Time Travel: My Theory

[Darthrazz]

That makes no sense. So basically you're saying if we invented a time machine right now, you could only go forward in time with it!?

If the machine was invented in , let's say 1802. That's how far back in time you could travel. You could go backwards and forwards in time, but up to 1802. When I'm more awake tomorrow, I'll try to explain it better.

 

[Voorhees27]

Devil, I am too lazy to read your post, what are you saying?

 

[Avfin]

Didn't I read this before......

 

[Mikey2Bullets]

Time travel is currently impossible to experience...

i've traveled into the future, it's always the same, all of a sudden it's a different day and i'm covered in vomit and missing my wallet.

 

[greyrabbit]

I like your theory Devil, as it comes across as "realistic" in terms of what we understand of being in a singular dimension of existence and one time line.

..though I'm somewhat at odds as in your theory:

*You can travel as your current physical being 30 yrs in future, or before conception.

But!!

*when going back to a time when you were younger ..your current conciousness takes over your younger self's body (?)

That would make for a very sophisticated time machine! More so than one that just moves living tissue into the past or future ..to be able to understand that it also has to remove "you" from your body, and place it in your body at a younger age - is it the machine doing that, or forces of the a universal time travel law?

..and what does it do with your current body with you not in it, when you are in your younger self's body and time line?

Hmm ..also from a biological pov, lets say going back to your age as an infant/toddler, or even as a young child before adolesence - parts of the brain are not developed enough with the mental facilities of an adult you, so there might be a problem there(?)

Not to attack you, as I like your idea ..but maybe some paradox is still there?

 

[creecher]

"The same matter can't occupy the same space." Why? Because it's already occupied by that same matter. The thing is, over our lifetime, we regenerate cells etc, so we become a new person. Around about every five years all our cells have been replaced. If you went back in time you wouldn't be the same person, made up of the same matter. Even if you were the same person, you'd be occupying a different space to your younger self.

There are so many variables that it comes down to 'it depends'. If you went into the future and stayed there or never returned to your time of leaving, you would appear to have disappeared and wouldn't find your older self. If at some time you did return, say years later, you'd be return to the present appearing to be an aged former self. Okay, now I'm getting confused, because things are getting complicated exponentially.

I did see a cool documentary, a week or two ago, concerning a scientist who decided to try to prove one of Einsteins unproven theories, concerning the warping of time and space. It took him something like 34 years to finally prove. He, and his ever changing team over that period, built three of the most perfect sphere's, noted in the Guiness book of records, sent them into space to be observed at a distance by a telescope as it orbited the Earth. To cut a long story short, they proved that the rotation of the Earth caused a wake where time and space were warped, ever so marginally. This breakthrough could lead to better understanding of time and space relativity and, who knows, possibly a time machine.

 

[gdb]

One's consciousness is a product of the brain. It can't go anywhere without it and since the brain is a physical thing that changes with time, someone's personality can't just be uploaded into a younger version of that brain.

Changing the past...? I don't think anyone can change the past. What happened, happened. The only thing that can change is the time-traveler's experience. A time-traveler could go back to discover that they played a part in the past but they couldn't change it.

Although, for the sake of argument, if someone could go back and change the past I think that so much energy would be released that the universe would collapse in on itself in another Big Bang.

 

[King Darkness]

"The same matter can't occupy the same space." Why? Because it's already occupied by that same matter. The thing is, over our lifetime, we regenerate cells etc, so we become a new person. Around about every five years all our cells have been replaced. If you went back in time you wouldn't be the same person, made up of the same matter. Even if you were the same person, you'd be occupying a different space to your younger self.

There are so many variables that it comes down to 'it depends'. If you went into the future and stayed there or never returned to your time of leaving, you would appear to have disappeared and wouldn't find your older self. If at some time you did return, say years later, you'd be return to the present appearing to be an aged former self. Okay, now I'm getting confused, because things are getting complicated exponentially.

I did see a cool documentary, a week or two ago, concerning a scientist who decided to try to prove one of Einsteins unproven theories, concerning the warping of time and space. It took him something like 34 years to finally prove. He, and his ever changing team over that period, built three of the most perfect sphere's, noted in the Guiness book of records, sent them into space to be observed at a distance by a telescope as it orbited the Earth. To cut a long story short, they proved that the rotation of the Earth caused a wake where time and space were warped, ever so marginally. This breakthrough could lead to better understanding of time and space relativity and, who knows, possibly a time machine.

 

[creecher]

Too many words huh King. Sorry. I forgot.

 

[greyrabbit]

ah thanks for the info creech. I knew about how the body replaces itself entirely with new cells over time (think I read in one of Choprah's books, where he claims it is every 12 months - seems a bit fast to the 5yrs you mentioned) ..and the research about the speheres in orbit is interesting! What is the name of that documentary?

gdb - agreed about conciousness, which is where I thought there was a contradiction in devils theory, which suggests being able to time travel in the current body ..but also "Quantum Leap" style - as such, there would be no limit to just time travelling back into yourself at a younger time.

