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How to Build a Time Machine

Posted by michael on from the mad-scientist dept.

frank249 writes "The September issue of Scientific American has an article discussing the possibility of time travel. They say that it wouldn't be easy, but it might be possible. It could be a while until we can expand worm holes and tow them to a neutron star but didn't someone say that if it is possible it will happen. If it is impossible it will just take a little longer."

1 of 456 comments (clear)

  1. Some Say it Has Already Happened ... by Crispin+Cowan · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If backward time travel is ever possible, then it has "already" happened. Someone has likely aleady travelled back before August 2002 and done something, we just don't know it.

    Of course, this induces the potential for paradox, causing great cosmological and philosophical consternation. I don't know what will happen if/when someone goes backwards through time, but here's some ideas:

    • The universe forks in two when a paradox is induced.
    • The universe forks in two at the instant the traveller enters history (because at a micro-level, paradox is induced as soon as they appear).
    • Paradox induces a cascading feedback loop of self-modifying universes (each inducing a time-traveller who goes back and causes another chage) until the sequence halts with a universe in which time travel is not developed. My bet is that if time-travel is possible, then this is what has happened, because there is no evidence of time travel.
    Forward time travel is of course possible right now, requiring only some patience :-) Accelerated time travel is also possible due to reletavistic effects and (possibly) cryogenics, allowing you to travel forward in time at some rate greater than 1 second per second.

    Crispin
    ----
    Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
    Chief Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc.
    Immunix: Security Hardened Linux Distribution
    Available for purchase