Through the Wormhole - Time and Time Travel

I don't know if anyone has watched these episodes but I did and they really intrigued me. One concept that struck me particularly is that some scientists believe something I'd already decided on as fact: That there is only the now, no past and no future.

Time is a concept invented by man to account for the differences between past, present, and future, but not necessary except that we live our lives by the clock as a means of organizing our lives and because we feel the need to mark the passage of time.

Do you believe there is past and future time? Do you believe there is only the now? If you could, would you abandon time? Do you believe time travel is possible? By what method might it be possible?


Is Time Travel Possible?


Does Time Really Exist?

There really is only now, the past,even though it happened, doesn't exist. There is only now, an infinitissamal amount of nows.
Some people believe that everything that has ever happened and will happen has already happened, and that our physical bodies can only make sense of it through the dimension of time, otherwise everthing would happen to us at once. I suspect that when and if we pass on to the other side, we get everything at once.
On a lighter note, I really enjoy "through the keyhole"with old Morgan. Im always amused by whatever the topic might be, say, life after death, aliens, wormholes, he always seems to find a metaphor from his childhood. "When a was a boy growing up in...........

Restricted
Do you believe time travel is possible?

It depends on your perspective. As far as I can tell, I always stay in the same place and time, while the universe changes and moves around me. As long I'm still looking out my own eyeballs, I think it would be difficult for me to "travel" anywhere. I am always "here."

That being said, I sometimes dream so vividly and have such unusual knowledge in my head that I feel like for a few brief moments I actually am looking out of someone else's eyeballs. How this could happen (shifting consciousness structure of some kind?), I have no idea.

...or is there a present? As I type this it goes into the past and what I have yet to write is the future. If you split one second you then have the past half of that second and the future half. Is there an actual present or is that something invented to explain time in language such as present tense?

reply to post by Blue Shift


I do believe time travel is a matter of mastering a particular state of consciousness. I believe, based on a very personal experience with an altered state of consciousness, that we can access the "slipstream" of time. I believe there is, obviously, history, and that we all can access it under the right conditions.

Maybe I'm a kook, but I do dream of a time when we can watch history as easily as we watch TV.

are dinosaurs alive right now on earth? Your great great great great great grandparents? Theirs? Oh...well thats because time is real, and it is a fool who thinks, without thinking, otherwise.

reply to post by TheLieWeLive


I once read a theory that time is composed of an infinite number of positions between 0 and 1, but I'll be danged if I can remember the source. I do remember thinking at the time that it explains our condition exactly.

We are born, 1, and, thereafter, are on the road to 0. The big question is do we continue after the 0 state as energy? If so, we really aren't in the 0 state, but in an altered state of 1.

reply to post by Restricted

Since the laws of physics as we understand them have no directional preference with respect to time, it stands to reason that the sense of destiny or precognition may simply be an artifact of our misinterpretation of the nature of existence.

-odie

One thing I question about time is the "fact" that it passes at a different speed as it leaves the influence of gravity.

The example used was of an atomic clock that was placed at a higher elevation than another atomic clock. The higher clock went either faster or slower than the lower clock, I can't remember which. Now did it really reflect a different passage of time or was the clock's mechanism simply physically reacting to the weaker gravitational force?

thedoctorswife
There really is only now, the past,even though it happened, doesn't exist. There is only now, an infinitissamal amount of nows.
Some people believe that everything that has ever happened and will happen has already happened, and that our physical bodies can only make sense of it through the dimension of time, otherwise everthing would happen to us at once. I suspect that when and if we pass on to the other side, we get everything at once.
On a lighter note, I really enjoy "through the keyhole"with old Morgan. Im always amused by whatever the topic might be, say, life after death, aliens, wormholes, he always seems to find a metaphor from his childhood. "When a was a boy growing up in...........

