In this, I do not express any technical issues in the actualy process of gettting from one point in time to another but it may be possible.

I am assuming you out there know the basics of time travel and what some things mean so I don't want to repeat them. Let me get straight to the point. Time travel may be possible. A main problem people have with time travel is known as the Space-Time Continuum. This means that if you do something in the past, it will therefor change what happens in the future. I agree with this but have figured that time travel is still possible.

The only problem is that if you go back in time, you cannot return to where you were in the future. If you live in the past after you have come from the future, you will realize that the time that you are living in and the future are playing out simultaneously. Things you do may affect things that happen in the future and in the time that they are living in, but it will not affect you and the time you are living in so therefor, everything remains normal. Although it may affect their living, you will never know because you will be living anormal life.

This is a confusng and diffucult concept for some to conceive but after thought, it makes sense.

I do not know how or if people can go back in time to begin with but if they do, this is what will happen. This is just a thought and please give me your feedback on whether you agree or disagree. I am always open to constuctive criticism!

Delacorr, I don't believe backward time travel is possible. One reason is that the atoms in the time travelers body would not have been formed yet. I don't think forward time travel is possible because the atoms in their body would have become a part of the future in some other form, as part of another substance. Time travel is an interesting subject but the paradoxes always mess things up

One issue with Time travel that I have thought might be a big problem is the fact that the calculation that would be needed to position someone at that exact spot on earth when it does not come anywhere near to the same spot in the universe. Basically, the earth is moving at a million miles per whatever around the sun AND the sun is being pushed away from the centre of the galaxy at a million miles per whatever - so to make sure that you appeared at the same "place" on earth some very precise calculations would be needed.

Since the good folks at NASA (some of the best minds in the world I would think) make occasional miscalculations when sending things to Mars, I would be more concerned that a time traveller would pop up in the middle of space or perhaps inside a mountain than the time traveller meeting a pervious/former version of themselves.

QUOTE

A main problem people have with time travel is known as the Space-Time Continuum. This means that if you do something in the past, it will therefor change what happens in the future.

That is not what is meant by Space-Time Continuum. The Space-Time Continuum is nothing more than the 4 dimensional coordinate system in which physical events are located.

QUOTE

I don't think forward time travel is possible because the atoms in their body would have become a part of the future in some other form, as part of another substance.

Forward time travel is possible, and that is a fact that can't realistically be argued with. We are all travelling forward in time right now. By the time this post is read, it will be further into the future then when it was written.

Homer your so clever

Actually I just wanted to add a little to this part of the discussion too . Courtesy of j6

QUOTE

I don't believe backward time travel is possible. One reason is that the atoms in the time travelers body would not have been formed yet. I don't think forward time travel is possible because the atoms in their body would have become a part of the future in some other form

I personally don't think that time travel paradoxes would be a huge problem . I am how ever interersted in the idea j6 put forward .

It is likely that your body may experience physical changes through time travel . Could it regress back into infant form ? Could this become the comercial market for time travel ? The secret of eternal youth perhaps...

I'll get corrected in short order, here, I'm sure, but is it not true that there is nothing in physics which theoretically rules out the possibility of time travel?

If a mass of sufficient size is set spinning at sufficient speed then it traps time at its 'event horizon' the same way that a black hole traps light. It is therefore theoretically possible to travel back in time to any point after the mass was set in motion, but not to any point before, and it's not possible to venture beyond the mass' area of influence.

You can actually travel through time very easily, to see it just get 2 people, both with watches on that are synchronus to each other. one gets on a plane or some other fast moving object, and move for a predetermined distance, at a set speed, then when you compare watches, they will show different times. As the one in the fast moving object will have had time move slower than that of the person on the ground.

What's the difference between a theorum and a theory?

QUOTE (Aslan @ Jun 15 2003, 10:19 AM)

What's the difference between a theorum and a theory?

Aslan...

Theory - a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena; a : a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation b : an unproved assumption;the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another.

Theorum - an idea accepted or proposed as a demonstrable truth often as a part of a general theory.

Cheers Delacorr.

You live and learn.

Now I also want to know some of your own theories on time travel too...good to share stuff like that...what do you think, not what have people told you...

