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Time Machine

Archive: 77 posts

What would you guys do if you had a time machine? I would go back 30 minutes from now and watch myself through my window, to see what I look like. Then I would never use it again. I'd put it in the living room and maybe put a vase of roses on it...2009-10-18 09:14:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

nothing at all XD2009-10-18 09:16:00

Author:
rseah
Posts: 2701

It'd never get past the word censor on these forums...2009-10-18 09:46:00

Author:
dawesbr
Posts: 3280

What do you guys imagine a time machine would look like like? I kinda something that resembles a porta-potty. Lol2009-10-18 18:14:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

Go back to 1975 and invest heavily in Microsoft.2009-10-18 18:16:00

Author:
ChristmasJew
Posts: 431

I have 2 ideas for a time machine, it either looks like a perpetual motion machine OR a porta-potty with high-tec equipment in it. I would have to say I'd TRY to go back and prevent some... um...certain events that caused very big wars...um...yeah...can't really say2009-10-18 18:23:00

Author:
ktang77
Posts: 592

I'd bet someone a million dollars I could guess what number they were thinking of. Then I'd get it wrong and they'd tell me the number, and I could go back, replicating everything identically, and guess the right answer. I'd make them write it down, just so they didn't change it on me. 2009-10-18 18:29:00

Author:
BSprague
Posts: 2325

Haha those are all really good, but I'm surprised nobody has thought about the possibility of the lottery. Think about it! And you could also do lots of stuff usually you wouldn't be allowed to do, (smash piano with baseball bat, steal car etc.) and then reverse it all. I think that after the porta-potty phase, scientists will invent a wristwatch size one, and you can use it everywhere. It wouldn't be as powerful, but it would still work pretty good, like a computer compared to the iPhone.2009-10-18 18:59:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

Haha those are all really good, but I'm surprised nobody has thought about the possibility of the lottery.
Investing heavily in Microsoft before it became big would get you billions. The lottery would only get you millions.		2009-10-18 19:03:00

Author:
ChristmasJew
Posts: 431

Good point, but you could win the lotto, and then invest it all in Microsoft. Then get get a pet dinosaur.2009-10-18 19:09:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

OOh! Just had a brain wave. I would bring LBP and the PS3 back to 1995.2009-10-18 19:11:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

And what happens when you all destroy the timelines hmm? Well...I suppose you could go back and fix that too...but then life would be how it was before...2009-10-18 19:29:00

Author:
adlingtont
Posts: 321

I would create a universe-ending paradox so that the universe is forced to turn into a muffin.

Also, I predict the first time machine will be on the iPhone. 		2009-10-18 20:06:00

Author:
hilightnotes
Posts: 1230

I would create a universe-ending paradox so that the universe is forced to turn into a muffin.


The universe would be like 100x better if it was a muffin.... good call. (My pet dino would be named Franklin.)		2009-10-18 23:07:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

But Franklin would eat the muffinverse, and then where would you be? Hmmmm?

.		2009-10-19 00:07:00

Author:
rtm223
Posts: 6497

I'd make this come true:

https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=t=11227

Basically, for those of you too lazy to read that (how dare you :kz, I'd go back in time to kill myself when I was younger, just to see if the world would end.		2009-10-19 00:10:00

Author:
RockSauron
Posts: 10882

Hmmmmm... I guess I would have to live on Franklin the Triceratops. If I got hungry, I would eat his skin. Dinosaur skin sounds delicious.2009-10-19 00:16:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

Basically, I'd go back in time to kill myself when I was younger, just to see if the world would end.

WTF? ._.

Technically, with the knowledge we have today, you'd think that if you killed your younger self, you in the present would cease to exist. However, if you were just going to get killed by your older self as the younger, self, you wouldn't exist then, thus theoretically not even existing. So maybe the universe will end, or maybe you would just vanish forever.
omg >.<

Anyway, I would destroy it to prevent tragedies. It's as simple as that.		2009-10-19 16:16:00

Author:
Sackwise
Posts: 305

Technically, with the knowledge we have today...

