General Clark Wants To Focus U. S. Resources and On Unlocking The Secrets Of Time Travel

Wired News ^ | September 30, 2003 | Brian McWilliams

[mrobison]

Wesley Clark: Rhodes scholar, four-star general, NATO commander, time-travel fanatic?

During a whirlwind campaign swing Saturday through New Hampshire, Clark, the newest Democratic presidential candidate, gave supporters one of the first glimpses into his views on technology.

"We need a vision of how we're going to move humanity ahead, and then we need to harness science to do it," Clark told a group of about 50 people in Newcastle attending a house party -- a tradition in New Hampshire presidential politics that enables well-connected voters to get an up-close look at candidates.

Then, the 58-year-old Arkansas native, who retired from the military three years ago, dropped something of a bombshell on the gathering.

"I still believe in e=mc², but I can't believe that in all of human history, we'll never ever be able to go beyond the speed of light to reach where we want to go," said Clark. "I happen to believe that mankind can do it."

"I've argued with physicists about it, I've argued with best friends about it. I just have to believe it. It's my only faith-based initiative." Clark's comment prompted laughter and applause from the gathering.

Gary Melnick, a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said Clark's faith in the possibility of time travel was "probably based more on his imagination than on physics."

[GaltMeister]

Herr General Clarks first executive order as president will be to re-tool the DeLorean factory.

[prairiebreeze]

Clark told a handful of supporters

Perhaps the most telling phrase in the article. Wonder if it was a handful of athletic supporters?

Prairie :^D

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

299,792,458 meters/second. It's not just a good idea; it's the Law.

Typical politician's mindset. There are no constraints that cannot be overcome by cohercing somebody. "I bet if I had that Einstein feller in here right now, I could convince to at least let me go 299,792,459 meters/second and then I'd work on him for 300,000,000 and pretty soon I'd have him up to 1,000,0000,0000."

This sort of reminds of the Dilbert, where they give the pointy-haired boss an Etch-a-Sketch and convince him it's laptop. Just put Wesley in a flight simulator, tell him it's a prototype hyperluminary vehicle and set the gauges to read 5,000,000,000,000 meters/second and ask for $5,000,000,000 "seed money" to make it practical. (Soooory, we couldn't get out when we swung by Jupiter, but for another $1,000,000,0000 we'll work on that.)

[Future Useless Eater]

>>"I've argued with physicists about it[time travel], I've argued with best friends about it. I just have to believe it. It's my only faith-based initiative." Clark's comment prompted laughter and applause from the gathering.

Most dems are going to have a hard time believing he said this.

Aren't there video cameras rolling 24/7 on this guy?

A video clip of this would be priceless!

[Dionysius]

Tsk, Tsk! Let he who is without sin throw the first photon torpedo!

[mrobison]

The point isn't that faster-than-light travel is impossible (clearly God does it regularly), but that this is a weird thing for a presidential candidate to be waxing poetic about.

[Charles Martel]

I heard a lecturer one time say that the reason we haven't invented travel at or near the speed of light yet is that you'd have the captain of the ship, as they pulled up to some far-away galaxy, saying to the navigator, "Here it comes, didn't it."

[mjp]

No full articles from Conde Nast. See below:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/987943/posts

[bicycle thug]

A former four star general with fire in his imagination. Who would ever have thought that would be possible?

But if he ever caused a violation of the temporal prime directive, he risks a visit from 29th Century Federation starships to correct things back to the prefered timeline as Captain Janeway of Voyager found out when the same thing happened to her and her crew. ;-)

[RightWhale]

Scientific American should be required reading

SA has been b*ttwipe since the Wright Bros. They had an interesting math column for a while, otherwise it is just a step above Popular Mechanics, maybe not even that since Pop Mechanics is honest about what it is.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Admiral Stockdale: "Who am I and why am I here?"

General Clark: "Who was I and when do we get there?"

[Tunehead54]

I have had some success in time travel. So far, I can only go forward, haven't been able to head back yet.

---

You must not be married. I am regularly forced to re-live my past! ;-)

Does the ability to exceed the speed of light necessarily "prove" time travel? Anyone (easy on the formulaes, please)?

[Arrowhead1952]

The Clintons probably put Wes up to this one - Bill would love to go back in time and get that blue dress dry cleaned...

Bill would love to go back in time and NOT marry Hitlery.

[aynrandfreak]

While I disagree with your statement that anything worth inventing has been invented, I do think that if someone were going to travel back to our past, they've already done it.

[hunter112]

BTW, here's a hot tip - bet everything you own on the Mariners to win their first World Series...in AD 2243...

Bill, that would be the one against the Chicago Cubs, would it? A Mariner-Cubs World Series is a sign of the end times in the holy books of at least three major world religions!

Seriously, did Clark actually mention time travel? Or did he just mention faster than light travel? I find it far easier to believe in the latter than I can believe in practical use of the former.

[Starrgaizr]

Actually, Wes is onto something. Maybe e=mc2 + 7

[El Gato]

While I agree that General Clark may be a bubble or two off plumb, I don't see where *He* said anything about time travel. He is only quoted as believing that faster than light travel may be possible. The time travel part seems to have been brought into it by Gary Melnick, the "senior astrophysicist" (note not indicated as Dr. Melnick) or by the so called "reporter", since even Melnick is not directly quoted on the subject.

Some physicists have also explored FTL travel, in a theoretical sense. They have speculated on everything from wormholes to tachyon particles. Some physicists even postulate that time travel may be theoretically possible under some very extreme, and likely not survivable, conditions.

[metalboy]

Actually going forward in time is quite possible and I do it all the time..Whoa...there I go again! I actually saw the little hand go from 4 to 5!

[Blood of Tyrants]

Yep, he would desperately like to go back in time and undo some things.

[metalboy]

If you throw a ball on a moving train, the ball goes faster than if you threw it standing on the ground, but if you shine a flashlight on a moving train the speed of the light stays the same. For matter to go faster than the speed of light it would have to be converted into energy and even then, the faster you go than light the more that energy would expand until you would become larger than the universe which is why faster than light travel is impossible.