Thinking about this I realized that although time advances at a regular pace and that rate can't be altered, it is possible to change the place on that timetable that something is positioned. As an example: if a ball was rolling down an incline it would take "X" time to reach the bottom but if additional energy was introduced the ball would reach the bottom ahead of the time it should have gotten there. The same principle could be applied in reverse. If energy was applied or taken away to slow the object it would get to the bottom at a later time than it would without any external interference. So I guess it could be said that although the rate of time flow can't be altered the position of an object on the grid can be changed and that could be loosely interpreted as a form of time travel.

I don't believe that physical lets-all-go-back-see-the-dinosaurs kind of time travel will ever be possible, or at least routinely possible. The problem is that any time traveller has no right to right to think of his own time as 'the present'. To agree with physical time travel you first have to agree that each thing in the universe has an infinite number of selves for the infinite number of 'time divisions' in its life. And each of these infinite selves has a past, present and future, since each is a separate being. The result is an insane universe with everybody and everything infinitely fragmented.

But there are plenty of strange stories about people dreaming the future, or seeing the future, or seeing the past, and there is a lot of circumstancial eveidence for 'psychometry' - the ability to somehow 'see' the past of an object only by holding it.

Now this I'm slightly more prepared to believe in, that we all have some mental faculty that allows us to travel back and forth in time.

And was that a theorum or a theory? Or a hypothesis? I'm still a bit fuzzy there.

QUOTE (Delacorr @ Jun 15 2003, 11:31 AM)

Theorum - an idea accepted or proposed as a demonstrable truth often as a PART OF A GENERAL THEORY.

Well if you are talking about mine, it was a theorum..time travel is already a theory, it has not been recorded on happening, but it has been thought up...my theorum is just a "PART OF A GENERAL THEORY" ya see?

Can I just call it an idea?

QUOTE (j6p @ Jun 15 2003, 11:55 AM)

Thinking about this I realized that although time advances at a regular pace and that rate can't be altered,  it is possible to change the place on that timetable that something is positioned.

j6p, the rate at which time advances can be altered, as Althalus accurately explained

In Althalus's description the "fast traveler" does in fact travel forward through time at a different rate than his twin who remains stationary. So as far as Althalus's description goes, I have known about Einstein's "time distortion as we approach the speed of light theory" for some time now and I can't seem to get a handle on it. I'm claiming that the universal arrow of time travels at the same rate, forward only, for everyone and everything. But individual events can go different rates, again forward only, along with this arrow. As an example, put a person into suspended animation for 50 years. They didn't travel at all but when they wake up they are only hours older but everything else is 50 years older. What I am saying is that, that could be a form of time travel.

I see what you mean, and I agree with you. I believe in forward time travel only, with the only possible exception being to look into the past. Travel back in time as observers only, and not capable of actually interacting with anything

The next step of course is actually getting there...going on a plane and changing time back a few minutes wont do you any good..

I'm not sure if you have checked out the topic of time travel in the Unexplained Mysteries Index. It explains the theory of reverse time travel, and can be viewed HERE

Thanks for the link, Homer!

This got me thinking say you do travel through time and hypothetically you meet yourself from the "past" (thank you aslan) my guess is you would probably die from shock (both selves) therefore terminating all knowledge of the time travel you have creating, and just for kick let's go deeper into this hypothetical situation so therefore now that you have died you will not have gone on your "excellent" adventure and then you wouldn't kill yourself like that. so you wouldn't die. What happens now? Do you make the same stupid mistake, or do you take a different path, and if you do make the same stupid mistake does this loop continue? Gives a person chills don't it

OK, my 2cents on time travel. Wonderful idea. Don't work in reverse. Homer, j6p, and Al are correct. Maybe you guys can help me out here.

There is some law of physics somewhere that says that all energy (taking matter as a form of energy) is finite, it cannot be created or destroyed, added or subtracted. This is what makes traveling backwards in time impossible, if not catastrophic. By moving an object back in time you would be breaking both the rules: no adding, no subtracting.

Take the classic time travel case. Dude builds a time machine. He steps in and "POOF" goes back two days into the past.

Problem 1: He has subtracted himself (and his machine) from his "present time," leaving a void. Not so big a problem? Maybe, but he has left a void in the finite universe. What fills it? To fill the void, theoretically, the universe itself would have to contract.

