Time travel will never be possible.

[Mjolnir07]

'Time' is a system of measurement created by human beings used to give us a sense of structure to the references/memories in our minds that we call the 'Past' and ideas we call the 'Future'. My point being: the past and future don't exist outside our minds. Therefore, physical time travel is impossible.

Huzzah! Someone else thinks this too!! I'm not crazy after all!

No no. Hours, minutes, seconds and such are our measurements of time, and the things we use to organise our memories. Time itself does exist outside our minds. You think if all humans were dead then time would stop?

Actually, yes. If a tree falls in the forest and noone is around to hear it than it does not make a sound, not a fact, but the basis of your logic. Because if hours, minutes and seconds ar our measurements of time, then if nothing which could perceive units of measurement for time existed then it would be immeasurable and therefor would not exist.

 

[Mjolnir07]

The 4th dimension is not a variable, not an imaginary number but a linear integer.

Given that time is infinite, all things will occur an infinite number of times. The only way to effectively travel into the past is to travel forward into it. Assuming we could some how devise a bizarre way to transform ourselves into light and then back to our original state from it, one could then travel forward for x number of years into the pattern of time has completed a cycle. This entails being in a state of existence for multiple quadrillions of lightyears, because not only would you have to travel forward through time for long enough to exist within a moment similar to one relative to your present position on the linear integer.

[~ = infinite]
x=time
y=x~

x= y - (xy)- x~

You would have to pass up every instance of the pattern that occurs which involve the infinite number of variables which will take place in the continuum.

In x lightyears, everything will have taken place that has taken place before this moment in order to manifest the universe in the way that we exist in it at present, but before then every other variation of this existence will have already taken place within the pattern before the cycle is complete, and that cycle will take X - y number of lightyears.

So you're saying that the only way to travel back in time is to turn ourselves into light and back? That's pretty cool.

Or find the cure for mortality. If you never die then you essentially will be around to see everything that has happened happen again.

 

[RavingPenguin]

The 4th dimension is not a variable, not an imaginary number but a linear integer.

Given that time is infinite, all things will occur an infinite number of times. The only way to effectively travel into the past is to travel forward into it. Assuming we could some how devise a bizarre way to transform ourselves into light and then back to our original state from it, one could then travel forward for x number of years into the pattern of time has completed a cycle. This entails being in a state of existence for multiple quadrillions of lightyears, because not only would you have to travel forward through time for long enough to exist within a moment similar to one relative to your present position on the linear integer.

[~ = infinite]
x=time
y=x~

x= y - (xy)- x~

You would have to pass up every instance of the pattern that occurs which involve the infinite number of variables which will take place in the continuum.
In x lightyears, everything will have taken place that has taken place before this moment in order to manifest the universe in the way that we exist in it at present, but before then every other variation of this existence will have already taken place within the pattern before the cycle is complete, and that cycle will take X - y number of lightyears.

So you're saying that the only way to travel back in time is to turn ourselves into light and back? That's pretty cool.

Way to go! you just dumbed down quantum physics to a elementary school level. Its not a bad thing, and I believe more people will understand the impossibility because of it.

 

[Lukeje]

...and yet I'm travelling through time right now... weird.

 

[BaronXS]

The 4th dimension is not a variable, not an imaginary number but a linear integer.

Given that time is infinite, all things will occur an infinite number of times. The only way to effectively travel into the past is to travel forward into it. Assuming we could some how devise a bizarre way to transform ourselves into light and then back to our original state from it, one could then travel forward for x number of years into the pattern of time has completed a cycle. This entails being in a state of existence for multiple quadrillions of lightyears, because not only would you have to travel forward through time for long enough to exist within a moment similar to one relative to your present position on the linear integer.

[~ = infinite]
x=time
y=x~

x= y - (xy)- x~

You would have to pass up every instance of the pattern that occurs which involve the infinite number of variables which will take place in the continuum.

In x lightyears, everything will have taken place that has taken place before this moment in order to manifest the universe in the way that we exist in it at present, but before then every other variation of this existence will have already taken place within the pattern before the cycle is complete, and that cycle will take X - y number of lightyears.

