[Momaw Nadon]

FYI and discussion

[Husker24]

The only thing I can think of would be to find a way to travel faster than the speed of light with a powerful telescope and look back on the earth as it was in the past. Other than that I would say its impossible, but what do I know im just a factory worker.

[WhatWouldReaganDo]

I already posted this article tomorrow.

[gitmo]

If it's possible to build a machine to travel back in time, then where are the time-travelers from the future? Maybe they're investing in the stock market.

[mikrofon]

This is well illustrated in the film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

'Glad to see the article referenced well-noted technical sources....

[11B3]

Time is only linear in the observer's plane of reference. To travel to alternate times, you must change refernce planes - whether through quantum changes (physical) or through the learned skills of the yogi (mental). Remote viewing is an example of mental time travel (in which you cannot interact with the past, merely view it), and there are some references to humans who have the capability to co-locate or teleport through space/time.

[cricket]

"According to this theory, time runs slower for a moving person than for someone who is stationary."

ie. . .the 'physics of boredom' or the 'time flies' theory; when you are busy. . .

[Iowa Granny]

I know nothin' about this stuff. But I sure hope somebody figures it out soon. My Dad died when I was 7. I'm 58 now. I would cherish a day visiting with him. There are so many questions I'd like to ask.

On the other side of the spectrum. Traveling at warp speed is something I am keenly interested in. I currently have a 2 hr commute and it just sounds so tempting to walk out the front door and in the blink of an eye to have arrived at my destination.

[BJungNan]

Wow are these guys stupid, I just got through traveling in time. Geez, some people are absolutely clueless.

[fella]

Time travel is no big deal.

I've been doing it for a little over 56 years now, just hope I can keep going.

[Old Professer]

Bookmarked for later.

[Koblenz]

If time machines are possible, why haven’t we built one?

I think a better question might be: if time travel is possible, then why haven't we been visited from the future yet?

[Ichneumon]

Science fiction writer Larry Niven pointed out an interesting concept: Time travel is "unstable".

For example, if someone invents a working method of time travel on January 1, 2004, then there will be lots and lots of time travelers going back to visit past years prior to 2004.

With all the changes they'd inevitably make to the past, sooner or later someone is going to end up making a change that will alter January 1, 2004 enough that time travel *doesn't* get invented. For example, they might accidentally interfere with the birth, life or ancestry of the inventor, or start events in motion that sent him into a career in painting rather than physics, or they might interfere with earlier inventions which the time machine used as parts, or... Any number of things.

So eventually the past will happen to be altered in a way that "uninvents" the time machine that would have been built on 1/1/04, and *poof*, no time travel after all.

Then in the new timeline, someone else will eventually invent the time machine on some other date -- until *it* gets "uninvented" by people twiddling with the past.

Rinse, repeat.

So Niven's conclusion is that even if time travel into the past is possible, it'll keep preventing itself from being invented (for long, anyway).

On a similar note, I saw a trailer for an upcoming film ("The Butterfly Effect") which seems to be based on a somewhat related idea. A guy figures out how to travel into the past by sheer concentration, and he tries to prevent his dead girlfriend's death in the past. But every time he goes back and makes a change, the "ripples" of unintended consequences keep making the big picture even worse... It looks like a good film.

[gdc61]

The 5th dimension. The realm where time does not exist. the entire universe from creation to judgment in a twinkling of the eye.

[BenLurkin]

" . . . instantaneously turning yourself into a tomato. . ."

Haven't tried that yet.

Once tried to boil an egg using only the power of thought.

After focusing for several hours I did manage to get the egg up to room temperature.

[IrishCatholic]

I can almost see the outside of Plato's cave on this one. I was going to post something in an attempt to be funny but post 13 killed that. It speaks to time, loss, regret, love, life, and hope.
I approach time different. Time is our concept of being. It doesn't really exist. There once was no space, therefore there was no time. The universe is expanding, therefore it isn't infinite. There is something outside of space. So there is something outside of time. The whole existence of matter, dark matter, super strings, mass distribution of the universe (visible so far) speaks to an analogy of the smoke left after a fourth of july firework. It was bright and shiney, now it is just a memory.
I think that we are on one little planet, not yet convinced that we should venture out into the neighborhood, much less the great beyond. Time travel? I would just guess that someday post 13 will get the chance to talk with her dad, get a hug, and catch up.
Time? not too worried about it. The human mind and soul really aren't connected with time. Time is just something we use to tell when dinner is ready.

[I_dmc]

I never understood the 'grandmother paradox'. I see no reason that one couldn't go back and affect history to the degree of eliminating your own existence. The real question would be, would you actually cease to exist? I tend to think no. I believe one would make oneself an 'anomoly'. The key is the past that created you would not be altered, only the past when you came back.

[Lucy Lake]

As early as tomorrow, Coast to Coast show host George Noory plans a time travel experiment under the supervision of physicist and hypnotherapist, Dr. Irving Glotch.

"George has submitted two time periods he is interested in traveling back to: Roswell, NM July 1947 and to the mid-6th century to see if an asteroid hit caused the Dark Ages."

[Captain Beyond]

bump

[ffusco]

"Hawking proposed a Chronology Protection Conjecture which says that the laws of physics disallow time machines. Basically, such scientists argue that nature will conspire to prevent the building of a time machine - one possibility is that runaway surges in quantum energy would generate massive gravitational fields and turn any time machine into mush"

A sentient universse? Or G-d?

[aruanan]

(How widely accepted is the theory that we can travel in time?)

I time travel all the time--but just one way, and I keep up with the flow of traffic.