No time travellers means humanity is doomed?

Modern science seems to confirm that time travelling is possible - today this is only theoretical, but I am guessing our scientists would figure out a practical application given enough time.

Does it mean humanity is doomed as there supposedly have been no time travelers from the future yet? I mean, if we would figure out time travelling in the future then we should have them here now, right? Is the lack of time travelers proof that humanity will be extinct at an unknown future time?

-MM

How do you know there has not been time travelers already?

The topic is to subjective to begin with to even start ruling things out or drawing conclusions like that based solely on our current level of scientific knowledge.

What reason would they have to let us know they were time travellers? Maybe they follow some sort of temporal prime directive so they wont affect their past... Or since time branches off into different directions every second, maybe they're going to timelines besides our own.

captb13
What reason would they have to let us know they were time travellers? Maybe they follow some sort of temporal prime directive so they wont affect their past...

I was thinking along those lines as well.

Perhaps by the time "time travel" is proven and or possible that man may have moved beyond such hubris of thinking we have any kind of right to mess with such fundamental a concept as altering what has already occurred.

You are only partially correct.

Your argument is based on the assumption that we are dealing with only one concurrent Universe and timeline.

In time travel theory, there is the explanation for the Grandfather Paradox in that it won't matter if you kill your Grandfather before your father is born. Because you haven't traveled to your past, you've traveled to the past in another time line / parallel universe.

So we could indeed have time machines in the future, but we may not be able to go back through our own time line.

Or if we can, there are probably either very strict usages applied to the technology and monitored excellently or they disallow time travel to our immediate past (past 100 years).

Perhaps with the advent of Time Travel technology, they also found a way of measuring the Butterfly Effect and can pinpoint where alterations can be made that will change our future.
And those specific points are off limits to everyone.

Fun to think about no less.

Sovaka
You are only partially correct.

Your argument is based on the assumption that we are dealing with only one concurrent Universe and timeline.

In time travel theory, there is the explanation for the Grandfather Paradox in that it won't matter if you kill your Grandfather before your father is born. Because you haven't traveled to your past, you've traveled to the past in another time line / parallel universe.

So we could indeed have time machines in the future, but we may not be able to go back through our own time line.

Or if we can, there are probably either very strict usages applied to the technology and monitored excellently or they disallow time travel to our immediate past (past 100 years).

Perhaps with the advent of Time Travel technology, they also found a way of measuring the Butterfly Effect and can pinpoint where alterations can be made that will change our future.
And those specific points are off limits to everyone.

Fun to think about no less.

Timeline by michael critchton is a good example of the multi-verse version of time travel, technically not time travel but dimension jumping, accomplishes much the same.

There have been a few, Jesus, etc. Came here to try and change the fate of mankind and once they figured out what damage they did they decided, "Oh heck lets not screw around with the past again"…








Two guys sitting around in the year 3000, one says to the other, "Don't you think it's funny that all of history now says your uncle Walter is the saviour of mankind?"

"Well, he always had a messiah complex. That and a drinking problem…"

benrl

Sovaka
You are only partially correct.

Your argument is based on the assumption that we are dealing with only one concurrent Universe and timeline.

In time travel theory, there is the explanation for the Grandfather Paradox in that it won't matter if you kill your Grandfather before your father is born. Because you haven't traveled to your past, you've traveled to the past in another time line / parallel universe.

So we could indeed have time machines in the future, but we may not be able to go back through our own time line.

Or if we can, there are probably either very strict usages applied to the technology and monitored excellently or they disallow time travel to our immediate past (past 100 years).

Perhaps with the advent of Time Travel technology, they also found a way of measuring the Butterfly Effect and can pinpoint where alterations can be made that will change our future.
And those specific points are off limits to everyone.

Fun to think about no less.

Timeline by michael critchton is a good example of the multi-verse version of time travel, technically not time travel but dimension jumping, accomplishes much the same.

I was thinking of that book right after I finished my post! Need to dig it out and read it again.

There's a lot of pictures of the past floating around the internet with people out of place and what looks like fashion from today's era.
I watch an episode of Jessie Ventura's conspiracy show called time traveller. There's some interesting pieces in there that will make you think.