So you're saying that the only way to travel back in time is to turn ourselves into light and back? That's pretty cool.

Or find the cure for mortality. If you never die then you essentially will be around to see everything that has happened happen again.

Well, since I can't prove that we will never find a cure for mortality, I must say, you've punctured a large hole in my theory. Well played.

One more thing about Hawking's question on why we haven't seen time travelers yet: The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. Don't know if you get what I'm trying to say.

But my theory still stands in a way. Time travel will never be possible IN OUR UNIVERSE.

 

[Mjolnir07]

Oh yeah, and then you'd have to either kill the you that has been manifested by the pattern at that future or travel forward only far enough to a variation of the pattern that includes everything as you know it now except yourself.

 

[Trako]

Whenever you make a decision, you are only aware of the outcome of the one choice you make. It's been theorized that there's also a split where you make the other choice, and followed through by the other "you". Sliders is based on alternate realities, though it's a bit simplistic to think we'd all be trapped in the same reality. Of the infinite combinations and possibilities, it is theoretically possible to have two separate realities where all but one person is the same.

How does this affect time travel, you ask? Well, not only do you have to zero in on the correct alternate plane in which you want to make an impact, entering into that plane also creates a divergence where you are there and where you are not. I wonder what it would be like if a time traveler actually entered THIS particular reality. There are so many others to choose from, all based on what events may or may not have transpired.

To think that time itself is linear is incorrect, it is more like a mesh, where each decision kind of branches out, and there may be decision clusters, or decision cascades. You could very well go back in time and find Hitler never came to power, or that the United States is part of the Commonwealth and/or the UK's largest colony, by which it wouldn't be called the United States in that instance. The mere fact that we can dream up alternate outcomes to war means there is a reality out there where it actually did happen.

I just find it hilarious that time travel covered in TV and movies is so simplistic as to only have a single timeline that can be "fixed". This is not the case. With so many variants, it's easy to have huge divergences, and once you leave, you can almost never go back to the exact same time-strand which you left. Some relatives may be dead, or may have avoided death. Relationships may have been affected, etc. It may be cool to go back in time, but if you think about it, even THOSE possibilities have been covered, accounted for, cataloged, saved, are being experienced and even causing havoc in some instances, all on different timelines as we speak.

Time travel IS possible, in another timeline.

 

[Mjolnir07]

The 4th dimension is not a variable, not an imaginary number but a linear integer.

Given that time is infinite, all things will occur an infinite number of times. The only way to effectively travel into the past is to travel forward into it. Assuming we could some how devise a bizarre way to transform ourselves into light and then back to our original state from it, one could then travel forward for x number of years into the pattern of time has completed a cycle. This entails being in a state of existence for multiple quadrillions of lightyears, because not only would you have to travel forward through time for long enough to exist within a moment similar to one relative to your present position on the linear integer.

[~ = infinite]
x=time
y=x~

x= y - (xy)- x~

You would have to pass up every instance of the pattern that occurs which involve the infinite number of variables which will take place in the continuum.

In x lightyears, everything will have taken place that has taken place before this moment in order to manifest the universe in the way that we exist in it at present, but before then every other variation of this existence will have already taken place within the pattern before the cycle is complete, and that cycle will take X - y number of lightyears.

So you're saying that the only way to travel back in time is to turn ourselves into light and back? That's pretty cool.

Or find the cure for mortality. If you never die then you essentially will be around to see everything that has happened happen again.

Well, since I can't prove that we will never find a cure for mortality, I must say, you've punctured a large hole in my theory. Well played.

One more thing about Hawking's question on why we haven't seen time travelers yet: The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. Don't know if you get what I'm trying to say.

But my theory still stands in a way. Time travel will never be possible IN OUR UNIVERSE.

Oh no, I agree, the way I defined is only one way of looking at it. There are many relevant theories which strongly persuade that an infinite number of multiple parallels to our universe
exist simultaneously. Time may very well be linear in our universe, but it may not be in others.

 

[oliveira8]

Well, your entire point is negated if the time machines that they build can travel back to a time before they were created (and many hypothetical time machines can't).

Also you are assuming that the future will be a lot like now, and there will be fairly traditional seeming terrorists who care about us.

