'Looper'-like time travel may be possible

[Phouchg]

universe wide BSOD

Short pins 5 and 7 of the Universe front panel with a [sonic] screwdriver.

[nekkidtruth]

Short pins 5 and 7 of the Universe front panel with a [sonic] screwdriver.

OMG! IT CAUGHT FIRE!!!! WHY WOUL-....*universe implodes*

[HardyRexion]

Ok I'm about to attempt to travel back in time and If I'm successful, Germany will lose World War 2, England will win the 1966 World Cup and the Monday will be AFTER Sunday.

[vincent]

in that thread, lots of people acting like they know what they're talking about and trying to appear very sure of it.

80% of that site's member's have Phd's in physics, and that site has a partnership with SCIAM

[Solid Knight]

Isn't time just motion relative to other motion? If nothing ever moved, would time exist?

[I am Reid]

Isn't time just motion relative to other motion? If nothing ever moved, would time exist?

well that would include light not moving either, so yea

[Ambroos]

I don't believe travelling backwards will ever be possible. But travelling into the future shouldn't be too hard, even without all the fancy speed thing. There will be a point when we'll just be able to 'suspend' humans similar to how we freeze embryo's. Simply put yourself in a fancy time travel freezer, set the suspend timer to X years and hope you get out in the time you want. Should be a lot easier than building something that reaches the speed of light.

[F_C]

more nonsense and unfounded speculation...

I have not seen the movie "Looper" so I can't comment on that in particular, but Time Dilation itself is not "nonsense and unfounded speculation".

It's just that the differences we see at the moment in modern transport are so negligible we generally dismiss it. Hop on a plane around the world right now and you would have "travelled" about a nanosecond more compared to the rest of us who didn't get on that plane. That is to say, if you think the plane flight took exactly 24 hours, people on the ground who did not travel would say the flight took 24 hours + 1 ns.

I think all the article is trying to point out is that one day when we can travel a lot faster than we can now then it may be that you can travel for an hour and it appears to everyone else you've been gone 2 hours, which would be of benefit to some.

(read about the Hafele?Keating experiment if you are interested in the plane experiment, also see what they do to GPS satellites to counter the effect)

[XerXis]

People who genuinely think Time Travel is possible probably also believe in Unicorns.

how come, if you are in a moving object time is going slower for you. So you are essentially in a time machine that brings you to the future. Things outside of your moving object will age faster. That is not a theory.

(Of course, at the velocities we move it almost doesn't make a difference)

[DarkyDan]

I've always found the idea of travel into the future VERY plausible (speed of travel being the only hurdle to overcome)... but travelling into the past to be ludicrous.

Travelling to the past would only be possible if Time was "physical" and flowed both ways. It only goes forward, I think. I haven't researched the matter :p