It's theoretically possible to travel forward in time. Going into the past is impossible.

Originally posted by mirello
if it were possible your future self would have alredy altered the past
im completely open to people saying that it is possible but only if they can disprove my theory

No, time travel to the past is possible, if the future has already happened.

Think of the universe as a film, and each frame representing each moment of reality. You can go back and forth, but the universe is built in such a way that its outcome can not change.

From what I understand, M-theory allows for multiple universes to exist and there are millions of them out there. Knowing this, time travel would be possible, just not in this particular universe.

Originally posted by BangorangRufio
You know what's a bad idea? Letting kids post stuff on ATS.

Yes that is a bad idea.

There is another time travel thread which I posted the following on, however no-one else has replied since. Unforunate as I would be more than happy to hear what people think of my take on it, even the debunkers :

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 such an explosive way - perhaps you and your father would simply cease to exist, or be forcibly 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 in the first place.

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 bogglingly complex 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 wouldn't even bring you close to the true number.

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 - also decided on an infinite number of universes. Of course, an omnipotent being (by their definition) has no limit to their power, but one must still question the plausibility of 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 religious 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 of copies of me, each one with an equally valid claim to my being.



Continued ..............

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. It could be our totally inablity to ever manufacture a time machine;e.g., 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. There are hundreds of other possibilities, but all are dependent on the fact that the Universe will have protection against a paradox occurring, even if that protection may break certain laws of physics itself.

Long, long post - sorry!