[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Time Travel (Page 1 of 3)
Posted: 4/24/2010 7:20:03 PM EDT
To be honest, I have always been fascinated with movies about time travel. I want GD's take on it. Is it possible? If not, why not? If so, why so? If possible, what are your fantasies about having unlimited multiple universes where any and all possibilities are available? Lets have a good Saturday night drinking discussion on back to the futuresque stuff. 
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http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/05/freaky-physics-proves-parallel-universes/
Freaky Physics Proves Parallel Universes Exist Look past the details of a wonky discovery by a group of California scientists –– that a quantum state is now observable with the human eye –– and consider its implications: Time travel may be feasible. Look past the details of a wonky discovery by a group of California scientists –– that a quantum state is now observable with the human eye –– and consider its implications: Time travel may be feasible. Doc Brown would be proud. The strange discovery by quantum physicists at the University of California Santa Barbara means that an object you can see in front of you may exist simultaneously in a parallel universe –– a multi-state condition that has scientists theorizing that traveling through time may be much more than just the plaything of science fiction writers. And it's all because of a tiny bit of metal –– a "paddle" about the width of a human hair, an item that is incredibly small but still something you can see with the naked eye. UC Santa Barbara's Andrew Cleland cooled that paddle in a refrigerator, dimmed the lights and, under a special bell jar, sucked out all the air to eliminate vibrations. He then plucked it like a tuning fork and noted that it moved and stood still at the same time. That sounds contradictory, and it's nearly impossible to understand if your last name isn't Einstein. But it actually happened. It's a freaky fact that's at the heart of quantum mechanics. How Is That Possible? To even try to understand it, you have to think really, really small. Smaller than an atom. Electrons, which circle the nucleus of an atom, are swirling around in multiple states at the same time –– they're hard to pin down. It's only when we measure the position of an electron that we force it to have a specific location. Cleland's breakthrough lies in taking that hard-to-grasp yet true fact about the atomic particle and applying it to something visible with the naked eye. What does it all mean? Let's say you're in Oklahoma visiting your aunt. But in another universe, where your atomic particles just can't keep up, you're actually at home watching "The Simpsons." That may sound far-fetched, but it's based on real science. "When you observe something in one state, one theory is it split the universe into two parts," Cleland told FoxNews.com, trying to explain how there can be multiple universes and we can see only one of them. The multi-verse theory says the entire universe "freezes" during observation, and we see only one reality. You see a soccer ball flying through the air, but maybe in a second universe the ball has dropped already. Or you were looking the other way. Or they don't even play soccer over there. Sean Carroll, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology and a popular author, accepts the scientific basis for the multi-verse –– even if it cannot be proven. "Unless you can imagine some super-advanced alien civilization that has figured this out, we aren't affected by the possible existence of other universes," Carroll said. But he does think "someone could devise a machine that lets one universe communicate with another." It all comes down to how we understand time. Carroll suggests that we don't exactly feel time –– we perceive its passing. For example, time moves fast on a rollercoaster and very slowly during a dull college lecture. It races when you're late for work . . . but the last few minutes before quitting time seem like hours. Back to the Future "Time seems to be a one-way street that runs from the past to the present," says Fred Alan Wolf, a.k.a. Dr. Quantum, a physicist and author. "But take into consideration theories that look at the level of quantum fields ... particles that travel both forward and backward in time. If we leave out the forward-and-backwards-in-time part, we miss out on some of the physics." Wolf says that time –– at least in quantum mechanics –– doesn't move straight like an arrow. It zig-zags, and he thinks it may be possible to build a machine that lets you bend time. Consider Sergei Krikalev, the Russian astronaut who flew six space missions. Richard Gott, a physicist at Princeton University, says Krikalev aged 1/48th of a second less than the rest of us because he orbited at very high speeds. And to age less than someone means you've jumped into the future –– you did not experience the same present. In a sense, he says, Krikalev time-traveled to the future –– and back again! "Newton said all time is universal and all clocks tick the same way," Gott says. "Now with Einstein's theory of Special Relativity we know that travel into the future is possible. With Einstein's theory of gravity, the laws of physics as we understand them today suggest that even time travel to the past is possible in principle. But to see whether time travel to the past can actually be realized we may have to learn new laws of physics that step in at the quantum level." And for that, you start with a very tiny paddle in a bell jar. Cleland has proved that quantum mechanics scale to slightly larger sizes. The next challenge is to learn how to control quantum mechanics and use it for even larger objects. Do so –– and we might be able to warp to parallel universes just by manipulating a few electrons. "Our concepts of cause and effect will fly out the window," says Ben Bova, the science fiction author. "People will –– for various reasons –– try to fix the past or escape into the future. But we may never notice these effects, if the universe actually diverges. Maybe somebody already has invented a time machine and our history is being constantly altered, but we don’t notice the kinks in our path through time." |
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It's possible. Travel forward in time has been done, but only fractions of a second(atomic clocks put into orbit, things like that). It's all about traveling at extreme high speeds. The only way to travel far forward in time would require you to accelerate to near the speed of light.
