U. Connecticut professor works on time machine

U-WIRE ^ | 9-28-2001 | Andrew Chemistruck & Courtney Hickson

[Stavka2]

Interestingly, our perception of moving forward at a fixed rate is only fixed by our relative speed of movement...as one increases his speed, heading towards the speed of light (or faster as Tacion (?sp) particles have been proven to move) a greater and greater time delution (?sp) comes into affect. Our perception remains the same as for our fixed point in space/time but the perception of others is greatly changed. For those moving slower...a much longer time would pass. An example of this, some one travelling to Alpha Centari at 50% speed of light might only spend a percieved 1 year in space, while his relatives would age 8 years during his one way trip. (Actually I'm not sure of of the top of my head what the formula exactly is, but I can always look it up.)

[Stavka2]

That was mainstream scientific beliefs...including from various American universities and is a point in most Techonlogy History classes. It's a good thing that a few people didn't follow the general consensous and kept experimenting.

[537 Votes]

I think it was Larry Niven who pointed out that if time travel were possible, we'd continually change the past until we ended up with a timeline -- no matter how improbable -- where time travel is never developed.

Given the nature of this time machine: you would be able to build it, yes, but the instant you turned it on, someone from the future would send back an A-bomb and blow up you and your lab.

[Aurelius]

"...based on a 4D...string perception."

I thought it was 10D.

[Psalm 73]

On a side note:
Great novel by Dean Koontz on this topic, called "Lightening". Great read.

[r9etb]

Uh, it says that one couldn't go back to before the machine was turned on, so that would make 1964 out of the question. ;)

But wait ... if I turned one machine on today, then sent it back to yesterday using a second machine, then I could use the sent-back machine to move forward in time by one day.

And if it's not a "point-to-point" time transfer, but instead a "delta-time" transfer, I could send machines from yesterday to the previous day, etc.

[aruanan]

See if you can borrow this thing from your fellow Professor. I'll see you in 1964.

Maybe you alredy did.

[Constantine XIII]

Well, guys, I'm back! I'm now 56 years old, from the year 2048 (anno Domini). Our team out here at UT finally figured out how to get the schiznit thing to work in reverse using 10.5 dimensional m-brane theory calculations running on a IntelSun Quirium 5 hypercomputer. I know you all have lots of questions, so I'll try to answer all that I can before I go back. We were aiming for anywhere between 2020 and 1999, and we hit early. Next try attmepts more accuracy, say in the range of back three weeks earlier (grrr), so if it works, flame away for the repost :O)

(Deep breath) here goes! We're at war with the UN (Give you three guesses as to who is the SecGen), but we're kicking their butts. We've pushed the ChiComs back off the west coast (but not before they nuked LA--working on it). They're playing Dunkirk-without-any-boats in Tiajuana right now. No way out.

In politics, most of the DemoSocs moved to Canada when war was declared, so whilst we've been kicking globalist tail, we've been undoing the last century and a half of damage to the Constitution. Next month a bill will come up to end the income tax after the war's over!

Free Republic is still around, and while it is much more visible these days (we have a boob cube channel!), we never left our roots. Still good ol' fashion conservatism as always! (A FReeper gets elected president between now and then, though I won't say who.)

I can tell you for a fact that we'll whip the terrorists, but I can't say more (stuff might still be classified, after all--looose lips sink ships). Oh, and please be gentle with the "protesters". They're more frigile (wimpy) than they look.

Bush will win in 2004, of course. He even carries Kalifornia, Condit get canned, as well as all of the loser who voted for National ID.

Oh, yeah, and the Cubs win the World Series (place yer bets!).

Well, gotta run. Hope some of this info is helpful.

Constantine XIII

[aruanan]

already

[aruanan]

I wonder if such a thing could be used to push computer processing out of the present, giving days, weeks, years, depending on how long the machine has been running, in order to then spit out the results of massive crunching as though having been done instantly.

[#3Fan]

Must not have worked, I don't any remember people suddenly popping into view.

[#3Fan]

Let me try that again: Must not have worked, I don't remember anybody suddenly popping into view.

[Cagey]

Constantine XIII

Shouldn't that be Constantine XVI?

[Constantine XIII]

The last Emperor was Constantine XII Dragases Palaeologos. I figured that my name was a natural progression. He fought to the death with the Ottoman invaders on the walls of Constantinople.

[Cagey]

I figured that my name was a natural progression

It sure is. I think it's a great screen name, but the reason I had you up to XVI was because of your time traveling to the year 2048.

[Constantine XIII]

Thanks! My bad for not picking up on your post. :)

[Critter]

I think Suzy would gladly go along for the ride. If you knew Suzy, like I knew Suzy....

[Washington at Morristown]

Mr. Peabody and Sherman Mallett set the WABAC controls.

[Cagey]

LOL! Mallett would have been a better name than Sherman in the first place.

[tm22721]

I haven't seen any time travelers from the future lately../

BUMP