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Time "travel" is a crazy thing

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dpaynter26 polycounter lvl 11
Ok, so random thing in the general discussion, im sure someone here will go into this conversation with me lol. So I've been thinking about time "travel" and went over some information and well without going into crazy technical details and as odd as this sounds, i have to share this with someone. Right know it's is actually "unknown" whether our laws and theories of physics allow us to "travel" backwards in time, to see something from the past. Technically it's possible to travel into the future but it's not possible to see things from OUR OWN PERSONAL future because we would have to duplicate ourselves. If you were to go to the future, you would be the only YOU in the future because there wasnt a duplication of yourself. So the ONLY POSSIBLE WAY to see your own personal future would require to travel backwards in time first, causing yourself to be "duplicated". Because if you went backwards there would be two yous but if you went forward there would only be one you. Everyone else in the world would continue to live their lives but you wouldnt be there so therefore you have no future until you get to the future. But if you go backwards you're duplicated, you'll go back so that there are two yous in the past that way you leave one YOU to continue through regular timeflow so that you can go into the future and see ONE of an almost infinite number of possibilities of how your future life will turn out...........crazy stuff, i could go on for hours about this, my brain is broken.........any thoughts from anyone? lol

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  • Stinger88
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    Stinger88 polycounter
    I can predict the future if that helps.

    I predict this thread will contain pictures of cats very soon.......

    :P
  • dpaynter26
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    dpaynter26 polycounter lvl 11
    I hope not lol, i was being really serious when i posted this, i really want to have this discussion lol, and i didnt say anything at all about "predicting" the future cmon man dont troll me :P
  • dfacto
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    dfacto polycounter lvl 18
    But are we not all time travelers, carried along on this never-ending stream?

    My_cat_BL_11_by_Leox90.jpg
  • kevlar jens
    what if you were to travel back in time, moments before your dad impregnated your mom with you. and as he's about to do so, you jump out from the closet and take his load over your face.

    what would happen then? you obviously wouldn't have been born, but then there wouldn't be any you to travel back in time and interrupt the act. so would it just go along like usual, or what?

    or would the time-travelling you continue to exist- living along with the universe now free from the original you?? (think back to the future 2)
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Current theories allows for time travel, so it's not completely out of this world.

    But as Hawking says it: "a time machine will be built someday, but has not yet been built, so the tourists from the future cannot reach this far back in time."
  • dpaynter26
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    dpaynter26 polycounter lvl 11
    but see eld that's where the theories would allow it to be possible, it's actually completely unknown if travelling backwards in time is possible even in theory, but if a "time machine" is built someday and they were able to actually resolve even just a theory of reverse travel then you would be able to come this far back in time, you would just cause a major paradox and split time a million different directions to come back so far that we dont have the theory for reverse travel IF anyone were ever to figure out your from the future

    @ kevlar
    that's a scenario which causes a problem that's why it's said that the "fabric of the universe could unravel" and cause unknown affects, it's vastly unfathomable what could happen! ITS SO INTERESTING! (except for the fact that you use a horrible horrible scenario LOL!)
  • [HP]
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    [HP] polycounter lvl 13
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    [HP] wrote: »


    Probably the same issue as with space aliens, if they existed, wouldn't they have visited us already?

    Humans existence in the universal lifetime is so silly tiny that we become irrelevant in the time sense.
  • rooster
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    rooster mod
    hawking also held a party for time travellers and only announced the invitation after the event. no-one turned up :(
  • dfacto
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    dfacto polycounter lvl 18
    Traveling forward is and interesting proposition. If the universe is deterministic, then perhaps the future is simply there already and we can skip into it. If the universe is deterministic it still might be a flowing path that we can't bypass. If the universe isn't deterministic then traveling forward would either be impossible because there is a void, or your travel itself would generate a future. Could write an interesting sci-fi story based on that last concept.
  • McGreed
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    McGreed polycounter lvl 15
    what if you were to travel back in time, moments before your dad impregnated your mom with you. and as he's about to do so, you jump out from the closet and take his load over your face.

    what would happen then? you obviously wouldn't have been born, but then there wouldn't be any you to travel back in time and interrupt the act. so would it just go along like usual, or what?

    or would the time-travelling you continue to exist- living along with the universe now free from the original you?? (think back to the future 2)

    Well, thats the thing, you have no idea if you have already travelling in time and space 100's of times, because it might have cancelled out and at some point, it cancelled out the point where you got the ability to time travel. :)

    There is the theory that there isn't just one timeline, but several, some temporary, depending on how big 'waves' events make. One place he cut the red wire, the other place he cut the green, both might change a lot in the future, big ripples. So it will create seperate timelines, with you in it, but a different you.

