(name)Anthony Edwards
(emailaddy)timetravel@antcom.compulink.co.uk
(location)England
Your page certainly has given me a lot to think about.
It is interesting that you believe timetravel to the past is possible but timetravel to the future might not be. It all hinges on one thing - when is now.
As your example goes on to show the 1997 John can go back to visit the 1996 John when the now is 1997 but the 1996 John could not go forward to visit the 1997 John when the now is 1996. We have as you say two different timelines which cross in 1996 at their meeting when they share a common 'now'.
At this point there is a split with one version (A) continuing to 1997 and then returning to their meeting in 1996 and the second version (B) splitting off from the moment the two Johns meet and is the only timeline of the two which contains this meeting. Continuing this it should be possible for both Johns to return to 1997 and continue with timeline (B) with both versions of John existing at the same time.
You talk about events creating your own universe so with this example we actually could have a universe in 1997 without a John and a universe with two Johns one a year older than the other! Carrying this example on with each John visiting previous Johns and returning with them we could have a universe with millions of extra Johns i.e. extra matter. Make every John bring his gold
sovereign with him and you have one very rich universe!
So we have 'parallel universes' as discussed by Dr David Deutsch and there could be an impossibly difficult to imagine number of these universes contained in - we need a new word here - the Multiverse.
At the moment I am not a firm believer in the parallel universe theory but it does eradicate paradoxes and who knows might be true. If therefore we restrict things to a single universe then for timetravel to be possible it must be 'non-interactive'. By this I mean that it would be possible for the 1997 John to go back to visit the 1996 John but he would not be able to talk or interfere with the 1996 John who would also not see him.
This theory does also eradicate paradoxes and if you think about it would in the future when such a trip is possible revolutionise the tourist industry. Today if you want to see what happened at Rorke’s Drift in 1879 you get out your video of 'Zulu" with Michael Caine and sit down in your living room and watch it. With this tourist timetravel you return in time to the actual event and watch in true 3D. Furthermore as with the tape you can watch over and over again by returning but with the added advantage of watching from a different position if you wish.
These types of trips would also significantly alter crime because no criminal would be able to remain anonymous. With a few trips back to the scene of the crime it would be possible to deduce the criminal if not witness the crime itself. A chance for the future really to be improved by the past!
Your response here has certainly given ME a lot more to consider. Yes, I agree that any number of the same individual could occupy the same timeline. But, in reality, the instant they began to interact, they become DIFFERENT individuals. They are no longer a culmination of the same experiences. Granted, the differences would be small, probably unnoticeable, but the longer time spent in this situation, the more the variance would be.
Congratulations also, by the way, on the deepest question posted so far-"When is now?" I hope everyone who reads this page can appreciate that problem with perception as much as I did!
As far as your reference to the erradication of crime, BRAVO! That is certainly something I hadn't even considered (along with a lot of other things I'm sure)
Chuck
(name)Julie Easton
(emailaddy)Belanna@msn.com
(location)
I read your Time Travel essay, and I must say I enjoyed it! It is a fascinating subject.
I especially enjoyed your examples using the reader as the subject, it really made the paradox hit home. I have always wondered if those "deja vu" feelings people often have were two of your timelines
crossing. What do you think about that?
Your essay really makes a person think about the possibilities, and the paradox that lies within. Thank you for sharing your essay with me, it was very intriguing!
Timelines crossing? Could that be Deja Vu? It seems you've unwittingly elaborated further upon what Michaela (see above) has been referring to. That's what I like about the postings of a good mix of people! Diverse backgrounds converging on a single subject (putting our heads together, as it is said). And... if timetravel will ever be possible, then paradoxes will have to be impossible.
Chuck
(name)Alex Kreitner
(emailaddy)AKreit@usa.net
(location)Bremerton, WA
Well, your theory seems sound, but one problem: going back three days i'm sure your past self could believe that you would be time-traveling unless you created the traveling in two days, and even if you had i'm sure the past version of you had been seriously thinking about it then anyway so he would just know that he had succeeded, I seriously doubt that you could
bring the idea into your mind and complete a method of time-traveling in two days.
Yeah I know its a minor fault, but its true, a past version might just believe you very quickly, in fact he may have had ideas about it and now knows how to do it, and maybe he decides to make it quicker then you did, so then the future, even your past that happened after you went back would be changed, and
you future by that, AH HA another Paradox....it seems you'd have to create another universe...or it would get REAL muddled!!!!
Whoa, there! DOUBLING BACK, doubling back, DOUBLING BACK and on and on and on! It's TOO much for my already strained brain! You're right of course, John would probably have had more than an "inkling" two or three days prior- it's just for the story, but thanks for pointing that out.
Chuck
(name)Thomas J. Davis Sr.
(emailaddy)ThomTJD @ AOL.COM
(location)South Boston, Ma. 02127 U.S.A.
"A verry nice web site , very well put.
Thank you very much. Have any ideas or input? Do you think PARADOX can be avoided?
Chuck
(name)Sean Davis
(emailaddy)SeanSMD@aol.com
(location)Massachusetts
I believe that time travel is possible. I believe that because there are certain instances we are more or less move at a snails pace in the way of technology and other things, and then from nowhere there is an explosion of things in certain fields, that seems almost unexplainable. certain things that happen in every day life that cannot be explained by the known types of physics
that are used today, which can only mean that there is a type of physics that permits those things to happen, which would include some form of time travel not necessarily in the physical form as we know it.
You are right, and I don't think we know much more than an infinitesimal amount about universal physics. I further believe it would be terribly conceited for a human to think otherwise. I'm sure funding would never be appropriated for any PUBLIC technological advances in the "Temporal Sciences".And, just out of curiosity, are you and the Davis posting above you related?
Chuck
(name)The Mysterious Stranger
(emailaddy)TOP SECRET
Aren't we all "time traveling" as we go on with our lives?
For example, by the time that I send this message, I be about
a minute into the future. In fact, you're time traveling too.
Everybody travels into the future. You just can't CONTROL how
far you travel through time.
The VERY FIRST line of text on my Timetravel essay reads: "WE ARE ALL timetravelers in the linear sense, simply by the process of aging." NUF SED!
(ps-I know who you are, EY. But, your secret is safe with me. HA!HA!)
Chuck
(name)Daniel Månsson
(emailaddy)nv95dama@klippan.se
(location)Southern Sweden(Post)
Hello
I must congratulat for a very nice site and your chose of subject
I totaly agree with U that a visit to the past creates a parrallel univers.
The idee has been propoused by scientists that study the qauntum theory.
If you intepert the quantum theory from one point of view you get that every time a chose have to be done a parrallel universe is created.
For exampel: if a electron have the chose of going through a plate with a two holes, two parrallel universes are created. In a of them the electron goes through the hole to the left and in the other one to the right.
THANK YOU! And ... you're absolutely right. It can't get any more basic than your example- ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE SUBATOMIC LEVEL (without even a conscious decision)!
Chuck
