Physicist wants to build a time machine

[UM-Bot]

Prof Ron Mallett has spent his life pursuing the dream of building a time machine so that he can save his father.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/319943/physicist-wants-to-build-a-time-machine

[fred_mc]

Yes, I remember reading about that guy the other year. It might have been at this forum. Seems like the state of things is pretty much the same now as it was then.

[zep73]

To travel back in time, one needs to reverse the entropy of the whole universe at once.
That basicly takes all of the energy in the entire universe to do.
Of course one could imagine only reversing it in a limited area, like the earth, but that would still take an enormous amount of energy to do.
A smaller area, like a house, could be within reason. But we don't have the technology to do that.
And it's dangerous. If a person got caught at the border, he'd be ripped apart.

[TripGun]

I think a time machine will cause the universe to effectively "eat the tape"

Edited July 24, 2018 by TripGun

[GlitterRose]

Sure...what could possibly go wrong?

LOL

[Seti42]

46 minutes ago, TripGun said:

I think a time machine will cause the universe to effectively "eat the tape"

I totally agree. I'd think that some unforeseen force would prevent time travel. I also think even if it was possible, it'd be a really bad idea. Potentially civilization-ending bad. Possibly universe-ending bad.

[Talion78]

I do believe that time travel is possible, but we would never see the effects of any change in the past, As it would already be our history.

The only person that would experience the change is the time traveller.

The thing with time I never get is the paradox, if you go back in time to change something in the past so it never happens, means you never have a reason to go back in time in the first place.

[+Hammerclaw]

It would have to be a Space-Time Machine to reach the point in space the Earth was located at a particular point in time.

[RoofGardener]

1 hour ago, Seti42 said:

I totally agree. I'd think that some unforeseen force would prevent time travel. I also think even if it was possible, it'd be a really bad idea. Potentially civilization-ending bad. Possibly universe-ending bad.

Absolutely Seti42. 

LETS DO IT  

[Dejarma]

yep don't we all= i'd love to build one

[Dejarma]

1 hour ago, Talion78 said:

I do believe that time travel is possible, but we would never see the effects of any change in the past, As it would already be our history.

The only person that would experience the change is the time traveller.

The thing with time I never get is the paradox, if you go back in time to change something in the past so it never happens, means you never have a reason to go back in time in the first place.

imo time travel is impossible in our own dimension

[A rather obscure Bassoon]

This is years old I think the BBC Horizon program did a documentary a few years ago.

[Ozfactor]

If they do find a way to travel back and forward in time , will the only mystery in life be what happens after we die ?
Will we stop death because we can just constantly go back in time so we never die ?
All unsolved mysteries such as unsolved crimes, the mysteries of ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, early life, early man, the future , and so on, will all be solvable by time travellers . 

If it is possible , it already exists but we just don't know about it ... yet x

[mysticwerewolf]

If I thought for a second that it was real I would volunteer to go back to Woodstock with a video camera, several batteries and several disc. but if it can exist it will not be ready in my time.

[Woodwose]

Could this concept be scaled up to produce a primitive 'Alcubierre drive' type spacecraft? even if we can't use it to travel back in time, it would be incredible if it could be used to warp space to allow FTL.

[TheFightingHellkitties]

I imagine it would have to be in the form of a starship of some sort. If you travel back in time but go from one point in space to the exact same point, the Earth would have moved backwards in its galactic orbit. Leaving you to find and fly to it.

[Nzo]

It certainly sounds very cool. There are a lot of things that could go wrong. Who would not want to travel back in forth in time? Its the ultimate dream or nightmare who knows?

[StarMountainKid]

Space-time. When you're standing still, you're traveling 100% in time and 0% in space. When you're moving you're traveling less % in time but more % in space. If you travel twice as fast it takes less time to travel more space, so you're converting time into space. At the speed of light you're traveling 100% in space and 0% in time.

To time travel into the past, you'd have to travel more than 100% in time than 0% space. A sort of negative standing still. Or, traveling a negative length of space. 

How would this be done? One way to look at it.

Edited July 26, 2018 by StarMountainKid

[danydandan]

Anyone ever hear of Frank Tipler?

He made calculations that distorting space-time , time travel might be theoretically possible. It relies on gravitational fields very very very strong ones. Tipler’s imaginary time machine is a very massive cylinder, containing as much matter as our sun packed into a volume 100km long and 10km in radius, as dense as the nucleus of an atom, rotating twice every millisecond and dragging the fabric of space-time around with it. The surface of the cylinder would be moving at half the speed of light. Hence it's theoretical, but basically impossible, but the point is that it is allowed by all the laws of physics that we know. The bright side is there is no way we can create this on Earth, but there is an object that may allow it to be possible if we can survive the journey.

A millisecond pulsar, discovered in the 1980s. It is highly unlikely that this object is cylindrical such extreme rotation has surely flattened it into a pancake shape. Even so, there must be some very peculiar distortions of space-time in its vicinity. ‘Real’ time travel may not be impossible,

[Rlyeh]

5 hours ago, StarMountainKid said:

Space-time. When you're standing still, you're traveling 100% in time and 0% in space. When you're moving you're traveling less % in time but more % in space. If you travel twice as fast it takes less time to travel more space, so you're converting time into space. At the speed of light you're traveling 100% in space and 0% in time.

How would you know as there is no absolute frame of reference?

[Emma_Acid]

50 minutes ago, Rlyeh said:

How would you know as there is no absolute frame of reference?

Yeah, and you're never "standing still" - the earth, solar system and Milky Way are always on the move.

[ItsNothing]

I remember the movie

[StarMountainKid]

7 hours ago, Rlyeh said:

How would you know as there is no absolute frame of reference?

This is true, all motion is relative. In this case your frame of reference is you. You know when you're standing still or moving through your environment. 

 

6 hours ago, Emma_Acid said:

Yeah, and you're never "standing still" - the earth, solar system and Milky Way are always on the move.

Yes, but your frame of reference is your body. Since you are moving with the earth, solar system and Milky Way, your motion is measured relative to the motion of these objects. 

 

[Golden Duck]

On 26/07/2018 at 4:33 PM, danydandan said:

Anyone ever hear of Frank Tipler?

He made calculations that distorting space-time , time travel might be theoretically possible. It relies on gravitational fields very very very strong ones. Tipler’s imaginary time machine is a very massive cylinder, containing as much matter as our sun packed into a volume 100km long and 10km in radius, as dense as the nucleus of an atom, rotating twice every millisecond and dragging the fabric of space-time around with it. The surface of the cylinder would be moving at half the speed of light. Hence it's theoretical, but basically impossible, but the point is that it is allowed by all the laws of physics that we know. The bright side is there is no way we can create this on Earth, but there is an object that may allow it to be possible if we can survive the journey.

A millisecond pulsar, discovered in the 1980s. It is highly unlikely that this object is cylindrical such extreme rotation has surely flattened it into a pancake shape. Even so, there must be some very peculiar distortions of space-time in its vicinity. ‘Real’ time travel may not be impossible,

I vaguely remember something similar to this.  The cylinder was made out of neutron stars. You could only travel back in time as far as the time the cylinder started rotating. 

Edited July 27, 2018 by Golden Duck

[danydandan]

16 minutes ago, Golden Duck said:

I vaguely remember something similar to this.  The cylinder was made out of neutron stars. You could only travel back in time as far as the time the cylinder started rotating. 

Nah the cylinder is just imaginary one with lots of mass.

The millisecond pulsar is just the closest natural object that may produce the same outcome as Tiplers imaginary mathematical scenario. As of now it's the only viable solution for time travel. So it's for all intensive purposes impossible.