Controversial subject of Time Travel

[ElectrikRipple]

now we all know that time travel is a very controversial subject. I believe that it is possible and am actually writing a research paper on it. I have a theory, however, that if you did travel into the future you could never see yourself or interact with yourself. If you went into the future than you would not exist in the future until you returned back to your present. Therefore, you cannot ever interact with yourself in the future. The End. I would love for people to email me to discuss time travel and other things so feel free to respond to this thread and email me at shakastar@cool-ideaz.com
P.J.

 

[mouseman]

Right, that would only be the case if retro-time travel were impossible. If you traveled 20 years into the future, then traveled back to a point even 1 second after you first left, your time-travel event would be in the future of your now, so in 20 years, two of you will exist. Does that make any sense?

 

[ElectrikRipple]

Maybe

yes i can see what u mean, but...hmm...didnt think of it that way...good job! haha do u believe that time travel does exist? ill think of something don't wry
P.J.

 

[mouseman]

Actually I'm not sure what I believe anymore. So... confused. Too... much... information. Can't... form... complete... sentences.

 

[ElectrikRipple]

Haha

lol i know how u feel. I replied to some of your other posts. Just so you know. Oh and does my theory sound sort of a little bit kind of logical?
P.J.

 

[mouseman]

Yeah it does but like you said this is a controvertial subject. But go for it man. Just remember to narrow the claim your thesis statement makes and back it up with sound ideas. But you already know that, right?

 

[ElectrikRipple]

Sure

Of cooooooooooooarse i know it haha how old are u? I am 16 sophmore in high school
P.J.

 

[ElectrikRipple]

sweet
P.J.

 

[Raavin]

If you traveled to the future you would not exist in the time from leaving to arriving, because you disappeared in the past and the event of you going back hasn't happened yet. What you are talking about is a splitting in two of yourself or of the timeline. It's a common theme about not being able to interact with yourself. If I invented a time machine in the future and tried to contact myself now, something would stop me because, wait a minute...no I haven't arrived here. The idea is that if there is a single timeline then time travel into the past does not effect it because it didn't effect it the first time because you were already there the first time. Does that make sense? Of course the main problem with time travel is that if you could go back or forward even a day, when you arrived at your time destination you would be at a completely different place because the entire universe has moved. That would be a bit of a problem.

Raavin

 

[mouseman]

Ok its 12:22 am here. I'm jumping in my time-machine I hit a couple buttons and bam! its now 12:30:00am only one of me exist. The time between 12:22:01 and 12:29:59.99999999..., I did not exist, which is what you said Raavin. Now, I jump back in my time machine and go back to 12:22:01. There is still a time frame where I do not exist: between 12:22:00 and 12:22:01. In that moment of time I'm in the future. If I traveled back to 12:22:01 and I sit here in my room till 12:30:00 I'm going to see myself pop up because my past self is still in the future. I think. I'm getting confused. I think it's time for bed.

 

[ElectrikRipple]

dude yea I am hitting the sack and ill write tomorrow...too...much...thiinking...ahhh
P.J.

 

[Raavin]

You are sitting in the lab next to your machine and ask your lab partner to write a message on a piece of paper which you will read to yourself when you see yourself in your futures past, which will actually be in about 10 seconds. The machine appears and the other you steps out, pulls out the note and says, "Whatever you do, don't get in the time machine". You pull the note from your own pocket and the note reads the same. What happens next?

Raavin [?]

 

[mouseman]

You get in the machine anyway?

See the only problem I have with this junk is that meeting yourself in the past implies an infinite loop. And I don't believe in infinity outside mathematics.

 

[Raavin]

Thing is, if there was only the one time line, you wouldn't have a choice. Something would force you into going through exactly the same steps your time traveling doppleganger went through. Otherwise you wouldn't have appeared in the first place. There isn't really an infinite loop 'cause once the arriving (now) and leaving (future) events are over, the loop is closed. What it does imply though is determinism and that there is no free will. Although it could also imply that we are aware of 'all time' and that we simultaneously choose particular actions along the entirety of the timeline in an instant, or singularity, of time.

