From: No name given (vampier@mac.com)
Date: Thu Feb 28 2002 - 07:09:51 MST
On Thursday, February 28, 2002, at 01:29 AM, Blunderov wrote:
> <snip>
>> /[Kalkor 1]I claim that the statement [quote](1) is a belief that could
> quite
>> possibly be overturned with the advent of time-travel, and so
>> therefore is
>> not acceptable to a person with the virtue of "vision".[/quote]
>> suggests a
>> postulate which is not currently falsifiable,
>
> [Blunderov nods and naively wonders]
>
> How could time-travel ever be possible?
Clearly you have not watched enough science fiction shows.
> Assuming that "time-travel" would
> include being able to visually perceive a past event (that occurred
> more or
> less in one's own location) then:
>
> Photons reflecting off an event would recede from that event at the
> speed of
> light, necessitating faster-than light-speed travel to be able to
> reach a
> point where at least some of these photons could be re-perceived, or
> reflected back to the observer. Some means of distinguishing between
> relevant and irrelevant photons would be necessary.
By "time-travel" I mean the ability to transmit information backwards in
time - as the tachyon particles allegedly might.
> Time is a function of events. In order to "go back in time" all events
> after
> that particular time would have to be cancelled and then recreated
> exactly.
We can have many paradigms of what could/might be.
> But this would be impossible because the act of "going back in time"
> would
> have made a difference to the sequence of events that follows.
There might be alternate time-lines.
Or, it could be (such as in the "Back To The Future" movies) that all
time-travel has already occurred and won't affect what changed.
By one conjecture of how the universe (multiverse?) exists, every
possibility is constantly causing multiple branches at every instant
(resulting in multiple "universes"). By this, time-travel only creates a
link to another possible universe.
> It seems to me that "time-travel" is both physically and logically
> impossible.
>
> Surely?
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreampt of in your philosophy." - Hamlet
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