[Izar]

Can't find another topic on this so...

Do you think time travel will be possible? I mean, if scientists were ever going to figure out how to travel through time, wouldn’t we now be seeing people from the future? :P

I don't think that will happen in the near future, if at all...

[TheEnglishman]

Personally I don't think so. Then again crazier things have happened...

Actually thats a lie nothing crazier has happened. If it were to happen though it wouldn't happen for many years.
It would be cool if you could do time travel though!

[Someone Else]

Won't happen. Time comes and goes. Nothing has happened in the future yet, so you can't go forward into nothingness. And my theory on the past...

Time is constantly decaying. Every second is a new second, what happened in that past second no longer exists, if you know what I mean. x.x; The closest thing we can get to going back in time or forward in time is arranging the position of the earth, so you see the sun from a different angle. After all, hours are counted by the position of the sun. But that wouldn't make you see any famous celebrity from the year 2035, or something. It'd just kill time faster, and maybe cause a few earthquakes. :P

[TheEnglishman]

Wind Dude, on Apr 17 2005, 09:55 PM, said:

Won't happen. Time comes and goes. Nothing has happened in the future yet, so you can't go forward into nothingness. And my theory on the past...

Time is constantly decaying. Every second is a new second, what happened in that past second no longer exists, if you know what I mean. x.x; The closest thing we can get to going back in time or forward in time is arranging the position of the earth, so you see the sun from a different angle. After all, hours are counted by the position of the sun. But that wouldn't make you see any famous celebrity from the year 2035, or something. It'd just kill time faster, and maybe cause a few earthquakes. :P

Well that kind of took the fun out of this topic.
Oh well.

[lifeform287]

Hey didn't that huge earthquake make a day longer by 0.25 seconds or something?

Um, If we are to invent a time machine in the future we probablly would have come back and told us. Anyway, if we do/did/will (help) invent it we would know.

[Izar]

Ha. Time travel would be cool. I don't know what I'de do though, there's so many different things I would do...

[TheEnglishman]

I'd get a robot from the future. Now that would be cool!
Imagine if he was like Bender from Futurama!

[FusionDragon28]

If you want to get real technical, time doesn't exist. All it is is a way of measuring one event to another event. Think about it, have you ever seen time?

FD28

[Mallick]

Hey FD28, does that mean that there is no oxygen? What you just said was completely stupid...along with what I just said that was completely stupid.

[lifeform287]

No oxygen? Huh?

Well, he's right you can't see time. It's something that is just there to...whatever FD28 said.

[Someone Else]

Time is basically only a measurement. (sp?)

[Sea of Time]

I don't think time travel will ever be possible. It's fun to watch it in movies though. It's just physically impossible to travel through time.

[Nobody]

100% impossible. Time can't me manipulated to "fast forward" or "rewind" like movies can. It can only keep "playing", and nothing could change that.

[Eugine]

PDM, actually the naked eye cannot see oxygen, but very powerful microscopes can see the molecules that it consist of.

Anyways, time travel isn't possible IMO because of what Izar said, where are the people of the future.

[l3lueMage]

its not possible...first if it was it would screw everything up, because suppose you goto the past and see yourself thenw hat? its just not possible, never will be possible, although there was a science magazine that said they sort of figured out that time can be "folded" basically so you can do things in less time, aka, travel would take like a second(as in you would feel it took a second but in reality it took like an hour or however long normally) but if this is true it wont be for a while till they figure out how to control it, or even use it without controlling it.

[Nick Presta]

Quote

If you want to get real technical, time doesn't exist. All it is is a way of measuring one event to another event. Think about it, have you ever seen time?

I like that, I'll have to use it sometime.

And I don't get me started on time travel, a personal interest of mine.

Time travel can have different means, Time Dilation is time travel. http://www.walter-fe...imedilation.htm
After watching that, you have just witness time travel.


And yes, I believe anything will be possible.

[FusionDragon28]

Quote

...in which Earth and Pluto are motionless.

In theory, it would work, but there would never be a situation where Earth and Pluto are motionless, much less at the same time.

FD28

[Nick Presta]

Yes, of course. That was a simplistic example.

