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[grasshopper]

As much as time travel appeals to me for all sorts of reasons - alas, I have concluded that I shall never be able to do it.

To go back in time means that my presence/being must still be in the past and as I have come from the future means I am effectively doing two things at once, my wife says I am incapable of multi-tasking, ergo, I can't time travel.

As my wife obviously thinks she can - I should like to volunteer her for any experiments......

[justboatonic]

As much as time travel appeals to me for all sorts of reasons - alas, I have concluded that I shall never be able to do it.

To go back in time means that my presence/being must still be in the past and as I have come from the future means I am effectively doing two things at once, my wife says I am incapable of multi-tasking, ergo, I can't time travel.

As my wife obviously thinks she can - I should like to volunteer her for any experiments......

Time travel would, if possible, have the potential to open all sorts of paradoxes (is that a word!?). However isnt it quatum mechanics that shows light photons or some other exotic particles can be in two places at the same? Hmmm, another thread for the future!

[bigH]

   I haven't got the time for all this, swmbo says I have to get the dishes washed......

[Sub driver]

Just a thought...

If you travel a set distance at a set speed say 1 mile at 60 mph, then you double your speed but keep the distance the same you get there in half the time, then you double your speed again etc, get there in half the time, then double your speed etc = half the time again.....so you keep doubling your speed until you are in therory in two places at the same time and in fact you never left where you started from in the first place .....................or you are occupying all the time and space on your route at the same time.

" Simples "

Sub.

[Roger in France]

It is an old, old question (well a variation on the original) which comes from one of the Ancients, Zeno the Eleatic philosopher, who described a race between Achilles and a tortoise. But the mistake he and all the Greeks made was they did not take time into their mathematics. Clearly with Newtonian mathematics we can work out when Achilles passes the tortoise.

I think your variation is built on the fallacy that you can never be in two places at once, you are just infinitely getting smaller fractions.

Roger in France

[BrianCartwright]

  {-)I think you all are missing one vital statistic,All the police boxes have dissapeared so there isn't a Tardis to be had at any price.The nearest I've come to time travel is when I had a stomach bug.I had to make several trips to the bathroom pdq.

regards Brian

[omra85]

If you look at all the most "popular" Biblical events, they were always well attended.
So lets say, in the middle of the dessert, someone wants to do some water walking.
Suddenly, there are 5000 people watching!!  Don't tell me they just happened to be dropping by!
No, they were time tourists.  Obviously dressed up as 'locals' to avoid detection.
And all the extra crumbs, etc - was because they brought their own packed lunch!  
The original  loaves and fishes were nicked as souvenirs.

(Thanks to Bob Silverberg's "Up The Line" - except the last bit)  

Time travel isn't possible anyway, since DeLorean went bust.

Danny
 

[Sub driver]

It is an old, old question (well a variation on the original) which comes from one of the Ancients, Zeno the Eleatic philosopher, who described a race between Achilles and a tortoise. But the mistake he and all the Greeks made was they did not take time into their mathematics. Clearly with Newtonian mathematics we can work out when Achilles passes the tortoise.

I think your variation is built on the fallacy that you can never be in two places at once, you are just infinitely getting smaller fractions.

Roger in France

So then Roger if you keep doing it and as you say you just keep getting smaller fractions ....then how small does a fraction have to be until it becomes negligible and therefore makes no difference..????

Sub.

[Patrick Henry]

3 shillings and sixpence..

[justboatonic]

Just a thought...

If you travel a set distance at a set speed say 1 mile at 60 mph, then you double your speed but keep the distance the same you get there in half the time, then you double your speed again etc, get there in half the time, then double your speed etc = half the time again.....so you keep doubling your speed until you are in therory in two places at the same time and in fact you never left where you started from in the first place .....................or you are occupying all the time and space on your route at the same time.

" Simples "

Sub.

Doubling your speed ad infinitum doesnt mean you'll eventually be in two places at once. You just be travelling very fast, up to the theoretical speed of light (which BTW Im going to make as the Next Theoretical impossible!) and in a place for a very short period of time.

The fact that you are travelling very fast is just the same as travelling slowly, you are only in one place at a time for either a short period or long period depending on your speed.

