headscratcher4
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statistical disproof of timetravel...
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Dr. Popalot
Scholar
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If time travel were possible then why aren't time travelers form the future here now? Think how financialy successful they would be if the knew what the stock market was going to do, which sports team was going to win, etc. Don't give me that baloney that it would be prohibited by some type of prime directive. Human nature would indicate that the temptation would be to great for some to resist.
Dancing David
Penultimate Amazing
The biggest problem I see with time travel is the intrinsic motion of the earth, the sun and the galaxy. Sure you could go back in time(I doubt it) but then you would need an intergalactic spaceship to get back to the earth.
Peace
Peace
Dancing David said:
Hmmm, it would depend, I suppose. Let's say you went back THROUGH time, that is like the original Wells version where you actually existed in all times between now and the past just in an accelerated fashion, and in the wrong direction. I would assume gravity would still keep you well anchored to the Earth. But if you just popped out of this time, and then into another time, I could see your point.
Dancing David said:
Exactly, where would you go back to? We aren't sitting still.
If you went back in time, you would also need to travel to stay near Earth. And to do that, you would have to know where to go. And to do that, you would need to know what orbits we are in. After all, it is possible that we are moving through space at a few % of c (at least relative to some objects).
Further, we have no idea what accelerations are acting on us as we travel with Earth. We are in an elliptical orbit around many objects. Relative to some objects, we likely traverse some strange arc, possibly like a giant yo-yo.
So don't start up your time machine quite yet...
Paul C. Anagnostopoulos
Nap, interrupted.
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Okay, so let's say we have a time travel machine. It's like a box with a door. I get inside and turn on the machine. What does it look like from the outside the instant it moves in time, say, 1 femtosecond? How does it guarantee to move the entire machine at the same rate through time so it doesn't disperse in time?
When particles are sped up to near the speed of light in an accelerator, why don't they vanish into the past?
Fun little article in Skeptic Vol. 10 No. 1.
~~ Paul
When particles are sped up to near the speed of light in an accelerator, why don't they vanish into the past?
Fun little article in Skeptic Vol. 10 No. 1.
~~ Paul
Dr. Popalot said:
Two things:
First:
There's a theory that one couldn't travel back to before the time that the time machine was invented. The thinking goes that a "real" time machine would be a wormhole with one side that had been sent traveling really really fast. Time dialation would cause the two sides to be out of sync, and poof, time machine.
Second:
This "news" story details a man who supposedly did just that! Consider the source.
Dr. Popalot said:
No no no no no.
They were here, they caused the internet boom, but then the quantum state of the market got improbable enough that it tunneled and they all went broke.
(err, do I need to explain that there's sarcasm here?)
Paul C. Anagnostopoulos
Nap, interrupted.
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True said:
~~ Paul
Huh? How would the spinning part of the wormhole even stay "attached in time" to the front part? Seems to me you'd end up with a wormhole to nowhere.
~~ Paul
a_unique_person
Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning
Dr. Popalot said:
How do you know they aren't? Bill Gates appears to be quite unusual. (Except for his fabled holidays on Cruise ships full of naked women).
Dancing David said:
Of course Planet X would keep you firmly planted on the ground. Although has been approaching us, its influence extends through the electronmagnetic spectrum, and through spacetime. Just read Quinn's post in Banter to see what harrowing things Planet X can do!
And all of those people from the future? They're just controlling our minds from Star's- I mean "Time's End".
Frank Newgent
Philosopher
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Trueblood said:
What might happen, then, when you first switched on this time machine? Would all the time machines from the future suddenly arrive?
Andonyx said:
You are correct, we have no trouble keeping up with the earth. Our velocity vector is the same as the earth's, so our relative velocity is zero.
However, the earth's velocity (and ours with it) changes with time, since it is are rotating around the sun.
If you traveled instantly to a different point in time, to end up in the same location on the earth in which you started, you would need to instantly change both your velocity and position at the same instant. This instantaneous step-function change in velocity/position would be required to "make up" for the changes in velocity/position that happened in the time you "skipped".
-RedCoat
Interesting Ian
Unregistered
I
Dr. Popalot said:
I can think of so many reasons I wouldn't know where to start.
RedCoat said:
Hey that's correct, unfortunately it is also exactly what I posted about the forth message of this topic. I'm not taking Issue with Dr. Chinese's claim, I'm on a one man crusade to stop people from posting before they read the entire topic.
Interesting Ian
Unregistered
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jj said:
Reverse time travel is possible but is beyond human beings intellectual ability to ever acheive. Or it is within out intellectual capacity but humans die out before it gets invented. Or it does get invented but creates inevitable paradoxes ensuring that no-one could ever travel to the past. Or it could be phenomenally expensive to travel backwards in time. Or we do invent time machines, we do travel back in time, but do not travel back to this particular era. Or people do travel back to this era but do not shout it from the roof tops. Or they do shout it from the roof tops but don't get believed eg truebloods news story http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/scitech_story.cfm?instanceid=57352
BTW, personnally I do not believe that reverse time travel is possible.