Hawking believes time travel possible

[Totenkopf]

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...est=latestnews

thoughts?

[True_Avery]

His point is absolutely valid, but I'm not entirely sure I'd call it "time travel". I'd call it someone more like, subjective time acceleration or something. You can't really skip forward or backwards in time as much as you are working a sort of loophole in physics regarding speed and distance... Well, I guess that is sort of time travel.

The real question is how you build something capable of going that close to the speed of light that is bigger than a single atom, and capable of sustaining that speed and workability for upwards of 50+ years.

[Samuel Dravis]

It sounds like he's just talking about time dilation. Is it just me or is that not really "startling"? It's been 95 years since Einstein, after all, and every sci-fi writer who ever lived has used time dilation in their stories. People should be used to it by now. If we say that is "time travel" then everyone should believe in time travel. Really it would be startling to find someone who didn't-- somewhat like finding someone who didn't believe gravity's effect existed, or something equally, mindbendingly, incomprehensible.

[True_Avery]

Originally Posted by Samuel Dravis

It sounds like he's just talking about time dilation. Is it just me or is that not really "startling"? It's been 95 years since Einstein, after all, and every sci-fi writer who ever lived has used time dilation in their stories. People should be used to it by now. If we say that is "time travel" then everyone should believe in time travel. Really it would be startling to find someone who didn't-- somewhat like finding someone who didn't believe gravity's effect existed, or something equally, mindbendingly, incomprehensible.

Ah, yes, that is the word I'm looking for. Time Dilation. Still, I think what Time Dilation and Time Travel are usually considered as being by the average person are different. I assume most people think "Back to the Future" or "Terminator" when Time Travel is brought up.

[Samuel Dravis]

Originally Posted by True_Avery

Ah, yes, that is the word I'm looking for. Time Dilation. Still, I think what Time Dilation and Time Travel are usually considered as being by the average person are different. I assume most people think "Back to the Future" or "Terminator" when Time Travel is brought up.

I agree, it's not time travel. I tend to think the author of the article spiced the title up to get eyeballs. As it is, I don't think Hawking is going to be labelled as a kook for talking about easily observable relativistic effects...

[Arcesious]

To the future, not the past. It is physically impossible, even with the time distorting effect of a black hole, for time to go backwards. Black holes could only slow you down (dilation) to an extremely slow pace. (As far as I know. It would be cool if it were discovered to work both ways.) Hypothetically you could use a black hole to pass time whilst the rest of the universe around you appears to go go into fast forward.

I just saw Hawking's show on Discovery channel, too... It's really dumbed down for the masses, which was disappointing. The only thing I really learned was that a quasar does almost the same thing as a gamma ray burst.

The optimism was sorely unrealistic, though I admire his strong sense of hope. I think he was going for the 'Carl Sagan effect', though it came off as unrealistic, and was so dumbed down that it didn't say nearly enough. Its flashy and cool, and at the heart of it, it was ultimately made this way to get a lot of people to watch it and appease the almighty ratings gods. I respect and admire Steven Hawking, but this was kind of disappointing.

[LordOfTheFish]

Originally Posted by Thread

Hawking believes time travel possible

Hawking believes everything

I'm beginning to wonder if he's so smart, he's dumb.

[Fredi]

I knew about the theory, so I'm not surprised. But I do believed it should not be called "Time Travel", it should be named differently so that it doesn't cause confusion.

[Tommycat]

Assuming one could travel faster than light(not currently possible at our understanding level) it would be possible to view events in the past. But actual travel through time? Well the whole Back to the Future kind is the least plausible. "Why?" you ask? As we travel through time at our normal 1:1 ratio, the Earth travels around the sun at around 67,000 MPHwhile rotating at approximately 1000MPH. So popping out of time into the same location 24 hours away would leave you about 1.6 MILLION miles away. Then we factor in the speed of the sun around the galaxy. Then the relative movement of the galaxy in the Universe, and you can bet that you'd be a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNN NNNG way from a gas station.

Violating causality would be the least of your worries when you find yourself floating in space in a Delorian.

[Prime]

Of course time travel is possible. How else do you explain me being here?

[Salzella]

Originally Posted by LordOfTheFish

Hawking believes everything

I'm beginning to wonder if he's so smart, he's dumb.

I'm starting to wonder if you have a clue about what he actually believes, particularly since you were apparently too lazy to actually a) read the article or b) look at the rest of the posts in the thread.

[Blix]

Time travel has always been possible; you just need a Delorean and a Flux Capacitator.

[Shem]

Oh, great! My secret to how I got to this time period is soon to be exposed.

[Astrotoy7]

Hawking needs to stop thinking about the cosmos/shagging his nurse and get one of these - so much cooler than the Davros-seque chair.

YouTube Video

mtfbwya

[True_Avery]

We can't let the Japanese build Iron Man first >:O

[TKA-001]

Time travel would be like the European colonists arriving in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans at all. We should try to make sure that no one develops any such technology.

[Tommycat]

Here you go TA
Courtesy Raytheon SARCOS

YouTube Video

[Fredi]

It's funny to think: People from the past are going to come to the future.

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

suck it ms frizzle i told you so

[LordOfTheFish]

Originally Posted by Salzella

I'm starting to wonder if you have a clue about what he actually believes, particularly since you were apparently too lazy to actually a) read the article or b) look at the rest of the posts in the thread.

I read both the article and post.

Originally Posted by Fredi

It's funny to think: People from the past are going to come to the future.

Ok I'm going to pretend I believe this for the purpose of conversation.

It seems like to me that if it isn't possible to return to the past than there isn't really a past at all. And if we were to travel into the future we wouldn't find our future selves there. Time sort of erases it self I guess is what I'm saying.

[True_Avery]

Except this isn't "time travel". This is perfectly sound science at heart based on the theory of relativity. Time dilation is not "going into the future". You aren't skipping into dimensions like Terminator or Back to the Future; you're going at such an incredible speed that perceived time is slowed. Essentially you're pressing the fast forward button in a bubble going near the speed of light. Time dilation would make it possible for passengers in a fast-moving vehicle to travel further into the future while aging very little, in that their great speed slows down the rate of passage of on-board time. There is no future self for you to find because you are you.

The part to call him out on isn't so much the concept, but how anything the size of a ship could ever get that close to the speed of light. As of what we know now, it isn't physically possible to go faster.

It is primarily why things like Mass Effect and Star Wars have a mumbo jumbo science shield that keeps them locked in time while they travel, otherwise Han Solo would make a jump and, on the other side, several thousand years may have passed.

That aside, regarding his theory on wormholes: its a crap shot at what wormholes are. I'll reserve judgment on that particular piece of theory when I have a basic understanding of what the hell he's talking about.

[deathdisco]

Originally Posted by True_Avery

It is primarily why things like Mass Effect and Star Wars have a mumbo jumbo science shield that keeps them locked in time while they travel, otherwise Han Solo would make a jump and, on the other side, several thousand years may have passed.

Or they use a "Warp drive".