How can time travel possibly work?

demanufactured · 20-10-2013 10:02am

RedFormanFITA wrote: »

We'd all like to think we could do that, travel back and forth in time but in reality would it be actually possible. I think there are a few problems that it would throw up and make it impossible.

The first is, would you still exist if you travelled back in time to a date before you were born or would you simply disappear or would you be absorbed into that time and become your father, your grandfather or an alternative version of yourself?

Would having a time machine, where you were enclosed in it, protect you from being absorbed into that time, lets say it's 2013 when you leave, therefore inside the time machine it will always be 2013 but outside it the time will have changed. If you step outside the time machine, what will happen?

So what about going forward in time, would that be possible? Again, I see the same problems, stepping outside the time machine in a date that was past the date you were supposed to die wouldn't you simply disappear and therefore make it pointless travelling forward in time.

Jesus OP, Haven't you seen Back To The Future?

Rubeter · 20-10-2013 10:38am

kneemos wrote: »

How can we build a time machine in the future if we don't exist yet in the future?

I have just rolled a cigarette and made a cup of coffee, if I could travel fast enough (that's all I need just speed) I could travel as far into the future as I want before the coffee is cold and I finish my ciggie, and I mean not just days, weeks or millions or trillions of years but as far as I want.......to the very end of time itself (if there is even such a thing).

It is quite possible you do exist in the future.........and your baby self still exists in the past, as I mentioned earlier a quite popular theory at the moment is that ALL time exists "now" and all that changes is our perception, moving from one moment to the next.
I just finished reading Time Reborn by Lee Smolin, a book that puts the argument that contrary to contemporary thinking time is actually real and the idea of all time existing at once is incorrect (It will take a few more readings before I will understand and maybe/maybe not agree with his argument).

kneemos · 20-10-2013 10:48am

Rubeter wrote: »

I have just rolled a cigarette and made a cup of coffee, if I could travel fast enough (that's all I need just speed) I could travel as far into the future as I want before the coffee is cold and I finish my ciggie, and I mean not just days, weeks or millions or trillions of years but as far as I want.......to the very end of time itself (if there is even such a thing).

It is quite possible you do exist in the future.........and your baby self still exists in the past, as I mentioned earlier a quite popular theory at the moment is that ALL time exists "now" and all that changes is our perception, moving from one moment to the next.
I just finished reading Time Reborn by Lee Smolin, a book that puts the argument that contrary to contemporary thinking time is actually real and the idea of all time existing at once is incorrect (It will take a few more readings before I will understand and myaybe/maybe not agree with his argument).[/quote

Yeah but we can't travel that fast so there's no possibility of anyone coming back.

Rubeter · 20-10-2013 10:58am

kneemos wrote: »

Yeah but we can't travel that fast so there's no possibility of anyone coming back.

First off, at the moment we only know of how to travel into the future, whether or not we can go in the other direction is still unknown.

Second we can't travel that fast today, but what the future holds is ??????????

Imagine if we were having a discussion 200 years ago and I told you within 200 years we would be able to travel at 10's of thousands of miles per hour, walk on the Moon or know how old the Universe is and what the stars are made of. Who knows what's around the corner.

Starscream25 · 20-10-2013 11:03am

Impossible, great to hear a discussion about it though.

Rubeter · 20-10-2013 11:17am

Here are a couple of vids to bend the brains of people not familiar with Special Relativity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wteiuxyqtoM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGsbBw1I0Rg

Ten of Swords · 20-10-2013 11:40am

Op what do you think of the 'Gold Bridge Man' photograph?

It was taken in 1941 in British Columbia Canada and shows a man in the crowd who appears to be out of place wearing modern clothing.

Internet crazies bloggers say he's a time traveller so it must be true :pac:

Muise... · 20-10-2013 12:19pm

I dreamt I read this thread before. It sounded like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bKCBwTIUh0

RikkFlair · 20-10-2013 1:24pm

Ten of Swords wrote: »

Op what do you think of the 'Gold Bridge Man' photograph?

It was taken in 1941 in British Columbia Canada and shows a man in the crowd who appears to be out of place wearing modern clothing.

Internet crazies bloggers say he's a time traveller so it must be true :pac:

Is that a Playstation controller he's holding?! :eek::pac: