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Ghosts, Time Travel, and Space / Inter-dimensional Neural Communication...

I've always liked this line of thought, but I really think we are thinking small (but very big for us - certainly, I'm impressed with these thoughts that others, not me, have come up with) in that the "answer" (i.e., how the universe works, how it got here, what really drives it) is so far beyond what we've thought that we are adding 2+2 while the universe is a quadratic equation in the billions. We have no choice but to keep trying, but I think we are far, far, far away from getting to the answer.


We may be far off, but I agree we have to keep trying. Exploration is hard-wired into our DNA, and it needs to stay that way. We need knowledge for knowledge's sake. Why should we go to Mars? Because it's there.
 
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Another paradox of time travel is aging. Could a time traveller return in time to a point beyond where he was just a twinkle in his father's eye, or similarly, could he go forward in time beyond his alloted span, and would he get younger as he went back or older as he travelled forward...
You also have to factor into the equation(s) the concept that time moves faster or slower because it can be warped by matter and energy (i.e., "space-time"). So a time machine would have to have some sort of insulation from those effects so that you would age at relatively the same speed as you would if you hadn't time traveled.

The other thing involved in time travel that most people don't take into consideration is the fact that Earth moves through space at a speed of approximately 67,000 miles per hour as it orbits the sun. So if a time machine moved only through time and not space, you would have to calculate precisely when Earth would be in the exact same spot when you arrived as it was when you left. Otherwise, you might travel X amount of years into the past or future only to die (sooner or later) stranded in the vacuum of space. Essentially you would need a device that's not dissimilar to The Doctor's TARDIS--a device that moves through both time and space--that would transport you the exact spot on the planet that you occupied when you left, but at a moment of your choosing within the timeline. And, uh, also maintains your rate of age.

...There is another point to elucidate, if we travelled back in time,would we not meet our younger selves & if so, could the two of us coexist in the same time continuum ? The Doctor says yes but we can't have physical contact, so any sexual activity between the two would be impossible. I mention that, as according to a large number of psychoanalysts, we all have an underlying desire to make love to ourselves & it would be a good opportunity to find out if we are as good a lover as we think we are.:D
Riiiiiight. As if this discussion wasn't unusual enough already. :eek: :D

...As for past relationships, would you really have wanted to be forewarned of the consequences...I doubt it. ;)
Also, imagine if someone were to approach you at any point in your life, claim to be your future self, and then start divulging the outcomes of choices and/or decisions you may or may not have even made yet. What do you think your reaction would be? My guess is that the vast majority of the people on this planet would think that person was a nutcase, go about their business, and maybe--maybe--think back on it years later, long after it was too late, and realize that "nutcase" might have been telling the truth after all.

Of course it explains what happens to the descendents. The mere fact that one could kill a grandfather or oneself by traveling back in time renders the concept a paradox and not possible. Puzzle solved. :D
Ah. Fair enough. :)

By the way, thank you for starting this thread. This is fun!
 

Lean'n'mean

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The other thing involved in time travel that most people don't take into consideration is the fact that Earth moves through space at a speed of approximately 67,000 miles per hour as it orbits the sun. So if a time machine moved only through time and not space, you would have to calculate precisely when Earth would be in the exact same spot when you arrived as it was when you left. Otherwise, you might travel X amount of years into the past or future only to die (sooner or later) stranded in the vacuum of space.

There might also be variations in the earth's orbit or the angle of it's axis that would be impossible to calculate in advance & the traveler returning from a voyage into the distant future could end up being fried in the center of earth.:eek:

Riiiiiight. As if this discussion wasn't unusual enough already. :eek: :D!

:D
 

Edward

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Ah but it would be no more incestuous than masturbation, as Woody Allen said " It's sex with someone you love " :rolleyes:

Like Lizzie has stated about the past being immutable, would it be possible to go back in time & say bet on something you knew was going to happen if you hadn't already done so in the past...............would it be possible to change history & alter what has already happened, even if it was just a bet ?
As for past relationships, would you really have wanted to be forewarned of the consequences...I doubt it. ;)

Oh, believe me, I would.
 

