Time travel will never be possible.

[Kriptonite]

This has all been REALLY fun reading by the way. Also, I'm about to read "Bearing An Hourglass" by Piers Anthony, it is about the Incarnation of Time and how it is run by a man. Good book, deals a lot with paradox, everybdy should read it sometime.

Anyway, to the topic at hand. If physical time travel is possible(not stating an opinion here, just saying IF) wouldn't we know it? That is if anyone did travel back could travel back to now or the present's past. We as a people should realize that whoever did wasn't there before(unless it was someone who is alive presently) and put 2&2 together and realize that something is up? Anyway, as a certainty, time travel will not be possible in the future to a point in the past before the invention/discovery of such travel.
Also, if a person went back in time to kill their ancestor(s) the minute the murder was done that person(and possibly others) would no longer exist and no one in the present would notice for that person was never born due to the past killing. This is of course only possible if all this takes place in the same universe. Also having said that, I agree 100% with this statement.

'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.

 

[bradley348]

Wait, obviously no one will go back in time and kill all humans or something like that because humans are still alive today. It's actually impossible to travel back in time and change the present because the present is what it is because of events in the past.

But, imagine time as simultaneous, our time line could be nothing altered, but what if something happened by someone going back in time, which created an alternate tangent, which skewed off, to a new time, in which the time line has altered due to someone messing up the past. its normal for them, but not for us, as our time would be altered to them, but their time being normal to them.

now if you excuse me, i have to get BACK TO THE FUTURE!

 

[Herb sewell]

Unless they go by dragonball/terminator rules where when you time travel back you create an alternate timeline.

That was terminator??
I swear that was Back To The Future

No back to the future goes by the one timeline rule where mucking up something in the past has an impact in the one future.

 

[bradley348]

Terminator had a really odd time travel notion, i mean, you dont know what really happened originally and you dont know how the terminators messed it up. (i know the first terminator was like, supposed to happen, but in T2 with them changing it so skynet came later and T3 killing the Lts. of the future and ARRRRHG

 

[.[B@lL15T1C].]

I read somewhere in a physics journal time travel is theoretical possible except it would be limited in that you could only travel to a time when the device already exists.

So you build the device, then can travel back to that space time it was created it or has existed in, from sometime in the future. I'm not sure if the journal mentioned the possibility of travelling to future timespace but I think it was a no.

The OP is a bit flawed, it isn't a reason it's impossible as much a reason its a very bad idea.

 

[D.C.]

Yes it is possible In the same way as faster-than-light travel - if we manage to travel faster than light then we will be able to travel in time.

Spoiler

Faster than light travel is impossible

Close... Faster than Light Travel is theoreticly plausible.... just practically impossible.


But travelling relativly close to the speed of light does slow down time.

 

[Perwer]

And also you could only travel back as far as the creation of the time machine.

This is very important to remember.

 

[MiodekPL]

Yes it is possible In the same way as faster-than-light travel - if we manage to travel faster than light then we will be able to travel in time.

Spoiler

Faster than light travel is impossible

Close... Faster than Light Travel is theoreticly plausible.... just practically impossible.


But travelling relativly close to the speed of light does slow down time.

Theoretically - maybe. Those theories are still very young, and will (IMO) change quite much. Just look at evolution of atom theories (I mean how we thought it looked over time). We just have to wait for some intelligent people to find out

 

[G1eet]

Everyone knows we're going to discover the secret to time travel on someone's buttocks.

 

[Soxafloppin]

The main reason time travel will never be possible is because no one could invent a machine that alters time.

 

[D.C.]

Yes it is possible In the same way as faster-than-light travel - if we manage to travel faster than light then we will be able to travel in time.

Spoiler

Faster than light travel is impossible

Close... Faster than Light Travel is theoreticly plausible.... just practically impossible.


But travelling relativly close to the speed of light does slow down time.

Theoretically - maybe. Those theories are still very young, and will (IMO) change quite much. Just look at evolution of atom theories (I mean how we thought it looked over time). We just have to wait for some intelligent people to find out

I agree the thoeries will change and are changing now... but there are still theories that say travelling faster than light is possible which have not been discounted. I'm not sure intelligant people will find out in our life time.

 

[JordanMillward_1]

Technically speaking, if Time Travel is possible, it is already happening, as if time travel exists time travellers have already been here.

Also, if it exists, it'll have been instantly finetuned to the best possible time machine ever, as you would have just gone forward to get the technology from the future for the best one.

All this stuff can be explained by the Continuum RPG: http://www.aetherco.com/continuum/

It's easily one of the best theories on time travel I have read yet.

 

[MiodekPL]

I agree the thoeries will change and are changing now... but there are still theories that say travelling faster than light is possible which have not been discounted. I'm not sure intelligant people will find out in our life time.

There are many more theories that can't be discounted For expample theory of faster than light particles. It's impossible to detect them with our standard (Einsteinian) equipment so it's impossible to tell if it's wrong or right.

 

[SsilverR]

or .. it will either be so secure that that's impossible, will never be revealed to the public or the entire population will be doped up equalibrium style and trusted with such a thing

 

[D.C.]

I agree the thoeries will change and are changing now... but there are still theories that say travelling faster than light is possible which have not been discounted. I'm not sure intelligant people will find out in our life time.

There are many more theories that can't be discounted For expample theory of faster than light particles. It's impossible to detect them with our standard (Einsteinian) equipment so it's impossible to tell if it's wrong or right.

This is why physics is so great ... theres always something else we dont know about. Which always has the potential to turn physics on its head and put a dunce sign on it.

 

[dbass]

i'm pretty sure time is just man's attempt to conceptualize and measure change. so unless you can somehow make everything in the world exactly as it was (this includes even information that is known by each individual) at the given time to which you want to "travel" to, "time" travel is not possible, regardless of the infinite paradoxes that you cannot cease to think of.

 

[MiodekPL]

I agree the thoeries will change and are changing now... but there are still theories that say travelling faster than light is possible which have not been discounted. I'm not sure intelligant people will find out in our life time.

There are many more theories that can't be discounted For expample theory of faster than light particles. It's impossible to detect them with our standard (Einsteinian) equipment so it's impossible to tell if it's wrong or right.

This is why physics is so great ... theres always something else we dont know about. Which always has the potential to turn physics on its head and put a dunce sign on it.

That's right Shame that I'm goung to be some simple engineer, not a scientist
BTW - Sorry for bad english - I'm from Poland

 

[D.C.]

I agree the thoeries will change and are changing now... but there are still theories that say travelling faster than light is possible which have not been discounted. I'm not sure intelligant people will find out in our life time.

There are many more theories that can't be discounted For expample theory of faster than light particles. It's impossible to detect them with our standard (Einsteinian) equipment so it's impossible to tell if it's wrong or right.

This is why physics is so great ... theres always something else we dont know about. Which always has the potential to turn physics on its head and put a dunce sign on it.

That's right Shame that I'm goung to be some simple engineer, not a scientist
BTW - Sorry for bad english - I'm from Poland

Well im hopefully getting into physics at uni next year... so i'll sneak you in on the course or something.
Don't worry i cant speak Polish so you've got something over me, as i dont usually write good english.

 

[Goldeneye103X2]

It could be possible if we travelled at the speed of light. My theory is that moving towards an earlier timezone at the speed of light will help you travel backwards, whilst travelling at a later timezone will help ypu travel forwards. That's just my theory though.

But then again, why would we want to travel in time? We'll just cause a time paradox and have a guy dressed in a bunny suit appear and dissappear at random telling us to do bad things. And scaring the hell out of us.