Time travel will never be possible.

[Gerazzi]

Oh it will be possible at one point, and than someone will use it to fuck up the space-time continuim.

I will cite Samurai Jack...
Aku you dirty bastard...


But seriously? Going back in time would create a new universe, so it wouldn't matter anyway.
Catch my drift?

So we should mess with the universe? Hooray!

Universes... plural, man.
But you wouldn't ever truly come back to your own universe.
That'd be sad.
Also I should replace universe with reality because I've not been using the correct word.

But ah well, I eat science threads for breakfast.
They taste like soybeans.

But wait! I haven't creeped out the public today yet!
There's a reality where you are the opposite sex.

/quota

 

[hopeneverdies]

This is easy, if time travel is EVER in the future invented then there would be an infinite number of people in all instances of time traveling backwards. If it were ever to be possible and then someone found a way to do it people would be telefragging eachother 99 a second like in Quake.

Does noone here understand quantum physics?

Well since a lot of us never took it, no probably not. But that makes sense, you'd eventually get someone to survive, but that would take an infinitely long time.

To go off topic, I remember being telefragged at the very start of a game on spawn. How does that work?

 

[BaronXS]

I must say, I'm really impressed with everyone's theories, never would've expected this quality of discussion from an internet forum.

 

[RebelRising]

If I'm not mistaken, time is just a perception, where reality is unalterable because every modification to time is reset as the default timeline once you go back to the future.

So, following that logic, as long as I'm still alive, nobody has f*cked up the time space continuum.

 

[Inconnu24]

To go off topic, I remember being telefragged at the very start of a game on spawn. How does that work?

More players than spawn points, perhaps? This use to happen to me in Unreal Tournament.

 

[the1ultimate]

Well, your entire point is negated if the time machines that they build can travel back to a time before they were created (and many hypothetical time machines can't).

Also you are assuming that the future will be a lot like now, and there will be fairly traditional seeming terrorists who care about us.

Your argument also hinges on mechanics of time-travel which are only speculative. For all you know the universe-splitting hypothesis could turn out to be correct.

Hawking was somewhat more on the mark by asking if time travel ever gets invented, why aren't there time travellers here now.

And to that I can only say: did you check to make sure that the last police box you passed was the same size on the inside?

 

[Sieg The Bum]

'Time' is a system of measurement created by human beings used to give us a sense of structure to the references/memories in our minds that we call the 'Past' and ideas we call the 'Future'. My point being: the past and future don't exist outside our minds. Therefore, physical time travel is impossible.

The only thing you proved is that the measurement of time would not exists without people; not time itself. Even if everyone in the world dies all of the bodies will still decompose, mountains will still crumble, and rivers will still flow. Why is this? Time.

Basically, it's like saying without people there will be no mass because there will be no Kg. Because kilogram does not exists outside our minds.

 

[BaronXS]

Well, your entire point is negated if the time machines that they build can travel back to a time before they were created (and many hypothetical time machines can't).

Also you are assuming that the future will be a lot like now, and there will be fairly traditional seeming terrorists who care about us.

Your argument also hinges on mechanics of time-travel which are only speculative. For all you know the universe-splitting hypothesis could turn out to be correct.

Hawking was somewhat more on the mark by asking if time travel ever gets invented, why aren't there time travellers here now.

And to that I can only say: did you check to make sure that the last police box you passed was the same size on the inside?

I was thinking about the same thing Hawking was too. What is a police box?

 

[Gerazzi]

I must say, I'm really impressed with everyone's theories, never would've expected this quality of discussion from an internet forum.

What are you trying to say ;_;


Naw, the Escapist is full of people with half a functioning brain, unlike most of the internet.

 

[hypothetical fact]

Time Travel can't happen because it hasn't happened. If at some point in time someone gets their hands on a time machine than they have millions of years of which to see the mysteries of the Earth yet it hasn't happened. This means that: no one will ever go back, if someone has gone through time no one will ever find out about it, in going back they couldn't get anywhere else and managed to lose their machine.

 

[RavingPenguin]

I must say, I'm really impressed with everyone's theories, never would've expected this quality of discussion from an internet forum.

You, sir, have greatly underestimated the members of The Escapist.

'Time' is a system of measurement created by human beings used to give us a sense of structure to the references/memories in our minds that we call the 'Past' and ideas we call the 'Future'. My point being: the past and future don't exist outside our minds. Therefore, physical time travel is impossible.

Time exists as the physical, as everything ages, atoms have halflives, cells decay, and so on, because time moves forward. Though the concepts of past, present, and future are only words to describe location, time and space are intimately linked, the destruction and warping of one would destroy and warp the other. Because of this we cannot break the flow of time, we can slow the passage of time around an object but we cannot destroy time itself. To do so would destroy our physical realm, not to mention the object you were trying to move.