Edward

Bartender
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Junkies. If I find out you're a user—we won't be seeing much of each other. Cannot be trusted.

I can certainly sympathise with that one. For all sorts of reasons, but not least, well.... they're pretty dull people, junkies, all told.

Anyone my cat won't stay in the same room with. If small cat doesn't care for your presence—I probably won't either.

Oh, completely. If my cats don't like somebody, there's no way I'd trust them.

I thought the answer was 42.

It is. Now what's the question?

What colour is YOUR towel?

Black. Or at least I think it is - it's buried in my bag under that copy of the script for Godspell. Now fetch those peanuts, you'll need the salt...
 

GHT

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By the way, thank you for starting this thread. This is fun!
therapy.png
 

LuvMyMan

I’ll Lock Up.
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There are some possible indications we have had advanced aliens already here on our planet. The topic does come up once in awhile in our home. My Husband points out how his own Great Grandfather lived from the time period of the Civil War here then to see the Landing on the Moon....think of how much advancements had taken place in the amount of time of just one person's lifespan! Perhaps even thinking of the television show, Star Trek. Recall the use of what we could say, "cell phones" for them to communicate with. Many things have advanced just since the 1960's. Touch screen computers and even ones you do not even have to do anything more than to talk into. It may well be that soon, someone will break through in science and math to a level we had no clue about today? The same as breaking through the sound barrier...that being able to figure out how to go faster than light speed and then how to figure out controlling navigation at such a speed. Navigation currently depends on light for distance speed and travel. Beyond the light speed, for us now, we have no way to calculate distance or travel or accurate time for the journey.

Perhaps some science fiction will become science fact and we will see the answers to many questions and mysteries we ponder today? Who would really want to take off in a space ship and find out what light travel is all about? From what we do know, in theory, a person out and about on a space journey would return to an earth where everyone would be older or long dead and gone, if light speed came into the mix!
 

philosophygirl78

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The Twin Paradox is resolved with general relativity and the idea of inertial reference frames. Both twins cannot be in the same inertial reference frame the entire time, and both cannot be in non-inertial reference frames. In other words, both cannot be simply floating out in undefined space without the influence of some frame of reference. They both have to start and return somewhere. It's the person who accelerates away from and back towards that *somewhere* that defines the time dilation, or "stays young" relative to the other.

I recall a while back, someone in school using the doppler shift factor with the principle of relativity to solve the twin paradox. If I recall correctly, two things, not in motion, retracting at a uniform velocity from each other, would not be able to detect motion... Something like this... I have to look it up. Its been a while.
 

LuvMyMan

I’ll Lock Up.
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I recall a while back, someone in school using the doppler shift factor with the principle of relativity to solve the twin paradox. If I recall correctly, two things, not in motion, retracting at a uniform velocity from each other, would not be able to detect motion... Something like this... I have to look it up. Its been a while.
I am sure there are many individuals that study sincerely regarding physics and the possibilities of endless results regarding things such as this "twin paradox" problem. But one part of common sense always comes to mind for me, when looking at such a problem. Until it is actually made a fact, we will not know for sure what the outcome will be. I merely say this as looking back when aviation had not yet made it through the sound barrier, there was a great concern that a aircraft going faster than the sound barrier would simply blow up, that maybe passing through that barrier would not be possible. Of the many people helpful to solving both the mathematics but also the physical part of what the design of the aircraft to be able to pass through the air molecules was, Howard Hughes. His design of having the rivets on the wings and body of the aircraft being flush/recessed smooth to help aid less drag on the aircraft surfaces, helped make it possible for an aircraft to pass through the sound barrier. Of course to have a craft pass through the speed of light is a much greater problem but, we also now have a greater ability of finding resolves to problems due to our own technical advances as humans and scientist as well. It may well be that when we do pass through the "light barrier" we discover something we had no clue even factually existed...another dimension where all the spooky things reside?!?
 

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