(Yep, again. Though, to be honest, my last time travel post was over a year ago. http://whynot2000.blogspot.com/2012/09/time-travel.html)
Yesterday, I watched this MinutePhysics video about ways to travel through time. There were three simple, everyday ways that we use to travel through time, and then three more complicated ways that no one has accomplished yet.
I am beginning to wonder if time travel far into the past or future relative to everything else is a good idea at all. In addition to risks listed in the previous time travel post, there are other strange possibilities. Let's say you are able to go back in time and prevent Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Immediately, there would be some kind of ripple effect as all the events related to Lincoln's assassination change to adapt to your actions. So then you go back to the present, where everything could be drastically different. Have you returned to the time you left or entered a parallel universe? If parallel universes do not exist, what happened in the world as you quite literally changed the course of history? However, if some unknown laws that govern the universe may prevent you from intervening with Lincoln's assassination, then you would return to the world you left.
People could make small changes to the past accidentally that completely changes an important event. Even kicking a rock could result in a wagon tipping over after hitting the rock, thus making some soon to be important person late for the event that will make him famous. Even sneezing could spread illness to a prominent historical figure, causing her to be unable to do whatever she needs to do in time.
I also can't help but wonder if it's worth pursuing ways to time travel, in the way that I previously described at least. If time travel is eventually invented, why aren't there any people from the future here today? Why isn't there an abundance of stories in history about mysterious people just coming out of no where? Are the time travelers purposely avoiding the block of time in which there are humans who have not yet discovered how to time travel as not to interfere? When one travels to the future, does one gain memories from the gap of time between departure and the arrival? Have all the time travelers been slung off to an alternate universe in which things are very, very different? Do parallel universes even exist?
If time traveling machines were invented today, I really don't think I'd be tempted to test it out.
Yesterday, I watched this MinutePhysics video about ways to travel through time. There were three simple, everyday ways that we use to travel through time, and then three more complicated ways that no one has accomplished yet.
I am beginning to wonder if time travel far into the past or future relative to everything else is a good idea at all. In addition to risks listed in the previous time travel post, there are other strange possibilities. Let's say you are able to go back in time and prevent Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Immediately, there would be some kind of ripple effect as all the events related to Lincoln's assassination change to adapt to your actions. So then you go back to the present, where everything could be drastically different. Have you returned to the time you left or entered a parallel universe? If parallel universes do not exist, what happened in the world as you quite literally changed the course of history? However, if some unknown laws that govern the universe may prevent you from intervening with Lincoln's assassination, then you would return to the world you left.
People could make small changes to the past accidentally that completely changes an important event. Even kicking a rock could result in a wagon tipping over after hitting the rock, thus making some soon to be important person late for the event that will make him famous. Even sneezing could spread illness to a prominent historical figure, causing her to be unable to do whatever she needs to do in time.
I also can't help but wonder if it's worth pursuing ways to time travel, in the way that I previously described at least. If time travel is eventually invented, why aren't there any people from the future here today? Why isn't there an abundance of stories in history about mysterious people just coming out of no where? Are the time travelers purposely avoiding the block of time in which there are humans who have not yet discovered how to time travel as not to interfere? When one travels to the future, does one gain memories from the gap of time between departure and the arrival? Have all the time travelers been slung off to an alternate universe in which things are very, very different? Do parallel universes even exist?
If time traveling machines were invented today, I really don't think I'd be tempted to test it out.
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