Hello all,

I realize the concept of time travel is a little out there but this board is full of intelligence and lacking in trolls so I feel like it's a good place for my question.

Time travel would allow you to move through time, but not space. Thus, you could travel to New York City in 1900, but only if you "depart" from NYC in your current time.

If I understand this correctly, you remain at the same point in space, but travel in time.

This where I'm confused. Earth is moving through space. If you travel back to NYC in 1900, you'd end up somewhere in the cosmos where NYC was at that point in time and Earth won't be there.

Since Earth is constantly moving through space, it would be impossible to get back to that same point in space and have Earth be there. Right?

...just thinking.

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There may not be air in space but there is an Air in Space Museum.

Just don't shoot your father.

Ha! However, if I did that, I wouldn't have been able to be there to do it in the first place.

The problem with time travel is that time travel cannot be tangibly proven... Time travel is a signal as the surface response of the human form to its environment is...

:)


tsk tsk...

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Electrons started spinning, electrons are still spinning and electrons will be spinning tomorrow to the best of our knowledge therefore either change in acceleration is persistent or friction is fractally less than understood.

"Time travel is a forward escape into a new past..." Terrence McKenna

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Electrons started spinning, electrons are still spinning and electrons will be spinning tomorrow to the best of our knowledge therefore either change in acceleration is persistent or friction is fractally less than understood.

You cannot travel back in time since the principle of causality provides a paradox. You cannot travel forward in time either since that makes no sense.

What is possible is that you can take a trip at a very fast rate of speed and return having aged less than those who remained behind. You are not traveling back in time; you are only aging more slowly. All other notions of time travel are fiction.

Interesting stuff here. I should have noted that this is more of a pseudo-science topic...especially since I'm in the middle of Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World. Shame on me.

How do we define time? Watchinmg the Through the Wormhole episode "Does Time Exist" really gave me a lot to think about.

A few years ago some MIT students (I'm in the Boston, MA USA area) erected a monument that asked time travelers from the future to go back to the statue at a specific date & time. The date & time passed without incident. I wonder if the monument is still up? That's a key part of the whole expiriment!

Basically I was fixated on when time traveling from point to point, how would you even define that point? The Wikipedia article doesn't cover that, haha.

This thread is what happens when you read the Fermi Paradox article on Wikipedia and start following the links in the article to other topics. Just be lucky I didn't start a thread asking if we're living in a simulation!

Hello all,

I realize the concept of time travel is a little out there but this board is full of intelligence and lacking in trolls so I feel like it's a good place for my question.

Time travel would allow you to move through time, but not space. Thus, you could travel to New York City in 1900, but only if you "depart" from NYC in your current time.

If I understand this correctly, you remain at the same point in space, but travel in time.

This where I'm confused. Earth is moving through space. If you travel back to NYC in 1900, you'd end up somewhere in the cosmos where NYC was at that point in time and Earth won't be there.

Since Earth is constantly moving through space, it would be impossible to get back to that same point in space and have Earth be there. Right?

...just thinking.

Yes, because Earth is constantly moving through space you are correct in what
you stated quoted below...

...If you travel back to NYC in 1900, you'd end up somewhere in the cosmos where NYC was at that point in time and Earth won't be there.

Time in the universe relies on motion for it is actually a point in space and
time only shifts forwards because our position in space has moved forwards.
So every second of time that passes is actually a measurement of the distance
we have moved in space (space time) but we call it time though. Actually, time
as we know it does not exist for it has no dimension to it. It is a perception
we encounter brought about by having a memory. If time possessed a functional
dimension then we would be able to move along it both forwards and backwards but
it doesn't. This is the reason why we can not achieve and will never achieve the
ability to time travel either forwards or backwards.

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The Kite Fliers

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Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

Time is an illusion by which we order events in our lives.

Time is an illusion by which we order events in our lives.

Will', It's quite difficult for humans to accept this for the passage of
time has always been perceived to be a more physical event to them.

Like you, to me time is an illusion and I wounder because we can use this illusion in a very
constructive way is what gives us humans this thing called intelligence.
We are not on our own here with our line of thinking here about time, plenty
of scientists share our view here too. It is only a line of thinking though
but I feel pretty certain that it may well become the accepted line on this
subject one day. Time is inextricably wound up in time-space and if time was to
possess a dimension then this dimension collapses as soon as it is created for
it leaves no trace of it's existence. Meaning that time past, time present and
time future all exist at the same point in time-space. Perhaps what happens is
that the universe consumes time as we travel through time space. So as the
universe expands we consume the time part of space-time and as we go on
we just leave the space element of space-time behind us. So as long as the
universe is expanding, or collapsing, we create this illusion of time.
As regards time travel, then simply to do so we would have to take the
whole of space-time and the whole of the universe with us too, you just simply
can't do that...plus, no doubt, to travel backwards in time light would have
to travel backwards too. Us humans can not isolate ourselves from universal
space-time, "Laugh and the world laughs with you" is a well known saying and
for our universe we have one, "Move around in time and the universe will have
to move with you". Time travel is an impossibility.

