Time travel

[rockytriton]

we are in a constant state of time travel, the only catch is that we travel at 1 second per second.

[Jay-qu]

we are in a constant state of time travel, the only catch is that we travel at 1 second per second.

 

how can you be sure, who is not to say that what we define as a second now was only half (or double) a 'second' at the begining of time. Also what do we really mean be this 2nd second? some sort of cosmological time?

[Eclogite]

There’s another time machine scheme that would be more versatile than a wormhole, and doesn’t require a step that nobody has a clear idea how to do. Check out The Tippler Machine.

As I recall travel to the past would be limited to times after the creation of the device. There would be no limits on travel to the future.

[CraigD]

As I recall travel to the past would be limited to times after the creation of the device. There would be no limits on travel to the future.

Correct. Also, you could not travel forward to a point after the cylinder has ceased to exist (eg: been destroyed, or its motion slowed)

 

The greatest problem with a Tippler Machine is that it’s quite likely it wouldn’t work. The principle it’s based upon is a naive application of General Relativity – a mathematical solution using that theory’s formalism, ignoring the problem of reconciling the continuous, classical gravity of GR with Quantum Mechanics (ie: gravitons, etc.) What Tippler was really saying is “if GR applies to this scenario, then causal violation – time travel can be produced. That’s a big “if”. Most folk with a decent understanding of both Quantum Mechanics and Relativity suspect that this formalism breaks down – ceases to make accurate prediction – when applied to extreme cases like the Tipler Machine’s.

 

In searching for info on the Tipler Machine (actually, looking for a copy of his paper "Rotating Cylinders and the Possibility of Global Causality Violation" that didn’t cost $34 from aps.org!), I read of an interesting speculation by the late (and IMHO great) Robert Forward. Forward suggested that one could stretch and spin a large atomic nucleus with strong magnetics to create a sub-atomic Tipler Machine. If it works as predicted, it would be possible to shoot photons past it, sending them slightly into the future or past.

 

This seems an exciting experimental approach to answering Tipler’s “big if”, and much more practically doable than an outer space engineering project involving reshaping neutron stars.

[Harzburgite]

I had always viewed Tippler's suggestion as more of a mind exercise than a serious proposition - even for the far future. The sub-atomic concept you mention sounds much more practical - and small steps lead to larger ones. Today a single photon one second in the past, Tomorrow its yesterday all over again.

Now, just to wildly speculate, if such devices could be scaled up so that photons could be sent a substantial time into the past (lets worry about causality later) you have the makings of an efficient interstellar communication device and an answer to Enrico Fermi's question "Where is everyone?" Answer: they are all texting each other by Photon Asynchronous Sending Technique or PAST.

[Csongor]

The answer is: If you go back and kill this person, if you have a proper time travelling machine, you can get back to the present, and nothing changed. Becouse you are the only person, who is went back, and all the others, stay in a present, so basically you never change a present if you go far back to the past, I think.

[wazzuuup]

If travel to the past were possible, any person could become a millionaire. Pretend you had one dollar in your pocket. Then if you went back one second, you could take that same dollar and you'd have two. Then you go back another second in time and again you take that dollar. This is a never ending story.

[CraigD]

If travel to the past were possible, any person could become a millionaire. Pretend you had one dollar in your pocket. Then if you went back one second, you could take that same dollar and you'd have two. Then you go back another second in time and again you take that dollar. This is a never ending story.

All of the dollar bills would have the same serial number. This could lead to some sticky complications!

 

The much-used SF story trick of traveling back in time with information about stock prices, on the other hand, seems sound, and “only” requires the transmission of information, not people or dollar bills. This scheme should work in nearly all of the reality models that allow backward time travel. Of course, whether the actual universe allows any kind of backward-in-time causality violation is another question altogether.

[Csongor]

Technically, if you want to go back to the past, this is possible, with every opportunities, what you had there, accept to receive this money....

 

 

 

Secondly, we are able to build a time machine wich could usually send you back only for a short, and really save time, for example few hours or extremally long I think few days or few weeks....

 

 

 

But you know, you just will not receive this money at the past...If I could build a time machine, I will be carefully to check this element really carefully.... : )

 

 

 

So if you still intresting in to trawell in time, so many other opinion aviable at the past.......

 

: )

 

Csongor

[nkt]

Use a gold coin, rather than a dollar bill then.

 

Of course, you can make more from a single day-old newspaper a fortnight ago, than you can messing about with single dollar bills or small piles of gold coins.

 

Simply find the largest mover in the shares market, buy big (but not big enough to change the result - and how big is that? Uncertainity and the Butterfly Effect mean it is still not a sure thing!) and then sell. At the same time, buy a bond for the share that drops the furthest, so you make money off that too.

 

Or you could start a religion. Make a few startlingly accurate predictions, and claim you had a vision of whoever you want. Overnight you are famous. Leverage that to become the next Elvis/Jesus/L. Ron, or whatever you chose.

 

Information transmission also stops some of the big problems, like the huge amount of energy it would almost certainly take to shift something sideways through time, which would almost certainly be an issue with a ton of gold in tow.

[Mercenaryend]

to me , time travel is one of those things that i classify daily as unimportant , becuase if time travel did exist wouldnt we have freaky people coming from the futer to mess up our world right now??

 

now , i am a fan of Quantum theory , becuase it gives the idea that literally , there are people running around in our world messing it up , but in a different parrallel universe that branched off. quantum theory started at the big boom , then one origonal universe , and lets say sumthing different happened , like...o i donno , a star moved 0.00000001 billionth off its original course. now this means that every day its creating unimaginably large amounts of basically repetitive universes, and supposaly if you "time travel" you will hit on of these , but chances are youll end in a world almost....exactly like yours, unless..... it was a uiverse were sumthing very strange happened early , then another and another in this 1 universe... chances of landing in this univeres is.....nearly impossible......so u time travel back to one of these and o i donno (lets have a crazy idea) plant a nuke inside a castle or sumthin fun like that. the nuke blows , and the entire world is disrupted at that point , and youve just changed the out come so much , but if your out of that universal area , it wont affect you in the slightest bit , and that world in witch the nuke was planted...would be dramaticaly different.

so this also creates another problem though universes being destoyed , messed up at random , what ever would mean that you could create an inter-univers war. and that would be hell......in fact a book about this little idea would make alot of money..... what ever , and how every universe that ended up being able to go into the other universes would have the potential of finding some way to direct there ending location.

 

How is it alot of these forums end up trying to detirmine how the world will meet its inevitable end?...o well ...

[Csongor]

Mercenaryend.

 

 

I try to understand you...So you think there is multiply universes exist?

 

 

 

Csongor

[Mercenaryend]

well i certainly hope the hell not. that would be a bad thing....kinda like doom'sday sooner or later.

[justforfun]

well i certainly hope the hell not. that would be a bad thing....kinda like doom'sday sooner or later.

 

It seems to me that if multiple universes exist than they would've existed for some time now, and things wouldn't change much, at first. But if we could access these other universes, time travel and probable travel might be possible, with diverse possibilities branching out, much as space travel has done. The future may be a scary polace, but its exciting, too!

[Csongor]

You have to be really well organised if you time travel...

[Jay-qu]

have a look at what these guys are offering

 

linkey

 

it sounds like a crazy con BUT an entertaining and thought provoking propersition :) :)

[Merek]

Wow,...that is really weird.... :)

i mean what if time travel just is simply not possible.

youd die...and theyd have your money!

 

 

and seriously, if time travel were possible there would already be evidence becuase random people would come back now.

and have we seen any random people?

they might just be disguised but that would be pretty hard.