Posted on May 13, 2015
TIME TRAVEL : Will it really be possible one day?
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How likely is it that we would actually figure out how to successfully perform time travel? But would we want to? Are there simply things that do not to be tampered with? And what is harder: going back or forth in time to correct things, or living courageously in the present and correct things?
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Science
Science Fiction
Science Science Fiction
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 16
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The issue with time travel is that it's either possible and it doesn't break causality (one thing must follow another), or it's not possible.
Work under the assumption that Time Travel is possible, since the other is a moot point. If so, then where are the time travelers? Are they regulated? Is there an investment in energy so high that it just doesn't make sense (likely)?
Remember that the Earth is spinning. The sun is spinning. The solar system is spinning. The galaxy is spinning. If you were to travel back in time even 1 minute... you would be nowhere near Earth. We're moving that fast. Maybe those time travelers forgot to account for the spin of the universe and are Popsicles in some distant part of space?
Work under the assumption that Time Travel is possible, since the other is a moot point. If so, then where are the time travelers? Are they regulated? Is there an investment in energy so high that it just doesn't make sense (likely)?
Remember that the Earth is spinning. The sun is spinning. The solar system is spinning. The galaxy is spinning. If you were to travel back in time even 1 minute... you would be nowhere near Earth. We're moving that fast. Maybe those time travelers forgot to account for the spin of the universe and are Popsicles in some distant part of space?
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Capt Richard I P.
Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS Odds are a group sophisticated enough to navigate backwards on the time dimension could do the temporal and physical math to account for the spin. Buuut..... if they couldnt: https://what-if.xkcd.com/134/
I've often joked I'd like to have my remains put into orbit. Not in a "scatter my ashes" sense, but, like, "throw my naked corpse out the airlock" sense. Honestly, my main motivation is to baffle someone in the distant future, but it's an interesting scientific question: what would happen to my body in orbit over the course of years, decades or centuries?
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SN Greg Wright
Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS Time travel into the future is already possible, as established by Einstein: simply approach the speed of light. Going back is another question.
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I can't think of an ethical use for time-travel. I'm betting there isn't one, and even if time can be manipulated, it probably shouldn't be.
\\\\\correction\\\\
Scratch that. @ I jumped the gun.
I've thought of 2 that only MIGHT be ethical:
1) 'Freezing' someone with an as yet incurable illness to be cured later.
2) Assuming you are travelling thourgh space, you could modulate your own time so that you could arrive at only moments after you left, as opposed to the great amounts of time that are likely to have passed.
So, I guess to summarize my views, Time-travel shouldn't be used to really travel through time. It should be used to make living in our time easier, and not used to actually alter time or events that have already occurred itself.
Unless you're preventing human extinction, then I guess all bets are off. Okay, I'm a hypocrite. Sue me.
I love these conversations. Time to switch from coffee to vodka and see how this thread plays out. :)
\\\\\correction\\\\
Scratch that. @ I jumped the gun.
I've thought of 2 that only MIGHT be ethical:
1) 'Freezing' someone with an as yet incurable illness to be cured later.
2) Assuming you are travelling thourgh space, you could modulate your own time so that you could arrive at only moments after you left, as opposed to the great amounts of time that are likely to have passed.
So, I guess to summarize my views, Time-travel shouldn't be used to really travel through time. It should be used to make living in our time easier, and not used to actually alter time or events that have already occurred itself.
Unless you're preventing human extinction, then I guess all bets are off. Okay, I'm a hypocrite. Sue me.
I love these conversations. Time to switch from coffee to vodka and see how this thread plays out. :)
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Capt Richard I P.
I'll reiterate my point below: that either it has always existed or it never can. Ethics are irrelevant, if a capability exists it will be used eventually. And if time becomes a back-forth dimension, it already has been used.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
Ethically, there's a couple easy ones to come up with. Check out the book Millennium by John Varley. The concept is time travelers jumping back in time to grab people who were going to die (plane crashes, titanic), and replacing them with corpses. They then send those live people forward to the future since our planet has gone to hell.
http://www.amazon.com/Millenium-John-Varley/dp/B000OOGSBW/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid= [login to see] &sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=millenium+varney
http://www.amazon.com/Millenium-John-Varley/dp/B000OOGSBW/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid= [login to see] &sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=millenium+varney
Millenium: John Varley: Amazon.com: Books
Millenium [John Varley] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This is a wonderful 1983 science fiction novel by John Varley. Varley later turned this novel into the script for the 1989 film Millennium
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Suspended Profile
CH (MAJ) William Beaver. Why do you ask? Do you have a particular mission to execute? Sandy
Capt Richard I P.
Like killing Hitler? make sure to specify "when" because maybe it already happened...
https://xkcd.com/1063/
https://xkcd.com/1063/
Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).
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This is likely our first foray into this lifetime as nobody has come to the past (our present) to warn us of things. So we can't be 100% positive time travel will become a reality. not to mention the plethora of possible paradoxes.
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Capt Richard I P.
Like the universe acting to prevent it constantly? Or maybe even inventors acting to prevent it?
https://xkcd.com/716/
https://xkcd.com/716/
Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).
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SN Greg Wright
SPC Jeffrey Bly Time travel into the future is already possible, as established by Einstein: simply approach the speed of light. Going back is another question.
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Capt Richard I P.
Comment above refers only to travel back in time, traveling forward in time is possible, universally mandatory, and can occur at different rates depending on velocity and gravity.
Comic:
http://xkcd.com/
Comic:
http://xkcd.com/
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It's happening all the time .. albeit in one direction and one speed .. but its a start!
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Mathematically of course it is possible, but at the current state we're in, we would need an exotic object, same with faster-than-light travel.
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Could be someone's figured this out - only instead of going back linearly, time travel creates a fork in the time stream that's almost, but not quite the same...
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CH (MAJ) William Beaver Time travel into the future is already possible, as proven the Einstein: simply approach the speed of light. Going backwards, however, is another story.
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