Your argument also hinges on mechanics of time-travel which are only speculative. For all you know the universe-splitting hypothesis could turn out to be correct.

Hawking was somewhat more on the mark by asking if time travel ever gets invented, why aren't there time travellers here now.

And to that I can only say: did you check to make sure that the last police box you passed was the same size on the inside?

I was thinking about the same thing Hawking was too. What is a police box?

TARDIS=Time and Relative Dimension in Space, a time machine that its bigger on the inside, that can travel to any point at any given time in the Universe.

Doctor Who stuff.

 

[Mjolnir07]

Oh certainly, just the fact that you stepped into the past means that the future you know will be a part of numerous new branches to the variations of itself.

 

[The_Echo]

I don't think it'll ever be possible to go back in time. I just don't see how it could be possible.

If it were to happen, though, I believe that any paradoxes caused by time traveling would correct themselves, or an alternate timeline/universe would be created as a result.

 

[BaronXS]

But I have to ask you in all seriousness. Do you truly believe that humankind will ever discover a method of going back in time?

 

[deleted_scifidownbeat]

DELETED

 

[Mjolnir07]

I actually care more for the infinite improbability calculator than the TARDIS. It actually follows a pristine and possibly accurate logic.

To paraphrase the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy:

"Hero's chance of survival is 0.1E7739955139, hero's ex girlfriends phone number is 7739955139, the likelihood of this coincidence is infinitely improbable, hero survives."

 

[Cody211282]

of course time travel is possible, we already travel through time perfectly well.
in one direction.

since our five senses are so limited to our universe's planes i don't think we'll ever be capable of breaking through to a malleable sense of time, purely because we'll never fully understand the question much less come up with an answer

This I agree with, ya I really don't think that humans can go back in time

 

[ultracheeser]

time doesn't exist. Its just a measuremnt of the suns position, I think.

 

[BaronXS]

I actually care more for the infinite improbability calculator than the TARDIS. It actually follows a pristine and possibly accurate logic.

To paraphrase the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy:

"Hero's chance of survival is 0.1E7739955139, hero's ex girlfriends phone number is 7739955139, the likelihood of this coincidence is infinitely improbable, hero survives."

I loved that book series.

 

[Sieg The Bum]

It?s not only possible but it is being done (On a very small scale).

According to the general theory of relativity time is relevant. So without going too deep into the finer details, the faster you go the slower the time flow. This has been tested by shooting decaying particles at speeds close to the speed of light. They then measure the particles to find that they didn?t decay as fast as they should have thus proving that the particle experienced a decrease in time flow. The next big step that has to be taken is to make it so a person would be able to go that fast and survive it but they would only be able to travel forward in time and not back.

actually that's the misnomer about it. it's not that time slows down when you approach the speed of light, it's your perception of time that is affected. it's one of the more tricky parts of the theory and a lot of people don't get it right.

so basically a person would be seen as standing still if you went by them at the speed of light and you would be a blur. it's basically the exact opposite of what you'd see with a black hole and it's event horizon

I just want to make sure I have this experiment right then. According to Einstein the speed on light is a constant. So if you bounce light off of two mirrors that are directly above each other it takes the light light x amount of time. Then we do this in a moving environment, to the person in the car the light is still going up and down but to the outside world it is actually moving in a triangle shape. But because the speed of light is constant it takes more time to travel this larger distance then the smaller up and down distance. Proving that time is relevant to the environment.

Sorry it took a while to reply I had to dig out my physics book. Example was taken from Pg1118 of "Physics for scientists and engineers"

 

[Deadpoolsbrain]

I think if someone messed with time it already happened because it was meant to happen. No new timeline no new messups.

 

[wewontdie11]

But I have to ask you in all seriousness. Do you truly believe that humankind will ever discover a method of going back in time?

Quite possibly. I mean we invented electricity and nuclear fusion, time travel is just another thing to shot towards.

I personally think that if in the future time travel is possible, we wont be able to change the past because that series of events has already happened to lead to the person travelling back in time, so in the current timeline they will have appeared at some point in the past and done what they were determined to do. That also makes paradoxes pretty improbable. If you understand my logic...