..it is certainly getting all fuzzy at this point lol.

King - whoa indeed mate!

 

[Devil_666]

Under your "killed your grandfather" scenario the paradox destroys the entire premise. If you killed your grandfather you'd never have been born and thus could not go back in time to kill your grandfather.

However with the infinite worlds theory, once you kill your grandfather you've created yet another alternate reality and your scenario could then play out when you return to the future.

Ah.. but that paradox doesn't apply to my theory Dave. What I'm saying is, if you were somehow able to travel into the past, anything you did differently would affect everything except YOU.

For example, let's say you're 20 years old. You travel back in time and find yourself as a kid, let's say at 5 years old. You use an axe and chop off the left arm of your younger self. You then go immediately back to your "present" time.

Would you magically be missing an arm? NOPE.

BUT..

To everyone around you, you WOULD magically now have a left arm. And for eveyone else around you, for the last 15 years you would've had no left arm. And then suddenly, you have one. Because within the parameters of my theory, you can't change yourself in your "present" time with ANY action you commit in the past.

Let's say instead you go back, find your younger self (5 years old again for example) and kill him.

Would you magically die as your younger self died? NOPE.

BUT..

When you returned to your "present" time you'd find that no one would know you. And to everyone in your "present" time, they would remember that some stranger killed "you" when you were 5 years old.

So the Grandfather Paradox doesn't apply to my theory. You COULD go back and kill your Grandfather with no repercution to your physical self. But like I said, your identity would be erased. Your family would be erased. Your Father (assuming you're killing your Fathers Father) would cease to exist. But not you.

And it goes deeper...

I think life is full of countless random acts. So many combinations of events that make bigger events and greater occurances that just the act of going into the past would automatically change your "present".

(NOTE: I say "present" because time constantly moves forward. So the "present" at this instance where I'm typing it is now the past.. because time has moved forward. So NOW.. it's the "present" and so on..)

I think it would be impossible for absolutely random things to ALL duplicate and repeat exactly the same in the same manner with each visit you made to the past. i.e. even if you travelled to the same time period in the past an observed an event you would see numerous instances of things changing or not playing out exactly the same. Now for YOU, back in the "present" those small changes might not be noticeable but for someone, somewhere they could be monumental. These random events, chance events or however you want to describe them happen every second of every hour of everyday etc. And in my theory.. time isn't something you "instantaneously" jump back and forth into. From the observers point of view (Time Traveler) it would appear to be instantaneous.. but in my theory once the Observer traveled back into the past (let's say 30 years), then went back to the "present" for them, from their POV.. it would be "instantaneous". But in reality, 30 years of normal time would've passed. And imo, regarding all the little random events that make up life, just the act of everything playing out again in those 30 years in and of itself would change the "present". Might not be noticeable at first.. might even just be small insignificant things to the Observer, but changes never the less. And quite possibly those changes could infact be HUGE.

Now with all that said, honestly I don't believe in any of this besides my theory of time travel to the future. I believe that's the only form of time travel possible. And there's no going back. You can only move forward in time. And within the context of my theory.. once you arrived at your future destination (let's say 30 years again), for everyone else 30 years of normal time would've passed, time that included you mysteriously vanishing 30 years ago.

Just my thoughts.

I know, I know..

 

[King Darkness]

Ah.. but that paradox doesn't apply to my theory Dave. What I'm saying is, if you were somehow able to travel into the past, anything you did differently would affect everything except YOU.

For example, let's say you're 20 years old. You travel back in time and find yourself as a kid, let's say at 5 years old. You use an axe and chop off the left arm of your younger self. You then go immediately back to your "present" time.

Would you magically be missing an arm? NOPE.

BUT..

To everyone around you, you WOULD magically now have a left arm. And for eveyone else around you, for the last 15 years you would've had no left arm. And then suddenly, you have one. Because within the parameters of my theory, you can't change yourself in your "present" time with ANY action you commit in the past.

Let's say instead you go back, find your younger self (5 years old again for example) and kill him.

Would you magically die as your younger self died? NOPE.

BUT..

When you returned to your "present" time you'd find that no one would know you. And to everyone in your "present" time, they would remember that some stranger killed "you" when you were 5 years old.

So the Grandfather Paradox doesn't apply to my theory. You COULD go back and kill your Grandfather with no repercution to your physical self. But like I said, your identity would be erased. Your family would be erased. Your Father (assuming you're killing your Fathers Father) would cease to exist. But not you.

And it goes deeper...

I think life is full of countless random acts. So many combinations of events that make bigger events and greater occurances that just the act of going into the past would automatically change your "present".

(NOTE: I say "present" because time constantly moves forward. So the "present" at this instance where I'm typing it is now the past.. because time has moved forward. So NOW.. it's the "present" and so on..)

