21 replies to this topic

[trip i fall]

I heard that this was the "Whole Worlds" Model. It's similar in nature to God's omniscience and ability to see the future. (Let's NOT get into a religious debate here though.) Basically, it was over God's ability to see the future. They've determined that since no future has happened yet, coupled with Free Will and all, (Fairly self-explanatory, as, and, once again, this isn't a religious debate.) God can't know the future, but can only know what futures are possible. It's more of an "If you do this, this will happen. Then Bob could come and change that future too." It's all a whole big mess of "Coulds."


I don't really see time travel happening. All I can see is a bunch of reversing processes.

But then again, he is god... and he kinda created everything in the entire universe including time, so I suspect he would be able to predict it. I just can't think of god in a logical sense, since basically all that he is defies laws, I guess. It's confusing.

Oh, and Link75, that John Titor thing is very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[Limzo]

Hmm. Lets treat different times like places, i.e. 2006 is above 2007, but below 2005. But obviously, everything we do does not change the future, it simply helps with and adds to the creation of a future. Therefore, there are different 2005s, 2006s and 2007s all side by side. Imagine them as different earths (simply because the "time" that is happening on Earth is not the same "time" that is happening outside of Earth), all slightly different from one another, all side by side going on for ages.

[Linkus]

Time travel? Multiple universes representing events that occurred or didn't and so on... It depends on how you see it--but something bothers me. Take this overly improbable scenario:

As we all know, the average day on Earth is around 24 hours. It is also an elliptical sphere, meaning you can go around it for an infinite amount of time(unless it is destroyed).

Now let's say you have a craft of sorts that can go around the Earth is less than 24 hours(I warned you this would be improbable!). Now once you circumnavigate the Earth in this vessel at full speed(following the Equator and within the atmospheric layers), what would the time be? Could you actually be in the future? the past?Or is time the same, no matter what the clocks in the area that you left show?

It's odd, because the International Date Line seems to be accidental evidence that time is a sort of gyroscopic 3D spiral when it comes to certain objects in space(like planets), which can cover almost all of it but yet not have the ability to entirely give exact proportions of time, much like a map. From this observation, time is like an odd fabric, I guess you could say, and it splits to cover all possibilities of events.

(BTW, the "around Earth in less than 24 hours" thing is something I thought of back when I was in 4th grade. )

[Mitchfork]

Posting In All Caps Is Annoying.

I'm gonna have to back up Einstein on this. Time is relative. I'm gonna break up the steps here to explain it.
1) I get into my spaceship. I start flying away from earth at exactly the speed of light.
2) Since the reflected light from the earth is going the exact same speed, if I used my ultra telescope to look back, then I'd see the same millisecond for as long as I went at the speed of light. Does this make sense?
3) Let's say I went FASTER than the speed of light. I'd start goind faster than the reflected light from the earth, and start seeing things go backwardsas I caught up to the light waves that were previously in front of me. I do this until I see time go back one hour.
4) I stop immediately. I don't break my neck because of future technology. In effect, time starts flowing normally, and I see things happening exactly one hour in the past.
5) I go back towards earth. Since I'm catching up with the light waves faster than normally, I see time on earth go at an accelerated rate. Eventually, I land on earth.
6) If I set off at 5:00 PM, and spent 10 hours in space, It'd be 3:00 AM when I landed, since the time flow has stabilized.

Now, let's see what would happen if I went slower than the speed of light. I could go to the exact same place where I stopped earlier, but time flow would be completely normal. I'd see things exactly as the person on earth would see them, since I never went faster than the light waves.

I'm a huge nerd, I know. But if you think about it, this makes a lot of sense.

[Red Phazon]

Now let's say you have a craft of sorts that can go around the Earth is less than 24 hours(I warned you this would be improbable!). Now once you circumnavigate the Earth in this vessel at full speed(following the Equator and within the atmospheric layers), what would the time be? Could you actually be in the future? the past?Or is time the same, no matter what the clocks in the area that you left show?

I've thought of something similar to this before too. It's interesting, if you went the opposite way the earth was spinning (assuming that it will take exactly a day to get to the same spot) then it would appear that the sun is not moving (from your view) and going the other way you would go around the globe twice, but still only one day has past. You actually haven't experienced two days (time wise), just two days and nights (light wise.) You wouldn't be in the future or the past.

3) Let's say I went FASTER than the speed of light. I'd start goind faster than the reflected light from the earth, and start seeing things go backwardsas I caught up to the light waves that were previously in front of me. I do this until I see time go back one hour.

Maybe my mind is just being blind right now, but I don't know about seeing things going backwards. There would be a gap forming between you and the light, but not so it looks like or is going backwards. Maybe I just can't picture this, so I'll just have to think about it some more.

[LinktheMaster]

Several of you all have unknowingly referred to the "String Theory", so I figure I'll explain it a bit.

First of all, do note that this is a theory, and that while math backs it up, experiments in labs haven't because we don't currently have adequate technology to test it.

Anyway, String Theory is the theory that everything in the universe is made up of strings, even all of the atoms we're made up of. In fact, even the universe is just one big string that's constantly expanding. Essentially, String Theory is a theory that, if correct, could potentially explain everything. Gravity, creation of the universe, what's beyond the universe's supposed infinite yet expanding boundaries. What's strange about it, is that the math states that there are 11 dimensions. Height, width, depth, and even time. However, no one knows what would be in the other seven dimensions if it's correct. So, based on string theory, time travel may be possible. May.

It's an interesting concept, at least, and something that would be really cool if it were true. But, like I said, it hasn't been verified much in labs, it only has the math to back it up.

3) Let's say I went FASTER than the speed of light. I'd start goind faster than the reflected light from the earth, and start seeing things go backwardsas I caught up to the light waves that were previously in front of me. I do this until I see time go back one hour.

It's an interesting theory that would otherwise be correct if it didn't have one major flaw. It's true that if you went faster than light, and assuming light went in the same direction all of the time, you could in fact see what's previously happened. You would just see it, however, you couldn't actually change what's already happened.

However, the flaw is that everything in the universe is always moving, and light expands outward everywhere. So, the light to see what happened in the past wouldn't match up. You could see small bursts, but you can't see a long "picture" because it wouldn't take long for the earth to move and rotate to mess up what you're seeing. Secondly, you forget that light goes out in all directions, so the farther you get from earth, the less of the "whole picture" you see. You'll start seeing less and less until eventually hardly anything will be able to be made out.