A Time Machine may be on the way

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of time travel, particularly the potential for creating a time machine and the implications of such technology, including the possibility of time paradoxes. Participants explore theoretical aspects, implications of time travel on entropy, and the feasibility of such inventions.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express curiosity about the potential for creating a time paradox if a time machine were built, particularly through scenarios like retrieving lottery numbers.
  • One participant references Ronald Mallett's design for a time machine using Einstein's equations, noting his claim that time travel could lead to branching universes, thus avoiding paradoxes.
  • Another participant questions the implications of time travel on entropy, suggesting that extending particle lifespans could lead to a reversal of entropy unless compensated by alternate universes.
  • Several participants argue that time travel to the past may be impossible or impractical, citing the lack of observed time travelers as evidence.
  • One participant humorously notes a past event where scientists invited time travelers to a meeting, but no one showed up, implying skepticism about the existence of time travel.
  • Another participant speculates on the mechanics of how a time machine could function, expressing confusion about its sudden emergence in discussions.
  • Some participants discuss the idea of observing the past without interaction as a potentially useful aspect of time travel.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally express skepticism about the feasibility of time travel, with multiple competing views on its implications and the nature of paradoxes. The discussion remains unresolved, with no consensus on the viability of time travel or its consequences.

Contextual Notes

Participants reference various theoretical frameworks, including General Relativity, but do not resolve the complexities surrounding time travel paradoxes or the practicalities of constructing a time machine. There are also assumptions about the nature of universes and entropy that are not fully explored.

mathewmcgill
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Hello,
First of all, I’m just an average Joe asking about an article I read concerning a scientist who believes he may be able to invent the first time machine. By what I gather, if he’s able to get financing and build it, he may be able to send messages to himself back in time – obviously not further in the past than from when he first turns it on.

My question is this: Let’s say he builds it and it works. Won’t this be the golden opportunity to create the first time paradox?

For instance, he’ll wait a week and retrieve some lottery numbers and win. However, this would be the golden opportunity to see what happens if he doesn’t send those numbers (after he already won). I know that I’d be itching to find out the results of such a move and I’d be scared to death, but I would strongly consider it.

What do you think?
 
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What article did you read?
 
pallidin said:
What article did you read?

I'd guess it's an article similar to this one.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7904712/Quantum-time-machine-allows-paradox-free-time-travel.html
 
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Professor predicts human time travel this century

Ronald Mallett, Professor at the University of Connecticut, has used Einstein’s equations to design a time machine with circulating laser beams. While his team is still looking for funding, he hopes to build and test the device in the next 10 years.

http://www.physorg.com/news63371210.html"

My concerning question is about creating a paradox, even though the article tries to deal with the issue:

“The Grandfather Paradox [where you go back in time and kill your grandfather] is not an issue,” said Mallett. “In a sense, time travel means that you’re traveling both in time and into other universes. If you go back into the past, you’ll go into another universe. As soon as you arrive at the past, you’re making a choice and there’ll be a split. Our universe will not be affected by what you do in your visit to the past.”

The way I look at it, "Yea maybe a split. A branching off to another set of possibilities. But, then again, we really won't know until it happens."

OK, what do you think ?
 
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Hmmm but wouldn't that cause the entropy of the universe to plateau and effectively stay still? Granted it would be minute, but still the laws of physics state the entropy of the system must increase over time. If these particles lives are extended and their decay prolonged, the universe effectively reversed entropy. Unless one of the parallel universes compensates for this, in which case its' laws of physics would perhaps be the exact reverse of ours. And in which case if the particle really did exist in this alternate universe, the net result would be nothing, no time travel, no effect on entropy.
Or maybe I'm just talking smack...?
 
lol, why does he "need funding" when he doesn't even have his machines sketched on paper yet?

People say a lot of stuff, doesn't mean its true.
 
Time travel to the past is either impossible or impractical.

If it were possible in our current universe, then we would have seen time travelers.

If it were possible to time travel to the past of a duplicate universe of ours, except one that is in the past, it would be impractical because there would be no way to go back to the original universe.
 
Vagn said:
I'd guess it's an article similar to this one.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7904712/Quantum-time-machine-allows-paradox-free-time-travel.html

Can't help but notice that the professor here has the same family name as the actor who plays Doc Brown (Seth Lloyd and Christopher Lloyd).
 
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guss said:
Time travel to the past is either impossible or impractical.

If it were possible in our current universe, then we would have seen time travelers.

If it were possible to time travel to the past of a duplicate universe of ours, except one that is in the past, it would be impractical because there would be no way to go back to the original universe.

Yeah I heard some scientists arranged a meeting where they got the word out that if there were any time travellers out there, they were to be present at the meeting...and no one turned up!
 
  • #10
PhysDrew said:
Yeah I heard some scientists arranged a meeting where they got the word out that if there were any time travellers out there, they were to be present at the meeting...and no one turned up!

Lol they should have gave them more time.
 
  • #11
I heard of a guy who is about to build a machine that can access people's dreams. He's looking for money right now.

Oh, and he's from out-of-town.
 
  • #12
Its already here!

Time Machine


Imagine yourself in another dimension, a parallel universe somewhere in time. You are watching a football game, sitting on your old couch, eating a hot dog and wondering if they'll ever show the cheer leaders again.

Suddenly, without notice, a loud whistle brings your mind back to the game. There's something happening, wait a minute, the refs have stopped the clock. WOW! They stopped the clock? The men in black and white move to some kind of machine, what could it be? Then BAM! you have traveled back in time. The screen in front of you is showing the history of past events, the game from multiple perceptions. Could it be? How is it possible that we have a time machine but no one knows it? You see the players playing football in the past as real as the present. Well certainly this time machine can not alter the past, you must be imagining things, as you are.

You think time machines don't exist but if they did there is a test. If it were truly a time machine it could alter the past, and so far that has not happened. Just then, the screen you are watching goes back to the referees and the present, Whew! That’s cool. The time trip is over, had enough anyway. You take another bite of the dog and at the same times the official on the screen announces "after further review we are changing the call." Well you nearly spit the dog out of my mouth. Did he say they are changing the past. Before you could grasp the full potential of what had just happened, that you had witnessed a time machine that actually exists, the refs start time again by simply swinging their arms. With a huge sigh of relief you are back to the couch, back from the changed past, back to the present.

Stunned, but coherent you look down at you watch and wonder if they can do it, why can't you!

=
MJA
 
  • #13
MJA said:
If it were truly a time machine it could alter the past,

Perhaps, but observing the past without interaction could be useful.
 
  • #14
How would that time machine work though? I don't understand how this would just come up out of no where
 
  • #15
General Relativity allows for time travel, so there are only two possibilities. Either GR is wrong, or we need to find ways of dealing with time-traveling paradoxes, regardless of whether practical time travel will ever exist.
 
  • #16
MJA said:
You take another bite of the dog and at the same times the official on the screen announces "after further review we are changing the call." Well you nearly spit the dog out of my mouth. Did he say they are changing the past. Before you could grasp the full potential of what had just happened, that you had witnessed a time machine that actually exists, the refs start time again by simply swinging their arms. With a huge sigh of relief you are back to the couch, back from the changed past, back to the present.

Stunned, but coherent you look down at you watch and wonder if they can do it, why can't you!

=
MJA
Not bad for a newbee!:smile::approve:
 

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