Space Time Travel?

Question

I couldn't sleep tonight so I thought of this. I'm not asking you to prove me right or wrong, I'm just looking for thoughts....

Going backwards in time would be impossible because if you went back in time, the point at which you went back would be it for you....you would never be able to go forward in time from the point at which you'd gone back.

Providing that time is linear, the same would prove to be right for moving foward in time. One would have to reasonably believe that predestination were true in order to believe that seeing the future is possible and furthermore, if this is the case and one were to be able to move forward in time...the point at which they went back to the present day would become the end of the line for them again....because at that point, they will always have gone back to the past again.

It's like this, If I invented time travel and left at 6 am on 05/23/07 I could never move past that time and date, ever.

Does this make any sense? Thoughts?

erich, I do agree but let's say that time was curved not linear, could it be possible to say that there are alternate universes with that theory? and that time travel would essentially place you in an alternate universe to change the path of your life forever? I'm clearly too tired to be up thinking :).

FSE, love what you've said....so how about this:
I have traveled back in time from point A

I am older when I go back to point A

But the person that I was when I got to point A leaves again to go back in time.

So does this mean that eventually the world would have multiple versions of me walking around at different stages in my life? Because the person that I am at this minute in my life will never pass this point again if I've gone back in time, right?

I can never ever pass point A because when I get to point A the person that I was at that very second will be going back to another point in time?

Answer 1

What if time was not linear? I don't remember all of Einsteins works/thoughts (nor understand them all), but it was his thought that space was curved, and then he had the whole thought process of worm holes, all of which explain some phenomena in space like the orbits of Stars and stuff, and has been used to find the center of the galaxy.

However, thats space and not time, but just saying we can't automatically assume time is linear (which I believe it to be anyways). People used to think the world was flat, and many other scenarios.

Answer 2

You should likely give this more thought....

Using your example....
You Live your life from birth until 05/23/07 and invent time travel... depart from 05/23/07 to some point in the past.... say 04/10/07..... at this point the future you does not displace the past you already present on 04/10/07 but instead exists seperately ( follow this... you are not the same person you were physically even 10 minutes ago... your bady changes with every passing second and is not identical to what it was ) now... you live through the month to the point at which you time traveled into the past (05/23/07) at that point the "You" which has just discovered time travel goes back to 04/10/07 .... you have caught up to yourself but are now older than you were then and have lived through different events than your other self.... who is now your past self ... and you will remain traveling through time (forward at the normal rate) even after the other you makes the leap into the past...

Theoretically you could make many such trips from future to past having many versions of yourself be present during the same timeframe... there is no contradiction in this as the versions would all differ in "age" and "experience"....

It becomes a bit wierd if you consider making changes to history..... there are many opinions on this ... One I like is that if/when you change History a new universe is created to encompass the change... another theory is that you simply cannot make any changes no matter what because had you been able to the future you came from would have already exhibited the change and thus it would net be a "Change"... this all gets a bit confuzing but is fun to consider on those long boring evenings when you have nothing better to occupy your mind...

Answer 3

Think of Time as an arrow (however this arrow can go only 2 ways, forwards or backwards). It travels down a line, following the line one way until it is TURNED AROUND and headed back the other way. In other words, ALL TIME ALREADY EXISTS. You can't change it, and if you do, its simply a "side universe" your creating, the real world is still out there in Time/Space/Dimensions, sailing right along to your TRUE destiny for "that" space-time. You haven't changed your fate, you've simply made a new one some where/when else.

As was said, its all been done, all we're doing is viewing "our present, thru "our eyes"" and experiencing it for ourselves. That's the important thing. Live your life to the fullest and you won't need Time Travel : )

Answer 4

These are all variants on the old "If you went back in time and killed your parents, what would happen to you?" riddle. I strongly suspect that time travel is -not- possible for just that reason, it introduces a perfect paradox into the issue of causality.

Unless the 'multiple Universe' Theory turns out to be true (and nobody sees any way to 'prove' or 'disprove' it at the present time), in which case your consciousness would simply 'switch' to a different Universe (or time line) in which you never existed. You would simply cease to exist. Or, in a less extreme situation, maybe you'd do something that would make you rich, or famous, or whatever.

Or maybe 'cause and effect' (causality) is just an illusion and it's all down to random actions which are 'filtered' by our consciousness to give the impression that causality exists.

HTH

Doug

Answer 5

As far as the best scientists know, we cannot go backwards in time. Just ask Stephen Hawking, ill accept his answer anyday.

It has been proven that we can go forward in time though. If you are moving faster than the average person on earth, you are moving forward through time, thanks to the laws of relativity. For example, if you spent your whole life on a 747 plane, you would live about 30 seconds longer. If you spent your entire life on the space station, you would live about 10 minutes longer. These times are spaced out across the time that you where traveling.

If you where going the speed of light for a couple years, you would return to earth a couple thousand years later. This is becuase of the huge increase in speed that the speed of light entails.

Answer 6

Because of causality we are all traveling forward in time! We are all progressing into the future from one micro second to the next! I believe time is discrete and that we should be studying what happens in between each of these discrete time moments! The past still exists but it would be very difficult to return to that time and then return to the present! We are all time travelers!

Answer 7

yeah sort of, it will kick in a couple seconds lol
but i can say this, when i run time beats slower on me, i swear, seconds go by slower than they normally, sucks cause makes it seem like i run longer ;)