Comments on: Time Travel Ruled Out! http://akuindeed.com/?p=238 Philosophy, Food and Pedagogy Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:02:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Adam http://akuindeed.com/?p=238&cpage=1#comment-197 Adam Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:14:33 +0000 http://oolongiv.wordpress.com/2008/01/20/time-travel-ruled-out/#comment-197 Time travel is definitely possible, as most of us have no problem traveling forward in time. It's just the back part that seems hard. I tend to think that while it's possible (and probably happens all the time... heh...) for particles to go back in time, it won't be technologically possible for quite some time (if ever) for persons to travel backwards in time. As it stands now, trying to travel backwards would probably kill us off. But really the little paradox argument relies on a view of time (moments?) that makes them eternal containers of a set amount of events. I'm thinking that backwards time travel could be made more plausible by thinking of moments as individual four-dimensional coordinates. Then just as no one has any problem with their being two people in your house, then three people in your house, there would be no problem with having X people at t1 and later X+1 people at t1. It's not a contradiction because right now there *are* X people there at coordinates (x12,y24,z6,t1), but when the time traveler visits it is only true that there *were* X people there. Now, there are X+1 at (x12,y24,z6,t1). Granted, I've just pushed time back into another dimension, but something like that has to be true. If calling it time doesn't make sense, call it shmime or something. Thus the paradox really gets going by conflating subjective experience of time with the objective facts about time. I get dizzy trying to think of it all subjectively, but objectively it seems to make sense. Off to the Aristotelian Society! Time travel is definitely possible, as most of us have no problem traveling forward in time. It’s just the back part that seems hard. I tend to think that while it’s possible (and probably happens all the time… heh…) for particles to go back in time, it won’t be technologically possible for quite some time (if ever) for persons to travel backwards in time. As it stands now, trying to travel backwards would probably kill us off.

But really the little paradox argument relies on a view of time (moments?) that makes them eternal containers of a set amount of events. I’m thinking that backwards time travel could be made more plausible by thinking of moments as individual four-dimensional coordinates. Then just as no one has any problem with their being two people in your house, then three people in your house, there would be no problem with having X people at t1 and later X+1 people at t1. It’s not a contradiction because right now there *are* X people there at coordinates (x12,y24,z6,t1), but when the time traveler visits it is only true that there *were* X people there. Now, there are X+1 at (x12,y24,z6,t1). Granted, I’ve just pushed time back into another dimension, but something like that has to be true. If calling it time doesn’t make sense, call it shmime or something.

Thus the paradox really gets going by conflating subjective experience of time with the objective facts about time. I get dizzy trying to think of it all subjectively, but objectively it seems to make sense.

Off to the Aristotelian Society!

]]> By: eyeingtenure http://akuindeed.com/?p=238&cpage=1#comment-196 eyeingtenure Mon, 21 Jan 2008 02:12:02 +0000 http://oolongiv.wordpress.com/2008/01/20/time-travel-ruled-out/#comment-196 I choose A. By going back in time, you create an alternate time line. From then on, even if you somehow do not interact with anyone or cause anything else to change, any movement forward in time would be in that newly created timeline. However, if you do not interact with anyone in that timeline, you can be sure that the events occur exactly as they did in your original timeline. Here's a question: would it be it possible to return to one's original timeline? I choose A.

By going back in time, you create an alternate time line. From then on, even if you somehow do not interact with anyone or cause anything else to change, any movement forward in time would be in that newly created timeline.

However, if you do not interact with anyone in that timeline, you can be sure that the events occur exactly as they did in your original timeline.

Here’s a question: would it be it possible to return to one’s original timeline?

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