Will time travel, apart from us travelling constantly into the future, be possible? Will we ever be able to travel into the past or accelerate into the future? If so why havnt people from the future come to visit us? Or have they? Maybe a new spin on u.f.o.s.

I do hope so!

I would like to accelerate myself to 6.00pm so that I can go home and have a nice big glass of wine!

Ha ha me too!:D

I believe, having carried out extensive research into this fascinating subject, that several Time Travellers are actually living upon our planet.

In this country alone, you may be interested to know, I have concluded in my studies that at least 60-70 TT's are roaming this green Island.

I estimate the total population of TT's on the Earth would be around 97,000.

A spin on UFO's is the theory that they are indeed Humans from the future.

Albert Einstein's theory of faster than light travel is that time slows down for the pilot (s) and or crew. Faster you go, slower time passes, for them that is so people on Earth will have aged.

This is one way, albeit theoretically of time travel into the future.

Never say never!!!

There's nothing that can't be done

Originally posted by dontaskme
Will time travel, apart from us travelling constantly into the future, be possible?
Of course it is. Having read your concerns about the future of this planet I nipped 2000years into the future and it's bad news I'm afraid. No humans, not much animal life at all really. There's a lot of water and it's surprisingly cold if this is all down to global warming.
ps. I stopped off in Portugal on the way back and have to report that England didn't make much progress in the European Championships

Just asked my great great great great great great grandson, he seems to think that time travel is possible. ;)

In theory, if you travel faster than the speed of light then time goes backwards.

Also, I watched a Horizon programme about this subject a while ago. They said that one way in which time travel may be possible is to simulate the past in virtual reality. As technology improves it is getting ever more likely that we will be able to simulate Earth's past accurately within a computer simulation. However, this means that our existance may merely be the simulation of the past of a future generation. Scary stuff.

Originally posted by Sidla
In theory, if you travel faster than the speed of light then time goes backwards.

Also, I watched a Horizon programme about this subject a while ago. They said that one way in which time travel may be possible is to simulate the past in virtual reality. As technology improves it is getting ever more likely that we will be able to simulate Earth's past accurately within a computer simulation. However, this means that our existance may merely be the simulation of the past of a future generation. Scary stuff.

Oh I dunno...I quite like the sound of being a Sim.

I believe that it has been proved many times that the faster a particle (or person) travels, the slower time goes for the particle. This can even be measured for example when travelling on a plane. Even though the time lag is minuscule, it can be measure using atomic clocks. As mentioned, if we reached light speed, then time would not pass for the particle. Whether we can travel faster than the speed of light is another issue all together.

There are other considerations when it comes to understanding the advancement of time that require a full understanding of the shape of the universe, and how it works. Including an understanding of energy and matter. Pretty messy area really. people are working on it, but don't hold your breath.

Have a read of the universe in a nutshell by Steven hawking to get a taste of the basics. If you're head still works after that, then look into it further.

If, like me you get to the point that you just can't be buggered thinking about it anymore, just accept that space is big, time moves forwards and gravity makes us stick to the floor and is really quite useful.

I'm sure that we have all had this conversation before in the future.

If I could time travel, I'd go back to the stone age to see if it really was like they say it was on the Flintstones :lol:

I'd also find myself a Betty Rubble lookalike Cave girl, teach her to speak, and bring her back to the present day as my common law missus.... Also making sure she had a sister who looked like Wilma ;)

I think we should bring phan in on this conversation.

Originally posted by Sidla
In theory, if you travel faster than the speed of light then time goes backwards.


But nothing can travel faster than the speed of light,its imposible.

Even if there was some way to travel through time i think the possible implications would be far,far to great to even risk it.

Originally posted by mr craig
But nothing can travel faster than the speed of light,its imposible.
According to Einstein, but a century later some people have new opinions on that.


Whether you can actually 'reverse' time is open to debate. However, what is proven is that time can be 'slowed down', ie, there can be more than 60 minutes in an hour.

It all gets a little complicated, but an experiment (based on Einstein's Relitivity Theory) measuring the speed of mu meson particles was carried out in 1941 (IIRC) that was then confirmed 25 years (IIRC again!) later using a particle accelerator. Basically, mu meeson particles travelling close to the speed of light (186,000 miles/second) decay far more slowly than those travelling slower. Conclusion, their lifespan had been extended by slowing down the time that they occupy (still with me :)?).

So.... even though the particles all have the same rate of decay regardless of speed, the faster ones take longer to decay ... proving that time can be distorted.

We all experience the same thing when we get on an aeroplane, although we are flying at say 500 mph, because of the earth's rotation, and the distance above the earth, we are actually travelling faster, so time is slowed down, and yes... clocks on aeroplanes go slower than on the ground!

Conclusion... most of us have been time travellers without knowing it!!!

EDIT
I just checked the figures... this might make it more simple.

You stand on the ground at 12 midday with a clock.

You watch an aeroplane travelling at 95% of the speed of light (176,700 miles/second).

After an hour, when your clock reads 1pm the clock on the aeroplane would read 3.12pm.

Originally posted by Tony

I just checked the figures... this might make it more simple.

You stand on the ground at 12 midday with a clock.

You watch an aeroplane travelling at 95% of the speed of light (176,700 miles/second).

After an hour, when your clock reads 1pm the clock on the aeroplane would read 3.12pm.

doesn't that mean that time was travelling faster for the airplane? shouldn't it be going slower. Or have i got myself confused now?

Wow this stuff really works! I just spent 20 minutes trying to understand this thread and my brain has started to decay far more quickly than usual. Anyone got a spare paracetamol?

stephen hawkings recently said that time travel is now considered impossible. if it was possible then we would have had visitors from the future, end of subject.

Time is not separate from space - even though it seems like it. That is a function of our biology, not time.

Spacetime is a pretty bendy concept, but there is nothing that explicitly prevents time travel, other than common sense and the rather thorny paradoxes it throws up. Particlarly about changing the past and avoiding the future. This has been done to death in hollywood.

One of the routes that would circumvent these types of problems is the concept of temporal remote viewing, rather than actually transporting the whole body through time. Hence although we are probably under close scrutiny by future time travellers, we will never see any evidence of this - as it would irrevocably alter the future passage of events, and hence the time travellers might find themselves changed by the experience.

Originally posted by brooksy
stephen hawkings recently said that time travel is now considered impossible. if it was possible then we would have had visitors from the future, end of subject.
But if someone came to you and told you they were from the future they'd probably get sectioned. So if you were visiting from the future, it's unlikely you'd tell anyone, especially in a society which is still trying to work out if it's possible or not.

The reaction of Clara Clayton springs to mind.....