Why Time-Travel Is Ridiculous
Time-travel is a concept that millions of people have pondered for generations. Many of these people, some of them supposedly intelligent scientists, imagine that time travel may actually be possible for us at some future point. As I tried to think of a clever title for this article, all I could come up with kept involving the word "stupid". OK, I admit that the word "dumb" also came to mind. But then, to be kind, I simply chose the title you see before you. Perhaps I can persuade you to see why.
First of all, if you've read any science fiction novels or watched any movies regarding time travel, there exists one glaring problem that is indeed often mentioned in the story line itself...that it would be very dangerous for you to travel back in time. For example, let's say you went back and visited your great-grandfather when he was a boy, and then by some freak accident you killed him, then it obviously follows that you will never be born, and you would consequently never get the chance to go back in time. You would cease to exist. For this reason, "scientists" say time travel into the past may be impossible or at the very least should be forbidden. After all, imagine how different our lives would be if some time-traveling terrorist ever went back in time and assassinated Thomas Edison or someone else of equal scientific and technological importance. Or, what if some do-gooder time-traveling idiot from the year 2150 or so decides to go back in time to the 1940's and prevents our country from creating the atomic bomb? Then many of us here wouldn't exist and those who were left here would be speaking Japanese. Actually, changing just the slightest thing in the past could have world changing effects. As you can see, just thinking about time-travel into the past can make you crazy. We can call this particular time-travel difficulty "the problem of the paradox".
Secondly, if that problem wasn't enough to make you realize that time-travel is stupid, then I want you to consider it from an angle that most people miss altogether. Let's call it "the problem of location". Think about where you are right at this moment. You are probably sitting in a chair, at a desk, in front of a computer, perhaps on the 14th floor of a high-rise condominium. If you could enter a "time-machine" in your room, and go back in time 200 years, your high-rise condo wouldn't exist and you'd be falling about 140 feet to the earth where your body would make an awful thudding sound as it bounced.
Actually, what I just described is not even close to the truth. You see, even if you were now sitting safely on the ground somewhere on the equator, and could somehow travel back in time just one hour, you would no longer be sitting in the same location...you would be sitting roughly 1000 miles away due to the fact that the earth's surface, where you were sitting at the equator, has moved. You see, the earth is rotating at 1000 mph, or 25,000 miles per day, corresponding to the circumference of the earth. That is about the speed of a bullet leaving the muzzle of a weapon.
However, I'm afraid the truth gets even worse. You see, while the surface of the earth is spinning at 1000 mph around its center, the entire earth along with its center is also rocketing along at 66,000 mph as it speeds in its orbit around the sun. So then, if you were able to simply travel back in time one hour, you would find yourself floating (or exploding) in outer space, thousands of miles away from the earth, and without a spacesuit!
Finally, to continue on with this illustration, if you were also to take into consideration the speed of the sun revolving around our Milky Way galaxy (483,000 mph), as well as the estimated speed of our galaxy moving away from the center of the supposed big-bang billions of years ago (1.3 million mph), then in order to travel back in time just 21.5 days, you would also have to somehow relocate yourself approximately 670 million miles back in just the perfect direction to find yourself still sitting somewhere on the earth at that particuler time. By the way, it would only take you about an hour, traveling at the speed of light, to go that far. Now imagine how this problem multiplies itself if one desires to travel several years into the past. Obviously, this problem also rears its ugly head if you are thinking about traveling into the future. Therefore, I conclude that any time spent on seriously trying to figure out how to travel in time, is not only dumb, but truly is a waste of time. Simply traveling to the nearest mall in the present can be quite challenging enough for most of us.
-nOFuTuRe
That's pretty much what I've thought about the topic for several years now, though you provided a great deal more in calculations than I had ever pondered.
Besides the paradox and the physics of it, there is a serious moral question. People assume that if time were altered they would still somehow exist. We are totally contingent beings. My parents chose to have me, and the exact sperm cell that reached the egg to conceive me would quite possibly not get there first on a second go-around if anything in body chemistry or timing were slightly different. I thus wouldn't have to kill my grandfather to destroy myself, and my very presence in the past would cause thousands and then perhaps millions (depending on how far into the future from that point I came) to not be conceived, and thousands or millions would be born in their place.
God is the only non-contingent being. The rest of us are contingent, dependent on certain factors, randomness and free will for our existence.
Excellent post. Glad I found your blog.
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Adam,
Thanks for leaving your comment. While my blog is read by many new people daily, only a few take the time to make a comment, so I appreciate the feedback. Time travel is impossible on many levels, but the world has been so conditioned by popular fiction books and movies, that people almost take it as a fact that time travel will one day even be commonplace, as we eventually develop the technology for it. Most people seem very willing to believe anything but the truth.
God bless!
-nOFuTuRe
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Good stuff. I hadn't considered all of the spacial problems with it either.
Nice work.
ASA
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Asa,
Glad you enjoyed it!
nOFuTuRe
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Earlier today this exact theory came to me while in the shower. As soon as I got a chance I typed ""time travel" orbit around sun" into Google, and found your blog. I've always fantasized about time travel but then this thought struck me! Why don't people ever bring up this problem when talking about time travel!
