My Time Travel Experiment

This is my first thread, so if this is not the correct forum, I apologize.

As far as I know, I am the first and only person to actually conduct a time travel experiment. I have always had an interest in science and what some call pseudo-science. Because of this, I have also been interested in time travel. Like many of you, I have speculated about the feasability of time travel. I also wondered if time travel might be perfected within my lifetime.

So, this led me to wonder if I could somehow find out and I devised this very simple time travel experiment.

What I did was, I made a pact with myself that if time travel was perfected within my lifetime, then I would use it to travel back in time to meet myself. I know this violates the time travel paradox, but frankly I don't buy into the paradox. In my opinion, if time travel is possible at all then there is nothing to stop you from meeting your former self.

At first the experiment sounds very simple, just get in the time machine, set the dial to some time of your choosing, then ZAAAP, back in time. Then hookup with your old buddies.

The problem is how many of you can place yourself at a particular place and time with 100 percent certainty? I know in my own case there are only a handfull of memories that I can recollect, with 100 percent certainty, that they took place at a specific time, date, and place.

I decided that I needed to create a time reference point for myself. I needed to create an event in my life that could be located by time, date, and place, with 100 percent accuracy, and 100 percent recall. An event that I could remember with clarity for decades, centuries if necessary.

So, I decided that I would arrange to travel to a specific place, on a date that I could not possibly forget. Since, I had always wanted to visit the Four Corners Monument, and since it is fairly remote, with a lot of wide open space. Who knows how large a time machine might be? I settled on this as the place. I decided that it was likely that the United States would exist and its landmarks would not disappear within my lifetime. Even if it did, records will exist showing the former state boundaries.

I decided that the date would be my 40th birthday, and the time would be high noon. (Melodramatic I know, but I grew up in the West.) I was 38 at the time that I settled all of this and this gave me time to prepare for the experiment. It also gave me time to let the whole experiment sink into long term memory.

So, I had my time travel experiment set up. All I had to do was carry it out. I talked to my wife about it, and although she thought that it was very wacky, she liked the idea. She likes to travel and she had never been to Four Corners either, so she was more than happy to go along. I bought a GPS unit, so that I could locate myself precisely. I had intended to log every move that I made that day, and to record it, but I discovered that was not necessary.

So, the time came to carry out the experiment. My wife and I flew to Albequerque, NM and we drove to the Four Corners area. We took a room at a motel near Four Corners. On the morning of the designated day, we woke at 7am, had breakfast, and loaded the car. I was surprised that I had a feeling of anticipation about the whole thing. I guess that I was excited about the posibility (no matter how remote) that I might actually experience something extraordinary.

We left the motel and drove to the Four Corners National Monument. We arrived about 10:30 am local time. We unpacked our lawnchairs, water, binoculars, sunscreen, etc. I picked a spot near the monument and watched. I decided to wear my very favorite T-shirt (I have two of these exactly the same.) I have worn this same T-shirt in all of my last 3 driver's license photos, so it is a shirt that I am sure to recognize, and more important, remember.

I sat and watched the sky, the terrain, the tourists, and checked to see if there was anybody watching me, or looking, or acting out of place. Again, I have no idea of what time travel might be like, so I watched for any sign of anything abnormal. Meanwhile my wife was checking out the silversmith's wares and haggled over a bracelet.

At 11:55am I got in line to get my picture taken standing in all four states. I checked the time on my GPS and at exactly 12 noon, I was standing on the mark that indicated the intersection of four states.

Then nothing happened. The time came and went.

I was not overly surprised that nothing happened. I wasn't even particularly disapointed, this was after all an experiment. I was interested to see what the outcome would be.

I moved back to my lawnchair. Since it was my intention to create a time reference in my life, I decided that I would spend at least two more hours at the site, just in case. So, I sat in my lawnchair, and my wife continued to shop.

So, we stayed at the Monument. I walked around a little but I left my lawnchair in exactly the same spot. I read the plaques, walked around the place, looked at the arts and crafts, talked with some tourists, played with my GPS. Never moving too far from my lawnchair, just in case.

At around 4:00 pm we decided to move on. So we loaded the car and headed for a campground. I had brought a tent, and I wanted to do some camping.

My wife and I talked about the day and what the experiment showed. We both agreed that it probably indicated that time travel would not occure within my lifetime, or at least it would not be common.

This was a little over 8 years ago and I have talked to a few of my friends about the experiment. Some think that it is completely wacky, others find it interesting that I actually carried it out. They all agree that they have not heard about any other similar experiments. So, to my knowledge this is the first and only time travel experiment ever conducted. If you know of any others please post them.

By the way, if you want to, you can meet me at high noon, August 26, 2000, at the Four Corners Monument. It's ok if you're a little late, I'm there all day.

Well, any prophecies?

Come on, don't be shy...

At least,U2U me some 2009 sports stats and I will become a gambler really quick.

I guess you know none of us are going to meet you, since you haven't met them already...

[edit on 9-1-2009 by asmeone2]

Well, no serious prophecies, since I still don't have a working time machine. I wish that I did, I would have pulled my 401k out of stocks about 2 years ago, when it was worth something.

I didn't meet anybody that identified themselves as a time traveler, that is true. Time travel is tricky stuff though. If you believe the SciFi, there are mutliple time threads. Who knows? On some other thread, maybe I did meet myself, or an ATSer? You are right though, not on this time thread.

Is it possible that your future self is very ill and couldn't make it,
perhaps diagnosed with something that has immobilized you.
Or maybe you suffer from amnesia or Alzheimer?!

That is also a possibility. That is why I tried to create a memory that would be deeply imbedded. I made it a point to think about the experiment almost daily for two years. I have reflected on it many times since. I decided to write this thread also to embed the memory deeper.

