Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Scientists Reveal Time Travel Could Work
Modernity News ^ | 05/06/2026 | Steve Watson

Posted on 05/06/2026 8:32:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Researchers have proposed a theoretical approach that could allow messages to be sent into the past using principles from quantum mechanics. Indeed, it could be happening right now already!

The concept does not enable physical travel through time but focuses on information transfer through causal loops at the quantum scale.

The work, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters, builds on ideas from general relativity and quantum entanglement.

A technique inspired by the film Interstellar suggests a new way of communicating backwards in time, but it could help improve conventional communication systems as well https://t.co/FXQTvhE6uE — New Scientist (@newscientist) May 2, 2026

It draws a parallel to the causal loop depicted in Christopher Nolan’s film Interstellar, where a message is sent to the past via a watch.

Co-author Dr Kaiyuan Ji, a researcher at Cornell University, told New Scientist: “The father remembers how the daughter decodes his future message. So he can instruct himself on what is the best way to encode the message.”

Professor Seth Lloyd of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) described an earlier related experiment from 2010: “It was the equivalent of sending a photon a few nanoseconds backwards in time, and having it try to kill its former self.”

Lloyd noted the practical challenges: “Nobody’s built an actual physical, closed time-like curve, and there are reasons to think it’s very hard to make one. But all channels are noisy.”

The paper explains how prior knowledge of how a message was decoded could improve encoding in the future: “The father, who is in the future, may retrieve his memory of past events he has witnessed, even including the daughter’s decoding of the message which he is about to send! It would thus not be surprising that he will consult his memory of the daughter’s decoding when encoding his message, so as to maximize the efficiency of the communication.”

According to the research, this approach could make backward time messages clearer than those sent forward in normal time, even over noisy channels.

The team suggests the idea could be tested experimentally at the quantum level and may offer insights into communication through noisy systems.

The concept relies on closed time-like curves (CTCs), paths allowed by general relativity where something could theoretically return to its own past.

On macroscopic scales, creating such curves would require immense energy, but quantum systems may permit analogous effects through entanglement.

Quantum entanglement links particles so that the state of one instantly influences the other, regardless of distance.

The research explores whether this “spooky action at a distance,” as Einstein called it, could be interpreted as information moving backward in time.

While the proposal remains theoretical, it highlights that nothing in current physics strictly forbids certain forms of time communication at the quantum scale.

Future experiments could help clarify how information behaves in such systems and potentially improve real-world technologies.


TOPICS: Science; Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: grandfatherparadox; timetravel
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-31 last
To: CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC

Saw that movie. I liked the fact that when one thing happens, it causes something else to happen. Like if the Cubs win the World Series...


21 posted on 05/06/2026 11:48:20 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (Talarico is Italian for "heretic".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Keyser Soze 84

Your destination after you leave this planet (and you don’t get to hang around) is either Heaven or Hell; however, demons can pass themselves off as “ghosts”. If you see one, call on the name of Jesus and speak about the shedding of His blood. They can’t stand that.

As to time travel, the closest reference would be in Isaiah 38:8 when God made the sun’s shadow go back 10 steps of Ahaz’s stairway, but time apparently didn’t reverse or Hezekiah wouldn’t have remembered the incident.


22 posted on 05/07/2026 1:27:38 AM PDT by skr (1 Peter 1:15 - But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Search works!
This was already posted 600 years ago ant when I last checked, it showed up in three of my searches tomorrow. I won't report you this time though .
23 posted on 05/07/2026 2:31:35 AM PDT by Colorado Doug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Revel
But if we could send messages back in time then we would suddenly remember when we got the message from back in time. We would remember getting the message before it was sent.

So there would be no need to send the message?

24 posted on 05/07/2026 2:32:58 AM PDT by Colorado Doug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

If could recover future email account passwords now, will the reply have a time stamp? /s


25 posted on 05/07/2026 3:40:57 AM PDT by equaviator (Nobody's perfect. That's why they put pencils on erasers!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: generally

P


26 posted on 05/07/2026 5:29:48 AM PDT by thinden (Buckle Up!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Do you suppose I could send a few messages back to myself?


27 posted on 05/07/2026 5:39:32 AM PDT by Savage Beast (When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the people are ready, the hero appears.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thinden

Color me very skeptical.

If this is possible, it would be SO EASY to test. Show me the test results.

Kinda cool to imagine, though.


28 posted on 05/07/2026 6:45:07 AM PDT by generally ( Don't be stupid. We have politicians for that.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Sivana

I wish I could go back and buy Amazon and Google at $20 per share.


29 posted on 05/07/2026 7:43:04 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: skr

The ‘it’s demons’ thing is ridiculous. This is something you have no idea of what it is as so many do likewise. To assign that explanation to it, without any proof, except for your unfounded belief in it as an explanation means to stay in the dark ages. Something else is going on here that holds the secret to time itself.


30 posted on 05/07/2026 12:17:11 PM PDT by Keyser Soze 84
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Keyser Soze 84

An odd argument to make when there is no evidence that this collection of phenomena comes from outer space, whereas there is plenty of evidence of demons from the Scriptures and from people who have dealt with them.


31 posted on 05/09/2026 5:37:11 PM PDT by skr (1 Peter 1:15 - But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-31 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson