Another Time Travel Wonderment.

[flobadob]

This is following on from a question last week I asked about time travel to the past? One of the main things brought up was if it was possible then we would have loads of time travelling tourists. However I'm just thinking here that humans have only been about for a few thousand years out of billions at the moment, so who is to say that in another billion years time travel could not become possible but the time travellers have simply not travelled to our moment of time. For example if I presented you with a time machine, to when would you travel? One million years ago, two million? You'd miss a lot between both dates.

[dotty.]

well, have you never heard someone comment about a child that they have 'been here before' ? Maybe that is how the time travellers of the future get here, by some genetic DNA type strand

[Calibax]

I have read an argument that time travel may require a time machine at either end of the journey and that as such time travel is not possible to a point prior to when the first time maching is invented.
Personally, I do not believe that time travel into the past is possible at all despite the fact that physical laws as we know them do not preclude it.

[jno]

but then again in another billion years how many humans will there be? They'd be swamping us by now. In fact I suspect Dot is one.

Have you read this great short story?

http://en.wikipedia.o...et%27s_go_to_Golgotha

[dotty.]

wot? a human?

[jno]

a future human, Dot, from an era when people have become super-intelligent

[ludwig]

That's an interesting story jno - trouble is having read that summary I now have no reason to read the actual story as I've seen the punch line.

[Huderon]

John Wyndham did an amusing take on the idea of time travelling tourists in s short story called Pawley's Peepholes. Now where did I put that book ?

[jno]

that's true, ludwig - with science fiction stories especially, the plot is often the main reason for reading it; even an outline of the plot can be a spoiler. Sorry about that

[ABerrant]

Spoiler schmoiler, here's another...

http://en.wikipedia.o...s_Excellent_Adventure

[ludwig]

There's one I remember reading at school on the same 'time tourist' theme, where a bloke is sent back to prehistoric dinosaur type times and they're told that they must on no account stray from the specially constructed path or interfere with the environment in any way. (He's sent to a rainforest type place.)

Obviously he does for some reason - steps off the path by accident I think. Anyway when he gets back to the future, things are slightly different - the language is slightly different, the people look slightly different, etc etc - the punchline to that one is that he discovers a butterfly on the sole of his shoe, and stomping on it when he stepped off the path was enough to make everything slightly different in the future.
Any sci-fi buffs out there know the name of that one?

[jno]

was it A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury? I won't give you any links...

[jake-the-peg]

Yes I remeber that story - particularly because it's commonly confused with the so called "butterfly effect".

There are a number of possibilities that would preclude time travelling tourists - firstly as pointed out the notion that you might need a machine at either end.

Secondly as I mentioned the other day you might lose memories as you travelled backwards in time in relation to the date.

However I think the most likely is that it's just impractical for a human to travel backwards in time the sorts of energies we're talking about and constructs like black holes make me think it's likely not to be survivable.

However I wouldn't be quite so certain that a signal couldn't travel backwards in time. We have already pitted Einstein against quantum mechanics (google EPR paradox) and Einstein lost.

On balance I wouldn't bet the farm on it being possible but I certainly wouldn't disregard the possibility

[ludwig]

jno - yes that's the one thanks. I knew it was by one of the more famous SF writers, but couldn't remember which one.

[jomifl]

If you could travel back in time, where would you expect to travel to? If you travelled back 1 hour the earth would have rotated, moved on its orbit around the sun and the sun and planets would have moved through space. You could end up inside the earth, in space or inside the sun or elswhere.. Perhaps there are a lot of time tourists floating around in space dried up to a crisp clutching an unused return ticket...

[jomifl]

Was 'Pawley's Peepholes' thje story about the discovery of 'dinochicken'?

[flobadob]

Butch there's only been 16, well 17 including this one. When somethings has happened, it's happened and it ain't rehappening, methinks.

[webbo3]

this is a good book, it takes you back to the time of great events from a reports point of view.

http://www.amazon.co....n-Carey/dp/0571141633


Dave.

[Scorpion74]

Maybe we don't have "loads of time travelling tourists" because this time we're in now is viewed as being so awful by future humans that no one wants to come. It's a bit like no one wants to go to Afghanistan or Wales for a holiday now.