Can time machine take you back before the creation of the time machine itself?
2006-08-10 14:09:00 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
It could but you would no longer have the means to travel forward in time to your starting point.
2006-08-10 14:15:34 · answer #1 · answered by katie V 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it was possible to create a time machine, then I imagine that it would be able to do such a thing. However, such a device could easily destroy the world as we know it.
Think about it: if a time traveler went back into the past and killed his own grandfather, what would happen? He would never be born, and thus never invent the time machine, and thus wouldn't have been able to kill his grandfather, and thus his grandfather would be alive and he would exist and he would invent the time machine....
This goes on and on in a repeating cycle. If you created a time machine, you would also have to find a way to isolate yourself from the effects of the timeline. Otherwise, world events might take a different course due to your meddling and you might never have been influenced to create a time machine in the first place.
I personally think that time travel will never be invented by humans because if it will be at some point, we would definitely have tourists from the future all over the place.
2006-08-10 21:20:42 · answer #2 · answered by what_m_i_doing 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think traveling back in time at all is impossible - the universe, by the laws of thermodynamics, tends toward greater chaos and disorder through time. A time machine would have to "re-order" the universe, which seems pretty unlikely.
2006-08-10 21:34:35 · answer #3 · answered by JBarleycorn 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe most of us have misunderstood what Time really is. You ( the questioner) like many of us, have based your understanding of Time on memmories that you have retained, your view of time travel is simply going back to when those memmories were present and re-living those moments. I believe that this view of Time is wrong. Time knows no beggining or end it only knows flow. The end of time is simply when Time has dilated to such an extent that it no longer flows ( like in a blackhole - beyond the event horizon).
Here's a piece of text I wrote in another forum, where I tried to demonstare Time's reality :
"Time travel is not possible from the way we think of it i.e getting back to the year 2001 or any other year that has passed. The reason is simple. Time simply isnt what we take it to be. We think of time travel as going back to the time of our memmories. This is wrong cause the laws of Physics simply does not allow such a Time travel. This is example to demonstrate the fact that the laws of Physics only work "Forward in time"(Human view) .
Imagine a sphere of mass moving accross a bed sheet with a velocity v. The sphere will squash the bed sheet in front of it and will stretch the bedsheet behind it. Lets say it travels a certain distance in this way. Now lets try to 'reverse the direction of time', the sphere should now move in the opposite direction. However, if it moves in the opposite direction it should now squash the bedsheet in its new direction of motion but if the bedsheet is itself moving back in time, the bedsheet should be stretched in that new direction of motion of that sphere ! Do you see how the laws of Physics themselves oppose our(human) general idea of travelling backward in time.
So if we cant think of past events returning to us, it means past events have no relevance in time. Therefore, in time words like begginning and end are irrelevant and our only things created by human minds. Time is not as we ( humans) view it at present. Instead its a flow. This flow is not aware of a beggining or end, it just keeps flowing but at different rates depending on motion in the ref frame and gravity. "
2006-08-11 01:26:16 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Which make of Time machine would that be?
2006-08-10 21:14:51 · answer #5 · answered by . 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Given that we don't even know if a time machine is possible, how can we know the limitations it may or may not have?
2006-08-10 21:14:13 · answer #6 · answered by Vincent G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
sure, but your actions may result in the deletion of the time machine that you traveled on, so the actual event in your original timeline could easily be sudden unexplainable death. i think that might be the best evidence for spontaneous human combustion.
2006-08-10 21:29:15 · answer #7 · answered by emptiedfull 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. I can't be.The concept of time mechine is itself a creation of a Great Mind.
2006-08-11 02:12:02 · answer #8 · answered by preity 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would answer that as a definite maybe...
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2006-08-10 21:23:55 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
read The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, for all of your time traveling needs
2006-08-10 21:21:57 · answer #10 · answered by Cap'n Donna 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