A Time Travel Question

Hey guys.

This is a simple question, but it really gets you to thinking. There are different versions to think about this but this is the basic framework of it.


What if someone in this time period buries a note that had a message to go back in time to the exact time and place were the guy is burying the note. Would the time traveler show up at that instant? Like as soon as you cover the hole with dirt?


The note would be in a tight case with a lock and buried in a location where noone goes. So that later on down the road, noone finds it.

That is if time travel is possible.

But its a question that really makes you think.

It's the "Bill and Ted" style of Time Travel - you think of something, claim you're going to do it later, and so it already happens.

It's really not fair.


But also, current theories on time travel would also say that it's impossible.


The current idea of the universe is that we live in one of many, a massive supraverse, which encompases not just everything that has happened, but also everything *That Will Ever Happen*. It's a cosmos where every possible action is carried out.

This could mean that, through time travel, you're simply going back to a time where you could bury the note. However, when you return back to your own time, you will not find the note there. This is because by travelling into the past, you started an "alternate reality" where you HAVE buried the note. However, in your reality, you still haven't.

If you couldn't plot the probability state that your future was in, it would also be nearly impossible to return to your future. This is because you would likely travel down a different random path of events. Perhaps the changes will be unnoticeable - but the further you travel ahead, the greater the disparities would be.

If this is true, the safest form of time-travel would be to go to the future. Once in a "possible" future, you could return safely to your past, because all those possible futures began at the point where you left.


So go ahead and write a note to yourself, date it, bury it, and leave it until we discover how to time travel... but I wouldn't put my hopes up that you'll travel back in time to meet yourself

What you have just discribed is a time capsule. We've been putting loads of those in to the ground. So why havn't those people from the future here already? I mean, they know when and where to go, so....??

My guess is that either time travel IS impossible (for some reason we don't know today) or that the people from the future are actualy SMART and they don't want to risk changeing the past, so they travel here in complete disguise and we just don't see them.

it does sound a bit farfetched but i may try and see what happens

The flaw in logic here is:

Originally posted by Josh_HLB
The note would be in a tight case with a lock and buried in a location where noone goes. So that later on down the road, noone finds it.

If a theoretical "time traveler", in/from the future, never finds it; how would he/she know "when" (instead of where) to go?

[edit on 7/26/06 by redmage]

heres a question how could you go back through time before you were even born. you never existed so how could you go back through time?

There is another way to look at this. The time traveller may not meet the one who buried the note. The idea is another interpretation of Quantum mechanics. Have you heard of Branching Universes. The time traveller will visit a branch universe. I dont want to go into this too much cause i really don know much about it. However if ur interested try googling Everett or Branching Universes.

It's that old one, the Paradox effect ................... yet again. You will never see a time travel discussion without it being mentioned. It's a simple fact of life that our current laws of physics (I say current as scientists are breaking new ground every day) cannot provide an adequate explanation as to what would happen if a time paradox occurred.

You are born.
You grow up and build a time machine.
You go back in time, shoot your Father in the head while he is a young man.
Your father dies, so you are never born, and never build a time machine.
Your father thus never dies.
You are born.
etc....

What would happen? Would the Universe implode or explode, tearing apart space and time as it gets caught in the equivalent of a 'loop' in a computer program? Perhaps things wouldn't happen in just an explosive way - perhaps you and your father would simply cease to exist, or be removed from this reality while the rest of us plunder on regardless. Perhaps fate would determine that you never actually manage to build a time machine and thus never initiate the paradox.

The current Quantum theory proposes that there are millions of Universes, each one the result of a different outcome from a certain decision/choice. This is mind boggling and hard to comprehend, in terms of pure numbers : how many combinations of posible outcomes are available from every reaction between 2 or more elements in the entire universe? Multiplying trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions x trillions wouldn't even bring you close to the truth.

I am not a scientist and I have no answer for this conundrum. However, I do find it hard to believe that whatever force was responsible for the creation of the Universe - nature, God, the big bang, whatever - can manage the infinite number of universes. Of course, an omnipotent being (by their definition) has no limit to their power, but one must still question the need for this. And if it is nature controlling it and not a 'god', how exactly does nature implement such a device? How does it create entire new Universes based on whether I turn left or right at the end of my road?

You could dig this hole even deeper by exploring the spiritual and moral side of it too, particulaly if you're a believer in God or a supreme force which judges us all.Let's assume there are multiple universes, designed to compensate for paradox effects caused by time travel. Lets say that in one universe, I grow up to become a murderer/rapist and in another, I am a good and lawful person.

How am I judged when I die? Is there more than one of me? Does the good one go to Heaven and the bad one to Hell, or are all the trillions of me from all the universes judged as a whole?

You can see why I have trouble with this multiple universe theory. Of course, if you believe that we simply turn to dust when we die then the matter of us being judged by a supreme being is irrelevant. Nevertheless, it's hard to accept that there is no 'definitive' me out there - just millions and millions more of me, each one with an equally valid claim to my being.

Now if I was God and I was designing the Universe (just one!) then surely it would be much simpler for me to instil a small failsafe. Just a little device which ensures that the paradox effect never occurs and stability is maintained. What would this device be? Who knows. Personally I think it will be our totally inablity to ever manufacture a time machine. We will always be faced with obstacles and eventually deem it to be impossible, thereby protecting the integrity of this universe. It could be a simple matter of instantly removing the cause of the paradox immediately after it happens.

After all, modern computer programmers build failsafes so that software doesn't get caught in loops. The software is governed by a set of rules/protocols that eventually kick in and end the loop - usually by restarting the software......

Long, long post - sorry!