 

[Julianking93]

It is possible today, but if we did it to where we could put a human back in 1456, the universe would, basically, explode.

 

[A random person]

I'd say it wouldn't affect anything. Why? If people traveled back in time, they would have already done what they did then (like if you travel to some place in the past, you would have already been in the past). Whatever you do is inconsequential since you did it already.

 

[Mjolnir07]

The 4th dimension is not a variable, not an imaginary number but a linear integer.

Given that time is infinite, all things will occur an infinite number of times. The only way to effectively travel into the past is to travel forward into it. Assuming we could some how devise a bizarre way to transform ourselves into light and then back to our original state from it, one could then travel forward for x number of years into the pattern of time has completed a cycle. This entails being in a state of existence for multiple quadrillions of lightyears, because not only would you have to travel forward through time for long enough to exist within a moment similar to one relative to your present position on the linear integer.

[~ = infinite]
x=time
y=x~

x= y - (xy)- x~

You would have to pass up every instance of the pattern that occurs which involve the infinite number of variables which will take place in the continuum.

In x lightyears, everything will have taken place that has taken place before this moment in order to manifest the universe in the way that we exist in it at present, but before then every other variation of this existence will have already taken place within the pattern before the cycle is complete, and that cycle will take X - y number of lightyears.

 

[Danny Ocean]

'Time' is a system of measurement created by human beings used to give us a sense of structure to the references/memories in our minds that we call the 'Past' and ideas we call the 'Future'. My point being: the past and future don't exist outside our minds. Therefore, physical time travel is impossible.

Huzzah! Someone else thinks this too!! I'm not crazy after all!

No no. Hours, minutes, seconds and such are our measurements of time, and the things we use to organise our memories. Time itself does exist outside our minds. You think if all humans were dead then time would stop?

It is possible today, but if we did it to where we could put a human back in 1456, the universe would, basically, explode.

Hasn't it been doing that for a while already?

I don't think going back in time would create any problems whatsoever, as I believe that the act of going back in time would create an alternate universe in the state that the traveller wished to travel back to. This universe would then be affected by his actions. If he went back to too long before the time machine was invented, he would screw himself over, as he'd probably die before he got the chance to travel back. Although the mathematical solution above intrigues me. Maybe once we've worked out how to negate the effects of old-age, we can do that.

Although both suggest that continuity won't be an issue.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

It?s not only possible but it is being done (On a very small scale).

According to the general theory of relativity time is relevant. So without going too deep into the finer details, the faster you go the slower the time flow. This has been tested by shooting decaying particles at speeds close to the speed of light. They then measure the particles to find that they didn?t decay as fast as they should have thus proving that the particle experienced a decrease in time flow. The next big step that has to be taken is to make it so a person would be able to go that fast and survive it but they would only be able to travel forward in time and not back.

actually that's the misnomer about it. it's not that time slows down when you approach the speed of light, it's your perception of time that is affected. it's one of the more tricky parts of the theory and a lot of people don't get it right.

so basically a person would be seen as standing still if you went by them at the speed of light and you would be a blur. it's basically the exact opposite of what you'd see with a black hole and it's event horizon

 

[BaronXS]

The 4th dimension is not a variable, not an imaginary number but a linear integer.

Given that time is infinite, all things will occur an infinite number of times. The only way to effectively travel into the past is to travel forward into it. Assuming we could some how devise a bizarre way to transform ourselves into light and then back to our original state from it, one could then travel forward for x number of years into the pattern of time has completed a cycle. This entails being in a state of existence for multiple quadrillions of lightyears, because not only would you have to travel forward through time for long enough to exist within a moment similar to one relative to your present position on the linear integer.

[~ = infinite]
x=time
y=x~

x= y - (xy)- x~

You would have to pass up every instance of the pattern that occurs which involve the infinite number of variables which will take place in the continuum.

In x lightyears, everything will have taken place that has taken place before this moment in order to manifest the universe in the way that we exist in it at present, but before then every other variation of this existence will have already taken place within the pattern before the cycle is complete, and that cycle will take X - y number of lightyears.

So you're saying that the only way to travel back in time is to turn ourselves into light and back? That's pretty cool.

 

[hypothetical fact]

'Time' is a system of measurement created by human beings used to give us a sense of structure to the references/memories in our minds that we call the 'Past' and ideas we call the 'Future'. My point being: the past and future don't exist outside our minds. Therefore, physical time travel is impossible.

Huzzah! Someone else thinks this too!! I'm not crazy after all!

No no. Hours, minutes, seconds and such are our measurements of time, and the things we use to organise our memories. Time itself does exist outside our minds. You think if all humans were dead then time would stop?

You misunderstand, time is just a concept while the present is reality, the future is nothing. All minutes and hours do is name when the present occurs.