12 April 2012
A Thursday musing...please feel free to discuss! Would welcome input and thoughts...
One assumes that time travel is not possible. The main factor of this being the fact that no-one has ever found evidence of a time traveller, at least no-one has admitted to such a find anyway. But if it was possible, what would we do with it? I don't believe travelling back in time will be ever possible. I believe this because of the Butterfly Effect. No matter what you do, you would have an effect on something, therefore causing the butterfly effect, and therefore causing an effect that would either mean the machine was not invented, or an effect which meant you never made the trip. But because you either never made the trip, or the machine was not invented, then you wouldn't have interacted with anything, and then would be able to make the journey...therefor being caught in an infinite loop, and possibly bringing the whole of time and space down and ending it all. Travelling to the future, although could be possible through some sort of time bridge or worm hole, you still face the problem of though not being able to effect the future, your actions could effect the present in the present after the journey, and then effecting the future that way. Similar to the butterfly effect. Therefore the only way to time travel would be into the future, and then not being able to the present. That way you would not be able to effect anything, and time would carry along it's normal course. There are a few theories that explain how such a journey could be done. All of which have to do with the speed of light. Everyone knows the speed of light is the fastest thing in the universe. But is it? For example, the speed of light is faster in a vacuum, i.e Space, then it is here on earth. Admittedly it's only 70km per hour slower, but never the less it's slower. So what about black holes? They are so powerful not even light is fast enough to escape. Therefore it must travel a lot slower at an event horizon then it does here on earth. So, a common theory is if you could circle a black hole, time would move a lot slower for you. So when you return from the black hole, depending on How long you had been circling, you could find yourself having aged less then the people back in earth. My personal view though, is that time is a man-made theory. There is no past, present, or future. There is only now. The past is just memories and the future is just ideas I'm afraid. You can not travel between the two, as they don't exist.
Time Travel • Opuss № I