I wonder if anyone was ever asked Ronald Mallett what he thinks of this..
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Hi Dave,
Nice to hear from you. Most people in the world blindly believe whatever they've been told, or just believe whatever they want to believe. Very few people seem to desire to know the truth about anything these days, especially if it contradicts some idea they've either clung to or lived by over the years. Critical thinking is a lost art, fantasy rules in its place. Have a great day!
-nOFuTuRe
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Oh noooo! I only wanted to rewrite that homework assignment from two days ago, but I time traveled into a blackhooooole.. *phhwunk*
haha. Except you can't hear the *phwunk* unless you are inside the "event horizon"...or something...
Another problem with time travel (in my opinion) is that time may not be a "thing" that we are in. Time may be a mental framework or concept rather than a mysterious hallway that you can be "in" or out" of. What do you think? Maybe time is just the conceptual measurement of changes. You can't "travel" through something that don't exist outside your mind.
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I feel the same way. Time is just man's way of measuring the relative movement of objects in the "eternal now".
-nOFuTuRe
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Thank god, someone else who finds time travel ridiculous.
It just makes no sense to me. There IS NO CONCRETE PAST OR FUTURE TO TRAVEL TO. Past and future only exist in our mind in the form of memories and expectations. Each moment in a person's life simply evolves into a new moment, continuously changing.
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The way I see it, time doesn't exist at all....there is basically only matter and motion, and they manifest themselves in an enduring moment we call the "now"...
-nOFuTuRe
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I have been saying the same thing for years. Time does not exist. It is simply a unit of measurement the same as the inches on a tape measure. just b/c you measure a board with a tape measure does not mean that the board and the tape measure are related or connected in any way. The same can be said of space and time. They are not related in any way. Time is simply a means of measurement. The problems with time travel are endless and a complete waste of time to try and solve b/c time travel will never be possible.
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Hi Aaron,
I appreciate you taking a few minutes to make a comment. I like what you mentioned about the tape measure and the length of a board. It got me thinking. An inch, like a minute, does not really exist, it's just a convenient concept that helps us deal with the world around us, enabling us to "measure" space. But does this mean that both space and time do not actually exist? Some people heve argued that even matter doesn't exist, just energy in various forms or frequencies. I really enjoy pondering these mysteries and often have a good laugh at what is fed to us as "science" by the media and establishment "experts". I believe the "truth" throughout history has always proved to be both logical and coherent, not paradoxical nonsense, even if it seems counter-intuitive at first. Anyway, thanks again for checking in here.
-nOFuTuRe
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no future, c'mon man, if time travel was not possible WE MIGHT BE speaking japanese. Whos to say Enstein wasn't from the future and forged all his birth and citizenship documents. He could have traveled back and with all his knowledge and developed the a bomb. You sit here and say that all the things are the way they are but whos to say they aren't that way because of a time traveler. you would never know. explain that to me.
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Hi Scott, thanks for stopping by. But how do I know you are real? Who is to say you aren't an ape randomly tapping keys on your zookeeper's laptop, and just coincidentally commented on my webpage? Seriously, some things are theoretically "possible", but are really logically impossible. Keep thinking, though, it is always good to question, doubt, challenge, etc. Have a great day, and if you see Einstein walking around anywhere, please let me know!
-nOFuTuRe
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I read some of your posts and I learned a lot of knowledge from it. Thanks for posting such interesting articles.
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I don't agree with your theory here.
When we travel forwards in time at 1second per second, the Earth doesn't whiz away from under our feet.
If the flow of time then was reversed but still at 1second per second, why must it follow that the Earth would move but our position would be fixed?
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Hi Jim, thanks for taking the time to make a comment. I can appreciate the fact that you and others have differing views of what time is and how the universe works. No problem. When you said the earth doesn't whiz away under our feet as we travel forward in time at one second per second (real-time), I'm with you, but then you stated "If the flow of time were reversed", blah, blah, then you lost me. Time (or rather the universe) never reverses, everything just keeps on going forward, changing forms, but never reverses. Therefore, if you (alone) were somehow able to "go back in time" so to speak, even just one day, the earth would not be here, it would be thousands of miles away with the rest of our solar system. The universe only exists in the present, so if you leave the present, the universe leaves you behind. In order for you to go back in time and still be on the earth, you would have to cause the whole universe to reverse course and go back in time with you. Not gonna happen. Frankly, there is no past or future, so there is no other time but "the present" to travel to, and you are already here, and you will never leave it. So, enjoy the present moment, it is all you'll ever have. Anyway, that's my view of reality, and I'm pretty certain of it. Thanks again for commenting.
-nOFuTuRe
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There is proof of time travel. There is an excellent write up in this guy's blog: http://timetravelengineercomingout.blogspot.com/
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Hi Bruce,
Thanks for sharing that website. That was hilarious, great science fiction!
-nOFuTuRe
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Do you permit me if I linked your blog article on my facebook account?
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