Time Dilation works that way though. As you approach the speed of light, time slows down. So comparing someone on Earth to someone approaching the speed of light, the guy on Earth has aged more and the guy approaching the speed of light has endured 'slow-time'.

[Power Piers]

Even if time travel did come into being, it would be disaster.
If you alter one little bit of history, a lot would be altered in your present day. Let's say you go back in time, and murder you're father. You, would be dead then, because there would have been no father in the past to make you. Therefore, you would never have gone back in time to kill him, which means he's alive still because you were never there when he was killed, but if you were never there you couldn't have killed him.
See how messed up it is?
Yeah...it's not possible.

[Andross]

Paradox is pretty much what time travel is. Either paradox or butterfly effect (chaos theory). Time travel is impossible in the sense of traveling back in time. You can travel into the future through time dilation, though. Plus, if you must go at the speed of light to travel back in time, it's impossible, because your mass would become infinite and SPLAT, you're dead and the apparatus flies apart.

So, basically, it's doubtable time travel (in the sense of traveling backwards) will become possible. Even traveling near light speed is questionable, mainly because of the g-forces. You could theoretically bend two points together, but that isn't exactly related, same for quantum physics connections.

Still, the theory that a particle can be in two places at once means there is a possibility. But I'm just rambling now :P

[Izar]

Fusiondragon28, on Apr 17 2005, 04:00 PM, said:

If you want to get real technical, time doesn't exist. All it is is a way of measuring one event to another event. Think about it, have you ever seen time?

FD28

Have ou ever seen oxygen, helium, or hydrogen...?

um, Chaos Theory means: the theory of non-linear functions, such that small differences in the input of the function can result in large and unpredictable differences in the output.

Has more to do with weather than time. http://www.imho.com/...haos/chaos.html

Time Travel would be cool, if it wouldn't get out of Hand, but impossible, I know.

[The Sage of Sins]

It's always good to dream though... I don't believe it could happen either, because there really is no future until it happens... I'm not as "technical" as the others but that's my theory, lol...

[Izar]

Yeah, nice to dream and stuff, but yeah, impossable. And I hate technical terms... Anyways... it's kinda a hard subject, because some of the top scientists of the world believe it is possible. Some traveled the world in a really fast jet and then when they got back to their starting point, they were there watches were a few seconds slow.

If time is nothing then why is there a scientific equation for it? (int's my textbook from last year, Integraded Phisics and Chemestry.

[Izar]

Yeah, nice to dream and stuff, but yeah, impossable. And I hate technical terms... Anyways... it's kinda a hard subject, because some of the top scientists of the world believe it is possible. Some traveled the world in a really fast jet and then when they got back to their starting point, they were there watches were a few seconds slow.

If time is nothing then why is there a scientific equation for it? (it's my textbook from last year, Integraded Phisics and Chemestry.

[The Sage of Sins]

Really? An equation? Sounds interesting. That probably tells how some thing are faster than time... Kinda like the plane thing you talked about...

[Andross]

Izar, on Apr 19 2005, 12:37 AM, said:

um, Chaos Theory means: the theory of non-linear functions, such that small differences in the input of the function can result in large and unpredictable differences in the output.

That's what butterfly effect is...you change a relatively minor event in the past, maybe a major one, but it causes something drastic to change in the future that's VERY major, whether it be related or not.

[FusionDragon28]

Izar, on Apr 18 2005, 04:37 PM, said:

Have ou ever seen oxygen, helium, or hydrogen....

*sigh* I really get tired of that one...

No, you can't see air. So how do I know it's there? Because we benefit from it. We breathe it and it sustains us. Same thing with the wind and gravity. We can't see it, but we can see the effects.

FD28

[I'm Always BROKE]

I think time travelling isnt possible... When you cross the time you getting older and younger to and if you try to go to the year 2345 you will be probarly dead because you live in 2005... Well kinda hard to explain for me but I hope you get it.

[Nick Presta]

FD, I'll play Devil's Advocate.

Sure, you can see the effects of wind and gravity, etc, but you can also see the effects of time.

