So there is this theory...

Scientifically we are told that the further away something is, the further back in time we are seeing, when we see the stars, some of those that we see no longer exist. Dead and dust many centuries ago, but because of the speed of light over distance, we are still seeing them as though their presence is still in existence. Even our own sun, if the sun was to "die" then we wouldn't know for at least 8 minutes.

I remember being told in a lecture once, that if you moved away from the Earth at a fast enough speed you would be able to pick up radio transmissions from the 1950's.

If we can hear back in time and even hypothetically see back in time, then is it possible that maybe time travel is actually possible to some extent?​

 

Well that sounds very reasonable, so I guess it's true.
It all makes good sense so I don't see why not.
And it's kinda cool :imslow:

 

Well listening to the radio from 50 years ago like that isn't time travel. its more like catching up with the past if that makes any sence at all.

 

Sure it makes sense ^^ but I wasn't saying that picking up those transmissions was the time travel xD

That is like saying that when we se "into" the past by looking at things over a great distance, that it is also just catching up with the past.

What I ask is that, if we can "see" and even in some cases "hear" the past then maybe there is a chance we could use that, develop that idea, maybe we can take it further?

As a side point, surely even hearing those radio transmissions and seeing those things is a form of time travel? To see and hear them as they were unaltered by modern day?​

 

Interesting point. The only problem is, time is a dimension. As in, we exist in 4D really. We have length, breadth, depth and we exist through a certain 'distance' of time. Bleh, this is all awkward and confusing.

You are right about when you look at the night sky (or even the sky during the day) you are technically looking into the past. Light (and all electromagnetic waves for that matter) only go so fast (3.00x10^8 m/s) and as the distances in space are so (pardon the pun) astronomical that light can take years to travel from place to place. The term lightyear means the distance light travels in a year and even then some solar systems are thousands of light years away.

It also isn't possible to travel at the speed of light. Scientists tend to measure speeds reached as fractions of c i.e. the speed of light.

But, as you get closer to the speed of light time starts to dilate. This means that time for you seems to pass normally, but time is going by faster for the observer. This means that if you accelerated constantly for a long period of time a year could pass for you but on Earth ten years would have passed. This makes it possible to 'travel' into the future.

But I'd say travelling into the past would be impossible. It would require alternate universes to exist as if you went back in time you would be creating new universes in the form of new futures.

Gah, I hate time paradoxes x.x

PS As others posted before I got this finished >_> Everything is constantly time travelling, but yes the radio waves would have travelled through time and ended up travelling far into the future (technically).

If you are interested there is a theory that it is possible to communicate with the past using the interaction of particles from the past and future. It says that if you recorded a photon hitting an atom you would see the photon travel from one point and hitting the atom. If you played that in reverse you would see the atom emitting a photon which would then travel to a point. This theory states that these so-called 'hand-shakes' where these events meet hold the universe together.

It also says that if you were able to alter the particles minutely then the changes between what you would expect to happen and what actually does happen could be noted and translated to create a message.

 

Yeah,i see your point...But i think that the interesting part about this theory is if we can step in the future when reaching the speed and direction needed.THAT would be cool!^^

@Bunterx:I read your theory and yes,you got some points there.But since i'm a science freak myself (XD) if you read anything that einstein used to say , you'll see that when an object reaches the speed of light,it's volume is infinite.The only wonder is if there are the wormholes,that einstein mentioned,where speed doesn't play a role.If they do exist,an object can reach a high enough speed for time travel.


300 post !!!Woo-hoo!

 

wow, i never heard of that, i would think that the radio waves would've worn off by now tho but i'm no expert so i can't say for sure. very intersting tho, i've never heard of this before, being able to hear radio broadcasts from years ago if you leave the earth. i guess it's somewhat plausible if the waves move away from Earth. but Time Travel on the otherhand, i would have to say no there simply becuz the only reason we would be able to hear broadcasts from years ago is becuz of the waves from the radio but time emits no such thing we can follow (at least as far as we know). but NICE topic, thx for the share

 

The only time travel theory that is possible is the multiple history theory, which has nothing to do with light.

To get an understanding of the theory, go here.

 

Maybe that is all that is possible right now, but what about in the future? Should we have to restrict our thinking to the present technology? If we did that then surely we would never advance anywhere?


Hmmm I have read that before xD ​

 

I agree with Mirai on this one for the most part. Even if we could time travel using 'light' it would be future travel, to back to a future moment in our time. I don't buy that we can go into the past as there is no evidence at all to really support it at this time. Radio communications and Light go forward, not backwards. Sure, the light we see comes from the 'past' of a star, but when that star emitted it, it was its present time. So really, there is nothing going back in time at all. This is the same with radio waves too.

 

Well, as Bunterx said in detail, we can somewhat move into the future by traveling at great speeds but as of right now we cannot go back into the past although as you said we tecinicaly 'see' and in some cases 'hear' the past.

:/ my sister and I where just talking about this last summer acctualy, she was explaining why exactly we could move forward but not back, darn I wish I remember what she said. Well whatever she said it was something like it is physicaly impossible to travel back in time no matter how advanced our tecnology gets.

 

I think that it should be possible to go back in time this way.In fact if we were able to go back in time If the Sun did go out,You just need to send ships with the people of earth back in time and improve the world and they could keep going back in time until the people figure how to preserve the sun or maybe even the universe.The only thing would be the affect on the past.People would have Technology that mightn't be discovered for 1,000,000 years.what affect would it have on the timeline?Would it destroy the timeline or rip into two seperate timelines?Imagine being able to stop the "Big Crush"?I've found that what you'd said is a Great input to Intelligent Discussion.

 

Even if time travel to the past was possible, anything that was changed would have already been done. Meaning it is impossible to change your future as you have already done it. Kinda brings the concept of fate into the mix =/.

Future time travel has always existed, why I'm doing it right now as I type :P

 

if only time travel was like cartoons where superman flies around the world backwards really fast and time goes back... but if we were to REALLY travel BACK in time, wouldnt we need some sort of super high-tech laser that alters the fabric of time itself? other then that i dont see how we could "see" or "hear" past events... *coughbesidesmagiccough*

 

When you fly around the world in an aeroplane your watch and other time keeping devices will be a tiny tiny fraction of a second behind what they should be when you get back to where you started. But we are talking nano-seconds here (x10^-9) so you wouldn't notice.

Ugh, that was barely even related >_>

 

Of course time travel will be possible some day but that's far from now. And one more thing I wanna add. If you go away from Earth at 1 lightyear for 6 months and come back in 6 more months the people on Earth will have aged more then one year when you have only been gone for one. And they proved this type of theory where a high speed jet travels a distance and a clock is on the jet and one on the landing area. They we're only billionths of a second difference but it still shows that with an increase of speed the slower time passes.

 

>_> I just said that in my previous post.

Also, a lightyear is a distance i.e. the distance light travels in a year. I'm not sure what quantity you were using it as there =/