    I can imagine you might not be able to travel physically to another timeline, but maybe swap consious with the other you, in the other timeline.

    EDIT: I did think that I would like to go back to change my past, but now, if I do it, I will most likely lose my nephews and nieces, and that I don't want.
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
    if time travel wasn't instant, and you had to give up chunks of your allotted time alive, would you still want to spend it 'traveling' to other times?

    also:
    the earth moves around the sun at 30km a second, our solar system is moving at 250km/s second, our galaxy is humming along at 300km/s. So make sure your machine is based on s² and not just ΔT


    OP should watch:

    220px-Primer.jpg
  • Mongrelman
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    Mongrelman polycounter lvl 18
    Yeah was gonna suggest Primer, best time travel movie I've seen :)
  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    That's a terrible movie. All you need to know about time travel is contained right here:
    Back_to_the_future.jpg
  • JacqueChoi
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    JacqueChoi polycounter
    I'm posting here from the future, to warn Ian, that BlankSlateJoe is going to wonder about the actual lateral movement aspect.
  • blankslatejoe
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    blankslatejoe polycounter lvl 18
    Ian, I've always wondered about the actual lateral movement aspect. You can't just invent a time machine, it has to be a time machine AND teleportation device or you'd end up in some random place in space--where earth was when you left it but will never be again.
  • MrHobo
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    MrHobo polycounter lvl 13
    I actually think about time travel a lot sometimes because, as a black man, time travel scares the crap outta me.
    Go back too far goodbye modern medicine (and communication) hello diseases. Don't go back far enough... Hello 3rd class citizen.
  • Rurouni Strife
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    Rurouni Strife polycounter lvl 10
    I've been interested in the theory of time travel. If I remember Into the Universe or whatever it's called (has Steven Hawking as the narrator) which rooster referenced, Hawking believes that travel to the past is just impossible. I think one instance of this was a "mad" scientist creating a time portal where he could view himself in the past. Then he shoots himself. However, if he does that then he never creates the portal. Paradox!

    Traveling to the future would involve super high speeds and yes it would be just you as you...in the future. So yea, you're right you're only able to be the one you. And since travel to the past is impossible, duplicate you's would be impossible.

    I think what you might find more interesting is the idea of string theory, which introduces scientific reasons for parallel universes and thus parallel you's. I think that's where the infinite possibilities exist.
  • equil
    Imagine four balls on the edge of a cliff. Say a direct copy of the ball nearest the cliff is sent to the back of the line of balls and takes the place of the first ball. The formerly first ball becomes the second, the second becomes the third, and the fourth falls off the cliff. Time works the same way.
  • Alberto Rdrgz
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    Alberto Rdrgz polycounter lvl 9
    perna wrote: »
    5ghx.jpg

    fffffffffff hahaaha!!! :D!
  • Adam L. Gray
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
    thread can be closed now
  • Jesse Moody
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    Jesse Moody polycounter lvl 17
    why close the thread? Nothing wrong going on here. Actually kinda interesting.
  • Ace-Angel
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    Ace-Angel polycounter lvl 12
    What if someone did already travel back in time, and change stuff around, but it has become our current world, so we know not any better?

    Or maybe changes happen in side-dimensions, not our current ones?

    Either way, it sucks if you're not the one controlling the balls.
  • dfacto
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    dfacto polycounter lvl 18
    Why does killing your own father have to be impossible though? Look at quantum theory, there are plenty of cases where the universe tells conventional logic to go fuck itself. Having 5 of you running around fatherless in one timeline with a dinosaur butler may be perfectly possible. Nobody has made the machine for it yet though.
  • Overlord
    Ian, I've always wondered about the actual lateral movement aspect. You can't just invent a time machine, it has to be a time machine AND teleportation device or you'd end up in some random place in space--where earth was when you left it but will never be again.