What knowledge would that be? We have no empirical evidence for the nature of time travel, so the possible outcomes of Rocksauron's actions can only be analysed in purely philosophical terms. Makes for interesting narrative devices in the movies, but we don't know anything

Actually, it's because we know so little that it makes for interesting discussion. What would happen if you tried to create a paradoxical event?		2009-10-19 17:06:00

Author:
rtm223
Posts: 6497

Ah, but if you go back in time and kill yourself you will never go back in time to kill yourself and thus you won't actually kill yourself, if you see what I mean. 2009-10-19 17:10:00

Author:
Syroc
Posts: 3193

Unless the timeline splits 2009-10-19 17:11:00

Author:
rtm223
Posts: 6497

And that would prove the multiverse theory. o/

Maybe		2009-10-19 17:13:00

Author:
Syroc
Posts: 3193

Well the original timeline could blink out of existance, or they could both coexist in alternate realities.


I'm pretty much set on the boring version of timeline manipulation TBH - it's simply not possible to change the past. It's the least far-fetched of all the theories. And by far the least interesting 		2009-10-19 17:17:00

Author:
rtm223
Posts: 6497

If I could go back in time... What wouldn't I change? Meh.2009-10-19 17:47:00

Author:
Foofles
Posts: 2278

I would stop Reality TV from ever being made, thus increasing the average IQ of humanity. 2009-10-19 18:36:00

Author:
Gilgamesh
Posts: 2536

How about the future? Anybody have any ideas on what it would be like? In Spongebob, everything was chrome.2009-10-20 00:46:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

I would go back and ask a certain someone something in a different way. Saving me a lot of sadness.2009-10-20 00:49:00

Author:
Unknown User

I would go back and ask a certain someone something in a different way. Saving me a lot of sadness.

Dude...that's deep...





BTW, thanks to everyone for posting on this thread!		2009-10-20 02:35:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

i would go to the past and bring my past self back to the present, over and over, multiplying myself until i have enough me's to take over the world >:32009-10-20 06:39:00

Author:
gofurr360z
Posts: 886

i would go to the past and bring my past self back to the present, over and over, multiplying myself until i have enough me's to take over the world >:3

But as soon as you took your past self out of the past, your future (present) self would not exist. It's the same principle as RockSaurons post. It would be better to take your future self, so you'll still exist. But then when you took your future self out of the future, you would therefore change your present selfs future, so that guy you took from the future would cease to exist. SO NO SCREWING AROUND WITH YOUR PAST OR FUTURE SELFS! Unless your trying to save the universe from time traveling monsters. Then its ok.		2009-10-20 07:03:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

You could probably go forward in time to collect your future self... Think about it: You go forward in time, get your future self, do whatever you want in the present, then you hang around to become your future self. At this point your future past self (essentially your present self, but not actually you) comes to collect your future present self (this one is you in your normal timeline), and bring you back to the past, or the present as you would be considering it now.

Simples

You could even bring back multiple versions of yourself... You won't make the universe explode or anything, but attempting to formulate sentences in complex relative time-travel tenses might make your head explode

.		2009-10-20 10:02:00

Author:
rtm223
Posts: 6497

I'm sure we'd just invent new tenses. Like the nth future tense. So someone who, on their third iteration of that moment in time in the future, walks, you would say "He will walk-3".

Same for the nth past tense: "He walked-3"

Present: "He walks-3"

etc.		2009-10-20 22:59:00

Author:
dawesbr
Posts: 3280

Language Arts is already confusing enough....2009-10-20 23:18:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

Unless the timeline splits

ZELDA REFERENCE!

lol


I would probably go into the future to the year 2029 to see what I look like at around 35 and see how the technology has changed.

