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bhartman36 · 04-08-2009, 05:09 PM

Neither time travel to the past nor time travel to the future seem possible, in any real sense.

If you travel to the past of this universe, you end up with time paradoxes. If you travel to the past of some other universe, you wouldn't really be accomplishing your goal. For instance, if you go back in time and kill Hitler in the alternate universe, nothing changes in your original universe. It keeps humming along apace, as if nothing had happened (because it didn't). That's not to say it would be a futile exercise. You'd still be killing the Hitler in the universe you were in, but you wouldn't be affecting the future you originally intended to affect. It would be more like tourism, or a missionary experience, than anything else, and you would never be able to get back to your own time again, meaning that if you went far enough back, no one you knew would be alive.

Time travel into the future is even more impossible. There's zero evidence that "the future" exists in the way that the past and present do. Can you "remember" (obviously using the term loosely) anything that happened to you in 2011? If the future already existed, there's no reason to believe you wouldn't be able to, the same way you remember the past and experience the present.

As others have noted, FTL travel might subjectively alter your perception of time, but time itself wouldn't be impacted in any way. You'd still be passing through it, just as if you'd locked yourself in suspended animation for the same period of time.

I sort of wish time travel to the past was possible, within one's own universe. It would be very tempting to "fix" the past. On the other hand, we all know how well that usually goes, now don't we?

04-08-2009, 05:09 PM	#56
bhartman36 Wizard Posts: 1,323 Karma: 1515835 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: New Jersey, USA Device: Kobo Libra Colour, Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (2021)	Neither time travel to the past nor time travel to the future seem possible, in any real sense. If you travel to the past of this universe, you end up with time paradoxes. If you travel to the past of some other universe, you wouldn't really be accomplishing your goal. For instance, if you go back in time and kill Hitler in the alternate universe, nothing changes in your original universe. It keeps humming along apace, as if nothing had happened (because it didn't). That's not to say it would be a futile exercise. You'd still be killing the Hitler in the universe you were in, but you wouldn't be affecting the future you originally intended to affect. It would be more like tourism, or a missionary experience, than anything else, and you would never be able to get back to your own time again, meaning that if you went far enough back, no one you knew would be alive. Time travel into the future is even more impossible. There's zero evidence that "the future" exists in the way that the past and present do. Can you "remember" (obviously using the term loosely) anything that happened to you in 2011? If the future already existed, there's no reason to believe you wouldn't be able to, the same way you remember the past and experience the present. As others have noted, FTL travel might subjectively alter your perception of time, but time itself wouldn't be impacted in any way. You'd still be passing through it, just as if you'd locked yourself in suspended animation for the same period of time. I sort of wish time travel to the past was possible, within one's own universe. It would be very tempting to "fix" the past. On the other hand, we all know how well that usually goes, now don't we?