can figure it out =
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ind06
Nov. 13, 2006, 5:36 p.m.Christaline: The paradox I brought up has no effect on travelling to the future.
My only problem with travelling to the future, in physical or spiritual form, is that to travel there it has to exist. Prophecy negates the concept of free will since for a person to have seen the future means it must be so.
People will say that just because so-and-so predicted the end of mankind on such-and-such a date, does not mean that it HAS to be that way, but if it's been seen it does have to be that way. If not, then the person has only seen one of an infinitude of possible futures and might as well be pulling their prophetic visions out of a hat.
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ind06
Nov. 14, 2006, 3:30 a.m.Seeing into the past is not the same as taking action upon it. The paradox does not stop you from viewing the past, only from changing it to any great degree.
Anyway, if you want to see into the past, why bother with all the fancy sci-fi rigamarole when you can just pick up a book?
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ohohohandrewishott
Feb. 21, 2007, 2:27 p.m.totes........ believe it is vary possible....i wanna time travel...meh
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history-ferret
March 15, 2007, 11:40 p.m.YES. TIME TRAVEL IS POSSIBLE.
How? By creating Time Loop's.
God exist's outside of Time by creating Time Loop's.
His END is his BEGINNING. HOW? Two Triangle's in a Circle.
There are three weak point's in this Time Machine, and three stronge points in this Time Machine of Triangles and Circle. You cut off paradoxes by not interfering with the Pass, you are to be an observant of the Pass, do not try to change it. If you do make changes you will alter the Future's of mankind.
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capn_caveman
I'm an engineer that loves 'anything' science. I'm interested in physics, astronomy, space exploration, Earth sciences, and mathematics to name just a few ...
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