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I always daydream about what it'd be like to go back and correct things in my past. To be able to transport back to high school, for example, to do it all over again knowing what I know now. While it sounds like a worthwhile idea, I think I've discovered it's faults if it were possible.
I came to realize that with my present knowledge, I'd know what to invest in, what to bet on and which path to follow but also that my personality would totally jeopardize my life.
For example, I'd become arrogant in the fact that I'd know more than those around me, become more savvy in things like politics, history and all around lifestyles. I'm sure that you'd be doomed to a life in misery and loneliness in your knowledge.
These thoughts also led me onto the idea that maybe that time when I was electricuted in my basement, perhaps I died in that reality and in this, I lived and that life if a tree of choices. Maybe there are several paths that fork and we have several branches that we simultaneously go in.
Pfft, maybe I just need to smoke a bowl.
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Time Travel Good or bad?
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#2
- Amazon Bush Woman
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- Joined: 27-October 03
Posted 28 June 2009 - 07:10 AM
Time travel to fix the mistakes of our pasts always does sound good, and for my part, I'd skip on it. I've come to realize and accept that without those "mistakes" I wouldn't have the present life that I do.
Although, time traveling to historic events as an observer would be pretty damn cool.
Although, time traveling to historic events as an observer would be pretty damn cool.
#3
Posted 02 July 2009 - 01:08 AM
ElChevelle, on Jun 27 2009, 05:14 PM, said:
Pfft, maybe I just need to smoke a bowl.
Maybe you already did. :P
On a more serious note, I'm at that age now where I'm looking back on my life seeing a lot of things that could have been done differently. For me it started around thirty-five, when my priorities really started to shift from those of a younger man. I think the idea of going back to make things easier or better is sometimes appealing, but even if it were possible would probably be kind of pointless. You'd probably just end up as an adult with other problems you didn't foresee.
Besides , do you think 25 year old Chev or Sandman, cocky young bastards they were, would appreciate or even want anything we might have to offer 'em?
This post has been edited by Sandman2012: 02 July 2009 - 06:04 PM
#5
- I'ma dance!
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- Joined: 15-August 03
Posted 02 July 2009 - 08:23 AM
I would probably pass on the opportunity to go back and fix my mistakes because you could alter so much of your future, you really wouldn't know what you would be coming back to. You could quite possibly come back to the present and you'd be in a much worse situation than what you were originally in to begin with. On another note, you were commenting on the different paths on the tree, a lot of physicists and the like theorize that there are multiple universes and that in each universe, there is an exact copy of you, but that copy went down a different road than you. For example, in one universe your copy Chev, died from the accident in the basement. Another copy of you could be like the President, another could be a wealthy entrepreneur, etc. It's a pretty crazy theory, but a pretty cool one at the same time.
#6
Posted 02 July 2009 - 02:40 PM
ok, here we go...
1. Time travel is impossible - because if you went back in time even 1 second you would change things enough on a molecular level so the circumstances that brought about the 'you' that went back in the first place would never be the same, therefore making it impossible for that particular person to go back in time. The exaggerated version is that if you went back and made your dad wear a condom you wouldn't be born and couldn't have gone back in the first place. Your presence in the past destroys the future, and you along with it, so there's no future to travel back from and the time travel could never have happened.
I think that version is a little too strict. I like the following version:
2. Alternate causalities - You can go back in time, but the moment you arrive the past is set on a different path, and every difference compounds over time ala the butterfly effect. This creates an alternate space/time universe paralleling your original one, in which any changes you make affect only the second universe. You could return to your own time, which would have experienced only your departure and return. If you went back again you could only go back along your own timeline, only to spin off another chain of causality. You'd be able to go back to '99 and see the super bowl, but in that universe a decade after your arrival the super bowl will be played by two different teams than the ones you see on TV this fall. You could go back with the cure for cancer and the secret to everlasting life but only that universe would be changed by that knowledge, not your own. You could go back and give yourself advice but you'd only be changing that older (newer) version of you.
