Question about time Travel

[shadow735]

I have a question about time travel. Lets say that we have the technology to be able to time travel. If I went back in time say a year would I be able to meet myself, talk to myself and touch myself (as in touching and not dematerialize due to same matter in same space thing)<br />I was just wondering what something like that would be like. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[falkor]

Ask two identical twins and they should be able to tell you what it's like...

 

[SpeedFreek]

A simple answer is to state that as we have no evidence that at any time throughout history has anyone seen anybody from the future, that backwards time travel is impossible. Otherwise, would we already be seeing time travellers appearing, at historic events for instance?<br /><br />If time travel was invented, and allowed you to travel back and meet yourself when you were 15 years old, how come, when you were 15 years old, you didn't meet your future self? Would travelling backwards in time change history then? Could you murder your father, before you were born, and if you did, would you suddenly disappear in a puff of causality? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>

 

[shadow735]

Putting aside paradox effects and such, (if I killed my father would I never be born if I wasnt born how can I kill my father) as well as weather or not time travel into the past is possible.<br />If it was possible would I be able to meet myself, talk to myself, or even give myself a hug? I am not focusing on memory or any kind of history change effects.<br /><br />Also if I where to touch my past self would there be any negative effects. Such as matter not being able to occupy the same space in different times, wouldnt that be impossible because if I traveled back in time 5 years my future selfs cell makeup would be different as cells die and are replaced.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[pyoko]

Assuming you can travel back in time, if you met yourself, your mind would go insane because of a feedback effect on your memory. <br /><br />(This is assuming a lot of other things. It's more philosophical than 'Ask the Astronomer'.) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="color:#ff9900" class="Apple-style-span">-pyoko</span> <span style="color:#333333" class="Apple-style-span">the</span> <span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span">duck </span></p><p><span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color:#808080;font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span">It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.</span></span></p> </div>

 

[shadow735]

how would I go insane, wouldnt the memory of meeting myself just pop into my head? after all its just about a neural pathway being created in my brain at the time the memory started. <br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[weeman]

<font color="yellow"> A simple answer is to state that as we have no evidence that at any time throughout history has anyone seen anybody from the future, that backwards time travel is impossible. Otherwise, would we already be seeing time travellers appearing, at historic events for instance? <br /> </font><br /><br />You make a good point. If time travel existed like this (where you can go back and meet yourself) then I should have already had a run in with my future self. <br /><br />If our present day society were to invent time travel in say 50 years from now, then people would be coming back to this point to meet themselves or try to change events. This means that right now we should already be seeing our future selves coming back and performing these events. <br /><br />The only reason, that I can think of, why we haven't seen any future time travelers, would be that parallel universes actually exist. When the future time travelers hop in their time machines to head back to the past, they leave this universe and enter a parallel universe. So, people in that universe would see the future travelers, but we will never see them because we exist only in this universe. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>

 

[fatal291]

I like to stand in front of the mirror and pretend im listening to orders from my future self, and i only seem to lip sync because i remember it all from the last time.. how else would i have thought of this who proccess?

 

[R1]

I think information would be difficult enough to send to the past.<br /><br />a) It may be that the only<br />future experiments will be to send information to the past, not entire humans. So<br />future information may be available somewhere already.<br /><br />b) Or instead, it may be that the information<br />requires the machine itslef that took all the info., in which case info could only be sent back<br />only as far as when the machine was initially turned on.<br /><br />I like the first idea better, but I won't elaborate too much as it probably belongs in phenomenal threads<br />at the current time, but I do think future info is available sometimes. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[mindmute]

It seems to me, that if it were possible, it would take a lot of energy and money. Assuming both facts true, it is likely that if traveling back is possible, it would be a very powerful corporation or government. Therefore, the feat would not likely produce a congenial conversation with average folks like ourselves, but rather, sobering foretellings from one powerful future corporation or government to a present, or past government.<br />So, while we may not actually "see" time travelers running around the present or past, it may be possible to speculate about the effects they may have had....<br />[[ .... the assassination of Hitler allowed the soviet union to occupy all of europe by the year 1955, we were not in an economic position to win the cold war in the late 1980's. ]] [[ ... during John F Kennedy's second term in office, it was his executive order to use atomic weapons on the boarder of north Vietnam and china to cut off supplies to the viet-con... ]]]<br />[[[ ... after stopping the horrible events of 9/11, the world did nothing to curb the escalation of terrorism around the world, and on October 12th 2007 the simultaneous terror nukes of Paris, London, Madrid, and Washington, lead to the downfall of our modern technically advanced human civilization. therefore the future had to let that event happen. ]]]<br /><br />...and on and on....