    But you have forgotten that you and the time machine are in motion as well, you are not static in relation to space. You move just the same as your surroundings do. The question then is, "Does that inertia carry over into time travel?" and "Will you accelerate through space as you accelerate through time?" I believe it depends on the nature of the time machine. If you're thinking of a time machine that travels with you, then there's a lot of unknown variables. However, physicists have said that a time machine can be a static object that warps time, thus, wherever the time machine goes, you will go with it so long as you are traveling through time.

    Singularities have been long thought of as such device. Fly around it along its rotation, you go forward, go against it and you go back. It has to do with the warping of spacetime where it folds or compresses points in spacetime together. The only limitation in terms of where you can go is whether or not it still exists in the future and when it came to be in the past. If you go to the past, it won't be the same timeline that you came from. Your mere presence will split the timeline into a new timeline, which is probably why Hawking's party experiment didn't work. No one in our timeline that received the invitation would be able to come to his party because as soon as people from our timeline traveled back, the time line would split and they would no longer be in our timeline. Thus, we will never meet time travelers from our own timeline. Perhaps, we will never meet any time travelers from the future because this is an established timeline. Time travelers can only go to the past when it creates a new timeline. This is all theory and speculation of course, but they're the best ideas I've heard anybody come up with.
  • D4V1DC
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    D4V1DC polycounter lvl 18
    Going back in time might be easy, its coming back I'd be worried about what if you collide with yourself returning to the present?

    What if the time machine goes but you stay?

    What if the ending of this video happens to you?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPnOFMkhnlg

    This is indeed interesting.
  • Rurouni Strife
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    Rurouni Strife polycounter lvl 10
    Overlord makes sense, as much as one can if you argue for the ability to travel back in time. If it is possible, timelines become altered and become new timelines. Sounds plausible to me.
  • Wells
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    Wells polycounter lvl 18
    why close the thread? Nothing wrong going on here. Actually kinda interesting.


    i was kidding

    he explained time so thoroughly and matter-of-factly that there is no more need to discuss it. [/sarcasm]
  • Marisa
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    Marisa polycounter lvl 17
    If you haven't seen the movie "The Girl who Leapt Through Time" then you should check it out. The theory of time travel was researched and written very well in that movie which prevented a lot of plot holes. Aside from that, the animation and story are superb and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in a great anime time travel movie.
  • Joopson
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    Joopson quad damage
    So, let's say you travel back. You'd have to plan really well to make sure you don't end up stuck in the wall of a building. And what if a person is standing right where you "land"? Or even if a tree were there. It's these things you gotta think about.
  • JacqueChoi
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    JacqueChoi polycounter
    I'm going to travel 30 seconds into the future.
  • JacqueChoi
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    JacqueChoi polycounter
    Yup! It works!
  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6SVDNQmyA4"]FAQ About Time Travel - Trailer - YouTube[/ame]
  • Stinger88
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    Stinger88 polycounter
    rooster wrote: »
    hawking also held a party for time travellers and only announced the invitation after the event. no-one turned up :(

    Maybe Hawking is a complete Dick and no one want to go to his parties.
  • JR
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    JR polycounter lvl 15
    Jackablade wrote: »
    That's a terrible movie. All you need to know about time travel is contained right here:
    Back_to_the_future.jpg

    Nah... it's a good movie. I watched several times when I was a kid.
  • Japhir
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    Japhir polycounter lvl 16
    perna wrote: »
    So, in sci-fi, what happens if you go back in time and kill your father? Very straightforward, just depends on whether it's in the context of multiverse of not.

    -If yes, then your father dies and you are never born in that timeline, but the person doing the killing is from another timeline, whos father was not killed, so it all makes sense.

    -If no, then time is linear and anything can happen but once. Time travel is still perfectly possible. A time traveling person can make stuff happen in the "past", but that is what always would have happened. Time doesn't loop back on itself.

    The former makes for terrible fiction, as it robs of us any reason to care what happens to a character. If killed in one timeline, there's another where he survives, so... whatever.


    The latter is a lot more fun. See Terminator I and II. They handle this brilliantly.

