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Far-Fetched Time Travel Concept Receives Private Funds

WED Fan writes "A University of Washington researcher who couldn't find funds the old fashioned way has raised funds from private parties to continue with his studies of 'time travel'. He is studying the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox. Basically, using spooky action, he wants to be able to use entangled pairs to send messages, not only through space, but also in time. 'As the evidence for this has accumulated, several fairly contorted and unsatisfying efforts have been aimed at solving the puzzle. Cramer has proposed an explanation that doesn't violate the speed of light but does kind of mess with the traditional concept of time.' Despite the implausibility of the science here laypeople have been inspired by the researcher's idea, enough to donate almost $35,000 to his project."

7 of 505 comments (clear)

  1. Not news by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 1, Troll

    The story is really just,

    "Another investor rooked into making a stupid investment through investment pitch X."

    Individuals invest in stupid things all the time. Like workers who just read Slashdot all day. ;-)

  2. Causality anyone? by nweaver · · Score: 0, Troll

    If relativity is correct (and even possibly if it isn't), backwards-in-time communication really REALLY F@#)(*s up causality. Heck, Faster Than Light (FTL) communication at all F@#)(*s up causality.

    The EPR paradox, in particular, can't actually communicate information, as you can't actually tell which of the two sides measured it first (or at all), preventing FTL communication and saving causality. (Of course, simultinaity doesn't make sense either, thanks to relativity, but causality does).

    This guy sounds like a good snake-oil salesman.

    --
    Test your net with Netalyzr
  3. Re:I'm all for the scientific method... by Johnny5000 · · Score: 1, Troll

    Unfortunately $35k won't take him very far. He will probably need at least 10x that much.

    How exactly would $350,000 help substantiate his loony idea better than $35,000?

    --
    The libertarian solution to the failures of capitalism is to apply more capitalism til the failures are fixed.
  4. ahahaha... by MOBE2001 · · Score: 1, Troll

    Can I get the investors info?

    ahahaha... John Cramer is obviously a crackpot. But he is not alone. There are a bunch of crackpots like him in the physics community. David Deutsch (of quantum computing fame) and the little con artist in the wheelchair immediately come to mind. The fact remains that nothing can move in spacetime, by definition. It is all explained at the link below:

    Nasty Little Truth About Spacetime Physics

    Paul Feyerabend, the foremost science critic of the last century, once wrote in his book 'Against Method' that "the most stupid procedures and the most laughable results in their domain are surrounded with an aura of excellence. It is time to cut them down in size, and to give them a more modest position in society." Feyerabend was speaking of scientists in general but he may as well have been talking about spacetime physics. Star Trek voodoo physics is morelike it. ahahaha...

    1. Re:ahahaha... by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 0, Troll

      ahahaha... John Cramer is obviously a crackpot. But he is not alone. There are a bunch of crackpots like him in the physics community. David Deutsch (of quantum computing fame) and the little con artist in the wheelchair immediately come to mind. The fact remains that nothing can move in spacetime, by definition. It is all explained at the link below:

      Nasty Little Truth About Spacetime Physics


      Man, if I were going to sit down and create a Web site to meet every single point on the Crank Physics Detection Guide, that's the site I'd build.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    2. Re:ahahaha... by MOBE2001 · · Score: 0, Troll

      I'm pretty sure that defining velocity in terms of Newtonian mechanics and then using modern understanding of time counts as being wrong. Attempting to define motion through time as a simple substitution is bound to create problems, mostly because it's making shit up.

      That's funny. I had no idea that velocity was defined otherwise. It is still v = dx/dt, is it not? Whoever thought that your post was insightful needs a lesson in reading comprehension.

      Heck, the site even says that time dilation doesn't occur and instead attributes it to clocks slowing down ("for whatever reason"). Now, experiments in time dilation have shown that cesium atomic clocks, devices accurate to within a billionth of a second every day, show results extremely close to that predicted in general reletivity. Unless this site wants to come up with an explaination of mechanical failure for devices with such accuracy, I'm going to stick with the evidence for time dilation.

      The evidence that cesium clocks slow down is not evidence for time dilation. It is evidence that cesium clocks slow down under certain conditions, nothing more. Anybody who insists that time can change (an oxymoron) is either an idiot, an ass kisser, or is talking about something he/she is clueless about. IOW, he or she is talking out of his/her ass. ahahaha...

      Overall, I have to say that crackpot sites by people who as far I can tell have submitted no papers to peer reviewed journals or otherwise shown expertise in the field are probably not the best place to get information on physics.

      Peer review is synonymous with ass review, IMO. ahahaha... This is why people like John Cramer, David Deutsch, Stephen Hawking, etc.. can get away with their time-travel crap and still pass as serious scientists. They're all a bunch of crackpots kissing each other's asses. ahahaha... AHAHAHA... ahahaha... Phew! Making phun of crackpot physicists is so much phucking phun. ahahaha...

    3. Re:ahahaha... by MOBE2001 · · Score: 0, Troll

      cut moronic crap

      You're wasting my non-dilated time. How about that? ahahaha...