Raavin

 

[mouseman]

Originally posted by Raavin
There isn't really an infinite loop 'cause once the arriving (now) and leaving (future) events are over, the loop is closed.
Raavin

Right there's no infinite loop for the you in the now, but it would mean that there is an infinite number of you's; an infinite number of 4-D frames.

Ok stop me if you've heard this one...

I've been thinking abouttime travel most of the day today and an idea dawned on me. I'm sure this has been considered before, but I'm going to mention it anyway. Hypothetically speaking, let's say time-travel is physically possible and we somehow develop a way to accomplish it on the Earth's surface. As an example let's say someone travels about six months into the future. Wouldn't your arrival point in the new frame be your original position relative to the universe rather than the earth? Afterall it's a jump through space-time, not earth-time. That would mean that our time-traveller would pop up on the opposite side of the sun! And there is no telling how much our solar system has shifted after six months, nor the position of the galaxy. He might end up in the middle of the galaxy. This would make him very upset. He could also jump forward just a few seconds and end up in the Earth's core, if he started the jump on the leading side of the earth. This would make him very dead. So I will never volunteer to be a time-travel guinea pig. But seriously folks, this time-travel jibberish is being taken to literally. When it was declared a theoretical possibility, I'm certain that traveling through time like Marty McFly was not a part of the deal. It's really more like "time-cheating," the way I see it. It was stated that a wormhole is a conduit between two distant points in space. That would indicate that you could never end up in the same exact spot you started in. That also means that you aren't going forward in time per se, you're just moving to another point in space faster than conventional means would allow.

Wonderful. I just destroyed my own hypothesis.

 

[The Grimmus]

could you kill your parents before you where born

I rember this on the old PF it wnet soemthing like this:
If i could go bakc in time kill my parents years before i was born what if anything would happen.
I thought it was rather interesting to see what peopel have to say now.

I think it would break time into two outcomes
First out coem is where you exist but you go bakc in time and kill your parents undoing your existence and then the second out come comes into play where you don't exist but that immedatly ends becuase if you don't exist you can't kill your parents. So you do exist becuase yu cnat kill your parents but since everything goes the exact same way you kill your parents agian...this results in a loop between outcome 1 and 2 but no one would know and now ladies and gentle men i have a headache...

I merged this into the current thread to avoid the clutter of multiple threads covering the same topic.

Janus

 

[mouseman]

This topic is being discussed in a couple different threads. Perhaps we should make a separate sub-forum solely devoted to Time travel...?

 

[Raavin]

Right there's no infinite loop for the you in the now, but it would mean that there is an infinite number of you's; an infinite number of 4-D frames.

I don't think so. When both event are over, they are over. There would only be two yous if you only made 1 trip. Maybe I'm wrong. The other bit about your spatial position, I mentioned further up the thread.

I must admit I'm quite chuffed with my time singularity idea. I might think about that some more.

This is all just a bit of fun. The paradoxes just illustrate the point that time travel is impossible. I like working on things that suspend disbelief in a sci-fi context though.

Raavin

 

[mouseman]

Originally posted by Raavin
I don't think so. When both event are over, they are over. There would only be two yous if you only made 1 trip.

Well, what I'm thinking is that if you traveled back in time, punched yourself in the face, then went back to your original time, your oldself is going to punch his older self in the face. I agree with you on the fact that only two of you can interact at one given time (unless of course you grabbed your oldself and pulled him back in time with you) and that one loop closes once you go to the future, but your older-olderself is going to do the same thing and so on. Therefore there would be an infinite number of loops...

this stuff is really bakin' my noodle.

Originally posted by Raavin
The other bit about your spatial position, I mentioned further up the thread.

My bad I guess I didn't see that.

 

[mouseman]

Ya know, this has all been discussed in the "Why we can't go back" thread.

 

[mouseman]

But just to add to my other post, if you yourself get punched in the face by your futureself that would force you to do the same thing to your pastself in your future. There is no free will involved because if you decide to forego punching your pastself in the face, you would not have been punched yourself. This event would at the exact same time it happened to you in each history of you (like a skipping record). This makes infinite you's unnecessary so now I come to the conclusion that reverse time travel is impossible. But who knows. I could be wrong. It's been known to happen before.

The end.

