Posted on 06/17/2005 12:06:22 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Kewl. Does this mean I can travel back in time to 1980, to the night I met my ex-wife, and yell at myself "RUN, YOU IDIOT! RUN!"
"Any reliance on SciFi writting is laughable to the point of being ignored."
You're being a bit over-serious, to the point of dour, here. The author's reference was tongue-in-cheek, specifically due to the science fiction popularized in books and film.
The Earth and solar system are moving thru space at about 13 miles per second(IIRC) around the hub of the galaxy which is also moving thru space at an even faster speed. The positional calculations alone are a real bear, and when you look at the energy requirements, and that you have to take that energy supply and a computer, with you to get back, it gets unsurmountable real fast.
For those and other reasons we won't be time traveling anytime soon, if ever.
I just wish I could send a small piece of paper backwards to myself, about 30 minutes, with 6 numbers on it.
"You can't travel into the past. You can only travel into the future."
Then the big question is "can you get back?"
"You wouldn't be able to kill him because the very fact that he is alive today is going to conspire against you so that you'll never end up taking that path leads you to killing him."
Well! So much for my plans for father's day!
(ducking)
"Then there's that aforementioned predetermination argument. Am I really making choices, or do I only think I'm making choices?"
If you think you're making choices, then you are. That your choices were known beforehand changes nothing.
You could, but your wealth today has already been set. You would not be richer than before you went back to the past in order to alter the present (which then was in the future).
But, you could travel to the *future* and buy a copy of the Wall Street Journal, travel back to the present and invest wisely. Since you travelled to the future and now know with certainty what will happen, quantum mechanics says that the future, now, cannot be altered. Just make sure you do not meet yourself, else your future will also be already determined.
Now where's that Tylenol.
"you would have to move your mass backwards"
Bass mackwards? "Hey YOU!!! Move your mass!!!" LOL.
Wasn't this the theory used in the most recent movie "The Time Machine".
The guy creates a machine to go back in time to prevent his fiancee from dying, but she keeps getting killed, in different ways, EVERY TIME.
Turns out, the only reason he created the machine was because of her death. His existence in the past meant that SHE HAD TO DIE. Very clever.
So it is impossible to change anything. But then by simply going into the past you would be changing something, the air you breathe ?
You guys are kidding, right ?
Say what? What a stupid article.
"Since you travelled to the future and now know with certainty what will happen, quantum mechanics says that the future, now, cannot be altered."
Careful, the quantum cyber-harpies might swoop down and call you a Luddite idion, LOL. Or would that be a neo-Luddite?
This is apparently related to the laws of genetics, to wit: If your grandparents never had children, neither will you.
If you could find a way to generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity. And have a DeLorean.
I travel into the future all the time. One second at a time.
"idion"
That would be idiot, idiot.
Just to be fair, they did kill Zarquon, Lifnerd, and Bullawayo -- and they were far worse.
"I travel into the future all the time. One second at a time."
Well, no. You're riding on the back of a now, which has always marched forward.
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