Unraveling the Time Travel Paradox - The Truth About Space and Time

[smurfslappa]

There will never be time travel. Time isn't a dimension of its own that can be crossed. Space and Time are one. To go back in time, all objects in space must move backwards too, including yourself. This would mean producing a massive machine to make all atoms and theyre subcomponents of the universe reverse direction and speed. And even then, you wouldn't be able to turn it on. OOooOo, maybe you could bring time to a standstill with it, you press the button, then unpress it, then press it again. crazy. there's no magic field you can surround yourself with that would make it powerless against you. since your actions are tied to everyone elses, your "not showing up for the great time reversal" would cause quite a ripple, if it could even happen. hmmmm.

 

[MadIce]

Michio Kaku (must be well known here ) wrote the following...

Is it real, or is it fable?

In H.G. Wells' novel, The Time Machine, our protagonist jumped into a special chair with blinking lights, spun a few dials, and found himself catapulted several hundred thousand years into the future, where England has long disappeared and is now inhabited by strange creatures called the Morlocks and Eloi. That may have made great fiction, but physicists have always scoffed at the idea of time travel, considering it to be the realm of cranks, mystics, and charlatans, and with good reason.

http://www.mkaku.org/articles/phys_time_travel.shtml by Michio Kaku.

BTW... About your "paradoxes"... The arguments involving paradoxes are not trendy anymore. They are a relic from the past.

This paper argues that the most famous objection to backward time travel can carry no weight. In its classic form, the objection is that backward time travel entails the occurrence of impossible things, such as auto-infanticide—and hence is itself impossible. David Lewis has rebutted the classic version of the objection: auto-infanticide is prevented by coincidences, such as time travellers slipping on banana peels as they attempt to murder their younger selves. I focus on Paul Horwich’s more recent version of the objection, according to which backward time travel entails not impossible things, but improbable ones—such as the string of slips on banana peels that would be required to stop a determined auto-infanticidal maniac from murdering her younger self—and hence is itself highly improbable. I argue that backward time travel does not entail unusual numbers of coincidences; and that even if it did, that would not render its occurrence unlikely.

Bananas Enough for Time Travel? by Nicholas J.J. Smith.

 

[lvlastermind]

maybe you could bring time to a standstill with it, you press the button, then unpress it, then press it again. crazy.

If time was stopped, how would you plan on pressing the button again?

 

[steveb]

I know...
Perhaps we need to contact the guys who wrote the Outer Limits' episode with Burgess Meredith, as a librarian. I think he had a watch that allowed him to stop time. Unfortunately, even he ended up breaking that watch--- while time was stopped. Oops!

 

[LURCH]

I agree with the O.P. that space and time cannot be separated, space is time and time is space; they are the same event described in two different ways.

Years ago, this realisation lead me to a time-travel paradox the likes of which I had not previously encountered. The most frequently cited method of backward time travel is to exceed the speed of lght (never mind that it can't be done). If some means of achieving the tremendous volocities required could be devised, the traveler who attempted to employ them would appear to be doomed. As soon as he surpassed lightspeed, the traveler would begin traveling backward through time, which would mean traveling backward through space. This would take him, at speeds just above c, backward through a time and space through which he is simoultaneously traveling forward at speeds just below c. Ha would crash head-on into himself!

 

[John King]

It seems to me that time is an illusion (as has been expressed by others) in that no one really knows what it is. Does time have mass and energy? If so, then why can't we see time? Is time analog or digital? The analog clock on the wall has a seconds hand that goes around the face of the clock in a constant motion. The digital clock on the wall has a seconds hand that stops and goes between each second. Does time stip when the second hand stops? I think not. And if time began at the "big bang" then tell me what existed that billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second before the "big bang?" It may be naive to think that time travel is impossible. So many miracles are happening in science that who knows, one day we may have a conductor so big and powerful that it could teleport the atoms of your body from one side of a room to the other and reassemble them in replica of yourself at the speed of light. Then you'd be able to have a conversation with yourself. Is that time travel?

 

[selfAdjoint]

It seems to me that time is an illusion (as has been expressed by others) in that no one really knows what it is. Does time have mass and energy? If so, then why can't we see time?

We can see motion, and it seems hard to think about motion without coming up with "Rate, Time, Distance". So how do you handle this everyday case?

 

[Mad_Gouki]

I know...
Perhaps we need to contact the guys who wrote the Outer Limits' episode with Burgess Meredith, as a librarian. I think he had a watch that allowed him to stop time. Unfortunately, even he ended up breaking that watch--- while time was stopped. Oops!

i thought that was the twilight zone...
either way, that was a really good episode!

 

[The Bob]

Here I go ...

Hey,

For what it is worth (from a 15 year old person) can I say that time is not a measurment. It was created by humans for purposes of syncronisation and, I believe, it is very misleading for use in physics. It must not be used on its own (e.g. hour) but with another factor (e.g. m/s = metres per second).