    NoFateCap2.jpg

    The former has been used in many very good sci-fi books as well, such as Robert Heinlein's "The number of the Beast". It's basically about a group of people travelling the multiverse. Since it is about these people, it would matter if one of them died, since these specific individuals would be dead, even though plenty of similar others are still around in other dimensions. (read it, it's good!)
  • Saman
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    Saman polycounter lvl 13
    perna wrote: »
    So, in sci-fi, what happens if you go back in time and kill your father? Very straightforward, just depends on whether it's in the context of multiverse of not.

    -If yes, then your father dies and you are never born in that timeline, but the person doing the killing is from another timeline, whos father was not killed, so it all makes sense.

    -If no, then time is linear and anything can happen but once. Time travel is still perfectly possible. A time traveling person can make stuff happen in the "past", but that is what always would have happened. Time doesn't loop back on itself.

    The former makes for terrible fiction, as it robs of us any reason to care what happens to a character. If killed in one timeline, there's another where he survives, so... whatever.


    The latter is a lot more fun. See Terminator I and II. They handle this brilliantly.

    NoFateCap2.jpg

    Nice points. Bill & Ted's excellent adventure is a good example of the latter, even though it parodies it. The former one however is being misused a lot, just look at Terminator Salvation. They make up all sorts of crap and continuity errors and then blame it all on different timelines.
  • moose
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    moose polycount sponsor
    Despite the crazy plot injection, I actually really liked the time travel concept on LOST.
  • dpaynter26
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    dpaynter26 polycounter lvl 11
    Sectaurs wrote: »
    thread can be closed now

    No why would you close the thread, i wasnt looking for an answer that has been found, i was wanting a discussion
  • Selaznog
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    Selaznog polycounter lvl 8
    Not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but what happens to the atoms where you land in the past or future? Would your body just replace them, or would they "nudge over"? What about the atoms from where you left, would that just become a void of nothingness? What if you traveled to the future and there was a wall right where you traveled to, would you go through it or would it go through you? Questions questions...
  • Overlord
    Selaznog wrote: »
    Not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but what happens to the atoms where you land in the past or future? Would your body just replace them, or would they "nudge over"? What about the atoms from where you left, would that just become a void of nothingness? What if you traveled to the future and there was a wall right where you traveled to, would you go through it or would it go through you? Questions questions...

    The answer is neither, because you never vacated the space you occupy. You just move through time faster than everyone else. Your position relative to your surroundings remains the same.
  • binopittan
    You can't just travel back in time and kill your father, if you tried to.. you will be struck by thunder and died in the process. :poly142:

    That reminds me an episode from twilight zone that tells story about jew from future tried to travel back in time and kill hitler when he still a baby.

    perna wrote: »
    -If no, then time is linear and anything can happen but once. Time travel is still perfectly possible. A time traveling person can make stuff happen in the "past", but that is what always would have happened. Time doesn't loop back on itself.
    basically this. most logical explanation imo. except that it's not necessarily happens only once/only one person can travel.
    I love time travel stories, but hate it when it turns to alternate dimesion route.
    Sci-fi are meant to boogle your logic. Alternate dimension are just porr explanation of time travel theory. lame really..
  • Selaznog
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    Selaznog polycounter lvl 8
    Overlord wrote: »
    The answer is neither, because you never vacated the space you occupy. You just move through time faster than everyone else. Your position relative to your surroundings remains the same.


    Well that just makes too much sense. Thanks, I feel like an idiot now lol
  • Two Listen
  • Sandro
  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter
    Selaznog wrote: »
    Not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but what happens to the atoms where you land in the past or future? Would your body just replace them, or would they "nudge over"? What about the atoms from where you left, would that just become a void of nothingness? What if you traveled to the future and there was a wall right where you traveled to, would you go through it or would it go through you? Questions questions...

    its even creepier! the earth rotates around the sun with 29.8 km/s, the solar system the galaxy we are in have their own speed - you could land right in the middle of nowhere, woukdn't do that without a spaceship! XD
  • McGreed
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    McGreed polycounter lvl 15
    Well, thats why we never heard about time travellers, they never survived their first jump, because they ended up in space. :)
  • binopittan
    Btw i third the stein gate recomendation. Imo great example on how time travel sci-fi story should be written. I'm talking about Steins Gate the visual novel, the original.
    The anime makes pretty good 8.5/10 adaptation of it, which is still very pleasant to watch.

    For anyone planning to watch it, be warned though, well.. it's an anime. Except overly cutesy potrayed female character etc etc :p
  • Geezus
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