(name)tom green
(emailaddy)tomegreen@zdnetmail.com
(location)California resident,born in St.Louis
Dear Chuck-
I read with interest your essays on time travel.
I presently hold the view that one can physically move back in
time. Perhaps I believe this-- because I desperately want to
believe it despite the nay-sayers proclamations to the contrary.
I though you might be a good one to possibly
answer a few questions I presently have.
Q.1 I had a bad auto accident after attempting a left
turn with resulting physical impairements. If I could
manage to go backwards to before that moment, would
there be a memory of the event and could I then decide
to turn right instead of left wthout violating the
rule of doing someting that would change the future?
Hi Tom!
Q.2)The latter, of course. Remember, any timetraveling will be a SUBJECTIVE experience. Before your birth- same thing, it doesn't matter. You will still be you.
Q.3)Yes, you would disappear forever from your family's viewpoint. But let me emphasize here, IN THAT TIMELINE!!!
Q.4)Sorry, I don't understand that question. Anyone?
Q.5)I think I'm more versed with the philosophy of it than the mechanics. There are some good sites out there (check some of my links) and any books by John Gribbins or David Deutsch are good reading with a mix of both. Sometimes "The Learning Channel" will have specials on the subject with some real cutting edge ideas and updates on where we're going as a species with "fringe" things like this.
Q.1)Well, first off, I do know that the instant that you make a pastward excursion you change the past and create an alternate future. You could go back to a time before the accident, talk yourself out of making the left turn. You (subjectively) would still have the impairments from the accident. The past you would have averted the cause and would be impairment free. If you then opted to return to the present, you would arrive in a reality where there are two versions of you- the person you talked out of the accident will have arrived at that time through normal temporal progression. The present that you left before your trip to the past will continue on temporally without you. You will simply have disappeared with no way to get back unless you could effect a sideways excursion (I haven't any idea how this may be done- each time you make a temporal "jump", you are essentially creating a new universe (timeline).
Rest assured there are plenty of other timelines to return to where your family is there waiting for you. They will probably just have two of you to deal with, is all.
I hope I've been some help, Tom. Stop by anytime. Thanks for posting.
Chuck
(name)KC
(emailaddy)keilorca@dragnet.com.au
(location)Australia
Hi,
I have only had a brief look at your page so please forgive me if someone has already mentioned this but have you considered a realm where time does not exist?
In such a place you would automatically be everywhere all at once.
The problem with all of this is, as you have alluded to, that our brains simply can't comprehend many of the possibilities. Much like trying to explain the
operation of a computer to a mosquito.
Cheers.
Hi to you, KC.
I can't recall without going through everything myself whether this has been mentioned or not. I do understand what you are talking about, though. I think it's possible that this is what reality actually is. It's all in the perception thing. We just experience the dimension of time linearally and in only one direction, at that! I concede that we do remember the past, but we only experience it (or are able to interact with it)
as it travels in one direction.
Excellent point, KC!
Chuck
(name)Richard W. Bragg
(emailaddy)rickb@adelphia.net
(location)South Florida
Your piece on time travel is very good.
I think the key points you have really hit on are "linear" as you said repeatedly. Basically, the whole paper
you have written is based on this "linear-thinking common-sense" way of interpreting time.
The idea of all outcomes, infinite outcomes, seems extremely plausible. Take, for instance, what we know of matter and energy, atoms, particles, quarks, quantum-mechanics, etc., etc. As far as I see it, energy and matter are more than just related --- they ARE the same thing. EVERYTHING is
relative to the observer as Einstein has written so many times. So, to "change time" would be to change one's point of reference, would it not? Thus, the question, "If time travel is to be invented, why don't we know it from a time
traveler?" is answered by saying, "Because relative to where we are looking at it from, it hasn't," and "will never be." Does that make any sense?
If we could unlock the secrets of matter and energy, it only follows that the time secrets will automatically be revealed. But not to us!
The only way I can comprehend that a visitor from the future is visiting past times is to say he is only an "observer" and will always be so. Always has special meaning here, as time is now being transversed by this "traveler" and has no meaning. As you've stated, it all gets very confusing and difficult to
focus on. However, there are secrets to be discovered (as there always will be), so all we can do is to discover as much as we can while we can.
That brings up some more interesting theories. It is said that there is instinct, intuition, innovation, and inventions. What if maybe there are NONE of these things. Perhaps time travel is going on as we speak and all these things are "plants" by time travelers. Do you see what I'm getting at? Our infinite time
lines are separate, yet the same and constanting interacting, i.e. teaching one another. Deep, huh?
Let's go further. The only UFOs are ourselves that we CAN'T interact with. This theory that I am speaking of that is largely based on what I've read of what you've written explains it all.
From my perspective, anyway. Please email me as I am going to keep studying.
Rick.
Hi Rick.
Yes, linear, but more specifically an offshoot of the many worlds theory.
The KEYWORD you have hit on here is RELATIVE. That's what it all "boils down to"; what is RELATIVE from the experience of the observer. PERCEPTION is also the only REAL thing that matters. As I have mentioned in my discussions with MJ Young, How do you know your car is really out there in your driveway right now? For that matter, How do you know if the driveway is even there? OR ANYTHING AT ALL, until you need to "interact" with it (them)?
Yes I agree, TIMETRAVEL hasn't been invented (or a method discovered) yet, IN THIS TIMELINE. The idea of timetravelers lateral ( I assume) to us, planting ideas, inventions, SEEDS, etc., is not a new concept. In fact, it is known as "The Free Lunch Paradox". A good example of this would be in Star Trek 4 "The Voyage Home", when Scotty divulges the element configurations to make transparent aluminum and is "given the third degree" by the good Doctor, he simply responds, "Why? How do we know he didn't invent the thing"? Or better yet, maybe our ancestors haven't been born yet (linerally speaking again). Maybe there's an exodus of sorts to the distant past originating hundreds of years in our future. Our UFOnauts could be easily explained in much the same fashion. There's just SO MUCH we don't know. I regret we won't live to see the answers. There's certainly not anything publicly being looked at in this area. It's all stuff of the fringe, I'm afraid.
Thanks for your input, Rick!
Chuck