EDIT: Oh, and see who I marry...		2009-10-22 12:23:00

Author:
Plasmavore
Posts: 1913

Okaaaay. I've never played zelda. Bet you feel silly now, huh? 2009-10-22 12:31:00

Author:
rtm223
Posts: 6497

Yeah, I cringed at that, plasmavore. The excuse of timeline splittage was just to cover up the fact that there really was no coherent story. Timeline splitting is one of the theories behind time-travel - ie, you live through one reality, then, when you go back in time, you're in a DIFFERENT reality (one in which you've appeared in the past), so when you kill yourself, you're only really killing another version of yourself.2009-10-23 00:20:00

Author:
dawesbr
Posts: 3280

Yeah, I cringed at that, plasmavore. The excuse of timeline splittage was just to cover up the fact that there really was no coherent story. Timeline splitting is one of the theories behind time-travel - ie, you live through one reality, then, when you go back in time, you're in a DIFFERENT reality (one in which you've appeared in the past), so when you kill yourself, you're only really killing another version of yourself.

Cringe? I more mentally facepalmed

And yep... Zelda has nothing to do with split timelines, Zelda doesn't even have a timeline, that's just what a bunch of geeks online did trying to piece the story together when Nintendo itself doesn't even give a care about continuity.

Anyway...

If matter can be neither added or removed... Hm

I like how Terminator's first draft did that, where it teleported the person through time and the air around them back in time so as to not destroy the universe because it added or removed matter :/		2009-10-23 00:28:00

Author:
RockSauron
Posts: 10882

I don't think time travel is possible, so I'd probably just take a poop in it.2009-10-23 00:48:00

Author:
qrtda235566
Posts: 3664

If time travel happened, whatever you changed, wouldn't have changed, because it never was different.

Like, if I time traveled to see myself as a kid, I would have actually seen myself as an adult, while I was a kid already, no?

That would mean that there is no way to change the past. Anything you do there, would already have been recorded in history.

But what if you remembered meeting yourself before, and then you absolutely do not time travel? Does the universe implode?

Time travel is not meant for humans.

Let's leave it to the genius 1 eyed monkeys that live on the moon...

...
...
...

I gotta get some sleep... :eek:		2009-10-23 01:10:00

Author:
KlawwTheClown
Posts: 1106

I don't think time travel is possible, so I'd probably just take a poop in it.

But what if the porta-time travel device only transports objects/people who go INTO the little hole inside?

-------

London. 1888. A man and a woman are sitting at a patio table sipping tea.

"I say, Margaret, this 'Jack the Ripper' fellow certainly has everyone on their toes, eh wot?"
"Quite so, quite so. Terrible business, that."
"I certainly dread the thought of his visiting upon us or those we know."
"Mm. Quite."
*sips tea in quiet for a few minutes*
*suddenly a flash of light from above*
"Was that lightning? How strange, on such a clear day."
*poop falls onto table*
*they stare at it for a minute*
"...Yes. Quite strange."
*sips more tea*		2009-10-23 01:48:00

Author:
Teebonesy
Posts: 1937

Me? I probably would buy a lot of stocks.2009-10-23 01:53:00

Author:
chezhead
Posts: 1063

But what if the porta-time travel device only transports objects/people who go INTO the little hole inside?

-------

London. 1888. A man and a woman are sitting at a patio table sipping tea.

"I say, Margaret, this 'Jack the Ripper' fellow certainly has everyone on their toes, eh wot?"
"Quite so, quite so. Terrible business, that."
"I certainly dread the thought of his visiting upon us or those we know."
"Mm. Quite."
*sips tea in quiet for a few minutes*
*suddenly a flash of light from above*
"Was that lightning? How strange, on such a clear day."
*poop falls onto table*
*they stare at it for a minute*
"...Yes. Quite strange."
*sips more tea*

Dude, I laughed so hard at that. Just imagine poop falling out of the sky.		2009-10-24 07:24:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

if i had a time-machine...lets just say i would go back and assainate a certain 43rd idiot president(and cheney!)...lol just kidding!...i would see if we ever stop using oil!2009-10-25 20:05:00

Author:
theswweet
Posts: 2468

If time travel happened, whatever you changed, wouldn't have changed, because it never was different.

