Proof there's no time travel?

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

I've been thinking about it though, given that the Earth is not only orbiting around the sun, but that everything in the universe is travelling unbelievably fast .... would'nt any time machine have to be a super speedy spacecraft also?

I mean, even if you were to go back in time a day ... that would leave you in the cold depths of space ... many many many miles from Earth ....

Just throwing that conundrum out for people to ponder <.<

Maybe the reason why there's no time travelling (or perhaps significant time travelling) is because nobody wants to get stuck in outer space?

 

[G1eet]

I'm actually reading Michio Kaku's book on this: Physics of the Impossible.

It's weird shit. I think that it will exist (does exist), but any changes you make in the past will correct the mistake of the time machine's invention. So, paradox free time travel.

Unless Bender fucks it up again.

 

[Daveman]

...pretty sure that was in the hitchhikers guide books...

The reason was that no mone would want to end up being their own relatives.

yeah, that was there too, but I'm pretty sure the entire OP's argument is also in one of the books somewhere. (well actually it says time travel does exist and that because of its nature was invented at every time simultaneously, weird shit)

 

[theultimateend]

http://www.darkestofdaystv.com/ That got me thinking. If there truly a such thing that as time travel wouldn't we have seen people form the future by now? If time is simultaneous then the creation of the time machine would have happened at the same time as the creation of the universe, meaning, in theory, that people would have gone back in time and done something that would shout "TIME MACHINES!" at the top of it lungs.

Though you could say that time is not simultaneous and so we would have to pass into the time when we do have time machines in order to go back and change but then (taping into that 10 minutes of philosophy a substitute teacher after school) you could also say that we could have passed that time only not noticed it because...and that's when I left.

Back on topic though, what's your opinion on this subject?

Other than getting laid what reason would people have for going back into the past? Nobody is as cool in real life as they are in books. You'd meet someone like Thomas Jefferson and find out he's a complete asshole who thinks that Witches are real and coming for his Eggo.

Just an example.

I'm with most folks who assume that if there is time travel people would use it to go into the future and not the past. I'm more interested in what we are doing rather than what we have done.

Unless you talk about getting laid, I'm pretty sure "I'm from the Future" would be a great pickup line (if you looked the part).

 

[DracoSuave]

The popular way around OP's logic is the infinite realities theory. This theory says that all different possible actions (down to which way a photon moves) are simultaneously played out in an infinitesimal number of other realities. I think this idea was popularized by having some grounding in Science's rebellious kid known as Quantum Physics.

Schrodinger's Cat. Google it.

All time-travel theory stems from the premise that time-travel itself exists. Which means that in order for it to be scientificly observable, one must be able to time-travel. Or observe something that has time-travelled. It's an unobservable phenomenon, which means that science can't have any real hypotheses on it.

Science doesn't touch time-travel.

However, theorists have all sorts of thought experiments going on, what could and would happen.

But science itself has nothing regarding time-travel except the fact that it might be possible through a cosmic event that, itself, has yet to be observed.

So... if a wormhole exists, then time-travel -might- exist. However we have to find that wormhole first.

But don't confuse science with philosophy. Determinism and causality casualties are the children of philosophy until such a time as they become observable or at least, evidence exists enough to forge a hypothesis.

 

[ArcWinter]

*other words were here*

That makes no sense. How can you travel through time when there is no future?

This makes one very big assumption, that being that the universe is not diterministic. It seems to me that the universe is probably diterministic for the most part, with exception to potential interference from outside causality. If this is the case, my assumption (again, a big assumption, but a reasonable case can be made for it) implies that all time exists as a dimension before the first dimension, and therefore all time exists at once. We can only percieve it going in one direction, but that does not mean that it actually does go only in one direction. If you've read the comic for Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan does a pretty good job of explaining that view of time.

How would the universe be deterministic? There is nothing to determine, what I mean is, a being must determine something.

Also, the universe cannot be deterministic, because the actions of billions of people, even with binary (did [name] do [action]? 1/0 (yes/no)) is mind-boggling.

 

[Lord George]

...pretty sure that was in the hitchhikers guide books...

The reason was that no mone would want to end up being their own relatives.

yeah, that was there too, but I'm pretty sure the entire OP's argument is also in one of the books somewhere. (well actually it says time travel does exist and that because of its nature was invented at every time simultaneously, weird shit)

Yeah I was sure I'd read about this somewhere before likely in Hitchhikers.