2-A in this version you could return to whatever universe you created whenever you want, either before your arrival or afterward, each spinning off another universe.
3. Infinite universes - The inherent randomness of quantum uncertainty creates a parallel universe for every random occurrence at the quantum level - every atom in the universe times each one of it's quarks and mesons and gluons and bosons times their choices of spin every instant. Lots of universes! There could also be just a few universes blinking in and out just below the surface of ours, explaining the quantum uncertainty effects like the 'shining single photons through slits' experiment.
4. One universe only - you go back in time but then you're there. That's your present, and whatever you do will affect your future. Your future is destroyed and there's nothing to go back to, like all of existence was just a loop-the-loop to bring you back to your new time. Other time travelers will do the same thing, and maybe one will even go back and torch the primordial soup, stranding himself on a lifeless planet and killing the entire living surface of the earth with one m-80.
5. Unchangeable circumstances - You can go back in time, but whatever circumstances you change will actually bring about the exact conditions for you to go back. Kind of like #1, but since your time travel already happened there is nothing to prevent you going back. In this case time is bent around you, like you're a thread that is pulled out of the rope, stretched and twisted on itself, but you are still part of the rope. The present wouldn't be the same without your travel. All time travel back to before the present has already happened and when you go back you are just following through on what you already did. Nothing can stop your time travel either. If you meet your future self who has traveled back to meet you you can safely engage in whatever stupid stunts and dangerous, irresponsible behavior secure in the knowledge that you'll still be around when it's time for you to travel back through time.
6. Complete relativity - all actors or participants, be they time travelers, normal people, rocks or photons all exist in their own imaginary frame of reference. Whatever is for them just IS. There are no distinctions between universes, things just happen and the fabric of space time warps and twists and folds to accommodate. This is the shit happens version, and in the single universe shit just happens. If you go back in time you are still in the same universe, but you've bent everything around you to insert yourself at a different time-place. the Universe is resilient and doesn't care about a few atoms moving around, and the universe 'feels' time only as another dimension.
7. Completely impossible - The only way we know about to alter time is to move faster toward the speed of light (or be closer to the center of a gravitational field), and that only creates a localized differential, making time either move very fast for the rest of the universe or very slow for the spaceship, depending on who you ask. The energy required to accelerate mass to those speeds is ludicrous and subject to the law of diminishing returns - it takes more energy to go from 98% of the speed of light to 99% than it took to get from 0% to 98% (not sure about this math but the energy required to accelerate a mass asymptotically approaches infinity the closer you get to the speed of light). It's not a huge jump in logic (but a jump none the less) to assume that: because it takes such an enormous amount of energy to dilate space to slow down relative to an observer then it would take even more to break space and go back through time.
The only possibility under these restraints would be time dilation and would allow people not to travel through time, but to slow themselves down enough so that the future begins to happen around them, and when they return to a slower speed they will just be there in the future.
Some people think that you can create accelerating waves on which to surf through space and time, or fold space, or bend it together and slip through the pinch you create, but these things would require breakthroughs that we haven't made yet.
8. Breaking space-time - Some people think that stretching space time (like accelerating towards the speed of light) requires more energy than breaking it, like something that is hard to stretch or bend but will crack if you smack it just right with a hammer.
anyway, those are about all the versions of time travel I know about, either through science fiction or science fact or speculative theory. Anyone who is interested in this crap should really read 'a brief history of time' by the man, Stephen Hawking
1. Time travel is impossible - because if you went back in time even 1 second you would change things enough on a molecular level so the circumstances that brought about the 'you' that went back in the first place would never be the same, therefore making it impossible for that particular person to go back in time. The exaggerated version is that if you went back and made your dad wear a condom you wouldn't be born and couldn't have gone back in the first place. Your presence in the past destroys the future, and you along with it, so there's no future to travel back from and the time travel could never have happened.
I think that version is a little too strict. I like the following version:
2. Alternate causalities - You can go back in time, but the moment you arrive the past is set on a different path, and every difference compounds over time ala the butterfly effect. This creates an alternate space/time universe paralleling your original one, in which any changes you make affect only the second universe. You could return to your own time, which would have experienced only your departure and return. If you went back again you could only go back along your own timeline, only to spin off another chain of causality. You'd be able to go back to '99 and see the super bowl, but in that universe a decade after your arrival the super bowl will be played by two different teams than the ones you see on TV this fall. You could go back with the cure for cancer and the secret to everlasting life but only that universe would be changed by that knowledge, not your own. You could go back and give yourself advice but you'd only be changing that older (newer) version of you.
2-A in this version you could return to whatever universe you created whenever you want, either before your arrival or afterward, each spinning off another universe.
3. Infinite universes - The inherent randomness of quantum uncertainty creates a parallel universe for every random occurrence at the quantum level - every atom in the universe times each one of it's quarks and mesons and gluons and bosons times their choices of spin every instant. Lots of universes! There could also be just a few universes blinking in and out just below the surface of ours, explaining the quantum uncertainty effects like the 'shining single photons through slits' experiment.
4. One universe only - you go back in time but then you're there. That's your present, and whatever you do will affect your future. Your future is destroyed and there's nothing to go back to, like all of existence was just a loop-the-loop to bring you back to your new time. Other time travelers will do the same thing, and maybe one will even go back and torch the primordial soup, stranding himself on a lifeless planet and killing the entire living surface of the earth with one m-80.
5. Unchangeable circumstances - You can go back in time, but whatever circumstances you change will actually bring about the exact conditions for you to go back. Kind of like #1, but since your time travel already happened there is nothing to prevent you going back. In this case time is bent around you, like you're a thread that is pulled out of the rope, stretched and twisted on itself, but you are still part of the rope. The present wouldn't be the same without your travel. All time travel back to before the present has already happened and when you go back you are just following through on what you already did. Nothing can stop your time travel either. If you meet your future self who has traveled back to meet you you can safely engage in whatever stupid stunts and dangerous, irresponsible behavior secure in the knowledge that you'll still be around when it's time for you to travel back through time.
6. Complete relativity - all actors or participants, be they time travelers, normal people, rocks or photons all exist in their own imaginary frame of reference. Whatever is for them just IS. There are no distinctions between universes, things just happen and the fabric of space time warps and twists and folds to accommodate. This is the shit happens version, and in the single universe shit just happens. If you go back in time you are still in the same universe, but you've bent everything around you to insert yourself at a different time-place. the Universe is resilient and doesn't care about a few atoms moving around, and the universe 'feels' time only as another dimension.
7. Completely impossible - The only way we know about to alter time is to move faster toward the speed of light (or be closer to the center of a gravitational field), and that only creates a localized differential, making time either move very fast for the rest of the universe or very slow for the spaceship, depending on who you ask. The energy required to accelerate mass to those speeds is ludicrous and subject to the law of diminishing returns - it takes more energy to go from 98% of the speed of light to 99% than it took to get from 0% to 98% (not sure about this math but the energy required to accelerate a mass asymptotically approaches infinity the closer you get to the speed of light). It's not a huge jump in logic (but a jump none the less) to assume that: because it takes such an enormous amount of energy to dilate space to slow down relative to an observer then it would take even more to break space and go back through time.
The only possibility under these restraints would be time dilation and would allow people not to travel through time, but to slow themselves down enough so that the future begins to happen around them, and when they return to a slower speed they will just be there in the future.
Some people think that you can create accelerating waves on which to surf through space and time, or fold space, or bend it together and slip through the pinch you create, but these things would require breakthroughs that we haven't made yet.
8. Breaking space-time - Some people think that stretching space time (like accelerating towards the speed of light) requires more energy than breaking it, like something that is hard to stretch or bend but will crack if you smack it just right with a hammer.
anyway, those are about all the versions of time travel I know about, either through science fiction or science fact or speculative theory. Anyone who is interested in this crap should really read 'a brief history of time' by the man, Stephen Hawking
#8
- I'ma dance!
