Back to the Future

cheerfulgreek · #1 04-29-2008, 11:12 AM

I was watching a "Back To The Future" marathon on tv, and me being me I'm always dissecting movies trying to find the realism in them, even if they are fiction. Well, I noticed in the original "Back To The Future" movie when Marty McFly prevents his parents from meeting in the way he knows they actually did. Consequently, his wallet photo starts to fade. So, if Marty was present in the past, he didn't prevent them from meeting because that's a fact recorded by the photo in his wallet. Couldn't "HE" have decided to prevent them from meeting? Although, the photo seems to prove that "HE" didn't make that decision, isn't he free to change his decision once he's travelled back in time? I'm thinking a world with travel into the past would obey different laws to the ones we've discovered so far. Of course, travelling into the past isn't possible. If it was, it would be a landmark development in physics.

What about the future? Can we expect to do serious time travel in the forseeable future? After all you can buy a 10 day trip to the International Space Station for about 20 million dollars, which gives you a third of a millisecond of time travel into the future.

Seriously, time travel into the future would have to be possible with the right speed, wouldn't it? Does anyone remember in 1987 and 1988 when the two Russian cosmonauts spent a year in the Mir Space Station? Well, when they returned back to earth they had aged less than their colleagues who stayed home. I mean, it was only a few milliseconds, but it was still time travel into the Earth's future. Right? Of course they wouldn't have noticed it, but I'm sure they could have easily measured it with accurate clocks.

RU OX Alum · #2 04-29-2008, 12:18 PM

that's interesting, you make good points

I think time travel is possible, but not into the past or the future as they relate to events, only in time/space itself. For example: You could say, by going really fast around the earth backwards (superman rules) probaply "go back" in time, meaning physichally the world will be less old when you land, but "the past" won't be able to be redone. In other words, what's already happened will forever have already happened, but it could be possible that it happened sooner than it did. Or could be manipulated to be sooner.

That's why I think going forward in time is more interesting. You'll still be your same age now like 1,000 years from now (futurama rules) but you wouldn't be able to bring back stock quotes or anything to get rich or maybe you could but that would depend on everything that was going to happen happening anyway, because even if it were possible to navigate into the future timelines of the human experience, you would only see one possible future based on one possible timeline that could easily be thrown off by you simply being there.

Tom Earp · #3 04-29-2008, 02:02 PM

LOL, that is why I loved the Star Trek shows, they could do both ways!

It basically breaking down the human molecular structure and sending on beam impulses and then restructuring at the final destination!

Will be done one day, well that will be interesting but way after I am gone!

cheerfulgreek · #4 04-30-2008, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

LOL, that is why I loved the Star Trek shows, they could do both ways!

It basically breaking down the human molecular structure and sending on beam impulses and then restructuring at the final destination!

Will be done one day, well that will be interesting but way after I am gone!

I can't think of the room they could go to on Star Trek The Next Generation. It was some kind of virtual reality room where everything was real. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? I wish we had that now.

SigKapSweetie · #5 04-30-2008, 12:49 PM

Holodeck.

I took a class in college that dealt heavily with theoretical time-travel. It was a three-hour block once a week, and every time I left the classroom I thought my head was going to explode.

Tom Earp · #6 04-30-2008, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

I can't think of the room they could go to on Star Trek The Next Generation. It was some kind of virtual reality room where everything was real. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? I wish we had that now.

Don't know the room name, but, didn't they do this on the original show or were they just transported?

cheerfulgreek · #7 05-01-2008, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SigKapSweetie

Holodeck.

I took a class in college that dealt heavily with theoretical time-travel. It was a three-hour block once a week, and every time I left the classroom I thought my head was going to explode.

Yep! That's it! The Holodeck.

cheerfulgreek · #8 05-01-2008, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

Don't know the room name, but, didn't they do this on the original show or were they just transported?

I think on the original show they were just transported. I really didn't get into the original show. Their space suits were laughable.

Senusret I · #9 05-01-2008, 08:00 AM

While I don't think that time travel is possible, I do kinda sorta believe in the "sliders" theory that there are infinite realities out there and it's *possible* to traverse them.

I guess I am more inclined to believe this because traveling sideways wouldn't create the same paradox that traveling backward or forward would.

I'm weird.

RU OX Alum · #10 05-01-2008, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senusret I

While I don't think that time travel is possible, I do kinda sorta believe in the "sliders" theory that there are infinite realities out there and it's *possible* to traverse them.

I guess I am more inclined to believe this because traveling sideways wouldn't create the same paradox that traveling backward or forward would.

I'm weird.

Please see above re: backward and forward. It wouldn't really be the past/future. No events would change. Just when they did, and that would be in relation to each other.

How would you move sideways?

Leslie Anne · #11 05-01-2008, 09:50 AM

I would love to move sideways! The thing is that you would need a different past, wouldn't you?

Tom Earp · #12 05-01-2008, 01:09 PM

But, wasn't it true that if one changed time in the past, it could change the whole future?

Ronnie B · #13 05-01-2008, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

But, wasn't it true that if one changed time in the past, it could change the whole future?

A good movie to check out is "The final countdown." It's about this present day aircraft carrier that goes through a time warp back to December 1941. Basically the present day Navy has to decide rather to prevent the Pearl Harbor attack or let it happen to keep from changing history. It was tight. Y'all oughta check it out.

cheerfulgreek · #14 05-02-2008, 01:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RU OX Alum

Please see above re: backward and forward. It wouldn't really be the past/future. No events would change. Just when they did, and that would be in relation to each other.

How would you move sideways?

I was confused by this too.

Well, time travel is actually possible, but just not in the way people are looking at it. It would depend on the rate of speed. Light speed, which isn't possible right now and won't be in our life time.