Is Time Travel Possible?

07/13/07  Print This Post Print This Post    10 Comments   Popular   Written by Ian MacKenzie
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We’re all familiar with the idea of traveling across geography, but what about time?

Theoretical Physicist Michio Kaku presents his case in the above video clip. He also writes more about the idea in an article “The Physics Of Time Travel

“Not surprisingly, time travel has always been considered impossible. After all, Newton believed that time was like an arrow; once fired, it soared in a straight, undeviating line. One second on the earth was one second on Mars. Clocks scattered throughout the universe beat at the same rate.

Einstein gave us a much more radical picture.

According to Einstein, time was more like a river, which meandered around stars and galaxies, speeding up and slowing down as it passed around massive bodies. One second on the earth was Not one second on Mars. Clocks scattered throughout the universe beat to their own distant drummer.”

If you want to go deeper, watch The First Time Machine and read the fascinating article Timeline Dynamics.

What do you think about time travel? Possible or wishful thinking?


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About the Author

Matador ID: ianmack

Ian MacKenzie is the founder and editor of Brave New Traveler. He is currently editing the One Week Job documentary. Aside from writing, he spends his time exploring the fundamental nature of existence and wishing he did more backpacking.

10 Comments... join the discussion!

  • Jeff replied on July 13, 2007

    Whether time travel is possible we will never know, but we do know that time travel will never be developed here on Earth. After all, how many backpackers from the future have you ever met?

    (btw, this is also Stephen Hawking’s argument against a future with time travel)

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  • Ian MacKenzie replied on July 14, 2007

    Aha! But what if there is already time travelers around us but they won’t show themselves for fear of messing up their past timelines? Makes sense that they’d want to act in subtle ways…

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  • Paul Levinson replied on August 4, 2007

    Well, here’s a letter from Sierra Waters, that may help shed some light on some of these questions … http://paullevinson.blogspot.com/2007/08/letter-from-sierra-waters.html

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  • Turner replied on September 20, 2007

    One of the few good jokes from SNL summarized this quite nicely (paraphrased):

    “A student group at MIT is hosting a time travel party and is hoping that people from the future will show up. Unfortunately, people from the future already know that the party sucked.”

    The point being, anyone can make a time travel “test” by writing down a specific date and time in a letter, intending to pass it from generation to generation until some ancestor develops the ability to travel back to the suggested date. Too bad it doesn’t work – I could really use some extra cash from the future.

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  • Key Dela Calzada replied on November 23, 2007

    I just want to say that 2 things are possible: either that time travel is possible or not. What happens if not??
    Considering all facts(regarding all things happening right now)I can surely say that even with your knowledge, proving that time travel exists, is inevitable… I mean that time travel is impossible..Another thing, I am reading physics books and found out some topics, specifically the theory of relativity… I found some interesting insights and proposed some ideas that will connect those time travel facts and today’s physics facts (real things that happen right here)..I hope that you will consider this…I will not complete my ideas…just here only for a moment.. Thank you!!

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  • RAYMIL GARDE replied on December 2, 2007

    time travel rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  • Melmar Lindayao replied on December 4, 2007

    I think that time travel is possible because of the fact that time dilates in trmendous speed. Time travel is possible when a normal person can withstand the speed of light.

    Thank you!!!!!!

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  • Ray replied on January 24, 2009

    Time travel is possible and is happening as we type here. I have seen a time traveler, not sure why he was targeting me but here are the dates- I saw him in 1971, 1974 and 1985. I have no idea how he knew where I would be on exactly those dates but I saw him. He looked exactly the same on all of the above dates. I havent seen him since 1985, but I am keeping my eyes open.

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  • tBoonePickens replied on April 17, 2009

    Such silly nonsense. Of course going back in time is impossible. It’s an exercise in meaninglessness! First of all, who says time is something that you “can travel” anyways? Time is simply change; nothing more and nothing less. You can’t travel change, can you?

    For example, you can have more change (like time “speeds” up), less change (like time “slows” down), or no change (like time stays “still”), but you can’t have negative change. This keeps in line with relativity, time dilation, etc.

    I hope that clears things up. Also, even if the “alternate universe” theory is correct (which I HIGHLY doubt) you would still NOT be traveling to the past through time; instead, you would be traveling to alternate universes. Also, c is the universal speed limit…it is the speed of time! Once you reach c you will have used up all of the available time in the universe!

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