Like, if I time traveled to see myself as a kid, I would have actually seen myself as an adult, while I was a kid already, no?

That would mean that there is no way to change the past. Anything you do there, would already have been recorded in history.

But what if you remembered meeting yourself before, and then you absolutely do not time travel? Does the universe implode?

Time travel is not meant for humans.

Let's leave it to the genius 1 eyed monkeys that live on the moon...

...
...
...

I gotta get some sleep... :eek:

So would there be an invisible force that prevents someone from acting in a way that messes up time?

I like my story (woah, shocker ;o) because I had time as a living breathing entity... changing itself to prevent itself from ending. Yep. ;o <_> PIE

But yes, so would time have a defense mechanism to prevent such things from happening? Oh boy!		2009-10-25 20:25:00

Author:
RockSauron
Posts: 10882

So would there be an invisible force that prevents someone from acting in a way that messes up time?

No. It just wouldn't happen. You'd go back with the intention of changing something, but you wouldn't be able to. The events that you are going back to change have already happened and it's paradoxical for you to change them (because your motivation for changing an event would vanish when you changed it, so you would never try to change it so it wouldn't change so you would have motivation to go and change it and then when you did change it, your motivation for changing the event would vanish....) *smacks self in head* ... um etc. It's much the same as going back to kill yourself, just a more subtle example.

Likely you would get held up or end up in an accident, something would prevent you from making that change, because the past is set in stone and so you have always gone back in time to change it, you just fail.

It's a very hard concept to describe, but simply assume that the past is set in stone, and cannot be changed because of the aforementioned paradox. You could try to change the past, but you would fail, for one reason or another. Watch 12 monkeys. It's one of the basic concepts of that film.

It does bring up interesting concepts about predeterminism, when you go back in time, if you prescribe to the belief that the past cannot be change. Essentially, if you go back in time, your actions would be set in stone, because the past is fixed. I suppose this could be described as "postdeterminism" or something. However, in your own personal timeline, it is the future and you "future" actions would be set in stone. You would effectively lose your free will by being in the past. You might have the illusion of free will, in that you would be be able to make decisions, but everything you would be doing would have already happened.

In that case, maybe all of our existance is predetermined.... Not a very nice concept, if you ask me.


Yes, I may have been thinking about it a little too much since this thread started.		2009-10-25 20:46:00

Author:
rtm223
Posts: 6497

Next time preface, your post with one of these, rtm:

http://www.playfeed.com/blogimages/head_asplode.jpg

2009-10-25 20:50:00

Author:
comphermc
Posts: 5338

Yes, rtm... that makes sense. So you'd believe, as I do, that time has a "defense mechanism", that prevents things that can alter time itself by changing time on its own to make sure time actually continues... Wow. So time rewrites time to prevent a human from overwriting time. Spooky ;o2009-10-25 20:54:00

Author:
RockSauron
Posts: 10882

Wow. So time rewrites time to prevent a human from overwriting time. Spooky ;o

Nope. Nothing changes. Imagine I go back in time to steal my lunch last thursday. Obviously as an experiment. Now last thursday, as I recall, my lunch was not stolen making this a good experiment.

So I go back in time to last thursday and some series of events makes me miss my chance. Something innocuous, like missing the bus or whatever. So I don't change anything. But this what always happened last thursday. I was in the office and there was a future me (to whom I was oblivious), missing the bus. Nothing changes, you just effectively lose your free will by being in a timeline where events have already happened.

See?

The other interesting question on predeterminism comes from someone in the future coming back to our time - effectively he knows what happens tomorrow. As it's his past it's all set in stone, so we effectively never have any free will.

