The Philosophy of Time Travel - The science of today is very different than the science of a hundred years ago when we thought the universe consisted of little more than our solar system and some outlying stars. The universe has grown immensely since, and wizards like Einstein, Rosen, and Hawking have helped open our eyes to fascinating tenents of our universe.
While he is known for e=mc2, Einstein also worked out equations to describe the way the laws of physics work, and in doing so discovered some interesting things about time. Although he couldn't prove it at the time, the equations indicated that time travel was not only possible, but inescapable. As one travels at faster and faster speeds, their clock slows until the speed of light is reached, at which point there is no time passing at all for the traveler. Of course the speed of light is thought to be unattainable by anything other than pure energy, we could thoeretically send a probe or even spaceship hurtling through space at a reasonable percentage of that speed limit.
If one were to travel a few hundred light years away at near the speed of light, only months would pass for them. On their return to earth, they would find that centuries had passed and the world may be a very different place. This makes long distance travel less than ideal since the civilization that would send such explorers probably would not exist when they returned. However, there are theoretical rips in space known as an Einstein Rosen Bridge, or wormhole, in which one can take a "shortcut" through vast distances of space in almost no time at all.
Time travel into the past is another story. As of yet we have been unable to prove that it is possible, but we think it is. However, if it were, why have we never had visitors from the future who have discovered how to do it? Or maybe we have and just don't know it. On the other hand, if we exist on seperate time lines than those in the future, travel into the past would not affect the timeline we left anyway. Nonetheless, the philosophy of time travel currently states that it is possible, although only based on what the equations tell us. I'm not sure anyone is really expecting that we will figure out time travel into the past.
While he is known for e=mc2, Einstein also worked out equations to describe the way the laws of physics work, and in doing so discovered some interesting things about time. Although he couldn't prove it at the time, the equations indicated that time travel was not only possible, but inescapable. As one travels at faster and faster speeds, their clock slows until the speed of light is reached, at which point there is no time passing at all for the traveler. Of course the speed of light is thought to be unattainable by anything other than pure energy, we could thoeretically send a probe or even spaceship hurtling through space at a reasonable percentage of that speed limit.
If one were to travel a few hundred light years away at near the speed of light, only months would pass for them. On their return to earth, they would find that centuries had passed and the world may be a very different place. This makes long distance travel less than ideal since the civilization that would send such explorers probably would not exist when they returned. However, there are theoretical rips in space known as an Einstein Rosen Bridge, or wormhole, in which one can take a "shortcut" through vast distances of space in almost no time at all.
Time travel into the past is another story. As of yet we have been unable to prove that it is possible, but we think it is. However, if it were, why have we never had visitors from the future who have discovered how to do it? Or maybe we have and just don't know it. On the other hand, if we exist on seperate time lines than those in the future, travel into the past would not affect the timeline we left anyway. Nonetheless, the philosophy of time travel currently states that it is possible, although only based on what the equations tell us. I'm not sure anyone is really expecting that we will figure out time travel into the past.
The Philosophy of Time Travel
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