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On the subject of time.



Time travel appears to be one of the few science fiction posibilities that has yet to have a derivative that can be logically translated into probability.



Do you believe it is possible to move foward AND backward in time?



I don't think moving backward in time is possible, as it would require the reversal of isotope decomposition on a universal scale.

In additon, astronauts actually return to earth a few moments younger than when they left without affecting time for those who aged at a greater rate in a different time line due to both timelines moving forward. And so, YES, I believe we CAN move forward in time by moving from a slower moving time line to a faster one.



Thoughts?

I completely agree with the forward through time aspect. I still don't know much to comment on the backwards...



I don't think its a matter of moving to a faster timeline, as I believe time is just a relative aspect of our universe. If we move fast enough, time seems to slow down, and if we slow down, it seems to speed up.

I have mentioned before Einetein's theory on it, and I still haven't gone to look up the exact wording, but he said something to the tune of if a vessel could travel fast enough in one direction, then stop and turn around, it will see itself leaving its point of origin.



Several theorize that time and space do not truly exist. I would tend to go with that idea, but I just completely lost my thought and now I don't know what I'm saying.... :/

In the movies and the romanticsim associated with time travel, it is popular to believe that going back in time to right a wrong or change history is a possiblity. Simply stated, this creates paradox by allowing a rift in the exsiting timeline, in that by the very act of goin backward in time requires that all decomposition of atoms be reversed if not on a universal scale at least on a scale that involves that entire timeline, I don't believe this can be accomplished by any means. Not to say there arnt timelines that flow in the opposite direction. This doesnt mean you can move from backward to forward as the change from one to the other would destroy you in one of two methods, you would wink out of existence before you were born, or would be turned to dust having aged faster than light. Time is linear, regardless of the direction in which it moves.

True, time is linear. But that doesn't mean its predestined, or unchangable. You go through time, and at each choice you make (right down to the smallest decision) creates a branch, or fork, in the path.

Now, in following this, see that every decision you are prompted with can be infinite, and each one causing a branch along the path, which each path would follow along, and branch off again, and again.

It would look like a series of fans at tied to the rays coming from each fan, if you can visualize that ;)



Damnit, I forgot my point...



Ok, yeah, I would stand to argue that if you were to go back in time and somehow alter it, it doesn't change the past for the present that you had left. But, it changes the future of the past that you altered. Therefore, instead of following one timeline, you, and the timeframe you are now in, would follow another.

However, going forward would be much more difficult, because of this theory. If time branches in near infinite places along near infinite differing timelines (which are all actually one), then when going forward, you could end up in a completely different future than the one you are naturally following. To travel forward would be more complicated, as I'm sure if you chose a temporal direction and just went, and stopped as you pleased, you would find yourself in some rather odd timelines. But, this way would also be safest if you're looking to come back to the time you left, as you would go in the exact opposite temporal direction and pause at the same interval to when you stopped on your first trip.



I would think that to be able to accomplish this, some kind of coordinate system would need to be created for the temporal dimension (note I started using temporal to describe it, since it's the only word I have handy right now). In our universe we have 3 dimensions..Height, width, depth. We can travel in any of these three dimensions, thusly making it a 3-dimension universe. Now, to travel time would require mastery over the 4th dimension (time). We have 3d coordinate dimensions x, y, z. In the 4th dimension we would need another coordinate, t. t is our position in time, and until we can map t, we will have a hard time traversing it.

And then once we do that, we'll eventually move on to the 5th dimension ;)



Sorry..almost went physics on everyone heh

Ok, yeah, I would stand to argue that if you were to go back in time and somehow alter it, it doesn't change the past for the present that you had left. But, it changes the future of the past that you altered. Therefore, instead of following one timeline, you, and the timeframe you are now in, would follow another.

:gleam: thank god we have Mr

All you need is a flux capacitor and 1.2 gigawatts.

Yes, time is linear.

However, it is not possible to reverse your own timeline. Backward Time travel therefore is not possible.

Choices and possibilities are contained within each timeline and do not branch into others simply based on choices, in other words, your timeline is what it is and is not changed by moment to moment decisions as time is created as we move through it, not a path we have to follow but one that is created through those choices.

You cannot apply possibilities to the past simply because that timeline has already been done, it doesn’t mean that alternative times lines exist for each possibility, hence, no alternate past to go back to, or to create.



Edit:

Sorry, this bears a better definition of my view on how time moves and how it can progress differently.



I view space, time, and existence as a never-ending cable.

Within this cable, are many, many wires, each a representative of speeds of time within the continuum (the cable).

It is possible to move from one wire to another but not into past of any given wire as that past has already been written and therefore is unchangeable. This is the basis of how an astronaut can be younger upon return, they have merely returned to the wire from which they had departed.