Time travel

[Sulkdodds]

Do you mean the actual action wouldn't change, or the eventual outcome? I mean, if you tried to kill Hitler as a baby, would you either fail at killing him, or would there be a dictator as bad as him regardless?

Well. Either you'd fail at killing him, OR someone else would steal his identity. But this wouldn't be a change in the past; rather, it would be a discovery that in fact Hitler was killed as a baby and the man known to the world as Hitler was really an imposter.

The past has happened, so you can't change it. Anything you do in the past has already happened so you can't change anything, because if you could then whatever you changed would have happened instead.

However, it might turn out that the only reason WW2 ended, for example, is because a time traveller made it happen.

Avatar: Won't import to flash, I'd need a jpeg. PM me.

EDIT:

I think he's trying to say that because Hitler has already come into power in OUR time, it obviously means that if someone had gone back in time to kill hitler, they failed, because the evidence that hitler came to power still exists.

Though really that can also mean that someone worse than hitler had came to power, and someone went back in time and succesfully killed this trueley evil dude, but when they arrived back at present time, Hitler, who was still evil, had come to power.
We don't know when the timeline has been changed, because we're all interwoven with it. You can only be aware that something has been altered if you aren't a part of Earths time line, or a glitch happened and people are suddenly talking about Hitler when you believe no one called Hitler ever came to power during the 1930's.

Exactly right.

 

[Naudian]

Maybe...
Think of time as a line that grows longer and longer as time ticks. A line that can only grow, unless you got a time machine to shrink it backwards.

Timeline:
==> yearyearyearyearyearyearyearyearpresent...

-You "go back in time" three years.

Timeline once you've "gone back in time":
==> yearyearyearyearyearpresent...

You went back 3 years, and now those 3 years dont exist anymore, because you rewound time, you undid everything that happened during those 3 years! So now your in the past, which is actually the present, and you kill some people and stuff. Then you go forward 3 years.

Timeline when you go forward 3 years:
==> yearyearyearyearyearyearyearyearpresent...

So what you did was hop out of time, rewound 3 years of time, hopped back in, and killed some people. Then, you hopped out of time for 3 years again, let time go by 3 years (*seems like an instant to you, cuz youre not in time*), and hopped back into time. Those people are still dead and stuff, some black guys in jail for it, and no one knows where the **** you've been for the last three years.

 

[Ket-Chup]

Look at it the other way round:

If you met yourself right now, saying he (future you) entered a time machine 20 years from now and went back in time to meet himself (present you), would it be possible for you to not enter the time machine 20 years later?
And did he (future you) also meet himself at the same time you met him?
And did the very first future you meet himself 20 years before he entered the time machine for the very first time?
What would happen if you actually managed to not enter the time machine? Would you meet yourself returning from the past after talking to you 20 years earlier? Or would the memory of you meeting yourself 20 years earlier just dissappear? Or would you enter a time machine 20 years later and go back 40 years and say that this is you 20 years from now, and lie to yourself?


Man, this gets more confusing the more I think of it...

 

[Pesmerga]

I very much doubt an infinite loop would occur, the universe has been too finely programmed for that

The universe was written in Assembly!! You can hackzors it!

But really, infinite loops would sock. I'm not gonna say what I think is impossible, because it probably is in one form or another. I believe that seeing the future is possible though, not because of some laser or nonsense, but because of judging actions and reactions. It's not 100%, but it gives us an idea of what might come.

 

[HunterSeeker]

Going back to change history wont work without pararell universes, becouse if you went back to prevent hitler from coming into power and succeded, you would have no way of knowing what hitler would do if he came into power and thus would not travel back to prevent it.

 

[Kitfox]

Maybe...
Think of time as a line that grows longer and longer as time ticks. A line that can only grow, unless you got a time machine to shrink it backwards.

Timeline:
==> yearyearyearyearyearyearyearyearpresent...

-You "go back in time" three years.

Timeline once you've "gone back in time":
==> yearyearyearyearyearpresent...

You went back 3 years, and now those 3 years dont exist anymore, because you rewound time, you undid everything that happened during those 3 years! So now your in the past, which is actually the present, and you kill some people and stuff. Then you go forward 3 years.

Timeline when you go forward 3 years:
==> yearyearyearyearyearyearyearyearpresent...

So what you did was hop out of time, rewound 3 years of time, hopped back in, and killed some people. Then, you hopped out of time for 3 years again, let time go by 3 years (*seems like an instant to you, cuz youre not in time*), and hopped back into time. Those people are still dead and stuff, some black guys in jail for it, and no one knows where the **** you've been for the last three years.

What I failed to mention in the Primer way was that you can't travel forward in time because it doesn't exist. Once you travel back intime you stuck there forever.

I haven't read this entire site yet but here you guys go

http://www.mjyoung.net/time/theory.html

 

[iyfyoufhl]

technicly we time trevel all the TIME

 

[bam23]

If we found out how to time travel in the future, we'd probably tell ourselves about it.

Of course, it could go the way of "Back to the Future" where meeting our past selves will ruin history.

 

[N1k23]

I guess there could be a way to go to the future, it's something like, if you go round our galaxy at the speed of light 3 times, you might of aged 40 years but earth would probably be gone. (The earth has aged more than a million years.)