Time itself exist separate to us and can change as it wants. Therefore space can do the same (e.g. when it folds). Therefore unless we can think outside of time as it changes then time travel is impossible (there is a post somewhere else about thinking and moving in 4-Dimensions https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=26606).

Anyway that is all.

Hope to be as intelligent as all of you one day.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[steveb]

Bob,
While time was "invented" by humans, that invention was only a means of keeping track of how life passed for those in the midst of it.
Time existed long before we conceived of how to track it, or how existence passed for each individual. How can we explain the previous live's of those who came before us, and are no longer here? How do we explain what happened the moment before now? How can we explain the acceleration of an object that passed us? The derivation of a function, a concept. The device, or the measurement only defines what already existed. Just because we can now explain quantum functions does not mean we invented it, it just means that we've finally come to the place where we can now explain, and comprehend them mathematically, and physically.
Time is basically the same. We now have the wherewithal to explain it in terms that all humanity can comprehend.
The need for a device, or a concept that tracked the passage of one's life, and how to discuss the events of the past, or the previous epoch, became time.
To begin here is the beginning of how we discern it.
As to becoming intelligent... always be curious.
While life can turn off the need to learn, ask questions, etc..., if you are always awed, and inspired by the indescribable, you'll be, and are already intelligent. Remember the poet. He/she described the beauty, and awesomeness of life around them. Never forget the flower, the moonrise, a flickering star on a moonless night, or the sunrise/set on a cloudy day. Even the curve of a woman's body. Awe, and inspiration are part of the most basic aspects of what make us human, and intelligent.
Intelligence is not measured by one's knowledge, or level of understanding, but by one's desire to learn, and understand what has yet to be understood.
An unsatiable need for understanding, and wisdom.
By the looks of your articulation, you're already intelligent. Schooling, life, and experience will fulfill much of what you perceive as intelligence, and anything you lack to date.
BE patient with yourself, and enjoy the experience along the way!

 

[The Bob]

Bob,
While time was "invented" by humans, that invention was only a means of keeping track of how life passed for those in the midst of it.
Time existed long before we conceived of how to track it, or how existence passed for each individual. How can we explain the previous live's of those who came before us, and are no longer here? How do we explain what happened the moment before now? How can we explain the acceleration of an object that passed us? The derivation of a function, a concept. The device, or the measurement only defines what already existed. Just because we can now explain quantum functions does not mean we invented it, it just means that we've finally come to the place where we can now explain, and comprehend them mathematically, and physically.

At this point you have missed it, the point I mean. My point is that we are all concerned about time. What is it and how did it get here but really we need to think of time in a different way. I have read a fair few of these forums and most deal with what we call 'time'. My point is that time is not constant, exactly the same as plastic in heat. It stretches and models around what it wants. Time is the same. Just because we have put a clock to it means nothing, as the clock is controlled by time itself. Sure, we need it for acceleration and other calcualtion but my point is that is our time measure, not actual time. So to understand all of these problems with time we must think of it as changeable, that it is not consistent. Then we can think of other solutions to problems.

Time is basically the same. We now have the wherewithal to explain it in terms that all humanity can comprehend.
The need for a device, or a concept that tracked the passage of one's life, and how to discuss the events of the past, or the previous epoch, became time.
To begin here is the beginning of how we discern it.
As to becoming intelligent... always be curious.
While life can turn off the need to learn, ask questions, etc..., if you are always awed, and inspired by the indescribable, you'll be, and are already intelligent. Remember the poet. He/she described the beauty, and awesomeness of life around them. Never forget the flower, the moonrise, a flickering star on a moonless night, or the sunrise/set on a cloudy day. Even the curve of a woman's body. Awe, and inspiration are part of the most basic aspects of what make us human, and intelligent.
Intelligence is not measured by one's knowledge, or level of understanding, but by one's desire to learn, and understand what has yet to be understood.
An unsatiable need for understanding, and wisdom.
By the looks of your articulation, you're already intelligent. Schooling, life, and experience will fulfill much of what you perceive as intelligence, and anything you lack to date.
BE patient with yourself, and enjoy the experience along the way!

Thanks. That is really quiet nice of you to say that and remind me of it. You see, I am challenging a view on time and I am trying to get my point across, but if it turns out I am talking rubbish then I have learned something new and will be able to remember it and apply it to life. At the moment I always see thinks and search for answers in two or three views: Scientific View, Christain View and My Personal View. If I can learn more then I could incorporate all three necessarily to create more opitions and possiblities for our world of humans, as most are very narrow-minded. Just re-read my point, keep an open mind (do not discard it straight away) and then think on how it is right and wrong. Then take away the parts which are wrong (to you) and then apply it to science and you will find that somethings actually start to make sense more than they did.

Thanks for the help

The Bob (2004 ©)