I would hate for time travel to be possible and then weaponised though.

There's a good reason we don't see any time travelers from the future.
Think about it.

We'd have to be an alternate reality in which he hadn't came from for him to exist.
If we were ever able to time travel, we would never be able to see our future selves in the same reality. We could only see our future alternate selves if that makes sense. Let's just hope our future alternate selves don't intend on using "luck" to their advantage, as that's the only thing that would be of NO help to either them or us, especially when concerning time travel...as their arrival changes everything that would have happened in the reality they came from.

Google Image search for "1940 photo time traveler".

The first photo is of interest but I think somebody debunked it a while back IIRC.

There are other images there that people have used as a 'proof' of for Time Travel.

reply to post by Jarring


I disagree.

If someone time traveled from the future to their own past... it wouldn't immediately change the future.
Though in a manner of speaking it would change the future of the person whom time traveled.
ANYWAY...

A person from the future can come back into the past, stand around for an hour and even if the traveler was seen by a couple people, if the traveler left without anyone seeing them leave... the future wouldn't be any different.
As the traveler made no significant changes while they were in the past.

Yes, if we look at it like a database checksum (computer terms), we would see that the checksum would have changed because there was a new occurrence that had to be recorded in "history".
But considering that it had no historical significance, it wouldn't actually alter the future.

reply to post by Sovaka


I suppose that I have to agree that existence varies drastically depending on the action within it.
I also agree if someone is going to sit around for 2 hours, that him not being at his original timeline would change the future more than it would change the past.

the butterfly effect is too finicky for time travel to exist without alternate realities...that is unless time travelers exist outside of time and space to begin with so that they don't affect their own fate.

i'd prefer an observation droid that could send and receive information through all of time.
at some point in time, all knowledge would be available to us.
as boring as it sounds, we'd live in bliss, and evolve, so to speak, consistently, through every waking minute.

Has anybody heard of John Titor. He supposedly is a time traveller, and is currently living in Nebraska. He is 15-16 years old right now, but his family says, he came back from 2036. Anyway, I live in Nebraska, and in 2004, had a freakish situation occur. When I was meeting my family for a sit down restaurant party, I saw my family sitting there across the room. But, by the time we had walked over to the table, different family members were sitting there, and in different chairs. I turned to my friend, and I said, "what just happened?", and he said, I don't know, pretty weird huh?

reply to post by luckey1962


ugh, sounds despicable.
if it is true, if whatever future he came from still happens again here, color me shocked.

seriously do not like scars in reality. i shudder at the possibility.

The book that came out about John Titor, said he was very leary of the food he ate. And supposedly, he went back to 1975 to get the IBM personal computer, because there was program in that model that had parts/programs that NASA needed for the spacestation. His family put the book out, and said he was part of some tech group. But, they said it was difficult to come back at the same moment of time. That's why I believe there can be a time shifts. Because, in my situation, the relatives that were sitting at the table, and then weren't sitting at the table, arrived a few minutes after we sat down.

reply to post by luckey1962


well, yeah, it seems theoretically impossible considering how time travel alters your original point in time of existing in time/space. even more so when traveling to the past.

i honestly can't believe it, sorry. I'm not the type to be a skeptic, but you won't find me cashing in my chips. At the same time, you won't find me completely rejecting the possibility. I'd just assume it's a story before I believed in something like that.

reply to post by luckey1962

But, by the time we had walked over to the table, different family members were sitting there, and in different chairs. I turned to my friend, and I said, "what just happened?", and he said, I don't know, pretty weird huh?

Parallel time-line jump is what you describe.

Lots of threads on ATS about them with lots of examples from members too.

reply to post by Bassago


really? it seems to me if it was a parallel time jump that no physical anomalies would occur? like, whatever he changed here would be a fact here in this parallel time, whereas it would still be the same without him in his own parallel time.

i could be wrong, i'm just trying to understand from my own point of view.

edit: the physical anomalies imply that there aren't any parallels, and all time/space is in constant flux.