I think it would be impossible for absolutely random things to ALL duplicate and repeat exactly the same in the same manner with each visit you made to the past. i.e. even if you travelled to the same time period in the past an observed an event you would see numerous instances of things changing or not playing out exactly the same. Now for YOU, back in the "present" those small changes might not be noticeable but for someone, somewhere they could be monumental. These random events, chance events or however you want to describe them happen every second of every hour of everyday etc. And in my theory.. time isn't something you "instantaneously" jump back and forth into. From the observers point of view (Time Traveler) it would appear to be instantaneous.. but in my theory once the Observer traveled back into the past (let's say 30 years), then went back to the "present" for them, from their POV.. it would be "instantaneous". But in reality, 30 years of normal time would've passed. And imo, regarding all the little random events that make up life, just the act of everything playing out again in those 30 years in and of itself would change the "present". Might not be noticeable at first.. might even just be small insignificant things to the Observer, but changes never the less. And quite possibly those changes could infact be HUGE.

Now with all that said, honestly I don't believe in any of this besides my theory of time travel to the future. I believe that's the only form of time travel possible. And there's no going back. You can only move forward in time. And within the context of my theory.. once you arrived at your future destination (let's say 30 years again), for everyone else 30 years of normal time would've passed, time that included you mysteriously vanishing 30 years ago.

Just my thoughts.

I know, I know..

 

[Devil_666]

 

[creecher]

And it goes deeper...

I think life is full of countless random acts. So many combinations of events that make bigger events and greater occurances that just the act of going into the past would automatically change your "present".

(NOTE: I say "present" because time constantly moves forward. So the "present" at this instance where I'm typing it is now the past.. because time has moved forward. So NOW.. it's the "present" and so on..)

I think it would be impossible for absolutely random things to ALL duplicate and repeat exactly the same in the same manner with each visit you made to the past.

Okay then. Let's say time travel is possible. You go forward into the future, or you go forward into the past. Notice I said forward, because time marches onward. The act of going into the past, is actually you in the future. That is why the past isn't changed.

 

[CelticPredator]

******* goobacks.

THEY TOOK OUR JERBS! DEY TOOK ER JEEERRBESS!! Dekaderrr

 

[plasmid303]

Hey Devil, have you seen this indie film? I'd recommend it:

It's the most scientifically dense sci-fi film I've seen in a while.

Imdb page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/ (I would avoid reading the synopsis, of course).

 

[Devil_666]

Edit.........

 

[creecher]

Lets say you jumped into your time machine at 1p.m., according to the watch you happen to be wearing. You travel to the past, your watch now says 1-01p.m. the longer you hang around in the past the further into your future you travel. You find your younger self an hour later, it is now 2-01 p.m. I hope that makes what I was saying a little clearer. It may be the past you are in, but it is, in fact, your future as well.

Edit. Forget what I just said about facts. I didn't mean factual. I meant it as a turn of phrase.

 

[Devil_666]

Okay then. Let's say time travel is possible. You go forward into the future, or you go forward into the past. Notice I said forward, because time marches onward. The act of going into the past, is actually you in the future. That is why the past isn't changed.

I disagree. And based off of what you quoted from me I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I don't think ALL time moves forward. That's why I don't get your concept of "going into the past, is actually you in the future". I was refering to time constantly moving forward NOW. The "present" is something often referred to.. but what I was saying was even in the amount of time that's elapsed since I wrote that, that "present" is now the past. But if you time traveled back to when I wrote that, it wouldn't be going into the "future" like in your concept. It would be the past. I don't think time is this singular entity that moves as a whole. Which is what you're suggesting if I'm not mistaken. According to you.. since time moves as a whole, going back into the past would simply be going into the future still since in that amount of time, the singular entity of time as whole would've moved forward. And I don't buy that.

Hey Devil, have you seen this indie film? I'd recommend it:

It's the most scientifically dense sci-fi film I've seen in a while.

Yeah I saw plasmid. Cool movie.

Lets say you jumped into your time machine at 1p.m., according to the watch you happen to be wearing. You travel to the past, your watch now says 1-01p.m. the longer you hang around in the past the further into your future you travel. You find your younger self an hour later, it is now 2-01 p.m. I hope that makes what I was saying a little clearer. It may be the past you are in, but it is, in fact, your future as well.

Edit. Forget what I just said about facts. I didn't mean factual. I meant it as a turn of phrase.

Ah.. ok now I see what you're saying. And I agree with you. It's just how you previously worded it that threw me off.

 

[creecher]

I'm not asking you to agree with the vision of time travel I was speaking of. It's more interesting reading different points of view.

What I quoted from you wasn't so much about the present you were talking of. I was more concerned with the countless random acts, which under the scenario I mentioned, would be duplicated precisely. No matter how many times you visited the past. Just another possibility.