Problem 2: He has added himself (and his machine) into his "past time." This is where it gets funky. No two objects can occupy the same space (as space in a universal sence) at the same time. Corollary: No one object can occupy two spaces at the same time. There is now one dude in two places at same time, done without mirrors or clones or twins. The universe would have to expand in order to accomodate the added energy (mass).

Problem 3 (if the universe ain't been streatched all out of shape yet): There is no dude in the future that is approching. What happens in two days when the one dude in two places at one time meets up with the "present time" in which there is no longer a dude? Would both cease to exist?

Any help here?

What if, instead of trying to 'transport' a human being into the past with all of the associated problems/difficulties etc.. as previously discussed, it was somehow possible to see the past without physically going there.

Like some sort of viewable 'portal' where the normal fabric of space/time has been altered, enabling humans to safely view the past with no danger whatsoever of altering the present (or is that the future?)

Remember that old TV show 'The Time Tunnel' where the scientists could see the travellers in the past? That concept is where I'm coming from, but not necessarily by building a giant spinning tunnel. Maybe a vacuum-sealed room where some manipulation of the fabric of space/time could be manipulated somehow?

An old preist was supposed to have done just that a while ago, he claimed while he was still alive that he had invented a device that allowed him to see the past through a little screen, and take pics, he then claimed that he had taken a picture of christ on the cross.

It turned out to be a picture of jesus on the cross from a church that had been reversed.

In theory it is possible to 'see' into the past. The light that left the earth, say one thousand years ago, is still travelling away from us into space. If we could somehow travel to a point 1000 light years away, and then looked back at the earth with an incredibly powerful telescope, we would see the earth as it was 1000 years ago.

Of course, this isn't particularly practical, but in theory it would work.

We're all looking into the past right now. These words were written before they are being viewed. You can go back further as long as it was recorded on some medium, like film.
On another note I did hear somewhere that sound waves keep going forever I would suppose video waves are the same. If this is true then there should be a way of reconstituting them.

SaRuMan is right...its like us looking at stars of high miagnitude...they might be gone by now but we wont know for thousands of years...thats looking into a time way way back...and even the light we get on earth takes 8 hours to get here so when we look at the sun, that was eight hours ago...

I'm having all kinds of problems with what Saruman just said there. I've heard the theory before, and I suppose I accept it, but I just can't work it out.

All you have to do to look into the past is to travel a certain distance away and look back at it? Taking this then, the distance you are away determines how far into the past you are looking, so 1000 light years lets us see 1000 years into the past, to take the given example. So 500 light years lets us see 500 years into the past? So theoretically, you could look back on any historical event you like, providing you know exactly when it happened and how far out to travel?

As a corollary, then, you could, effectively, replay the whole of human history by observing from a suitably far distance away and moving slowly closer.

It's baffling me.

If we go 500 light years AWAY...keep in mind that light years is a measurement of distance not time and that 500 light years away is the distance light travels in years...if we move that far away and look at the earth through a telescope though, we wont exactly get 500 years because the telescope catches light close to us than we are so it may be 499 years instead...no such techonologies are available to get 500 light years away or even 1 in time to see what was happening a year ago...it would take 100 years to go 1 light year away in a modern spacecraft or something of that nature...

That's not the point I'm making. Is my basic understanding correct?

In some sense, yes...you are definitely on the right track...it is mindboggling, especially when you come across unexpected paradoxes or Catch 22s that you try to get ove rbut realize after hours that it doesnt work...i can tell you about those haha...believe me!

Aslan,

Ok first lets assume that we've invented a means with which to travel instantly to any given point in space, ignoring for now that travelling faster than light would be required in order to 'overtake' the light that has left earth in the distant past.

QUOTE

Taking this then, the distance you are away determines how far into the past you are looking, so 1000 light years lets us see 1000 years into the past, to take the given example. So 500 light years lets us see 500 years into the past?

Right, in theory. The light has been travelling for 500 years, therefore if we were at a point 500 light years away it would be that light that left the earth 500 years ago, that enters our telescope at the exact second we look towards the earth from that distance out in space.

QUOTE

So theoretically, you could look back on any historical event you like, providing you know exactly when it happened and how far out to travel?