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Posted 03 July 2009 - 08:54 PM
I forgot to bring this up when I originally posted, but here goes. I was watching an episode of The Universe, and they were discussing things like time travel and the such. The thing that the physicists said was that if you did build a time machine, you couldn't go back to say, 1854, because the time machine wasn't invented back then. So basically, if there was no time machine in the time you want to go, you can't go there.
#11
Posted 29 July 2010 - 02:31 AM
Mi Heng's Denouncement of Cao Cao
Mi Heng was recommended to Cao Cao when the latter， to expand his infLüence， needed someone to lobby Liu Biao. But Mi was slighted. Mi took his anger out on almost all of Cao Cao's subordinates. One day， at a banquet in honor of distinguished guests， Cao bid Mi to work as a drummer， just to insult him for fun.
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Mi came dressed in rag，replica sunglasses and when asked why he simply stripped off what was on him to proudly stand nude before the public. Guests shut their eyes in embarrassment. To rebut the angry blame by Cao Cao. Mi said. “You said I'm shameless? Not me but someone who has misled his majesty. Let people vies my clean conscience.” “If you're clean，” Cao roared， “Who's dirty?” “You!” Mi sneered.
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“Your eyes are dirty for being unable to tell good men from bad，age of conan gold your mouth is dirty because you do not read， your ears are dirty because you refuse to listen to advice， you know nothing about history because of your dirty body， and you tolerate nobody because of the dirt in your belly.” Cao， infuriated， ordered him to the battle front， hoping the enemy's sword would kill him.
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Liu Bei Returns to Jingzhou
This is story from Three Kingdoms.age of conan power leveling Tricked by Zhou Yu， Liu Bei married Sun Shangxiang， Sun Quan's younger sister. After the wedding ceremony， Liu Bei stayed in the state of Wu. In light of Zhuge Liang's plan， Zhao Yun made a false report to Liu Bei before his departure， saying that Cao Cao was attacking Jingzhou. He urged Liu Bei to go back. Believing it was true， Liu Bei discussed the matter with his wife and decided that they would pretend to offer sacrifice to the ancestors at the river and would leave the Southland under the escort of Zhao Yun without announcing it.
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The day came and Liu Bei and his wife headed to the river. Suddenly，aion gold generals and soldiers sent by Zhou Yuarrived. Liu Bei was frightened. He rushed to the front of Lady Sun's carriage and appealed tearfully to her： “When your elder brother and Zhou Yu conspired to call me to the Southland to marry you， they did not do so for your sake.
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All they wanted was to confine me so that they could retake Jingzhou，maple story mesos and after that to kill me. But I came， because I admire you. Today， no one but you can save me. If you are not willing， I prefer to die here before your eyes.” Upon hearing this， Lady Sun rolled up the front curtain of her carriage， and shouted to the generals from the state of Wu： “Are you in revolt? Zhou Yu! The renegade， the traitor!” she cried. “What injury has the Sun family ever done you? Liu Bei is my husband. Both my mother and my brother were informed that I would return to Jingzhou. Does this blockage maean you're going to plunder our goods?” She denounced Zhou Yu loudly and then ordered her carrige moved forward.
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The carriage had hardly advanced five or six li when the second pair of commanders sent by Sun Quan arrived.world of warcraft power leveling Lady Sun let Liu Bei proceed. She herself and Zhao Yun held the rear. Lady Sun regarded the two commanders sternly and spoke reproachfully： “You have come between my brother and me. My mother has sanctioned our trip back to Jingzhou. Even my brother has to conform to what ritual enjoins. Do these weapons mean you want to murder me?” The commanders stared at one another helplessly. Though Liu Bei was nowhere to be seen， Zhao Yun waw right there， ready for bloody combat， eyes angry and wide-staring. At last， the generals had to withdraw. Later when another two generals arrived with Sun Quan's sword， Liu Bei and Lady Sun were already on one of the boats led by Zhuge Liang， heading for Jingzhou. Later the people said： Trapped a second time in his own tricks， Zhou Yu tasted humiliation added to rage.