[Eugine]

Yes, we can see the effects of time but the problem is controlling time. :P

[Andross]

The difference between time and air is that
1. Effects of air are noticeable
2. Air can be influenced by us (pollution). Time cannot be influenced by our actions (or at least currently; who knows if we will be able to dilate time)

[lifeform287]

*banging head*

Does nobody listen...If we did/will/shall? invent a way to travel through time we would have been informed from some future guy...*prays its Bender*

But anywho, Andross is right about that stuff.

Side note: w00t! 100 posts!

[Andross]

lifeform287, on Apr 19 2005, 11:07 PM, said:

*banging head*

Does nobody listen...If we did/will/shall? invent a way to travel through time we would have been informed from some future guy...*prays its Bender*

Not really. Because if we would have been informed, there would be a paradox. If we're informed, people will start trying ways to make their own time machines. But that affects the future in that the FIRST time it happened, no one knew someone would invent it. And now, what if the person who came back in time, or the inventor, are not born again because the timeline has been changed?

I think traveling backwards though would inevitably cause a paradox IMO, even if you went a minute back into the past, just because of the repeating time line that has now been created. Traveling forward is a different story, but then you're stuck, aren't you?

See, it's all just one big paradox and problem after another, meaning I doubt Time Travel (in the truest sense of the word) will ever be possible.

EDIT: Of course, science is still where gravity is technically a theory, meaning while it's a solidly accepted science, it could be disproven, and it could really be something else determining masses and how we fall and stay on the ground, etc. So that leads to what if? Are multiple timelines and new timelines possible in a sense that when someone travels backwards, their past is unaffected, meaning they won't disappear if they aren't born in the new timeline?

After all, if past events are decaying, then when you travel backwards, your future events are no longer present. You're on a different timeline now. The old timeline has been determined.

Obviously, if multiple timelines DO occur, time travel IS possible. And then, what if there's really just multiple dimensions? It's very possible after all. And these different universes are actually parallel universes. Each a different possible timeline that shapes humanity. So we could be existing in a timeline where we will not be contacted. Who knows.

Oh, damn that's confusing :P

[lifeform287]

Ok. You like saying paradox don't ya?

Ya. I guess your right....
Ya back travel, would affect right now. Like in that Treehouse of horror...*laughter*
If somebody went back in time we would all know. We might turn into giant flies...or even worse....TELETUBIES! *looks around shiftily*

[Elliott]

Apparantly you must be going faster than the speed of light to open some sort of wormhole. Even then, how could you pick how far back you went, how would you survive the trip? There are too many paradox's with time travel. I do belive one day it will possible though, just as I belive in time anything can be made possible.

[Baer]

Wow, you people are very ignorant and obviously, not very open minded. Time Travel is possible since it has been proven. They sent a cat or some other animal through time a couple of years ago.

[Elliott]

Prove it.

[Baer]

+_+

I doubt I could get any information on it since it was on the news a few years ago and they update their site often. I knew most of you wouldn't believe me and I should of posted evidence to prove it.

[Elliott]

Of course. No one would believe time travel was true, because it isn't, and I very highly doubt it will be for a very long time. Like I said earlier, there are just too many unsolved paradox's.

[Baer]

+_+ Well, it's your opinion. Since I don't have evidence that proves it exists, why don't you give me some evidence that proves it doesn't exist?

[Elliott]

http://www.scifiscience.co.uk/time.htm
I doubt this website would even exist if time travel had actually happened.

[Baer]

v_V that link doesn't open for me. could you please post the article or w/e you wanted me to read here?

[Elliott]

Quote

An Introduction to Time Travel

Time and space have fascinated man since the dawn of civilisation. People have spent aeons thinking about these concepts and the ideas behind them. The Greeks, the Romans, the English, all have stared at the heavens and wondered. And not without reason! As the boundaries of physics are pushed back and back it is becoming clear that whoever understands the laws of physics best will be able to travel through time and space, easily gaining a dominant position in the known Universe. Indeed that race which can move from universe to universe will get to control all universes! We must therefore double our efforts to ensure that it is we and not some other race who gains understanding first! Or we will end up playing second fiddle for rest of time!

Pythagoras into Einstein in Two Easy Steps

So where do we start? Well let us start with one of the greatest triumphs of the human mind, the great theorem of Pythagoras, a true pillar of all mathematics and physics. The theorem, which is applicable to right angled triangles in flat Cartesian (Newtonian) space takes the form of:

c2 = a2 + b2

where a, b and c are the lengths of the sides of the triangle.

