Is it possible? Has anyone ever tried? Has anyone actually went?
2006-10-20 05:37:45 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
It might be; hasn't been ruled out by physical theory. Seems a popular theme in science fiction these days.
A very good book based on the concept of looking back in time is by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke, "The Light of Other Days."
Aloha
2006-10-20 05:46:13 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. It is not possible, and it never will be. Because time, in the sense that you are using, doesn't actually exist.
Humans are transitory. We only exist on this planet for a finite piece of an infinite eternity. (Or, if you prefer, we only live for a short time.) To separate our lifespans into workable sections, we invented things like seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, fortnights, months, years, decades, scores, centuries, millenia, ect. But time in this sense isn't like a river flowing past us, second by second. And we can't turn around and swim upstream. We progress, not time.
A more accurate metaphor for time would be a stationary line, not a river. We involuntarily follow that line in one direction. No human invention could change this and let you travel backwards in time, no more than you could walk a negative displacement. No matter where you walk or what direction you go, your displacement from your starting point can never be less than zero. These are just a few natural constants that cannot be changed.
Just to cover my bases, I'm choosing in my assertion to ignore the fact that, by crossing time zones or setting your clock back in autumn, you are in effect 'going back in time.' This doesn't change the duration of your existance or that of the world. If the whole world decided to call the year 1492 instead of 2006, we wouldn't be able to see Columbus' voyage to the western hemisphere. Nothing actually changed.
The impossibilty of time travel also nulifies time paradoxes. Such as the classic... if you go back in time and kill your grandfather, you would never be born, so in the future you would not make a time machine or travel through time to kill your grandfather, so you would be born, so you could go back in time and kill your grandfather... it goes on forever. Such paradoxes can never occur because time travel can never occur.
I've noticed a lot of people have all ready told you that they believe that time travel is, could be, or one day will be possible. The theories I present to you are my own, not those of researched physicists. So, naturally, my argument is not above contestation. Nevertheless, as alluring as the concept of time travel may be, I submit that it will never be anything more than a science-fiction dream.
2006-10-20 06:07:09 · answer #2 · answered by feral_black_gryphon 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no clear answer to this question, but in short, yes it should be possible. There are no situations in physics in which the variable of t cannot be negative. Therefore, it would seem that time can "flow" in either direction.
If time travel were ever to be accomplished however, and someone were to travel back in time, we would know before the fact... Because we would have met the time traveler first in the time to which he traveled.
One of the problems with the concept of time is that people tend to think of it as ever flowing forward, and that time can only exist as an arrow... or a train upon which there is no getting off. A train that ever travels along a track forever in one direction.
This may not necessarily be true. I believe, as many other physicist do, that time is rather like a loaf of bread. And that every moment is a slice. Time is "static", like ever other dimension with which we are far more familiar (up down, left right, forward reverse). And further that our "movement" through time is just an illusion of our minds. Our brains are wired to view time as behaving in a certain way, because that certain way is beneficial to our biology.
A creature that percieves its time alive as limited, will have a greater urgency to mate, and to produce offspring (another brain-wired reflex) than one that percieves its time here on Earth as unlimited. They are also more likely to attempt to preserve themselves, and extending their number of slices of the "loaf of time"... again increasing the chances that they will mate and reproduce. These advantages in reproduction were so universally advantagous that any form of life without that wiring was strongly selected against, and didn't last very long... because they wouldn't have proliferated nearly as much, as we have.
The definition of time, and physicist views on time are constantly changing, and there is no telling where we may be tomorrow in our understanding of the universe, so as with all physics and common sense, take all of this with a grain of salt, and come up with your own conclusions.
Tiger Striped Dog MD
2006-10-20 06:02:10 · answer #3 · answered by tigerstripeddogmd 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Today's science says that Time travel is quite possible. Even though Time travel seems to be a fiction now, may become a reality in a century. There is a concept called "worm hole" in physics which is considered to be the basis of Time travel.
You can find more about this in the below links
http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/John_Gribbin/timetrav.htm#time_travel_possible
http://www-c.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time/through.html
Has anyone actually travelled in time? NO....
2006-10-20 05:56:39 · answer #4 · answered by Nila 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Certain people have CLAIMED to journey or look back through time, but no one has come up with any irrefutable proof of actually having done so.
It is not scientifically possible, at this point in history, to look back or travel back through time. But, who knows what the future holds?
2006-10-20 05:47:54 · answer #5 · answered by sandislandtim 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes it is possible and it happens all the time. You will see in the future, just as I have come back to answer your question. I will tell you this and right now you will not know what it means.. but when the time comes you will know.. "Pick the red one in the middle".. remember those words for your future...
World Base Headquarters #27
Dec. 21st 2017
2006-10-20 05:42:18 · answer #6 · answered by Wolfeyen 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can't go back in time. There is just always the now and the future. The most you can do is SAVE time using yet-undiscovered technologies of space folding, and maybe even teleportation.
2006-10-20 05:42:18 · answer #7 · answered by HopeURSatisfiedW/MyAnswers 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is not possible, because if you went back in time your father would kill you before you were born and invent the time machine himself.
2006-10-20 05:39:59 · answer #8 · answered by angle_of_deat_69 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. If it were possible to travel back in time, we'd be inundated with travelers from the future. We aren't, so it must be impossible.
2006-10-20 07:35:27 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, i dont think so!!!
I think that lots of people have tried by now, but none have actually gone.
2006-10-20 05:40:08 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