 

[alokmohan]

Time travel is permitted by General theory of relativity.Kip Thorne is serious about it.

 

[adrenalynn]

If I built a time machine that could send information to the past, I'd send the information regarding how to build a time machine to my past self. So it already would have been invented, prior to my inventing it, by myself. <br /><br />I despise time machines. They lead to recursion and NP Complete problems that just make my head hurt. Head Hurt Bad. Time Machines Bad. Must go back in time and break bad time machine! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[kyle_baron]

<font color="yellow"><br />Time travel is permitted by General theory of relativity.Kip Thorne is serious about it. </font><br /><br />Alokmohan, I guess you missed my previous post on Kip Thorne's interview in the Nov. issue of Discover magazine. He said that time travel is permitted by General Relativity, but when combined with Quantum Mechanics, as soon as the time machine is turned on, it would explode! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="4"><strong></strong></font></p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

The information you talk about is welcome.Can you give the web or extracts?

 

[kyle_baron]

You would have to buy the magazine. I was unable to get a web link. This was my previous post:<br /><br /><br /><br />Hi alokmohan. I thought I'd mention to you that this month's Discover Magazine (November 2007) has a nice interview with Kip Thorn on page 51. I'll quote some of the interesting statements he made: <br /><i><br />A big misconception is that a black hole is made of matter that has been compacted to a very small size. That's not true. A black hole is made from warped space and time......the stars matter is destroyed at the holes center, where space time is infinitly warped. There's nothing left any where but warped space time. <br /><br />General Relativity says wormholes could exist. When we combine General Relativity with Quantum Theory, we find moderatly strong evidence that wormholes can not exist after all. But we just don't know for sure yet. <br /><br />If any highly advance civilization attempts to make a time machine for backward time travel, quantum effects will cause the time machine to begin to self destruct explosively at the moment you activate it. We don't know if the explosion is strong enough to always destroy the time machine. We will have to have the full quantum theory of gravity (General Relativity + Quantum Mechanics, yet to be understood) to find out the answer. </i><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="4"><strong></strong></font></p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

kyle_baron Thaks for the post.I am fan of Kip Thorne.Whenever you get a chance send post of Kip Thorne.do it.When I get hold of a time machine,I shall accomodate you,Kip permitting.

 

[alokmohan]

TIME ain't what it used to be. A hundred years or so ago, we thought that the seconds ticked away predictably. Tick followed tock, followed tick. And clocks ran... well, like clockwork. Then along came Einstein and everything changed. <br /><br />His theories of relativity dealt a blow to our naive ideas about time. Hitch a ride on a rocket travelling close to the speed of light, and time slows to a virtual standstill. The same happens if you park near a black hole and feel its awesome gravity. Even worse, space-time becomes so warped inside a black hole that space and time actually switch places. <br /><br />Now just as we're getting to grips with time's weirdness, one daring physicist has dropped another bombshell. "There isn't just one dimension of time," says Itzhak Bars of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "There are two. One whole dimension has until now gone ...<br /><br />The complete article is 2258 words long.(new scientist)<br />

 

[jgreimer]

There's another problem with trying to send information to the past. Remember in Back To The Future II, Bif finds the the book that has all the sports outcomes. Suppose Bif, instead of using it to make money, decided to change the outcomes of the games. Would he be able to? This is the crux of the free will / predestination discussion. If he can change the outcomes it validates free will but then the book was wrong about the outcomes creating a paradox. If he can't change the outcomes, it invalidates free will.

 

[origin]

<font color="yellow">If I went back in time say a year would I be able to meet myself, talk to myself and <b>touch myself</b>.</font><br /><br /><font color="yellow">If it was possible would I be able to meet myself, talk to myself, or even give <b>myself a hug</b>?</font><br /><br /><font color="yellow">Also if I where to <b>touch my past self</b> would there be any negative effects.</font><br /><br />Just what are you getting at? Hmmm?<br />Go ahead and touch yourself <i>now</i>, it's OK.... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[mindmute]

<font color="#80ffff">"If he can change the outcomes it validates free will but then the book was wrong about the outcomes creating a paradox. If he can't change the outcomes, it invalidates free will."</font><br /><br />Whoa! Would such a paradox have an effect on space, time, matter, or energy? Is the invalidation of free will actually a mechanism to protect the "natural" evolution of these forces?<br />You really have provoked some deep thinking here, thanks.

 

[alokmohan]

As far as I remember Hawking sniffed at these paradoxes and discarded time travel.