Yes, that should be the case. In theory you could look back millions of years and see dinsoaurs roaming around, providing you could get to a point millions of light years away and have a telescope capable of seeing the earth from that distance. I know in practice this would probably be impossible, but in theory the method would work.

QUOTE

As a corollary, then, you could, effectively, replay the whole of human history by observing from a suitably far distance away and moving slowly closer.

You wouldn't need to move slowly closer, because as the light from proceeding events reached you, you'd see history progress, and the light from previous events would travel away from you in the other direction. If you moved slowly closer while constantly observing, you'd probably witness history in 'fast forward'.

The question i propose SaRuMan is that when you ar elooking up close at an object in space from far away are you seeing it how it is at that moment or from how it was X years before?

Good explaination though...

And also, if you are going FASTER than the speed of light and you lookout the window wouldnt you see the light trailing behiund you? That's pretty cool!

Thanks Saruman!

Ok, while I appreciate that this whole discussion is taking place on a purely theoretical level, here's my next question, if anyone's still interested.

I'm seeing my computer monitor as it was in the past, albeit the most infintesimal fraction of a second in the past, and when I hold my hand up to my face, again, I'm not looking at the present, but at the past. Everything I see has already happened. Ok, as close to now as makes not the slightest difference, but nevertheless, all I can see is the past? Is that correct?

All you see is the present but what you recognize and what your brain recognizes in fractions of a second happens after you see it therefor in the past...if that makes sense

No, as I understand, what I see is NOT the present. To all intents and purposes it is, but to all intents and purposes is not the same as IS.

I see where your coming from...HELP US SARUMAN! haha

But seriously folks, we gotta realize that we can already slow down time and see in the past and we do every single day...but its a matter of controlling and stretching out our already naturally present power of doing so

it's funny if you think about it. All we see is the past. Also we don't percieve that mentally until even more in the past...thus furthering the delay. Now to top it all off, what we hear it even further in the past due to the speed of sound. So our brain is just a big mess of delays. Even though they maye not be significant, it's still neat. That is all...

Very true...then what is the present? if time is constantly going we cannot call one particular time the present because that would already be in the past...we can only say that in one second it will be the present but as we said earlier in this thread...

you cant be in two places at the different times

but with Time Zones and stuff...two people can be at tweo different places and be in the middle of hte night and the day simultaneoul=sly...thats not as weird as being at two different actual times but it resembles the same thing right?

it depends on YOUR definition of time. Time is only a concept to be defined. Our time is seconds, minutes, daylight etc. Real time is nothing...just a way to define the flow of existance and classify what has happened in an organized fashion. We can't be anywhere in time, we can only just be. The only way we are in time is on a page, in a book, in a photo, in our minds.

Just live!

I live to understand...

just don't try to understand living!!

I've just looked up a quote. this is what I'm grasping at:

'I had found that time and space and time were not absolute. Their power was NOT law. They were not even unanimous; they quarrelled with each other; and through their schism the human imagination, the hope, the faith, could slip, to further exploration where intuition had formerly hinted, but where logic and fatal common sense had denied...I had found out the cheat of time and space, then other seemingly stable laws of nature might be questioned, to the advantage of this fettered and hoodwinked spirit, this hidden and oppressed self, locked in the dungeon of my body.' - Richard Church

i can agree with that too..time is a concept of order...but we measure in time too and thats what time travel is in the first place to go back in time...or into the past...there is always a past and future...we call it time to organize it...

Can you really travel back into a concept? A memory?

I believe in future travel in a way...more like prolonging aging process until future has arrived, then "snapping out of it" ala "Forever Young" or maybe speed of light slows individual "time"...havn't read up on my Hawking so I won't go any further, but you get the idea.

Haha Hawking..yea i get it but when i said trveling back in time i meant in the past...the past is proven because something happened before you are here right now which is in the past...what would you think is necessary to strech our already existant powers though?

I read once an interesting theory, using a pool table as an example.

Say 8 ball goes in corner pocket.

you travel back in time to prevent that shot.

No matter what you do, that 8 ball will always go in. Because it has, and that is recorded.

You cannot stop that 8 ball.

you go back further, to stop your 2nd self from stopping th 8 ball.

something WILL stop you from Stopping yourself from stopping the already unstoppable 8 ball.

basically IF u can go back, it can NOT be altered.