Time Travel book recommendations

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SUMMARY

The forum discussion centers on time travel book recommendations, highlighting both popular and technical literature. Key recommendations include "Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy" and Paul Nahin's second edition, which is praised for its accessibility and thoroughness. Technical references include several advanced papers from the American Physical Society, discussing concepts like the Grandfather paradox and wormholes. The conversation also touches on the speculative nature of time travel theories, emphasizing the distinction between established science and theoretical discussions.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of general relativity and its implications for time travel.
  • Familiarity with the Grandfather paradox and causal loops.
  • Knowledge of advanced physics papers and their significance in the time travel discourse.
  • Awareness of popular science literature on time travel concepts.
NEXT STEPS
  • Read "Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy" by Kip Thorne.
  • Explore Paul Nahin's second edition for a comprehensive overview of time travel in science fiction and scientific literature.
  • Investigate the Novikov self-consistency principle in quantum mechanics.
  • Review the American Physical Society papers on time travel for advanced theoretical insights.
USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for physicists, science fiction enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the theoretical aspects of time travel and its implications in modern physics.

  • #31
MM PROES said:
I accept the constraints of this forum to theoretical ideas and sticking to ‘known laws of physics’...however ...’fictitious laws of physics ’ can also be a valid reference point...as most ideas and concepts are almost always fictitious initially
What's wrong with analyzing time travel in general relativity, which is one of those "known laws of physics"?
MM PROES said:
...as for concepts and views in time travel is not philosophically or logically paradoxical.
Why? What specifically about the GR solutions involving closed timelike curves makes them any more philosophically or logically problematic than other GR solutions?
MM PROES said:
Time travel was originally thought impossible. Now with quantum mechanics and particle physics, it is theorized.
No, theorizing at time travel isn't based on quantum mechanics and particle physics, it's based on general relativity, the theory of how mass and energy curves spacetime which results in the effects we call "gravity", because particles follow geodesic paths, which are the closest equivalent to "straight lines" in curved spacetime. If you're not familiar with these ideas you could check out the series of introductory pages http://www.aei.mpg.de/einsteinOnline/en/elementary/generalRT/index.html in such spacetimes shows that there's no reason this need lead to any logical paradoxes (as was discussed earlier in the thread). If we want to discuss time travel on this forum we should probably stick to discussing ideas like these, since GR seems to be the only existing theory of physics which allows for the possibility.
 
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