Next we will jump straight to Einstein's theory of Relativity which states that neither time, length, or indeed mass remain constant additive quantities when approaching the speed of light c. Our simple ideas of time and space come from the fact the we are so used to living in a three dimensional universe. Einstein showed that this was simply not true and in fact all the "foundational" three laws of Newton have to be fudged by the Lorentz factor

Lf = (1 - v2/c2) -1/2

Elementary Guide to Relativity

There are, however, certain quantities that do remain constant. These constants are related to four-dimensional quantities known as metric tensors. From this Einstein proved that space and time are two aspects of the same thing and that matter and energy are also two aspects of the same thing. From the second of these concepts we get the most famous equation in physics

E = mc2

Now since time and space are aspects of space-time and we wish to travel through time and not build atom bombs we will leave E=mc^2 for the moment. To illustrate this, look at the extension of Pythagorean theorem for the distance, d, between two points in space:

d2 = x2 + y2 + z2

where x, y and z are the lengths,  or more correctly the difference in the co-ordinates, in each of the  three spatial directions. This distance remains constant for fixed displacements of the origin.

In Einstein's relativity the same equation is modified to remain constant with  respect to displacement (and rotation), but  not with respect to motion. For a moving object, at least one of the  lengths from which the distance, d, is calculated is contracted relative to a stationary observer. The equation now becomes:

d2 = x2 + y2 + z2 (1-v2/c2)1/2

and this implies that the distances all shrink as one moves faster, so does this mean there are no constant distances left in the universe? The answer is that there are because of Einstein's revolutionary concept of space-time where time is distance and distance is time! So now

s2 = x2 + y2 + z2 - ct2

and this new distance s (remember s stands for Space-time) does indeed remain constant for all who are in relative motion. This distance is said to be a Lorentz transformation invariant and has the same value for all inertial observers. Since the equation mixes time and space up we have to always think in terms of this new concept: space-time! This means that time isn't constant and that by simply increasing the velocity (to close to the speed of light for it to have an affect) significant time dilation effects can be seen. It will be a very long time indeed before we have the capability to build a time machine and travel the universe.

Where are the Time Travellers???

The picture shows the world’s most famous fictional time travellers. We now know that the theoretical evidence for time travel is considerable. There is, however, one question we have avoided until now. If time travel is possible, where are the time travellers? There are a number of possibilities. The most obvious and pessimistic of these is that life on Earth may simply not survive long enough for the technology to evolve. Nuclear wars, giant asteroids smashing into our planet, quantum instabilities developing within the Sun etc. could all stop mankind (or any other race) in its tracks.

Yet the absence of time travellers need not indicate anything nearly so sinister. It is possible that they have been here, and are here right now, but have been discreet about their presence in order to ensure that they return to something closely approximating the future universe of their departure. A further possibility is simply that none has arrived in this particular universe! Many conspiracy theories are based on the possibilities of time travelling aliens having the ability to control all world events on Earth while managing to remain completely hidden from our view. The CIA may be stranger than you think.
Why we MUST master Time!!!

So to summarise, we have seen some simple ways of travelling vast distances and have noted some of their drawbacks. We have also looked at some of the more exciting possibilities, but some more real break-throughs are required. New mathematical methods need to be developed and new physical models of the universe must be conceived. Not a job for the faint hearted! Fortune it is said favour the brave. Nowhere will that be more true than in the race to understand the ultimate laws of physics. The race that achieves that first will go straight to top of the premiership of civilisations. Lets make sure it's going to be us!  The picture on the right shows the all-time villain of time travel, the Master from Dr Who

Thats basically what you need to read.

[Baer]

*_^' that still doesn't really prove that time travel doesn't exist. it simple says that they need new mathamatical methods to achieve it...basically

[Elliott]

And they have not been achieved, thus disproving your claims that time travel has happened.

[Andross]

Time Travel hasn't happened smart one. We're ignorant just because you probably misunderstood a story about a cat? The only major news story I remember related to cats was someone cloned their cat, which had died two years prior. Or it may have been an attempt at cyrogenics...but nonetheless, time travel has NOT happened yet. So don't be so rash to say we're all ignornant.

