Quantum time machine 'allows paradox-free time travel'

Telegraph ^ | 7/22/10 | Tom Chivers

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

The world gets stranger every day...

[freebilly]

Let me know when I get a time machine for $795 at Best Buy....

[SmartInsight]

I appreciate the science, but my first thought was — boy, if I could go back 20-30 years in time and buy MSFT, INTC and some other stocks...

[SamAdams76]

The article is cheapened by the "Back to the Future" still. Why is it now "obligatory" for supposedly serious science articles to include pop culture references?

There are those that say that if time travel was possible, we would already have seen visitors from the future. Then again, our current world must seem so prehistoric and harsh to peoples of the future. After all, if it were possible today to travel back to say, the Middle Ages, would anybody actually want to go there?

[pillut48]

After the terribly stressful last six weeks and corresponding 20/20 hindsight, I’M IN. Where do I sign up??

[4rcane]

hype. vaporware

[James C. Bennett]

Someone gave an interesting insight into the problem with time travel.

When you go into the past or future, the physical space around you isn’t still. The universe is expanding, the Sun tugs the Solar System at breath-taking speed into the Milky Way, which too is in rapid motion. One second of time travel implies a change in your physical position to such an extent that you would be over a million miles away from where you were in the “present”.

Interesting, eh?

[LibWhacker]

I’d LOVE to go back to ancient Rome. But then I remember there is no way I could pass myself off as a Roman citizen and would probably end up enslaved or tossed to lions.

[LibWhacker]

And harder to keep up with! I used to be ahead of the curve on almost everything, could always see a use for every new piece of technology that came along. But now I can’t. I mean, what’s the use of Twitter? Or music on your phone?

[SamAdams76]

I've thought of the same thing. Even the rotation of the earth must come into play. For example, if I could time travel to 12 hours ago, my physical location might well be somewhere in Asia (not even considering the variables you just mentioned). So any "time travel machine" would have to also make the necessary corrections for physical location - not only in the universe but for movements in the galaxy, solar system and even the rotation of the earth (and the shifting of continental shelves).

The more you think about time travel, the more difficult and complex it becomes.

[Cboldt]

-- One second of time travel implies a change in your physical position to such an extent that you would be over a million miles away from where you were in the "present". --

Except the speed limit of "c" is on the order of 190,000 miles per second.

Plus there is the relativistic issue of choosing the supposedly stationary frame of reference. How does the time travel machine "know" that?

[ClearCase_guy]

[gov_bean_ counter]

Paradox-free...

Isn't that what Obie's healthcare bill promised???

[James C. Bennett]

Maybe it was an hour, LOL!

I didn’t realise that error. Perhaps it could be corrected with an idea of distance, rather than velocity? Heh heh!

[RegulatorCountry]

Of course, being able to travel backwards in time means that there must be a fixed future from which to travel from the perspective of the "now" in that previous time.

Very Presbyterian, lol.

[aft_lizard]

I think then you should use a spaceship of some sort. With computers we should be able to calculate where in this solar system we would be and what part of the galaxy and what part of the universe, etc. By the time time travel was actually possible that would likely be the best way.

[Hot Tabasco]

if I could go back 20-30 years in time and buy MSFT, INTC and some other stocks...

Mine too but then when I arrived back here, the Feds and the IRS would probably be waiting in my driveway......

[mo]

Maybe our mess around us is the result of some Liberal time travelers.....yeah!!That’s the ticket....

[Eye of Unk]

Been there, done that.

Literally.