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The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

Wow, some really interesting comments here. Thank you!

I liked the concept that the universe consumes time. And that you never hear of people saying that they have lived (before) in the future.

The ideas of seconds/minutes/hours have been invented by humans. However, wouldn't humans notice "time" passing without needing to reference a clock? I don't need to look at my watch to "know" it's been a few hours since I last looked at my watch.

Time travel does seem like an impossibility. BUT...
What if it's invented in the year 5,000? Why go back to the boring old 2000's.

Why go "back" in time at all? Would going forward be much more interesting?

Maybe it's developed and the first time it's actually used it's realized to be just too powerful and dangerous?

Maybe the act of trying to warp time & space breaks the universe?

Why go "back" in time at all? Would going forward be much more interesting?

Both I feel would be very interesting to experience, it would be the ultimate
experience. But since the universe can't split time past, present and future
apart into separate events we can only experience then the notion of time present.
If time possessed a dimension then we could at least travel backwards but because
it does not then time as we know it does not and can not exist other than in
our imaginations.

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The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

So I am wondering:

How do we measure time?

Do we compare time with something else?

Is time a constant or does it vary?

How do we know whether time goes forward (and not backwards)?

Does time exist at all?

Strong gravity (like inside the event horizon of a black hole) is supposed to make time stop up, making gravity the ultimate winner of forces.

Is gravity a "field"? Is it either particles or only pure energy?

The three dimensions which we relate to the cube (length, width and height) disappear when inside a black hole.

The black hole in its finite state is supposed to be represented at its core or inside the event horizon by the "singularity".

Space and time are closely related it may seem.

Please explain this to me.

So I am wondering:

How do we measure time?

Do we compare time with something else?

Is time a constant or does it vary?

How do we know whether time goes forward (and not backwards)?

Does time exist at all?

Strong gravity (like inside the event horizon of a black hole) is supposed to make time stop up, making gravity the ultimate winner of forces.

Is gravity a "field"? Is it either particles or only pure energy?

The three dimensions which we relate to the cube (length, width and height) disappear when inside a black hole.

The black hole in its finite state is supposed to be represented at its core or inside the event horizon by the "singularity".

All very good questions.

Space and time are closely related it may seem.

That does appear to be so.

Please explain this to me.

Measurement, and all observations, are all and can only be: "relative".


Another question is whether there can be any "absolutes". And whether we can build a view of our existence and that of the universe upon any one absolute or others.


Time passes?

So far, time is that which we can merely measure.

Keep searchin,
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

So I am wondering:

How do we measure time?

The distance traveled betwen two points in space-time.

Do we compare time with something else?

Yes, the spin of the Earth and it's orbit around the Sun.

Is time a constant or does it vary?

In our Universe it is constant

How do we know whether time goes forward (and not backwards)?

I suspect because the Universe is expanding, although if it started to
contract time will still progress forwards.

Does time exist at all?

No.

Strong gravity (like inside the event horizon of a black hole) is supposed to make time stop up, making gravity the ultimate winner of forces.

Since the black hole is still moving at constant speed through space-time -
time inside a black hole is not affected what ever else happens inside this
hole.

Is gravity a "field"? Is it either particles or only pure energy?

The jury's still out on this one...

The three dimensions which we relate to the cube (length, width and height) disappear when inside a black hole.

Singularity say's yes.

The black hole in its finite state is supposed to be represented at its core or inside the event horizon by the "singularity".
The energy inside the black hole forces all to collapse to a single point
(zero +) but not zero. All dimensions collapse to a dot without a dimension.

Space and time are closely related it may seem.

Space and time can't be separated in our Universe for time as we perceive it
comes about through the effect of bodies moving through space. Time can't be
perceived until a body has moved a distance through space itself.....hence the term
Space-Time.

The above is my take on it all, others will rightly have different understandings of them.

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The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

Does this mean if the universe, (and us within it), stopped moving, time would come to a stand-still?

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#resist

Does this mean if the universe, (and us within it), stopped moving, time would come to a stand-still?

My feelings on this is yes. Plus when the universe ceases to move all matter
will revert to energy because the atom will stop vibrating too.

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The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

more likely fundamental particles.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

I am striving to emulate my dog and live in the now. ;-)

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