Actually, since what we see isn't instantaneous due to the time delay it takes the image perceived by our eyes to be processed by the brain, we are looking into the past as it happened milliseconds ago. Small amount of time, but still we are seeing the past in our perceived present.

reply to post by ETeeTime


There was another "Through the Wormhole" episode that covered that but I can't find it.

Restricted
One thing I question about time is the "fact" that it passes at a different speed as it leaves the influence of gravity.

The example used was of an atomic clock that was placed at a higher elevation than another atomic clock. The higher clock went either faster or slower than the lower clock, I can't remember which. Now did it really reflect a different passage of time or was the clock's mechanism simply physically reacting to the weaker gravitational force?

edit on 9/20/2013 by Restricted because: (no reason given)

Ah, but it doesn't. In fact, spacetime is always locally consistent but subjectively warped by gravity.

-john

reply to post by greencmp


Very funny. Now prove it. You can't. Nobody can because we don't have the instruments to do so. Yet.

reply to post by thedoctorswife


Your description is the closest to what is really going on. Everything is everything, and everything is happening at the same time.

If you look at reality the way you described it, then ultimately you chose to be "here" as you are. Everything has to be experienced in every possible and infinite combination.

Think of the Pandoricum from Dr. Who. It was built to trap a Time Lord with all kinds of puzzles and locks and mis-directions. Reality is similar. If you had unlimited power and could do, be, see, experience anything what would you do?

Everything!

It depends on the frame of reference you want to use.

Time as a measurement of events in sequential order doesn't really exist, it's just a term we all comfortably accept to keep synchronized with each other. It's how we twist our perceptions to fit into a model that we can all easily understand. Time-zones (which are a prime example how we seamlessly do this) aren't real, they are simply a mutual collaboration between our species.

Time as a restriction on quantum interactions becomes a bit more meaningful as you try to map out particle locations. "When" becomes as necessary as "where" when dealing with four dimensional manifolds. Time travel is possible under these constraints, but we currently don't have enough computing power to resolve matter down to the atomic scale, let alone a human being.

This month's writing contest is about time travel, (link in my sig line) so I've been thinking about time for a few days for my next entry.

Restricted
reply to post by greencmp

 

Very funny. Now prove it. You can't. Nobody can because we don't have the instruments to do so. Yet.

I am of course being a little silly but, really only in my signatures.

-garfield

It really is an idiotic argument. Of course we know there is a past, we can see it, we can touch it, we have record of it, the future, well we know there is a future as well.... how because we can go there. the hell you say, ah but we can... not very far yet, but we are getting there and yes in reference to everything else that item spinning almost at the speed of light is in the future.

we know these two exist. we know too that we will be able to actually go forward.... that is a simple one just based on our current understanding of physics.... our problem is going backwards and most scientist don't think we can,,,, but they again are just thinking in terms of physics that are changing and morphing forward everyday. We are beginning to understand it is not as simple as old Einstein thought and that the universe's are far more complex... did you catch that plural there...

we have allot to learn and some young whippers are beginning to think outside the rigid boxes that have been presented in science classes forever. We are beginning to believe we can master time or space and distort it and go forward, backward, sideways, up, down, you name it.

the question is will we all live long enough to see it....

there is so much hidden science and technology it is coming, change is coming, whether the one percent want it or not... the cat will soon be out of the bag and they will not be able to stop it.... if we don't kill each other first.....

the bot

reply to post by greencmp


You forgot the 2nd law- time may be a direct manifestation of entropy. reichenbach comes to mind

The Direction of Time. University of California Press. Dover 1971

reply to post by Restricted


Time is the transformation of energy. Energy behaves differently as it changes it relative location in reference to gravitating body. Therefore 'time' changes.

reply to post by Restricted


Einstein said time is relative to the observer.

It depends on location (or relative location) and the motion/speed of the observer. And EVERYTHING is in motion.

For starters...

BTW - This is one of those topics that makes my head explode but it's so cool to think about, I don't even mind cleaning up the splatter afterwards.