Time travel...

[Robotech]

Time travel is quite possible, we do it every day, and have even been able to demonstrate that we can (slightly) alter the rate of flow. Unfortunately, so far we can only "intentionally" go in a forward direction.

However, there are cases which point to accidental physical time displacements both forward and back, which would seem to indicate a mechanism that doesn't require the ridiculous amounts of energy that some physicists think would be needed. (Mental time-tripping, where one only 'sees' a future or past, is something else entirely.) There is also the theory that some UFO sightings during important historical events may be time travelers rather than extra-terrestrials.

As for alternate/parallel universes, if the differences between these universes are very slight, how would you know that you haven't been shifting between them without noticing already? Maybe you didn't actually misplace your car keys, but put them down in a different spot in the universe your conscious self recently shifted into. Or that conversation your wife claims you had and you can't remember, actually happened when either you or she was in a neighboring world. Or a stranger comes up to you and seems to know you well, but as far as you can recall you've never met before...

The shift might happen between one step and the next as you're walking along. It might happen while you're asleep. Or it might happen while driving in a fog so thick you can barely make out the taillights of a car ten feet in front of you, and you're otherwise completely disconnected from the world. All it might take is somehow losing your mental anchor to that particular universe, and suddenly you're somewhere else. You probably just don't realize it most of the time, or will chalk up any minor "slips" or differences to some more mundane explanation.

 

[Raider]

I would be satisfied to stow away in the Tardis and hang out with the Doctor's companions. Leela, Sarah Jane, Amy Pond, River Song et al.

Charlie

 

[walnutred]

In the 70's I read a short story in which movie stars were actually time travelers. The company selling the time travel tours used that as a cover to disguise the erratic and illogical behavior to which vacationers to any place and time seem susceptible. I think the same time travel company must still be in business except they have added politicians to the disguise options.

 

[rwsmith]

Oh, but I do.....

If you really want to consider what 'forever' means, do a little reading on the age of the universe, the distances between various stars, etc., etc...it will blow your mind.

Here's an example: One light-year is about 5.8 trillion miles. The farthest galaxy from Earth yet discovered, dubbed MACS0657-JD, is 13.3 billion light years away (making it almost as old as the universe itself). Which means that, IF you could travel at the speed of light, it would take you more than 13 billion years to get to that galaxy.

Here's what that light-year distance looks like in miles: 77,140,000,000,000,000,000,000

Now then, if you were traveling at a more conventional speed, say, that of our Voyager 1 satellite (38,610 mph), it would take you 1,997,927,997,927,997,927 years to get there.

It's really too much for our minds (or at least MY mind) to grasp...

Eric Idle's "Galaxy Song'

Galaxy Song - YouTube

 

[mg357]

If i could travel back in time i would travel back to March 4th 1923 and witness my grandma being born.

 

[truckemup97]

A while back I met an old guy in this tricked out Delorean and he offered to take me back in time. I said "Sure!" and thought about checking out the parting of the Red Sea, The JFK assassination, or Custer's last stand and bringing a video camera with me. Instead I went back to 1971 and bought a new Colt .45. Haven't shot it yet.

Why did you have to travel back in time? I bought one last night.

 

[PA Reb]

Alright, we've done ghosts and reincarnation. How about time travel. This to me is just as fascinating and baffling a subject as the other two subjects.

A very good movie that falls in this category is not a new movie and it's kind of a chick-flick but it has a strong cast and is a fascinating concept for a story line. Title is "Somewhere In Time: staring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymore, and Christopher Plummer.

Hey Jack, you're right, this is a great topic for both thought and discussion. One of the best movies I've ever seen with this subject matter was "Contact" starring Jodie Foster and released in 1997.

I have a few "hobbies" that some of you may know by now know are a little weird and one of them is astronomy. The Andromeda Galaxy for example - its easy to see yet its 2.2 million light years away from us. Every time I look at it through one of the two telescopes we own, it makes me stare in awe. I try to think about the image (light) I'm looking at and think about this light being from the past because it actually started its journey to my eye 2.2 million years ago. In essence, I /we are actually seeing into the past as the galaxy may not even be there anymore. Then what really boggles the mind is if one thinks about leaving the earth at or near the cosmic speedlimit (speed of light), the closer we get to that speed slows time until it actually stops. Then, since we haven't found a way to travel at light speed, we have to kick it up a notch and think about being able to dart in and out of black holes or cosmic worm holes. After we figure out how to do all that, we can theoretically travel back and forth in time! That's much more than my simple mind can comprehend.

