Scientists to invent time machine in near future (you heard it here First!)

Pravda (Trust but Verify) ^ | 11/04/2005 | Maria Gousseva

[NCC-1701]

Wasn't Looter Guy in that picture? He may have been Photoshopped out. Would love to see the "original".

[cgbg]

Time n A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future

"Apparently" is the most important word in this definition (which makes it meaningless, by the way). :-)

[HoustonTech]

Actually Time Travel has already occured. It was invented in the year 3034. Many modern inventions haven't been invented yet. The atom bomb, for example, will not be invented until 2045 during the Interplanetary War. The bombs that were "invented" back in the 1940's actually came after that, and could not have been produced without future technology.

Amazing, but true! ;-)

P.S. to the admins. There is something wrong with the server clocks here. I wrote this note tomorrow, but it has today's date on it.

[Las Vegas Dave]

Dr. WHO? The same Dr. WHO that outfoxes the Dialeks and Davros??

The Tardis has been invented??

[BadAndy]

"I saw this movie. It was called the Terminator."

I saw the X-rated version called the Sperminator.

[woofie]

I want to go back and be nice to Bill Gates

[Bluegrass Conservative]

Or there was the Sherminator . . .

[moasicwolf]

Don't try and analyze this speculative garbage. Time is an illusion. It doesn't exist Freepers. The only reality is the present moment.

[toddlintown]

"If time travel was possible, where are all the time travellers from the future? They would be everywhere."

Just saw a program on this on the Discovery Channel. Looks like time travelers enter a parallel universe so we wouldn't see them.

[Pearls Before Swine]

If time travel was possible, where are all the time travellers from the future?

That's the classic question, but I think I have the answer: There are better times to visit.

[Kirkwood]

I have a time machine, but it is currently stuck in forward gear at 1x speed. It is hard to get the overthrusters I need to repair it here in the 21st century.

[PMCarey]

SF author Larry Niven postulated "Niven's Law" which states if: 1) time travel is possible; and 2) you can change the past; then: 3) No time machine will ever be invented.

The proof is as follows: If you can change the past through the use of a time machine, then the state of the past will be in constant flux (first Kennedy is saved, then he's assassinated, then he's saved, etc. etc. etc.). As the past goes through constant revisions, eventually a past will be created in which no time machine is ever invented. At that point, the past will be fixed in place with no future revisions possible.

Thus, if it's possible to change the past through time travel, no time machine will ever be invented and thus you can't change the past. QED

[Larry Lucido]

[Bigh4u2]

Since a 'moment' is a measure of time, the how do you know that the 'present' (also a measure of time) exists?

[Rose of Sharn]

Shouldn't this have been posted on the Friday Silliness thread?

[paradoxical]

There are blackout dates....6bc-70ad
No can go

[reagan_fanatic]

I think a machine could be invented to allow us to be 'observers' of the past.

This is my belief as well. If physical time travel were possible, we'd be tripping all over people from the future, especially at momentous events. However, seeing visions of events from the past seems a little more feasible to me.

[toddlintown]

Sorry. Can't help. You're in a parallel universe.

Now if there's an English telephone booth nearby with a guy wearing a long multi-colored scarf standing next to it and answers to the name "Doctor," ask him for help.

[cgbg]

The only reality is the present moment.

I don't mean to hassle a fellow Freeper but your comment is hard to resist.

In what increment would you like to measure this present moment?

A full minute?

A second?

A tenth of a second?

A millionth of a second?

When you think about it that way you realize our common sense perception of time dosen't make much sense at all.

This article was talking about equations which use the "dimension" of time to analyze the universe (which has the irritating characteristic of having more than three dimensions). :-)

The bottom line--we understand very little about time. It is a major intellectual challenge--and worth pursuing imho.

[LurkedLongEnough]

"Everything that can be invented has already been invented."

---Charles H. Duell, director of the US Patent Office, 1899