[Izar]

Quote

The difference between time and air is that
1. Effects of air are noticeable
2. Air can be influenced by us (pollution). Time cannot be influenced by our actions (or at least currently; who knows if we will be able to dilate time)

1. The effects of time ARE noticable as well, the effects of what happened in the past effect us now.

2. We can influence time. What we do effects the future.

I still don't think Time travel is possible though. Like I said, If it was, we would be meeting people from another time. Cool concept though.

[Nobody]

Umm, Izar, I think he meant time itself. Like the theory of time dilation, but I don't understand how that would work. Maybe it's just because I'm a 6th grader though.

[Andross]

Izar, on Apr 21 2005, 12:43 AM, said:

1. The effects of time ARE noticable as well, the effects of what happened in the past effect us now.

2. We can influence time. What we do effects the future.

I still don't think Time travel is possible though. Like I said, If it was, we would be meeting people from another time. Cool concept though.

That isn't affecting how time progresses. That's affecting outcomes. That is completely separate from time.

[Izar]

Well, you could have said time PROGRESSION instead of just time.

Here's a way to time travel...

Wait 3 seconds...

There! You've traveled from the past to the present!

[mastermind]

Izar, on Apr 21 2005, 05:55 PM, said:

Well, you could have said time PROGRESSION instead of just time.

Here's a way to time travel...

Wait 3 seconds...

There! You've traveled from the past to the present!

WOOOW I actually felt that time shift. But really tough, if time is really how we see it (past, present and and how it can be altered and shaped) then time travel may actually be possible. Don't have me for some nut job sience fiction fan :) it was just a taught.

[Split Infinity]

Me and my friends are always talking about this. We've come to a sort of conclusion that time travel is possible due to the existence of parallel universes. This is the reason that you don't see people from the future popping up everywhere.

Let me clarify the meaning of parallel universe. Think of it like that hallway of doors in The Matrix. There's an infinite number of these doors, and the universe behind each door is slightly different to another. One of these parallel universes happens to be our universe. There are also a bunch of parallel universes which are identical to ours, except they are chronologically behind us. Of course, there are some which are ahead of us as well.

So if you travelled through time, you wouldn't go back in time in the traditional sense. You would be taken to one of these parallel universes, depending on how 'far back' you are travelling. Then if you killed your father, for instance, you wouldn't be killing yourself. You would be killing your parallel clone.

So, why aren't people travelling through time and appearing in our universe? Because our universe just happens to be a universe which no one travels to. Maybe one day, in the future, somebody will appear in our universe, but the chances of that happening are pretty much one to infinity. There is no chance. It will either happen, or it won't. That's fate for you.

[Mars Djinni]

I've written quite a few stories involving dimensional travel. I have always liked the idea of interchronological (real word?) and interdimensional travel. I've always imagined parallel universes like different links of a chain going off into infinity. The key to reaching one dimension from another is to break a time barrier. At least, that's how I percieve it...

[Jai]

Nobody, on Apr 17 2005, 09:14 PM, said:

100% impossible. Time can't me manipulated to "fast forward" or "rewind" like movies can. It can only keep "playing", and nothing could change that.

Umm I think you have time travel a bit confused with the time travel were talking about. Time travel is the theory on how can we mauipuliate our movements through time not on how we can manipulate time its self.
Now to me I think that time travel is possible but not through any means with technology that I think would be impossible......but when we live in a world where 1 man was said to created everything we see and understand in the world today don't you kinda think that maby ...just maby we all do live in a existence where all things are possible but we just don't know how to make it work for ourselves yet..and yea science can tell us something may be impossible but science can only give us reasonable answers based on the knowledge it has about something but guess what science dosen't know everything....

[Split Infinity]

I'm guessing that for now, interdimensional travel is only possible through wormholes. Only when we begin to understand these portals will we be able to truly harness their power and travel through 'time'.

And Jai, in theory, anything is possible. Just not in our universe. There would be universes out there where the laws of physics do not apply, and everything is completely random.

[Eugine]

Dude, we don't know. Those are only theory.

[Split Infinity]

Of course. We do not know, and we may never know. It just depends on how fate unravels.