My grandmother died of Alzheimers and so, it is certainly possible that I contract it at some future time. I hope not. Barring some disablility though, I am fairly certain that time travel will not be developed with my lifetime, at least not on this time thread.

Wouldn't it be ironic, if there is a time thread where time travel was developed, but I did not conduct the experiment?

Originally posted by lunarminer
Wouldn't it be ironic, if there is a time thread where time travel was developed, but I did not conduct the experiment?

who would see the irony though?!

This is so damn interesting.

I'll tell you what, if I manage to travel through time in my lifetime, I'll be more than happy to come visit you August 26, 2000, at the Four Corners Monument. You will either meet me or one of my clones, as I made the decision a long time ago that if I could afford it, I would clone myself.

Originally posted by lunarminer
Wouldn't it be ironic, if there is a time thread where time travel was developed, but I did not conduct the experiment?



who would see the irony though?!

Good point, it's kind like the tree falling in the forest, with nobody there to hear.

Wow that's deep.
Just curious, if you had met yourself then what would you have said to yourself? Isn't talking to yourself in the common sense considered an oddity? Hmmmmm

reply to post by danj3ris


It's a deal. I'll be the guy in the green and white lawnchair.

I like the clone idea, but how will I know it's really you?

reply to post by texas thinker


Just curious, if you had met yourself then what would you have said to yourself? Isn't talking to yourself in the common sense considered an oddity? Hmmmmm

You know, I hadn't thought about that much. I had planned to ask the basic questions about my life, key events, what the future is like, etc.

I didn't have a set script though. I probably should have prepared 5 or 6 questions.

My future self would probably have asked if Sponge Bob was on yet.

What the #.



So let me get this straight you expected your future self to come meet you that day.


Right?

I was there the next day. Your future self showed up and said he miscalculated the date, so he was 24 hours off. He told me to tell you in 8 years to go back in time and he will meet you at the same spot.

No, not really, it was an experiment.

It's like when Galileo dropped a lead ball and a cork ball from the tower. He had expectations but no real idea of what would really happen.

I have often wondered about time travel and I don't even know if it is possible. Nobody knows, Stephen Hawking says no, others say not so fast.

So, I came up with an experiment that would at least show me whether it would happen in my lifetime, or at least on this time thread. The answer seems to be no.

Does that mean that it is impossible? No, it means that it didn't happen to me. Other people at other times might have a different outcome.

reply to post by lunarminer



Want my theosis on time travel? It's intricate, but here we go.


Time travel is illegal in the bounds of time and space.

IE.

If you we're to travel back in time to meet yourself, technically, there is no way of saying that you could or could of seen yourself to begin with because you already exist in another segment of time!

Put your hands together.

Move the left one from your right, and keep the right stationary and its position.

Now think, here I am right here typing this message, and so many seconds ago I was typing a prior paragraph.

What is to say that your existance would remain if you were to leave your immediate space of being, atleast in that previous state of existance.

Meddling with time is like putting a puzzle together with a missing piece.

Best metaphor I could come up with anyways.

Now, bending space and time is a different story, however, you can be in theory at one point in the universe right now and another point in the universe in one millisecond does not mean that you are time traveling, just traveling.

To go back in time is impossible to most anyones relative idea.

However to go forward is much more possible.

Yes, I have heard it said that you can't travel back in time, at least not to a time before the time machine was built. It would disassemble itself, or so the theory goes. Mathematically, there is nothing that says that you can't move backwards on a timeline. Physics students do it all the time, to calculate when a particular event happened. It works fine on paper.

On the subject of coexisting in two places at the same time. Particles at the Quantum level seem to be able to do it. Electrons, and photons of light for example can exist in two places at the same time. Photons of light, can be split and there seems to be one photon of light in both places simultaneously, even miles apart. Whether or not particles above the quantum level can do it, is another issue.

Anyway, these types of questions are the reason why I did the experiment. Otherwise, there is another paradox and that is the one where nothing happened because nobody tried.

reply to post by lunarminer


Mathematically.

Relatively.


Different story.

What is to say the state of the universe will exist with you when you are already ahead of that state.

Well, if I could travel in time, I am pretty sure that the Universe would exist at any time that I could access. Time and space being linked together. As Einstein pointed out time cannot exist without space nor vice-versa.

There was a physics theory that they called the "God Particle" theory. This theory went something like this. All Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons have the exact same mass and characteristics of all of the other particles of their respective types.

So, what if they are all manifestations of the same particle? What if they exist in all possible states at the same time, and what if all matter in the Universe is simply the manifestation of all possible states of the same three particles? The theory goes on to say that these "God Particles" travel forward in time as regular matter, but travel backwards in time as their respective anti-particles.

This theory was eventually proven to be wrong, but it had quite a few adherents to it for a while. It seems though that for a while anyway, physicist took time to be a two-way street. At the sub-atomic level anyway. They always seem to draw the line at the atom.

Originally posted by lunarminer
I bought a GPS unit, so that I could locate myself precisely.

You might be able to use that to locate yourself on the Earth but not where Earth is at that time in space. You'd have to have some cosmic GPS with satellites in orbits in adjacent solar systems. And even then I doubt it would be enough as there are is no fixed space in the universe that will always remain at the exact same place.

Only if a homing beacon was made which was programmed to remain at the same place compared to the passing solar systems and planets for several centuries it might work (as the future already happened and it's possible humanity will one day create a timemachine or better it has already happened).

[edit on 10-1-2009 by Dragonfly79]

reply to post by Dragonfly79


Yeah, the GPS was so that I could get an accurate reading on my time and place at Four Corners. As it turned out, I didn't really need it, since I never went more than 100 yards from the monument. My idea was to document my physical location at every moment during the test period.