If time travel is possible, and if the you prescibe to the past cannot be changed theory, that is.		2009-10-25 21:09:00

Author:
rtm223
Posts: 6497

hey rock...did you see my pm2009-10-25 21:27:00

Author:
theswweet
Posts: 2468

In that case, maybe all of our existance is predetermined.... Not a very nice concept, if you ask me.
The idea that our lives are predetermined is an interesting idea, but time travel could prove this wrong. Let's say I go two years into my past, go to the town library, and send myself an e-mail. The e-mail isn't going through time, but when I read it, it would change the actions of my life in subtle ways, but ways that would show change in the timeline. The idea that a series of events can stop me from going to the library or any public establishment with a computer is kind of silly, it's almost the same idea as the one that says Death tries to make up for lost time in the Final Destination series. If we are just talking about time, there isn't any omnipotent being foiling your plans (at least in my opinion).

I do remember an idea similar to that being expressed in a book called "Full Tilt" though. It said that any discrepancies in reality would be patched with simple, everyday phenomena.		2009-10-25 21:27:00

Author:
BSprague
Posts: 2325

I see! So time would change to a different reality, so that the new reality is the old, so that the original reason never even existed...

... My evil peanut brain can't take much more of this, it'll explode!		2009-10-25 21:29:00

Author:
RockSauron
Posts: 10882

I see! So time would change to a different reality, so that the new reality is the old, so that the original reason never even existed...



and thats the way i finished your story...huh,rock!(i posted a finished version of rocks story...i think its pretty good actually!)		2009-10-25 21:36:00

Author:
theswweet
Posts: 2468

The idea that our lives are predetermined is an interesting idea, but time travel could prove this wrong. Reread what I wrote. I'm saying that the notion that you cannot change the past can be logically extrapolated to a position where where we must exist with predeterminism. I'm also not talking about any kind of omnipotence. I'm just looking at it from a simple logical concept that changing the past deliberately is a paradox. It's not silly, it a perfectly sensible logical statement. It's exactly the same concept as killing yourself in the past.

You would have to have a timeline split if you were to have a version of you that did receive the email and a version that didn't. That would lead even more towards intelligent intervention from a higher being (probably). Who's silly now, eh?		2009-10-25 21:39:00

Author:
rtm223
Posts: 6497

You would have to have a timeline split if you were to have a version of you that did receive the email and a version that didn't. That would lead even more towards intelligent intervention from a higher being (probably). Who's silly now, eh?

But I'm not saying that there would be two versions of me. Rather, I think that what would happen is I would come home from school, open a blank e-mail from myself, wonder if I had a virus on my computer, and continue on my merry way. Now it's obviously impossible to determine what other implications there may have been from this. For all I know, Google may have been keeping track of how many e-mails people have sent through Gmail, and they were going to give $10 million to the person who sent the trillionth e-mail. Me going back in time to send this email would have changed many things in that case. Most likely though, my 17-year old self would have completely disregarded the e-mail and that would be the end of it.

This is all just how I see time travel and it's implications happening. If I went back in time with a gun with the intention to kill my past self, I'd imagine that future me would disappear the second I pulled the trigger. Or maybe if sending that e-mail delayed me by a couple seconds and I went outside and was hit by a car, the second I hit send on that e-mail, my future self would disappear. All of this completely disregards external intervention, human or otherwise.

But if we are getting right down to it, time travel already entails creating and destroying mass, so it's impossible. Unless of course you consider that time travel is just a massive transfer of energy, but that's a totally different argument discussion.		2009-10-25 21:58:00

Author:
BSprague
Posts: 2325

...why are we arguing about this???2009-10-25 22:16:00

Author:
theswweet
Posts: 2468

...why are we arguing about this???
Why not? Why did you make your forum name theswweet? Why did you post here asking us why...I digress.

