Time travel not possilbe anymore?

[flyingpig]

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-07-hk-physicists-photons.html

I thought to the future was possible, but not anymoerÉÉ

 

[Doc Al]

Why do you think that article implies that travel to 'the future' is impossible?

 

[flyingpig]

because it says

time travel is impossible.

at the top

 

[Doc Al]

because it says at the top

OK. But I don't see anything within the article relevant to that statement. Time travel is just as impossible as it's always been--nothing new has been revealed. It's just confirming what we've understood all along.

 

[flyingpig]

So it isn't possible to travel into the future? Or "moving faster" than eveyrone else is now?

 

[hubewa]

Well, technically, by the definition of the phrase, we are all "time travellers".

However, it is possible to travel into the future. If you speed up so that you approach the speed of light, the theory of relativity states that your time slows down relative to people on Earth. That means that, when you return to Earth, you will be in the "future".

However, this is irreversable. Once you have traveled to the future, you cannot travel back, as this article concludes.

If you read a little bit further into the article, you may have realized that it was referring to traveling back to time, so the statement "time travel is impossible" is a bit misleading.

 

[flyingpig]

Well, technically, by the definition of the phrase, we are all "time travellers".

However, it is possible to travel into the future. If you speed up so that you approach the speed of light, the theory of relativity states that your time slows down relative to people on Earth. That means that, when you return to Earth, you will be in the "future".

However, this is irreversable. Once you have traveled to the future, you cannot travel back, as this article concludes.

If you read a little bit further into the article, you may have realized that it was referring to traveling back to time, so the statement "time travel is impossible" is a bit misleading.

Aha!

 

[Drakkith]

Yes, we are all traveling into the future at the same fate (more or less) here on Earth! Heading away at a very high velocity relative to the Earth, say 99% c, would slow your time down in relation to Earth so when you returned you would be ahead in time for us. But for you, you would never notice your own time ever being anything but normal.

 

[Drakkith]

The universe beyond our event horizon moves general relativistically (by "inflation") faster than the speed of light. Could there be related, local effects (like the potential for time travel) of the inflationary Higgs mechanism?

No, the effect of the expansion of the universe has no effect locally, as the rate of expansion is extremely small.