What would happen if time travel became possible?

Originally posted by CrazyOrange

What if their grandmother slept with the milkman?

Ha Ha, when the milkmen get involved, that is where time-travel gets complicated!

If ever I had the pleasure of traveling back in time... it wouldn't be so much to the far past... only to change things in my life. PLus I'd be gettin a crapload of A's in school

There's quite a few big problems with the old time travel theory in my opinion.

Say you were to go back 1000 years in the past. You aren't just going back into the past of the earth, you're going back into the past of the universe. Therefore you're going back 1000 years into the past of other planets too (that may have advanced civilisations living on them - who knows).

You see the way I see it is that during time travel you are in control of time, and hence, the universe (The two are the one and the same thing in my opinion, its like a huge incomprehensible clock - The Mayans did a pretty good job at figuring that one out).

The universe ain't something that can be controlled.

Just my 2 cents anyway

Originally posted by RemusUK
There's quite a few big problems with the old time travel theory in my opinion.

Say you were to go back 1000 years in the past. You aren't just going back into the past of the earth, you're going back into the past of the universe. Therefore you're going back 1000 years into the past of other planets too (that may have advanced civilisations living on them - who knows).

You see the way I see it is that during time travel you are in control of time, and hence, the universe (The two are the one and the same thing in my opinion, its like a huge incomprehensible clock - The Mayans did a pretty good job at figuring that one out).

The universe ain't something that can be controlled.

Just my 2 cents anyway

That's true. You could end up changing things far away from earth.

I'd love to eves drop on Joseph of Nazareth and disprove that whole virgin mary thing.

I dont think it to be possible to travel farther then when the machinne was invented. After that, I think the possibilties would be endless as to what you could do. You'de be able to kill yourself, change it to where you come back to life, make LOTS of money, etc etc.

First of all, I agree that the act of going back in time to prevent something will almost certainly ensure that thing happens. Take Hitler, for example. Say you go back in time to kill Hitler pre-World War 2, so that he never comes to power, never starts the War and millions of people don't have to die. But then WW2 didn't happen, so you didn't have a reason to go back in time to kill Hitler, so you didn't go back in time to kill him, so nothing has changed.

Interestingly, new research in quantum physics suggests that you can travel back in time, but that you can only change things you are uncertain of in the future. To clarify: if you knew, in the present, that your best friend was alive and well, then you would be unable to kill them in the past, because that would negate what you know to be true in the future. But if you did not know whether your friend was alive or dead in the present, you may be able to kill them in the past. Scientists claim that you would be prevented from killing them (if you knew they were alive in the present) by any number of means: they wouldn't be where you thought they would, or you would change your mind at the last minute.

From the BBC article: "Quantum behaviour is governed by probabilities. Before something has actually been observed, there are a number of possibilities regarding its state. But once its state has been measured those possibilities shrink to one - uncertainty is eliminated."

Crazy, no? Here are the links:
BBC Online
New Scientist


[edit on 10/8/05 by Jeremiah25]

Jeremiah you make some very interesting points about the prior knowledge and not being able to change things


I was think that if you could time travel you would be in your own universe so to speak. You could go back in time and change things, if they didn't work out you could always go back to change it again. What if got so crazy you wanted to reverse what had been changed? Could you get back to your starting point and destroy the technology?

I was think that if you could time travel you would be in your own universe so to speak.

I agree that if you travelled backwards in time, you would be travelling into the past of your universe, rather than an alternate universe. This is why I believe that paradoxes may prevent you from changing the past, as outlined in the quantum uncertainty theories presented in the articles I mentioned. It is one thing to travel through space (which we do every day) and time (a little trickier, although theoretically possible)., since the two are linked - hence the space-time continuum. But travel through space-time does not necessarilly equate to travel through universes or dimensions.

As for destroying the time machine when it all becomes too much, I suppose that if the past were flexible this would be a valid possibility. Remember kids, when a genie grants you three wishes, save the last one for "I wish I had never found this accursed lamp!!!"

Originally posted by Jeremiah25

As for destroying the time machine when it all becomes too much, I suppose that if the past were flexible this would be a valid possibility. Remember kids, when a genie grants you three wishes, save the last one for "I wish I had never found this accursed lamp!!!"

