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."

Comments

obligatory

[uolamer]

Can I get the investors info?

I have a bridge that...
In soviet Russia Time Travel You.
Is this the Lt. Commander Data theory or the Spock theory of time travel?
if you do manage to do this, send me a copy of all the sports results for the next 100 years and history of the stocks, etc.

Seriously.. If this was possible, i can only start to imagine how the wrong people or even the right people could really mess up things with their first little test.

Re:obligatory

[Intron]

If this worked then there would already be investors lined up who have sent messages to themselves from the future.

Re:obligatory

[oliverthered]

it could be that you can't send messages back any earlier than the time the message was created, effectively only slowing time down so it take less time for the message to arrive. Less time could be no time at all so the message arrives when it's sent.

This won't allow you to send messages 'back' in time though.

Re:obligatory

[dfiguero]

Note to self from the future: don't invest in this idea.

Re:obligatory

[CommunistHamster]

The trouble is that there is no such thing as universal simultaneity. What clock do we measure by when measuring "before the message was created"?

Its not that far fetched.

[LiquidCoooled]

Its not that far fetched.

I invested some money in this guy next week and have been earning a decent return on my investment for the last 3 years.
I did however feel a little shiver as I considered shorting his stock and for some damned reason pictures of my family have started to fade.

Re:Its not that far fetched.

[Reverend528]

1. Profit!
2. ???
3. Invent Time Machine

So?

[grub]

he wants to be able to use entangled pairs to send messages, not only through space, but also in time.

Big deal, Slashdot has been bringing us news from the past for years!

As The Doctor once said...

[Anonymous Coward]

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but, actually, from a non-linear viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff.

I am already Half way there.

[jellomizer]

I can send messages to the future but I am having sending messages back.

#/bin/sh
 
#send a message 5 minutes in the future
sleep 300
echo "Hello from the Past"

But this doesn't seem to work yet

#/bin/sh
sleep -300
echo "Hello from the Future"

Re:I'm all for the scientific method...

[Chris Burke]

The difference between a crackpot and a scientist with a dream is that the scientist still relies on the rigorous application of the scientific method even if their theory is way outside of mainstream. It sounds like this guy is taking the latter tack. He has experiments in mind, and is completely open to the idea that they may fail.

You don't have to pick between dreaming and scientific rigor. The scientific method is how you turn your dreams into a reality -- if reality is ammenable to your dreams.

Re:ROI

[timster]

Nah, it's not worth anything. If time travel is ever developed, the universe enters an unstable state. Stability isn't returned until a scenario occurs where time travel is never discovered in the first place.

This process takes no time (obviously), so any discovery of time travel is immediately undone. Actually, this happens all the, er, time.

These People aren't Investors

[m1a1]

Most of the comments here make no sense.

These people are not investors. They did not get "scammed". Those of us who read the article know that this scientist did not even approach them for cash. Rather, news of his plight got out and people wanted to donate. He is a respected particle physicist with a theory that is a little odd. He wants to perform a relatively cheap experiment which should show whether his theory has enough going for it to be worth further examination. If these experiments fail, oh well, back to the drawing board.

This is the way science is SUPPOSED to work. There's nothing wrong with being skeptical, but acting like this guy is a scam artist is ridiculous. This guy runs a super collider, yet everyone here is so damn sure they understand quantum phenomenon better than he does.

Re:I'm all for the scientific method...

[magarity]

How exactly would $350,000 help substantiate his loony idea better than $35,000?
 
The wealthier you are the more other people take you seriously.

Re:Two counterpoints

[Alsee]

Like transmitting radio signals to cavemen.

Cue pissed off insulted caveman Geico commercial.

-

Re:Two counterpoints

[s4m7]

Dear Sir,
I am writing to inform you that I have recieved a message from your future self. Included is the text from that message.

Hello, me! I just wanted to let you know that I (you) got rich by investing in this man's method of time travelling messages! I (you) invested $2000 just one week after I (you) recieved this very message, and within six months I (you) was a millionare!
signed, Me (You).

Here's my address..