Posted on 01/11/2014 9:07:43 PM PST by 12th_Monkey
Time travelers, if they exist amongst us, have yet to betray their period-hopping ways online, according to a fun, new study aimed at finding visitors from another time, based on their digital footprints.
Theoretically, the idea of time travel forward in time should be possible according to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. In fact, scientists have already sent teensy particles called muons forward in time. But sending a large object, such as an entire person, into the future remains in the echelons of science fiction, for now.
Even so, over a summer poker game, Robert Nemiroff, an astrophysicist at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, sparked an amusing discussion with his students by asking: If time travelers were living in our midst, would they leave traces of their presence online?
The researchers chose two recent events — the March 2013 election of Pope Francis to lead the Catholic Church, and the sungrazing Comet ISON, which was first spotted in September 2012 — to search for premature online references to time travelers. Perhaps careless time travelers made mention of Pope Francis or Comet ISON on Twitter or Facebook before they were supposed to know about them, the researchers said.
"The Internet is essentially a vast database, and I thought that if time travelers were here, their existence would have already come out in some other way, maybe by posting winning lottery numbers before they were selected," Nemiroff said in a statement.
Nemiroff and his students combed through results from search engines, such as Google and Bing, and social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter. Ultimately, their hunt came up empty.
"In our limited search we turned up nothing," Nemiroff said in a statement. "I didn't really think we would. But I'm still not aware of anyone undertaking a search like this."
The researchers did find one blog post that mentioned a "Pope Francis" before Jorge Mario Bergoglio, then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected to lead the Catholic Church, but they think the reference was accidental, rather than a message from a time-traveling visitor.
Nemiroff and his students even created their own special blog post in September 2013 that asked potential time travelers to email or tweet "#ICanChangeThePast2" or "#ICannotChangeThePast2" a month earlier, on or before August 2013. But, they again found no signs of time travel.
Still, Nemiroff, whose research typically covers more serious topics such as gravitational lensing and gamma-ray bursts, said the study, while focused on a seemingly far-out concept, was an enjoyable undertaking.
"I'm always doing stuff on space and time," he said. "This has been a lot of fun."
Nemiroff said the study was conducted during his students' own time, and without the use of any grant funding.
I can’t take that picture. WSJ does not show up on the news stands past 2018.
Sure it is. If you could run around in a circle fast enough you would find that when you stopped the clock on the wall indicates you've moved ahead in time. Problem is getting enough energy to accelerate something fast enough for the time jump to be really noticeable. Going back in the past is a completely different thing and far more difficult, if not impossible. You would need to utilize weird theorized stuff like worm holes and other such space-time manipulators.
“Problem is getting enough energy to accelerate something fast enough for the time jump to be really noticeable”
how about 88 MPH and 1.21 jigawatts?
If there are any time travelers we should be looking for them at the race track (horse).
Unless they did something while in our time that made it impossible for them to return later. For example, they might return to a world in which all time travel has been banned.
OK, then just take one from July 2014.
Time travel has a 4 years forward minimum and a 4 years back minimum. If you’re wondering, I can’t go backward 4 years then come forward 4.5 years. Nor can I go forward 6 years the come back 5.5. The present for me is 1/12/14. So I have to go forward to at least 1/12/18 from today or 4 years back from today. After the 4 year minimum I can add by quarter hour increments if need be. I can return to today or yesterday but not to tomorrow. The past is set and I can not change it. But I can change the future.
Where on earth did you get that from?
Did you ever see the episode from the Twilight Zone called “A Most Unusual Camera”? If YouTube had it I would have posted a link to it. Unfortunately they don’t.
A Most Unusual Camera
Airdate: Dec 16, 1960
Chester and his wife Paula come into the possession of a camera that takes pictures of things five minutes in the future. When Paul’s brother shows up, they decide to take pictures at a racetrack to win some money. Later, they discover that the camera will produce only two more pictures. Will they come to an agreement about how to use their last two shots, or will the situation lead to their downfall?
Main Cast: Fred Clark, Jean Carson, Adam Williams
I did not get it from earth.
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And if it wasn't real, they wouldn't be deleting our posts!!
Never post revealing the secrets of time travel. Post fragments buried in pieces of disinformation such as how to make the perfect grilled peanut butter, jelly, onion, and bacon sandwich.
Was that one of those little ‘secrets’ the Kanamits left us on their last visit here? Lucky you were able to decipher it.
To Serve Man
The Kanamits arrive on Earth and seem to be full of good intentions, helping man in all sorts of ways. They leave a book. After scientists have decoded the title as “To Serve Man”, they frantically try to decode the rest of the book.
Airdate: 2 Mar 1962
I was 8 yrs old when I saw that episode the first time it ran.
Clever little guy you were then to make out those alien hieroglyphics. :)
Reminds me of a TV series or two, one I think was called “The Immortal” and how they pursued this guy 24/7 cause he effectively was immortal.
Or “The Fugitive”
But I can bet my horde of bitcoin which I do not have today its the Feds who want time travelers so they can find anti-socialists.
Just like the Nazis were on a crusade for anything that had to do with gaining super powers, weapons, mind control.
Sorry, I should have clarified that I wasn't talking about relativistic time dilation, which is well established, but the "Let's go have dinner with Sun Tzu" version that reaches back before birth, and then back home by nine...
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