Mi Heng was recommended to Cao Cao when the latter， to expand his infLüence， needed someone to lobby Liu Biao. But Mi was slighted. Mi took his anger out on almost all of Cao Cao's subordinates. One day， at a banquet in honor of distinguished guests， Cao bid Mi to work as a drummer， just to insult him for fun.
replica sunglasses,
Mi came dressed in rag，replica sunglasses and when asked why he simply stripped off what was on him to proudly stand nude before the public. Guests shut their eyes in embarrassment. To rebut the angry blame by Cao Cao. Mi said. “You said I'm shameless? Not me but someone who has misled his majesty. Let people vies my clean conscience.” “If you're clean，” Cao roared， “Who's dirty?” “You!” Mi sneered.
age of conan gold,
“Your eyes are dirty for being unable to tell good men from bad，age of conan gold your mouth is dirty because you do not read， your ears are dirty because you refuse to listen to advice， you know nothing about history because of your dirty body， and you tolerate nobody because of the dirt in your belly.” Cao， infuriated， ordered him to the battle front， hoping the enemy's sword would kill him.
age of conan power leveling,
Liu Bei Returns to Jingzhou
This is story from Three Kingdoms.age of conan power leveling Tricked by Zhou Yu， Liu Bei married Sun Shangxiang， Sun Quan's younger sister. After the wedding ceremony， Liu Bei stayed in the state of Wu. In light of Zhuge Liang's plan， Zhao Yun made a false report to Liu Bei before his departure， saying that Cao Cao was attacking Jingzhou. He urged Liu Bei to go back. Believing it was true， Liu Bei discussed the matter with his wife and decided that they would pretend to offer sacrifice to the ancestors at the river and would leave the Southland under the escort of Zhao Yun without announcing it.
aion gold,
The day came and Liu Bei and his wife headed to the river. Suddenly，aion gold generals and soldiers sent by Zhou Yuarrived. Liu Bei was frightened. He rushed to the front of Lady Sun's carriage and appealed tearfully to her： “When your elder brother and Zhou Yu conspired to call me to the Southland to marry you， they did not do so for your sake.
maple story mesos,
All they wanted was to confine me so that they could retake Jingzhou，maple story mesos and after that to kill me. But I came， because I admire you. Today， no one but you can save me. If you are not willing， I prefer to die here before your eyes.” Upon hearing this， Lady Sun rolled up the front curtain of her carriage， and shouted to the generals from the state of Wu： “Are you in revolt? Zhou Yu! The renegade， the traitor!” she cried. “What injury has the Sun family ever done you? Liu Bei is my husband. Both my mother and my brother were informed that I would return to Jingzhou. Does this blockage maean you're going to plunder our goods?” She denounced Zhou Yu loudly and then ordered her carrige moved forward.
world of warcraft power leveling,
The carriage had hardly advanced five or six li when the second pair of commanders sent by Sun Quan arrived.world of warcraft power leveling Lady Sun let Liu Bei proceed. She herself and Zhao Yun held the rear. Lady Sun regarded the two commanders sternly and spoke reproachfully： “You have come between my brother and me. My mother has sanctioned our trip back to Jingzhou. Even my brother has to conform to what ritual enjoins. Do these weapons mean you want to murder me?” The commanders stared at one another helplessly. Though Liu Bei was nowhere to be seen， Zhao Yun waw right there， ready for bloody combat， eyes angry and wide-staring. At last， the generals had to withdraw. Later when another two generals arrived with Sun Quan's sword， Liu Bei and Lady Sun were already on one of the boats led by Zhuge Liang， heading for Jingzhou. Later the people said： Trapped a second time in his own tricks， Zhou Yu tasted humiliation added to rage.
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