 

[ElectrikRipple]

hmm

so raavin jw but do u do a lot of drugs or am i not understanding? i mean it sounds like u said that u go into the future and then another you appears and shows u a note that says the same thing in ur pocket? uh I am sry i always read this stuff late at night so its prob just me but can u explain more thanks
P.J.[zz)]

 

[Raavin]

so raavin jw but do u do a lot of drugs or am i not understanding?

Not these days

Just say it's 12 noon and you plan to leave at 2pm to go back to 1pm which is currently in your future. Your partner writes the note and gives it to you. At 1pm another you would appear in the time machine, take the note out, read it and get back in the time machine. At 2pm or whatever time, you get back in the time machine and no matter what you think about doing, something makes you go back to 1pm and read the note.

Raavin

 

[mouseman]

Originally posted by Raavin
something makes you go back to 1pm and read the note.

It was that damn lab partner of mine! He MADE me do it!

 

[ElectrikRipple]

but is this supported by the multiverse theory?
P.J.

 

[ElectrikRipple]

lol mouseman
P.J.

 

[Loren Booda]

ElectrikRipple, by necessity you would not interact with your electromagnetic environment while you were violating relativity's light speed limit (c) during time travel. (This is accomplished on the microscopic scale through the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.) Photons are what we use to define spacetime and interact with E-M physical reality, according to Einstein's special theory of relativity.

 

[ElectrikRipple]

hm
P.J.

 

[elephant]

Originally posted by ElectrikRipple
now we all know that time travel is a very controversial subject. I believe that it is possible and am actually writing a research paper on it. I have a theory, however, that if you did travel into the future you could never see yourself or interact with yourself. If you went into the future than you would not exist in the future until you returned back to your present. Therefore, you cannot ever interact with yourself in the future. The End. I would love for people to email me to discuss time travel and other things so feel free to respond to this thread and email me at shakastar@cool-ideaz.com
P.J.

What would happen if I were to travel forward 24 hours from time A to time B. Upon my arrival, I sat in my lounge for 10 minutes, then returned to time A. After I return, I sit in my lounge room, and wait the 24 hours, until time B is realized.

I was already in my lounge room at time B, because I traveled 24 hours forward. And I am now, at time B, in my lounge room. Therefore, i can see no reason that I would not see myself appear (wonder what that would be like), sit there for five minutes, and the leave. I must see this, as I have already done it. In my FoR, it is history.

 

[Raavin]

When you arrived 24hrs in the future you would have seen your other self sitting in the chair. When you went back and waited for the 24hrs to elapse, sure enough, you would appear in front of you and sit down and exactly the same things you remember happening in your time jaunt would happen, only this time you would see it from the other perspective.

Raavin

 

[ElectrikRipple]

hmm not so sure. If you traveled into the future than u would not be in the sititng in ur lounge or whatever. How could u be sitting there then if u were already in the future becuase how can u be in the future if u left the present? u cant. And if u got back and waited there for urself u couldnt. we've all heard of the multiverse theory right? well i believe that each "universe" involved in this multiverse is at a different point on the "time line." make since? so if u were to go to the past u would never see urself because there is only one of u in the universe that ur in. does this make since? or am i smoking my lunch? let me know what u think.
P.J.

 

[newton1]

...

first we should think...
our future now is already happened??
if yes...that mean what happen now is sure will happen...
because the ending is already have...
i can't imagine this thing actually
but if our future is uncertainly...
that mean the world is now time travel
because how can we go to the space is uncertainly
u know what i mean??

 

[ElectrikRipple]

um no
P.J.

 

[mouseman]

Originally posted by ElectrikRipple
um no
P.J.

Don't do that man. It's obvious English isn't his first language, so just ask him to rephrase what he means. Better yet I'll tell you...

He's saying that if our future already happened, then "right now" is already pre-determined because it's already happened in that future reality. Then he says he can't picture that being the case. But now I'm not sure what he's getting at... Newton1, do you mean that if our future is uncertain that we can't travel through time?

 

[ElectrikRipple]

oh no no no i wasnt meaning it meanly I am sry if it came off that way Newton. that was not my intention at all i assure u. i would like to kno what u mean though.
P.J.