We are discussing this because it is an interesting topic, and it's refreshing to hear new viewpoints.		2009-10-25 22:18:00

Author:
BSprague
Posts: 2325

...simple enough...and i made my name theswweet because...swweet was taken for some reason.2009-10-25 23:03:00

Author:
theswweet
Posts: 2468

We are discussing this because it is an interesting topic, and it's refreshing to hear new viewpoints.

Absolutely.


But if we are getting right down to it, time travel already entails creating and destroying mass, so it's impossible. Unless of course you consider that time travel is just a massive transfer of energy, but that's a totally different argument discussion.

Not really, that only assumes you sort of teleport, rather than literally travelling through time. We can already slow the passage of time to a certain extent, so maybe we could reverse it or speed it up, or both. We literally don't know. I'm pretty sure there is nothing in our current state of scientific understanding to say that time travel is impossible, though I'm not sure.


Anyway, the idea that you would conveniently blink out of existance, yet all of your actions would still have had an effect is a little bit convenient for me. I'll accept it in the movies as a plot device (love back to the future), but I wouldn't take it seriously. Same with timeline splits and continuum resets, seeing as all three are quite closely linked to each other. I also wouldn't accept the "you can't change the past" as it will always lead to pre-determinism and I simply don't want to believe that.

I've not really come across a timetravel theory that isn't too convenient or repulsive in it's implications, if it were true.		2009-10-25 23:06:00

Author:
rtm223
Posts: 6497

Yes, I may have been thinking about it a little too much since this thread started.


Sorry if I've caused you to lose any sleep thinking about this at night. I never really imagined everything would get so technical.		2009-10-26 00:11:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

I also wouldn't accept the "you can't change the past" as it will always lead to pre-determinism and I simply don't want to believe that.

I've not really come across a timetravel theory that isn't too convenient or repulsive in it's implications, if it were true.

I actually think there's another reason why the "foiled plans" theory wouldn't hold up - If you go back in time with the INTENTION of doing one thing, you might fail at it in order to prevent future changes - but it becomes a completely moot point, that "intention". Merely by virtue of the fact that you're THERE, things are different, things are changed. Like the butterfly effect - or not, tiny things can also have tiny repercussions, but the point is that they change. Grass is trampled that normally wouldn't have been trampled.

The point is, it can't be possible to go back in time in any physical way and not change ANYTHING - like Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder", SOMETHING is going to change, even if it's a miniscule thing. A mosquito is swatted. But that mosquito's future has changed because of you. Doesn't matter what your intention was, things are changing anyway. You might go back to your present and everything might seem exactly the same, but things have changed SOMEWHERE because of your presence in the past. So that refutes the theory that "plans couldn't come to pass".

For me, I tend to lean toward alternate timelines. Here's where I come to this conclusion -

Let's say you travel back in time to just LOOK at something. You're not wanting to change ANYTHING. You want to go back and watch Lincoln's inauguration. At this point in time, you haven't TRAVELLED yet - so at exactly that point in time, you were not there at Lincoln's inauguration. you're only there after travelling, after taking the plunge and hopping into the time machine. That means that there was at least one VERSION of the past where you weren't there. So when you suddenly find yourself there, it's a new version.

I understand that pre-determinism says that you were always there, that there wasn't any "alternate" version because there's only one future - but as I said before, simply by being there, things have been altered. And as for the "one future" thing, there's nothing I can say to refute that, it's just that my personal belief is more along the lines of this: we have one past; we have infinite futures. Like you, the reason for this belief is probably just along the lines of "pre-determinism is unpleasant". *shrug*
But actually, moreso than that, I don't think pre-determinism works on paper, I think it's far more fantastical an idea than "alternate versions", or timeline splits.		2009-10-26 00:19:00

Author:
Teebonesy
Posts: 1937

Merely by virtue of the fact that you're THERE, things are different, things are changed.

You didn't read through all i wrote did you? Your "future" self, the self outside out it's normal timeline was always there. That's the entire crux of the theory and that's why it doesn't rely upon divine intervention or anything magnificent. Any affect you would have in the past has already happened and would have been taken account of in the timeline that you have come back from. You do not change anything.

