This thread seems to have died or been hijacked by others who lack a basic understanding of the principles behind the theory time travel, space-time and the likes. Before posting any further, please read:
Time Travel
*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel
Space-Time Continuum
*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime
Aliens / ETs
*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life
UFOs
*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO
Since nothing on Wikipedia can be considered the gospel truth, especially on subjects as complicated as this, you don't have to agree with everything you read at those links I've posted. However, you should read it all to get a better idea about the various theories that exist so that you can make an informed comment on the subject.
Raaabo
punk said:
Time machines have been around us for a long time, its just that we have stopped looking at them in that way. For example a few centuries ago people used to travel around on foot, then slowly it advanced to use of animals, carts,cars,railway and planes. What used to take hours/days a few cnturies ago now takes a few minutes/hours is it not a kind of time machine? A modern jet flies at many times the speed of sound/bullet fired from a gun. Now imagine a jet and a bullet fired from a rifle travelling at same speed in the same direction, now if the jet view the bullet it will look to be in static/equal motion, if the jet flies faster than the bullet then the bullet looks as if it is travelling in the reverse direction. the same way if a rocket flies at twice the speed of light from earth to say neptune taking 4 minutes to reach the planet turns back and looks towards the earth it will be seeing the earth a few/4 minutes before, but in actuallity the earth would have progressed even further/8 minutes than what it is seeing, so in fact the rocket has travelled in time and seen the past.However i doubt we will be able to see/travel to the future.
What you have described is viewing the past, not travelling to it. In theory, travelling to the past is only possible when you exceed the speed of light, which as of now, is impossible. The inference is thus that travel to the past is impossible. Viewing the past is very very easy actually. Though most of us always give the example of travelling faster than the speed of light, you could just view all home videos as a look into the past. Those photographs of your first birthday are examples of looking into the past.
Stephen Hawking said that time travel to the past was impossible, and that the fact that there are no time travellers visiting us from the future is proof of that. He went on to allow for TT into the past by suggesting that perhaps the time traveller can only go back until the invention of the time machine, and no further. Other opinions say that perhaps you can only travel back into your own time, because if you tried to travel back into a time when you dont exist, you would disappear.
Other theories try and account for the universal mass constant, saying that if you travelled back one year in time, you would arrive at the same place YOU were, one year ago, as YOURSELF. There would not be two of you running about wreaking havoc on poor little planet earth, there would be just you, and it's not clear whether you would have any memory of the trip or your future self.
As for travelling into the future, just travelling (at speeds comparable to C) away into space and returning would suffice. There's a popular story about an astronaut who went to a distant galaxy at like 0.75C and returned a few years later to find that his wife had died, his daughter (who his wife was pregnant with when he left) was now a grandmother and over 80 years old. Again, there's no plausable theory about travelling to the future and meeting your future self, you will go to your future, as YOURSELF in that timeline.
An interesting theory is that we just haven't learnt to control the human brain, and we can actually view the future when the right neurons fire. This theory attempts to explain the phenomenon of Deja Vu. there are different levels of Deja Vu, and sometimes you can only feel it happening in terms of micro seconds - while your friend is speaking you know exactly what he is going to say next, but while you're thinking it, it happens - no time to react, no time to think, it's almost happening simultaneously.
Then there's a more advanced form, where you might experience something and know what's going to happen an hour later. This is more freaky, scary and not so easily explained. Some people are pretty accurate with their recollection of future events.
An Example: Back when Tendulkar and Ganguly had just started, some friends and I were sitting and watching a cricket match. It was some late match and India were fielding first. One particular friend fell asleep. When he woke up we told him India had bowled terribly, the other team (cannot remember who now, but i think it was England) had made a big score and we were already sensing defeat. He was still sleepy and told us, "dont worry, we will win. Ganguly will score 127 in 112 balls not out and Tendulkar will score 89 in 60 balls; we will win in just 43.2 overs."
(I made up those numbers, because i cannot remember now exactly what he said, but it was a match where Tendulkar and Ganguly played like geniuses) He went back to sleep immediately afterwards, India had just started batting then. We watched the match, and we were horrified to see that he was absolutely right, whatever numbers he told us were EXACT. It was like he had seen the match already, or had seen the next day's papers (because he had told us details like Ganguly not out, 127(112), Tendulkar LBW bowled some guy 89(60), etc., like the scorecard in the next day's papers. When we woke him up, he did not remember saying any of it, or even waking up!
Till this day I cannot explain how he got such a clear glimpse into the future, and perhaps it was a dream he had; but it was a dream that was spot on.
So yes, I probably believe in things like time travel (or glimpses into the past / future), because of a few incidents like the one I have described that leave me with no logical answers.
How many of you have had similar experiences or at least experienced deja vu?
Raaabo