Is Time Travel Possible or Just a Paradox?

[chiro]

"Time is simply a dimension, with no point being absolute."

What does this mean? Where does the justification come from? What is a dimension? How can a relative time-scale which does not have an absolute existence, continually exist through eternity? Wouldn't this suggest some type of "absolute" nature that was independant of interaciton and measurement?

"just like the "one foot" mark on a meter stick doesn't disappear once you count to two feet"

It doesn't dissappear on the meter stick, but what is a meter? Does "a meter" exist "absolutley" "in nature"? What is your reasoning for confusing a unit of measurement with an actuality? What is an actuality? How is time constructed through social process and language? What is the relationship between social-consciousness, time-conscioussness and the measurements made on environment?

A dimension is an independent parameter that is required to define something. A point is zero dimensional because it has no variation whatsoever and requires no input to describe it.

Extending that a line is one dimensional no matter what its transformation. You always need one degree of freedom to define the line.

A surface is a two dimensional as is a plane or a half plane or a constrained plane and so on.

Typically when we define something like a standard physical constant of nature we try and do it so that it is uniform in any physical context. As we currently understand, the speed of light is something that is uniform in this regard so its easy to define a metre in terms of light.

One way of measuring time is by the number of excitations in a cesium atom. I'm not a chemist or physicist but I assume that it is (hopefully for the most part) independent of physical conditions or at least guaranteed to be perfectly replicable in a common domain of physical conditions.

As for time, it is usually measured based on some kind of change in a system. You should look up the different definitions of time in physics like the thermodynamic and cosmological arrows of time.

 

[baywax]

A dimension is an independent parameter that is required to define something. A point is zero dimensional because it has no variation whatsoever and requires no input to describe it.

Extending that a line is one dimensional no matter what its transformation. You always need one degree of freedom to define the line.

A surface is a two dimensional as is a plane or a half plane or a constrained plane and so on.

Typically when we define something like a standard physical constant of nature we try and do it so that it is uniform in any physical context. As we currently understand, the speed of light is something that is uniform in this regard so its easy to define a metre in terms of light.

One way of measuring time is by the number of excitations in a cesium atom. I'm not a chemist or physicist but I assume that it is (hopefully for the most part) independent of physical conditions or at least guaranteed to be perfectly replicable in a common domain of physical conditions.

As for time, it is usually measured based on some kind of change in a system. You should look up the different definitions of time in physics like the thermodynamic and cosmological arrows of time.

Ah, so, without change comes immortality. As I said earlier, when an observer is able to experience all change as one event, no sequence and no past or future one is in the realm of eternity.

Yet the question concerns immortality and here is its definition:

immortal |i(m)ˈmôrtl|
adjective
living forever; never dying or decaying : our mortal bodies are inhabited by immortal souls.
• deserving to be remembered forever : the immortal children's classic, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”
noun
an immortal being, esp. a god of ancient Greece or Rome.
• a person of enduring fame : he will always be one of the immortals of hockey.
• ( Immortals) historical the royal bodyguard of ancient Persia.
• ( Immortal) a member of the French Academy.
DERIVATIVES
immortality |ˌi(m)ˌmôrˈtalitē| noun
immortally adverb
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Latin immortalis, from in- ‘not’ + mortalis (see mortal ).

Thesaurus:
immortality
noun
1 the immortality of the gods eternal life, everlasting life, deathlessness; indestructibility, imperishability.
2 the book has achieved immortality timelessness, legendary status, lasting fame/renown.

(Oxford English Dictionary)

The word immortal appears most often as a descriptor or metaphor that shows the importance of a person, item or work. If we look a little deeper we'll find that the "importance" denoted by the word "immortal" is entirely dependent upon our existence and that without it there is nothing so "important" or memorable as to be considered immortal. This exposes the anthropocentricity of the concept and how it is dependent on its polar opposite "mortality" to be "immortality".

 

[Pretty Pony]

I'm sorry to be the one to introduce a time-travel paradox into this thread, but I think that the Bootstrap Paradox ties in well with this discussion; "relating to the existence of information and objects not created at any specific instant of time but instead traveling in a time loop." These are examples of objects, and possibly people, experiencing the same moments forever.

But I think that what the OP is trying to get at here, is something like this:
Perhaps, twelve seconds ago, you were experiencing the moment in which you were reading the start of this post. Are you still experiencing it, right now, but twelve seconds ago? This moment has existed because it has been the "now". But will it continue to exist even after it has been the "now"? Will it always be the "now", but to be relived over and over again in the past?

 

[31428571J]

I'm sorry to be the one to introduce a time-travel paradox into this thread, but I think that the Bootstrap Paradox ties in well with this discussion; "relating to the existence of information and objects not created at any specific instant of time but instead traveling in a time loop." These are examples of objects, and possibly people, experiencing the same moments forever.

But I think that what the OP is trying to get at here, is something like this:
Perhaps, twelve seconds ago, you were experiencing the moment in which you were reading the start of this post. Are you still experiencing it, right now, but twelve seconds ago? This moment has existed because it has been the "now". But will it continue to exist even after it has been the "now"? Will it always be the "now", but to be relived over and over again in the past?

Interesting...

The trouble with this 'Boostrap Paradox' as I see it (I suppose this is why it's called a paradox) is that it incorporates 'unknown information origin' (...This not only creates a loop, but a situation where these items have no discernible origin...) used in conjunction with 'Wormhole Physics' (..This theory, however, only makes sense if you're dealing with a wormhole or some other form of time travel where you end up in the same universe as you started) that now is mostly discredited by Scientists.

Funny that I rarely see it mentioned - that traveling back in time requires 2 time dimensions (not even allowed by String Theory - as yet) ONE to age forward, and the other NOT to age in reverse. (otherwise one would never be 'self aware' of the 'events')

As for traveling forward - well - our ability to teleport (at last) one single photon just shows how difficult (and complex) it is to 'mess around' with just 3 base units (particles a, b, and c)
Until we are able to understand how to 'reduce' (computationally store) 'complexity' (ie: for starters 'the total number of atoms in a banana') we will never be able to tame TIME.

(Many Worlds/Multiverse Theory/Parallel Universes of course allows a true 'loophole' for traveling either way)