If you don't have that then of course you are changing things and the "you can't change the past" theory would break down. Any concept breaks down if you change one of the fundamental assumptions.

Again, much like in 12 monkeys:

Bruce Willis remembers seeing his "future self" as a child. Nothing changes in the timeline, because he always went back in time		2009-10-26 00:29:00

Author:
rtm223
Posts: 6497

Personally, I believe that as soon as you went back in time, your life would revert to the time you went to. So if you went tot when you were 4 years old, you would disappear and live life from the age 4 again. I don't think the universe would implode, as alien races billions and trillions of light-years away from our planet have probably discovered time travel, and ended up destroying their civilization. If the government got hold of a time machine, many wars and such would probably be re-written, changing the course of time. I am not as smart as some of you guys, but for the most part I understand what you are talking about. =S2009-10-26 01:33:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

Next time preface, your post with one of these, rtm:

http://www.playfeed.com/blogimages/head_asplode.jpg



I've heard of implode, and explode, but aspload!? Enlighten me...		2009-10-26 01:47:00

Author:
Incinerator22
Posts: 3251

Your "future" self, the self outside out it's normal timeline was always there. That's the entire crux of the theory and that's why it doesn't rely upon divine intervention or anything magnificent.

Right, I see what you're saying. I did miss that point in your other post - I mentioned the "one future" aspect, but I still have a serious problem with it, moreso than just the fact that it seems to eliminate free will from our lives - Obviously, in predeterminism, history only records one version, that's the version in which you travelled. But it's too absurd a concept to me that you'd be utterly unable to change even very very simple things that you know are fact, over and over and over, no matter how many times you tried - Assuming you had a time travel device that worked well and could be repeated many times, that you could make a million different attempts with, it begins to paint an absolutely absurd picture of time. There are a million incredibly simple things to accomplish that you could try to do, over and over and over. and if you did happen to be obsessive with this project, as a child you might wonder growing up why every single time a photo is taken of you, a million identical clones of the same man show up out of nowhere and frustratingly argue with each other while trying to "change something, goddammit!".

12 Monkeys is a good example of predeterminism, The Time Traveller's Wife was a book that did the same thing - no matter what, anything he tried to change or do differently would just happen to lead to the logical future he came from. but in that book, the traveller is a bit in awe and scared of even attempting to do something, so he doesn't exactly try. In fact, he tries to remember as a boy what he did as an adult, so he can "perform" accurately.

But given the context of the obsessive experimenter, this theory becomes a bit too incredible.

Here's how I see it - If you're able to travel back in time, i think you'd be able to change things as much or as little as possible. You're free to do so. Whether time is split off into parallels or the timeline is "overwritten", I don't know and don't really have an opinion, but in both cases, there have been several "versions" of events - one before the travel, and one after.

I can imagine predeterminism only really being the case in a universe in which time travel to the past is an absolute impossibility, which I can certainly conceive of. Otherwise, there's just no way that theory holds up for me - the absurdity of its conclusions and experiments far outweigh the reasonable aspects of it. I'm not saying I think it's impossible - but between the theories, one to me becomes absurd to extremes under experimentation, and the other doesn't (only making sense to me if time travel itself is literally impossible).

I also subscribe to the viewpoint that technologically, we'll only be able to transfer things to the past after the point of the invention of the machine. So, if we invent a time travel device in 2050, then 2050 will be the EARLIEST we'll be able to travel to. Perhaps at the very moment you switch the device on, a message is sent back from the year 3000 saying "Congrats, the device works. Be glad you're not alive in our time. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get going, those gigantic platypus-lobsters are attacking the city again."		2009-10-26 01:51:00

Author:
Teebonesy
Posts: 1937

after a long period of thought and some googling this is what i think!...

but first some foresight...

