You Can't Travel Back in Time, Scientists Say

Leave it to scientists to crash a good party.

I was hoping I could go back and change in-laws.

<sigh>

-e

If not for any other reason, just consider the exclusive directionality of time (The arrow of time, so to speak) as a guiding factor to the directionality of physical and chemical precesses: these are hardly reversible too, down the potential energy hill (The second TD law?, anyone?).

Of course you can travel back in time. We all do it.

I have just come back from the future. But literally to return to a point where everything is exactly the same as before I went forward in time.

This means the 'memory' of the period of time I spent in the future has been wiped out - but I have been there and back.

And when I 'die' my memory will be wiped completely so that when I 'start again' I will have no residual knowledge whatsoever of the period of time I have already spent in the future.

you sound like your mind is a video cassette

you dont rewrite

you add to your memmory

Depends how you define travel. we observe the past every time we look at the stars, as it is happening. What if we built a device that could "see" that light beam down to the most finite detail. Now suppose you caught a piece of earth light on the rebound from some glass covered asteroid, say about 10 years old. Now you focus your machine on that night in LA and play the tape of OJ doing it.

50% of the people would still support him.

You don't need to look at a reflection from a distant mirror to see the past. You see the past everytime you open your eyes. Every image you see is from a fraction of a picoseconds ago. Never at present. The distant mirror just extends the time scale.

But although observing the past is possible, Influencing it is not.

You could, in principle, go back in time as some kind of a ghost, where you can see everyone but no one can see you, and no paradox would be created.

This is very, very disappointing. I'm writing this from a nation that started as a revolt against big government, and now we have more taxation, litigation, regulation, prohibitions and armed force than all the other nations on earth, combined...through all of history.

Sheesh. I was hoping for another crack at 1776.

The theory of space and time goes like this: if and when man travels in outerspace, he will be able to travel at speeds substantially faster than we have ever known and it is conceivable to return back to earth in the past or possibly in the far distant future than what would be normal.

Hi GreenGary, you said "if and when man travels in outerspace, he will be able to travel at speeds substantially faster than we have ever known and it is conceivable to return back to earth in the past or possibly in than what would be normal."

I'm afraid the returning "back to earth in the past" part will not work, but the returning to "the far distant future" is quite possible.

If we had a long-playing propulsion system and can maintain a moderate 1g acceleration, we could go to the Andromeda galaxy and back in just under 60 years of on-board time. Earth, if it still exists, would be at least 4 million years older than when we left it!

Regards, Jorrie

Hi Jorrie,

I stand corrected. Well I'm actually sitting but I should have done a memory search or actual research. I do recall, without looking it up that what you say is absolutely correct. Of course we are working with theories.

I think going into the future would be just as interesting as going into the past.

Sincerely, Gary

...just as interesting as going into the past...

Right, while for going into the past, you only need correct info, and for going into the future you would only need good, informed, imagination.

Why not use whatever is available now, and go into the present?

The concept of traveling back in time is trying to define laws of nature different than what they are. The best you can do is go to an alternate parallel universe that is lagging behind this one. The problem is getting back. Can anyone visiting from another universe please help me? My flux capacitor won't exist in this one and I am stuck. I would appreciate it if you could get me out of here before another election season.

No i need my one