Look at it the other way round:

If you met yourself right now, saying he (future you) entered a time machine 20 years from now and went back in time to meet himself (present you), would it be possible for you to not enter the time machine 20 years later?
And did he (future you) also meet himself at the same time you met him?
And did the very first future you meet himself 20 years before he entered the time machine for the very first time?
What would happen if you actually managed to not enter the time machine? Would you meet yourself returning from the past after talking to you 20 years earlier? Or would the memory of you meeting yourself 20 years earlier just dissappear? Or would you enter a time machine 20 years later and go back 40 years and say that this is you 20 years from now, and lie to yourself?


Man, this gets more confusing the more I think of it...

oh god it's too early! I believe that if that did happen, it's already been planned out, i.e in 20 years time, you have to go back 20 years for a certain reason and you have no other choice.

 

[Sulkdodds]

If you met yourself right now, saying he (future you) entered a time machine 20 years from now and went back in time to meet himself (present you), would it be possible for you to not enter the time machine 20 years later?

Sort of. Perhaps it turns out that you never actualyl went back in time, and instead the man you remember was an impostor pretending to be 'you from the future'.

But if it absolutely positively was you from the future, there'd be no way you could NOT go back in time imo.

 

[Naudian]

What I failed to mention in the Primer way was that you can't travel forward in time because it doesn't exist. Once you travel back intime you stuck there forever.

I haven't read this entire site yet but here you guys go

http://www.mjyoung.net/time/theory.html

Actually what I meant by traveling forward in time was stoping the effect time has on yourself, while time continues at its normal speed, then popping back into time whenever you're needed by the gman :O


But now I realize that all I just said in the last post and above is kind of a stupid theory...so many problems with it...

And about relativity, I forgot how it works...
Why does time slow down when you're traveling at the speed of light again?
You would think that if you were moving faster, time would be faster for you, not slower...im confuzled
What is so different about traveling at 200,000,000 m/s and traveling at 300,000,000 m/s (speed of light)???

 

[Sulkdodds]

But now I realize that all I just said in the last post and above is kind of a stupid theory...so many problems with it...

Well actually, it kind of made sense.

 

[Kyorisu]

The whole idea of "Time Travel" isn't feasable at the moment. Even if it was, it would only take one country to screw everything up.

 

[kirovman]

But really, infinite loops would sock. I'm not gonna say what I think is impossible, because it probably is in one form or another. I believe that seeing the future is possible though, not because of some laser or nonsense, but because of judging actions and reactions. It's not 100%, but it gives us an idea of what might come.

On judging the future: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_determinism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle

Classically, you can predict the future - but quantum mechanically, it's impossible.
Also add to that chaos theory.
Explains even why large scale systems like the weather cannot be predicted with great accuracy, however powerful our computers become.

 

[Kyorisu]

Ofcourse you can allways change your perception of time but thats another issue all together.

 

[Jintor]

Is it evolutionarily viable to continually move forwards in time?

Discworld Troll Theory holds to the fact that they are travelling backwards in time. If they can see the past, and can't see the future, they reason, it's obvious where your eyes are going towards.

 

[N1k23]

Maybe...
Think of time as a line that grows longer and longer as time ticks. A line that can only grow, unless you got a time machine to shrink it backwards.

Timeline:
==> yearyearyearyearyearyearyearyearpresent...

-You "go back in time" three years.

Timeline once you've "gone back in time":
==> yearyearyearyearyearpresent...

You went back 3 years, and now those 3 years dont exist anymore, because you rewound time, you undid everything that happened during those 3 years! So now your in the past, which is actually the present, and you kill some people and stuff. Then you go forward 3 years.

Timeline when you go forward 3 years:
==> yearyearyearyearyearyearyearyearpresent...

So what you did was hop out of time, rewound 3 years of time, hopped back in, and killed some people. Then, you hopped out of time for 3 years again, let time go by 3 years (*seems like an instant to you, cuz youre not in time*), and hopped back into time. Those people are still dead and stuff, some black guys in jail for it, and no one knows where the **** you've been for the last three years.

Well yes, or perhaps it would be like this:

to start - ==> yearyearyearyearyearyearyearyearpresent...

and then when you go back 3 years it's like this - ==>

yearyearyearyearyearpresentyearyear

thus meaning that the future has already been written, so you can not change it.

 

[N1k23]

Maybe...
Think of time as a line that grows longer and longer as time ticks. A line that can only grow, unless you got a time machine to shrink it backwards.

Timeline:
==> yearyearyearyearyearyearyearyearpresent...

-You "go back in time" three years.

Timeline once you've "gone back in time":
==> yearyearyearyearyearpresent...

You went back 3 years, and now those 3 years dont exist anymore, because you rewound time, you undid everything that happened during those 3 years! So now your in the past, which is actually the present, and you kill some people and stuff. Then you go forward 3 years.

Timeline when you go forward 3 years:
==> yearyearyearyearyearyearyearyearpresent...

So what you did was hop out of time, rewound 3 years of time, hopped back in, and killed some people. Then, you hopped out of time for 3 years again, let time go by 3 years (*seems like an instant to you, cuz youre not in time*), and hopped back into time. Those people are still dead and stuff, some black guys in jail for it, and no one knows where the **** you've been for the last three years.

Well yes, or perhaps it would be like this:

to start - ==> yearyearyearyearyearyearyearyearpresent...

and then when you go back 3 years it's like this -
==> yearyearyearyearyearpresentyearyear

thus meaning that the future has already been written, so you can not change it.

 

[Kyorisu]

The past and Future HAVE and WILL exist however, now is the present thus you cannot leave the present. You cannot go to something that doesn't exist.