Its a great topic and thanks for posting it!

 

[Mcwsky09]

I have ever Heinlein novel I could find, including one finished after he died, and while he deals with time travel in a number if them, Farnham's Freehold is a good example.

For dealing with the possible ramifications of time travel, without gettin into how or why, is the Time Patrol series by Poul Anderson.

Time travel that is limited to the day it is invented general requires the use of static wormholes. In other words once you create the wormhole it is limited to that time as being on one end of it. Nevermind that current theory requires more energy than has ever existed.

The whole parallel dimensions thing doesn't add up for me especially the ones where every smile decision spawns another one.

I did read a story where the inventor of time travel goes back in time to kill the man his wife is cheating with and when that doesn't work he goes back to make more and more drastic changes only to lean tha the only reality he is changing is his own and no one else is affected.

Quantum mechanics sure has some weird stuff but even something so basic as whether light is a wave or a particle in my opinion will ultimately turn out to be only a limitation of our understanding of how the universe works and there is at least one more revolutionary fundamental shift in the way we understand and express the nature of reality.

 

[Jst1mr]

Fascinating subject - I probably got hooked way back when by "The Time Tunnel" TV series. Other favorites: "The Time Machine" (both the 1960 and 2002 versions have merit), "The Butterfly Effect", "Sound of Thunder", and Crichton's "Timeline".

 

[Wyatt Burp]

Fascinating subject - I probably got hooked way back when by "The Time Tunnel" TV series. Other favorites: "The Time Machine" (both the 1960 and 2002 versions have merit), "The Butterfly Effect", "Sound of Thunder", and Crichton's "Timeline".

When I look at how Americans handle certain societal situations now, I've often put people in the "Eloy" or 'Mordock" catagories.

 

[cougar14]

There was an interesting, thought-provoking film about time travel a few years ago, title was "Primer". Several sub-plots that deal with the paradoxes within the concept of time travel. It was an indie and may have gone directly to DVD.

 

[the ringo kid]

Alright, we've done ghosts and reincarnation. How about time travel. This to me is just as fascinating and baffling a subject as the other two subjects.

A very good movie that falls in this category is not a new movie and it's kind of a chick-flick but it has a strong cast and is a fascinating concept for a story line. Title is "Somewhere In Time: staring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymore, and Christopher Plummer.

That is one of my favorite Reeve movies even though I cant stand most chick flicks. Great choice.

 

[the ringo kid]

Isnt De Javu (SP?) a form of time travel?

Id go back in time to when one could buy machine guns with out a license.

 

[mickeyblueyes]

I want to go back to the wild west and be a famous gun fighter, I figure I gotta be on the Colt forums tho, you all be well J.James

 

[kwselke]

Holly Cow!

I went forward and it was not good, so I went back and then remembered what a pain things were like back then!

I almost did not get back until yesterday.

 

[the ringo kid]

BTW, I liked: Time Cop w/ Van Damme.

 

[Grayfox]

See if you can wrap your head around this.

If you were to travel back in time, whatever you do there will have no effect on the present.
Why?
Because you've already been there.

 

[DeathGrip]

I'm stuck in the '70s.

 

[Jinglebob]

I've got a time machine that transports me 8 hours into the future.

It's called it a bed.

 

[Gunslinger808]

According to those that deal in Quantum physics and believe in the string theory, anything imagined and things not even dreamt of has or will happen.
Star Wars happened (in some Vadar won), Doctor Who is a reality (in some he was evil), in some off shoot universe you won the lottery and married a supermodel (in some she was a he).
Of course the down side is, in other parallel universes you ended up sleeping in a cardboard box outside Vegas (in some with a hot supermodle wife).
The thing is, be happy with what and where you are.

Everyone likes to say that things could be worse, and they're right!

GS808/2120AD