But it makes senses surely we would have had someone travel back to this time unless they can only manipulate time to go forward or unless when you think you've time travelled you've just hopped into a parallel universe where time travel was and will never be.

 

[Florion]

I remember reading in a physicist's analysis of The Time Traveler's Wife that, if a time machine were to be invented, you wouldn't be able to travel to any time outside of the time machine's existence. You would need a time machine to come out of; you couldn't just POOF into existence in a different time.

 

[rainman2203]

PARADOX OH SHI----

I don't konw if we'll ever be able to realistically travel through time tho.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

THE NAZIS HAD A TIME MACHINE. Apparently. I'll find the link, hang on.
http://fairfieldproject.wikidot.com/nazi-bell This was apparently the highest priority Nazi technology thing. More important to them than nuclear weapons and all that shizzle. To say it was top secret would be an understatement but the thing is noone knows what it is and would they were trying to do. All we can do is apply current scientific knowledge, take beliefs from the time and try and work it out backwards.

 

[Del-Toro]

Time travel is only possible if time is like a flip book, as in once a moment is gone then it only seems gone but persists afterwards. In which case time travel is basically inserting oneself into a different point of that flip book. Which I don't really buy.

 

[Postcard]

I don't think time is anything beyond a human concept. All things are in a manner of existence at all times. I don't think you can "rewind" or undo things that have occured in a human perception of the past. Who's recording the processes we undetake for there to be a rewind? Are we not just some organisms that happen to exist, not on some mysterious train tracks of destiny, and being human is as pointless as anything else?

To imply time travel exists implies everything that happens is being recorded in some manner, that is some sort of Universal memory, which outside of religious orders, I don't think exists.

It doesn't even get as far as paradoxes. Time in a narrative human sense, isn't really a viable basis for a discussion, I'm guessing.

 

[Nmil-ek]

Of course time travels possible we are already doing it constantly only in a very linear direction.

 

[neoontime]

I go with the theory that when you travel through time you split your time path into two thus creating a normal unchangeable demension and one that you have changed by placing your existance in thus you wouldn't see future people because you we not in that time split demension

 

[Jark212]

Time travel is theoretically possible, perhaps people have already traveled into the past and everything you see is a result of what happened.

 

[The_Echo]

well lets say you could travel back in time you couldn't do anything. ok lets say you go back in time and kill Hitler then he would never do all of the stuff that caused you to go back in time to kill him so you would have never gone back that means you would never kill him so he is now alive and has done all the stuff he did so you would go back to kill him so he would be dead and so on and so on.

That's the best written out TIME PARADOX explanation I've seen.

Tangent universes came to mind reading this.

On topic: How does one make a machine that recognizes time, a linear progress of existence which is intangible, and get said machine to move through it? Answer: Hell if I know.

 

[tsb247]

There are some theories on divergent timelines that would allow for changes in the past to go COMPLETELY unnoticed, but again, Einstein has proven timetravel (backwards) to be impossible.

The idea behind a divergent timeline is that a change in the past branches off from the timeline as we know it to create an alternate universe based on the point in time at which events differ.

Despite this idea, I subscribe to the theory that the very existence of a time machine (that could go backwards in time) would tear the universe apart while simultaneously creating an infinite number of new ones. Think about it. If the universe in which it existed were to remain in tact, one would have to assume that nobody, at any point in time, would ever use it to make changes to the timeline (for any reason). If they did, one would also have to make the assumption that any change that could be made, would be made - including contradictory ones (at any point in time). It would be complete chaos. Even if time did branch like in the diagram above, it could also be said that those branches never existed in the first place even if they could be created (or were).

I know it's troublesome to read, but it makes sense if you consider quantum theory; The idea that anything that can happen - does happen.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

Course time travel is possible.

 

[The Lost Big Boss]

YOU CREATED A TIME PARADOX! dun dun dun dundun DUN DUN DUN! Restart?

Time travel will work one way, multi time lines. For example I go back in time and change anything I will create a new timeline. I can walk down the street and help and old lady and that will effect the future no matter what and create another time line. Every ting I do in the past will not effect the time line I came from because it would create time paradoxes. So I could return to my time line and nothing would change.