Back in time, there are theories but the technology isn't there to test it. There is some theoretical physics professor out there for a design for a time travel machine he wants to build and test, something involving a spinning cylinder of lasers. Hes in the process of getting funding for it. Search youtube, there are video documentaries about what they guy is doing and other good videos from shows on the discovery channel and all that on the topic. I spent several hours one day and watched damn near all of them 
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Scientists have found it might be possible. Someday they will realize that light can travel at different speeds, and that it is highly effected by gravity and the gases/dust in it's way. Then after that, they will realize that "time" is only a measurement, and because of that, it CANNOT be sped-up or slowed-down. (it's the light that has been speeding up or slowing down...not the time) Those two radical concepts are more closer to the truth than time travel being possible...which is not possible without direct help from God. 
Go ahead and flame away. |
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I'm traveling forward in time right now.
Seriously though, it would be kinda fun. But I think you can only travel forward in time. What's done is done! This. We are all time travellers, it's just that so far all we've ever done is travel in one direction. |
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I have traveled here, all the way from the year 1983, to say: hello. Travel to the future is quite possible and is happening all the time. If you want to speed the process up a bit simply accelerate yourself up to say .75 the speed of light. Travel back in time is probably not possible... No theory yet advanced convinces me that it's possible. |
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I think it was Einstein (?) who used the "balloon" analogy to illustrate how time works, which he believed was a function of hyperspace.
Draw three dots on the surface of a balloon that is not inflated. Start inflating that balloon. The dots are now moving apart but maintaining the same relative distance to one another. The "balloon expansion" is what you and I call "time." The "balloon material" is a dimension of hyperspace. Now if you could "deflate" the balloon somehow...hmmm.... |
Personally, I have not live nearly as much as I should have. Having fun and making the most of life etc.... However, for some strange reason I find solace in thinking that in some alternate universe I have fulfilled all of my wildest dreams. Am I alone in this? 
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I have traveled here, all the way from the year 1983, to say: hello. Travel to the future is quite possible and is happening all the time. If you want to speed the process up a bit simply accelerate yourself up to say .75 the speed of light. Travel back in time is probably not possible... No theory yet advanced convinces me that it's possible. I read somewhere that time travel to the past was possible, but you had to go faster than the speed of light. Here is the weird thing, though: You actually wouldn't be traveling back in time, but the universe is just leaving you behind. Someone pass the bong I need another hit. |
| what would the point of traveling to "different" universe be, only to come back to this one and have accompished nothing... and what would happen to u if you did?? would you age x2? (1hour here plus 1 hour there) or can u only exist in 1 at a time? Could this be used as a tool to see the out come of certain decisions thus allowing you to always make the right one?? It seems to me that if time travel were possable we would have see ppl from the future already.... IF in the future we can time travel we should have always known is possable as we would have had ppl returning all through out histroy.... |
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If I remember this correctly it is possible to travel forward in time by going faster than the speed of light, but you can never travel backwards in time. It is possible if you go slower than the speed of dark... 
I remember that thread. It was fucking awesome! |
| This explains forward in time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7vpw4AH8QQ |
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Impossible to go backwards. If it were possible where are all of the people from the future? All the current theories about traveling back in time require some sort of device that opens a worm hole or something similar. Think of it as working like the Stargate from the movie and TV show. If anyone ever makes one of these devices, and it works, we wouldn't be able to have any time travelers in our time until the device is turned on, because they would be coming from the worm hole it creates. Aaaannd, we could only travel back in time to the time the device was turned on. So it's not like going back to the Civil War or something is going to happen. |
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Info about the device some scientist wants to build for traveling back in time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnLIxEso4rg
Basically he wants to use powerful lasers, spinning to form a cylinder, which somehow could create something like a worm hole or black hole. I'm no scientist, don't understand much of it.. just find it interesting. |
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On a more serious note, if going back in time were possible, or even with teleportation: An object would have to be moved from one location or time to another. The receiving space would either be a vacuum, or it would have matter within it. When introducing the teleported object, made up of matter, to a space, made up of matter, in the same exact three-dimensional point in space. You can't have two atoms occupying the same exact space, perfectly alligned in every dimension. How would that work? What would happen? |