[justboatonic]

There is also another commonly perceived paradox.

If you put an old person and a young person together, time will pass much more quickly for the former than it does for the latter but they will both start and finish at the same point relative to the outside world. 

Colin

Er, no.

Time may appear to pass more slowly for the older person but it wont actually do so. That's just one's impression of different 'time' not an actual effect. They will both experience 60 seconds equalling a minute, 60 minutes equalling an hour and so on.

[Colin Bishop]

I thnk I made it clear I was joking earlier....

people take these things too seriously!

Colin

[justboatonic]

I thnk I made it clear I was joking earlier....

people take these things too seriously!

Colin

Its a serious subject Colin 

[gondolier88]

The first person to put time in a jar and show it to everyone will be able to travel on/in/with it and forever shall be hailed as the original time traveller- shame time doesn't exist and is only a precise (almost- 365.25days in a year- .25 days is 6hours or 360minutes- thats quite a margin of error) measurement of something that human comprehension has no other way of describing.

Perhaps we should be pressing our local councils to spend a bit more cash on the slowly diminshing travel resource we call tarmac before we contemplate becoming Dr. Who's next apprentice (i'm not blonde, female, attractive or in possesion of a sixth sense so i'm not holding out for a career as a time lord anyway!)

Greg

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

Time travel is possible, and it happens on a daily basis.
You perhaps have experienced it your self. Well perhaps
not that you yourself have traveled in time, but that
objects around you can and will at any moment travel
through time.

It is a theory, and statement of fact made by one
Clifford Shaw of Edmonds, Washington USA. An old
codger by any sense of definition, but also a good
friend and mentor. His modeling skills, electronic ability, and
general common sense were always outspoken for
the benefit of others.
 
On one particular day I was visiting Cliff to get some
transmitter modifications straightened out. After a bit
of general banter we proceded to dig into the transmitter
and disassemble a bit here and a bit there. Drill a few holes
and wire in some new switches. As we got around to
reassembling the all the bits, one of the key pieces turned up
missing... We looked all over the work bench, and then the floor.
However the bit was nowhere to be found.

Being the common sensed person he was, Cliff declared that
the "bit"was probably time traveling... And that this was a good
point to take a break and have lunch. During lunch, I expressed
my dismay regarding the missing bit of my transmitter. Cliff looked over
his plate, and reached for his drink to wash down a bit of sandwich.
He said, "It will be there when we go back." I must have looked a bit
puzzled, because Cliff smiled.  This happens all the time. Especially with
small bits on the work bench. Car keys, the wallet... You put something
down and suddenly can't find it... It's Time Travel....
How's that? I asked...
Cliff continued, small things travel in time.  You may have just had something
in your hand, set it down, and poof, it's gone. You look, and look, you expand
your search, and still can't find what you've lost.  That's because it's traveling in time.
You can't find it, because it's not here anymore. The best thing to do is take a
deep breath relax and do something else till it decides to return, because it always
certain that you will find what you've lost, in the future... 

And after lunch, we went back to the work bench, did a quick look round, and there
was the "bit", sitting plain as day... "Time Travel... ", I muttered...

[BrianCartwright]

Hang on a minute.Time doesn't pass slowly for me.It's no sooner Monday than it's Sunday again,I really don't where the time goes now days.I don't know how I ever found the time to go to work


Brian

[Jimmy James]

I seem to remember reading years ago that if you traveled to the nearist star and back at just below the speed of light (Say 4 years at the speed of light each way) you would on your return be quite a bit younger than the people who stayed behind because time would pass much more slowly at hight speeds ????
 Perhaps this could be counted as a form of time travel ????
Freebooter

[Colin Bishop]

Yes, there a number of science fiction novels based around that concept which allow people to visit the far future but of course the 'travel' is all one way. You could get the same effect by putting yourself into periods of suspended animation.

In America (where else?) I think there is a company who will detach your head and freeze it if you die of some incurable illness on the premise that in a hundred years or so they will be able to unfreeze you and build you a new body. However, I believe that the freezing technique does irreversible damage to the structure of your cells by crystallizing their contents.

Colin

[Roger in France]

I know what you mean, Colin. -11 and -12 here on two consecutive days. And it's not just my brain that's numb!

