The ability to jump forward and backwards in time has long fascinated science fiction writers and physicists alike. So is it really possible to travel into the past and the future?
The ability to jump forward and backwards in time has long fascinated science fiction writers and physicists alike. So is it really possible to travel into the past and the future?
15 Comments
bitsplease@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 2y
Tl;dr
Forward? Yes
Backward? Maybe (but probably not)
javasux@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
There's nothing in physics that says time can only flow in one direction.
It's just for consciousness to exist, it has to experience some type of linear time...
Other more basic stuff like electrons don't have a consciousness and could move back and forth. There's even a theory that every electron is just the same one looping forward and back through time
Pons_Aelius@kbin.social · 1 pts · 2y
True but every observation we have made seems to indicate that it does.
You are stating a universal truth from a data set of one. Em radiation, by virtue of the fact it moves at the speed of light cannot experience time as we understand it.
There may be a type of consciousness in our universe that is not time linear in nature. Though how we humans would interact or even recognise its existence is another question.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social · 1 pts · 2y
One of the things pondered in Arrival/Ted Chiang’s novella ‘The story of your life’
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
Because we're conscious...
None of this is stuff I thought of while taking a shit. They're both hypothesis from some of the smartest humans on the planet who have put a lot more than 10 minutes of thought into it.
Knusper@feddit.de · 2 pts · 2y
I'm no physicist, but this is such massive horseshit:
Imagine, you've got a printed photograph. You rip it in half and put each half into identical envelopes. You mix them up and send one of them to Australia.
Now you open the envelope you kept and see that it's the left half. Boom! Instantaneous knowledge that the envelope in Australia contains the right half. Faster than light!
As far as my understanding goes, this is all there is to quantum entanglement. But because it's quantum, everyone loses their minds over it.
marvus@kbin.social · 8 pts · 2y
To my understanding it's one step more, not only observation but interaction as well, manipulating one side of the entangled particles resulting in an instant (and similar/same) change on the other side as well. In fact even the observation is a form of interaction in this case that changes the state of the entangled system.
inkican@kbin.social · 3 pts · 2y
AKA 'Spooky action at a distance.'
bstix@feddit.dk · 4 pts · 2y
That's just a local "if" statement, where you assume something to be true based on local information.
You wouldn't actually know if a dingo ate the envelope unless you check it. The information to confirm your assumption is still in Australia.
RickRussell_CA@kbin.social · 3 pts · 2y
You're absolutely right. You're no physicist.
But seriously, for a practical example of "action at a distance", consider quantum key distribution.
DrYes@kbin.social · 2 pts · 2y
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chadorzel/2016/05/04/the-real-reasons-quantum-entanglement-doesnt-allow-faster-than-light-communication/
trolololol@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
That's the theory of hidden variables. It states that the truth is established once you seal the information inside and it's revealed once you open it.
Then there's the experiments of erasure, which disprove hidden variable theory.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_eraser_experiment
Pons_Aelius@kbin.social · 2 pts · 2y
In our universe there are several possibilities to slow the passage of time compared to an observer on earth. Namely travelling at a high percentage of the speed of light or existing in a high gravity field (close to the event horizon of a black hole) but there is no practical way to travel back and forwards in time
In your SF universe? Well, it is what ever you decide.
Damaskox@kbin.social · 1 pts · 2y
thinks about black holes as time portals