That's just it though, the past ain't flexible is it. What's happened has happened, what's done is done. There ain't no going back to change it or view it. If you ever want to travel back in time, use your mind to review your memories. After all, it's truly amazing we can do just that.

I have read umpteen theories on time travel over the years, the majority of which are very scientific and (dare I say it) even believable. The trouble is, these theorists just aren't thinking of the bigger picture (read my last post).

[edit on 11-8-2005 by RemusUK]

If you could go back in time 1 time only and as a witness only (like with the ghost of christmas past) what would you like to witness ?

Its trite and not very original, but I have to say I'd like to see a t-rex or a one of these bad boys


Height: 70 feet (21.4 meters) About the size of a six story building.

Length: 120 feet (36.6 meters) Three long school buses end to end.

Weight: 100 tons

Period: Late Cretaceous

Argentinosaurus, recently discovered in Argentina, will probably will turn out to be the largest dinosaur yet discovered, larger than Ultrasauros or Seismosaurus. although Seismosaurus will likely continue to hold the record for total length due to its extremely long tail, characteristic of Diplodocidae. The cross section of one vertebra found of Argentinosaurus measures over five and one half feet in height. Evolutionary biologists believe that dinosaurs were able to reach such colossal sizes due to a colossal metabolism. At the height of its adolescence, Argentinosaurus was probably able to gain about 100 pounds a day!

I know my idea isn't very realted to this site but if i could only go back in time once i would go back and watch the 1993 World Series all over again.

Again, I dont think its possible to go back in time farther then when the "time machine" has been built. I can see scientist one day making a machine that will, in a sense, spin time to the point to where it curls up instead of going on in a straight line. If you could do that, then you would travel days, months, maybe years into the future in maybe an hour of your relative time. To get back all you would do is be "spun" in the other direction and be back when the machine was built. Thats why I think if you start getting in and out of the machine at different times then all the sudden you would have made "doubles" of yourself. If you start making "doubles" of yourself then you would be able to kill yourself, then you would be able to stop yourself from doing it again. Now the question is, would you ever see your double moving around breathing and living? I dont think it would be possible because chances are that your double would be in the "time machine". Does anybody understand what Im getting at?

When the person travels "back in time", they would have to be entering into an alternate universe. One that is similar to our very own, up until the time of "arrival" of the traveller. From that point on, the alternate universe would become the "real universe" from the person's point of view who did the "travelling". Perhaps, the traveller's prior universe, continues to exist, but is not necessarily affected by the actions of the traveller. Only the universe that is occupied by the traveller is affected by said traveller's actions. Thus an infinite number of possible alternate universes?

I think the term 'Time Travel' needs to be renamed to 'Parallel Universe Traversing'. The general view of time travel is in my opinion way to linear. The Back to the Future series is an excellent example of this.

I think of it more as when you 'Time Travel', relative to you - you've created a new World Timeline that you exist in from the previous World you were in. Sure, you're still jumping back in time - but the future then won't be the same as the one you had existed in or new. So there's no need to worry about Michael J. Fox having his Mother fall in love with his him to cancel is own existence. Yay for movie flaws.

A really weird thing to think about is, ok when you die, you're dead, and gone and no one really knows what happens but lets just say you slip into eternal darkness or your in heaven or whatever. So someone goes back in time to when you are alive.. do you get sucked outta heaven and go back into your body to live in the past or what? Or do you stay dead and a different 'you' somehow is in your past body, but then it truly wouldn't be the you. Haha because there would be 2 of you. I don't know it's weird.

Originally posted by xxblackoctoberxx
A really weird thing to think about is, ok when you die, you're dead, and gone and no one really knows what happens but lets just say you slip into eternal darkness or your in heaven or whatever. So someone goes back in time to when you are alive.. do you get sucked outta heaven and go back into your body to live in the past or what? Or do you stay dead and a different 'you' somehow is in your past body, but then it truly wouldn't be the you. Haha because there would be 2 of you. I don't know it's weird.

I don't think so because relative to them - You're still alive. Relative to yourself - you're dead.