And they say Expats should not benefit from the heating allowance. Trouble is, in the height of summer I also need a cooling allowance!

Roger in France

[omra85]

Aaaah, poor Roger.  I've just had a very nice bottle of French red 'cooking wine', which we brought back on our last visit.
It was the equivalent of £1.20 a bottle, and very nice too!
I can see you need all the sympathy you can get in your "hostile environment".
Keep your chin up, it wll soon be Spring (about a month earlier for you).
We're all thinking about you.
(  )

Sante
Danny

[PMK]

And after lunch, we went back to the work bench, did a quick look round, and there was the "bit", sitting plain as day... "Time Travel... ", I muttered...

Although written in a light-hearted way, I reckon there is more than just an ounce of truth in what you are saying.
The exact same scenario has happened here - numerous times. It's always the same story; you put something down, and then, when you want it again, you find that it's suddenly disappeared. No amount of searching will find it, but the spooky thing, it usually re-appears once you have left the room, because when you return, it's exactly where you left it before it went missing.
I'm not sure about the time-travel slant, even if it does sound plausible/wondrous, but I for one would dearly love to know where these things go when they do disappear. Better yet, I'd love to know who is responsible for taking them. And why always take them when we are not looking?

[PMK]

Also, just as an aside...

I must have looked a bit puzzled, because Cliff smiled. This happens all the time. Especially with
small bits on the work bench. Car keys, the wallet... You put something
down and suddenly can't find it... It's Time Travel....

I can identify with that.
So just as one of those sheer suck-it-and-see questions... What if time travel is indeed possible, but what if Cliff was only half right? For instance, what if the missing piece had remained in its exact same dimension all along, but it were actually you and he that had time travelled.

[justboatonic]

I seem to remember reading years ago that if you traveled to the nearist star and back at just below the speed of light (Say 4 years at the speed of light each way) you would on your return be quite a bit younger than the people who stayed behind because time would pass much more slowly at hight speeds ????
 Perhaps this could be counted as a form of time travel ????
Freebooter

You're on the right track JJ. You do not even have to travel at the speed of light to experience it either. If you have two atomic clocks at say Heathrow, put one on a plane and send it on a circumnavigation flight around the world while the other stays in the same place. When the clock on the plane returns to heathrow and its time compared to the time on the clock which stayed in the airport, the clock that flew around the world will show a time behind the stationary one. In other words, it will have aged less.

The faster you travel, the more marked this effect is. So, if one clock flew at virtually the speed of light the time on that clock would slow compared to the clock on Earth. If you made the round trip to Alpha Centauri and back at virtually the SOL, hundreds if not thousands of years will have passed by the time you return to Earth.

If you travel at the SOL, time actually stops.

Although this could be said to be a form of time travel, its not time travel in the sense that you can go backwards into the past or forwards to the future.

[malcolmfrary]

Although written in a light-hearted way, I reckon there is more than just an ounce of truth in what you are saying.
The exact same scenario has happened here - numerous times. It's always the same story; you put something down, and then, when you want it again, you find that it's suddenly disappeared. No amount of searching will find it, but the spooky thing, it usually re-appears once you have left the room, because when you return, it's exactly where you left it before it went missing.
I'm not sure about the time-travel slant, even if it does sound plausible/wondrous, but I for one would dearly love to know where these things go when they do disappear. Better yet, I'd love to know who is responsible for taking them. And why always take them when we are not looking?

It is possible that the spontaneous disappearance of what we think of as inanimate obects is that we are wrong about them being, as it were, inanimate.  From the Wiki entry for Hugo Rune, guru's guru -

Mystery of the Biro- Biros are actually sentient creatures that hate their role in life and constantly seek to escape

and

His other theories include the Small Screw Phenomena- whereby the appearance of two small screws whenever an electric device is taken apart and put back together is explained by the fact that screws breed inside electrical appliances

Further information can be found here
http://www.welsh-nutter.co.uk/rune/time.htm

[omra85]

For more advanced reading of the "Ultimate Truths" and Hugo Rune , refer to the works of that noted scientific writer Robert Rankin.

Works for me ...

Danny