there is a theory that states there are infinite universes...that even if one universe and another may seem the same...they aren't!...there is always one thing different!but more importantly in this theory is that EVERYTHING exists whether in one universe or another...it may sound far-fetched but think about it?the timeline theory is somewhat like this-change the past add another future?well in this theory you don't change the past,you DESTROY the universe...or more accurately reset the mistake...because nothing is the same including the universes!-but there IS a place in between the universes with this theory...and if the universes touched
the universes would reset again...such as the theory if YOU went into an alternate universe and found yourself there you would cease to exist-but instead of never existing you would reset the universe before it happened!

now back to the in between universe area...it is possible to leave a universe with this theory...but there would be nothing(you couldn't move)but that doesn't meen part of you could get out and get back in!

but how do you leave in the first place?scientists theorize certain black holes suck to the in between zone...and the pressure from the trip would destroy the matter! unless... matter ran into it as fast as possible!the matter would come out unscaved because it couldn't feel the pressure!...but for that theory it would have to be dead center!

so what does this all meen?it meens that if someone were to make a machine that could design black holes you could travel out of the universe!but then how would you time?

another theory states that out of a universe its time isn't a factor anymore and the black holes could send you thru time when you came back!

so if someone designed a black-hole machine that could also calculate time...it might be possible to travel thru it even down to the millisecond!

interesting theories huh?

...i know...my brain hurts too!!!



edit-the gist of it is...that if this theory is correct we can time travel and anything else because i didn't even talk much about how each universe could have different physics! overall though...its very confusing!		2009-10-26 01:56:00

Author:
theswweet
Posts: 2468

Actually, there are some real experiments taking place involving time travel.

Professor Predicts Time Travel This Century (http://www.physorg.com/news63371210.html)

Ronald Mallett is the guy trying to make it happen. It involves a spiral network of lasers or some such, involving the attempt to send a single neuron back in time.		2009-10-26 02:07:00

Author:
Teebonesy
Posts: 1937

Mines kinda messed up. I've always wanted to go back in time with a bunch of guns and take over the world, and rule it throughout all eternity.2009-10-26 02:11:00

Author:
Madafaku
Posts: 738

You could, if you think about it, live forever, even until the sun swallows the Earth, as you could keep moving forward at the time of your death, and survive for another lifetime. (On a different note, I do believe in the multiverse theory.)2009-10-26 06:14:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

I think people are missing a pretty important piece of the "fast movement" aspect of time travel. Sure, you could move fast enough for a while and travel into the future. What YOU might experience as 5 minutes in hyperspeed space travel might be 5 years back on earth. So you can come back home, and find yourself 1000 years into Earth's future, but you've only actually EXPERIENCED a few hours.

So if you kept this up until the death of the universe, sure, you could say that you "lived forever", but in YOUR experience, you haven't lived any longer than you normally would have just sitting on the couch at home.		2009-10-26 14:09:00

Author:
Teebonesy
Posts: 1937

That's exactly what I mean. Did you know that we have time traveled before unintentionally? There was a guy who spent 'bout 5 years in space, and time traveled a few seconds into the future.2009-10-27 01:28:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

I wonder if time travel would hurt....2009-11-17 02:55:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

woah, shameless self-bump much?2009-11-17 16:36:00

Author:
Unknown User

I have a time machine in my closet that moves forward at regular speed.2009-11-18 05:26:00

Author:
Voodeedoo
Posts: 724

I have a time machine in my closet that moves forward at regular speed.

Me too. When I go in side I can actually feel myself going through time! It's insane.		2009-11-22 00:49:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

woah, shameless self-bump much?

?????????????????????		2009-11-22 00:49:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425

ha!...i remember this and-wait a second!

you know silverpanther too!(i sawz you in his profile pics!)		2009-11-22 00:55:00

Author:
theswweet
Posts: 2468

You remember this? From what?2009-11-22 03:22:00

Author:
srgt_poptart
Posts: 425


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