New to this forum. But I do have a theory.
- Thread starter Paul mc
- Start date
Einstein
Dimensional Traveler
Yes, I'm interested. Spill the beans.
When Scientists talk about time travel they are obsessed with the speed of light. They try to use this as a way to travel through time. Which of course is impossible. you can't break the speed of light.
This obsession is causing them to over look the obvious.
Time is the increase of entropy in the universe.
There is no such thing as time. it's a side effect of entropy.
Entropy is basically this:
There is only one way for things to remain the same.
But the possible combinations of ways things can change is infinite.
Therefore it can be said that 'time is the universe giving in to the infinitely likely possibility of change'.
To control time you need to control entropy.
To travel through time you have to increase or decrease the amount of entropy in the universe.
You have to arrange all the atoms in the universe into the positions they were in at the moment of history that you wish to visit.
Unlike traveling faster than the speed of light, decreasing the amount of entropy in the universe is possible. It's just infinitely unlikely.
How to defeat entropy
If the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct...
Then can we not say that Schrödinger's cat is immortal? That from the cats perspective it continues to survive no matter how unlikely.
No matter how many times you run the experiment, from the cat perspective it achieve a sort of quantum immortality.
Instead of the Schrödinger's cat suicide machine being triggered by the decay of an atom. What if it was measuring the amount of entropy in the universe?
If the suicide machine was only triggered by an increase in entropy then from the perspective of the cat, the cat would experience a decrease in entropy and the arrow of time would appear to reverse itself.
This obsession is causing them to over look the obvious.
Time is the increase of entropy in the universe.
There is no such thing as time. it's a side effect of entropy.
Entropy is basically this:
There is only one way for things to remain the same.
But the possible combinations of ways things can change is infinite.
Therefore it can be said that 'time is the universe giving in to the infinitely likely possibility of change'.
To control time you need to control entropy.
To travel through time you have to increase or decrease the amount of entropy in the universe.
You have to arrange all the atoms in the universe into the positions they were in at the moment of history that you wish to visit.
Unlike traveling faster than the speed of light, decreasing the amount of entropy in the universe is possible. It's just infinitely unlikely.
How to defeat entropy
If the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct...
Then can we not say that Schrödinger's cat is immortal? That from the cats perspective it continues to survive no matter how unlikely.
No matter how many times you run the experiment, from the cat perspective it achieve a sort of quantum immortality.
Instead of the Schrödinger's cat suicide machine being triggered by the decay of an atom. What if it was measuring the amount of entropy in the universe?
If the suicide machine was only triggered by an increase in entropy then from the perspective of the cat, the cat would experience a decrease in entropy and the arrow of time would appear to reverse itself.
vodkafan
Temporal Navigator
Paul mc
How exactly would this be achieved? It's not just their positions that have changed but also their states.
How exactly would this be achieved? It's not just their positions that have changed but also their states.
If you play a video in reverse (rewind) no laws of physics are broken.
Only the 2nd law of thermal dynamics.
Which states that you will have an increase in entropy. The law of entropy is basically this.
There is only one way something can be in alphabetical order. but an infinite (or near infinite) number of ways it can be out of alphabetical order. So therefore things flow from order into chaos. This is called the arrow of time
Entropy (arrow of time) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There is a near infinite number of ways to smash an egg, but if you drop a smashed egg it doesn't reform.
But the thing is this... It actually could reform. It's just really really unlikely that the atoms and molecules would come together in exactly the right order.
If the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is true.
Many-worlds interpretation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Then one of those worlds would be a universe that have a negative entropy. It would appear to be running backwards in time. It's just that there is an infinitely higher number of world lines that have positive values of entropy.
Therefore my idea is this you could use Quantum suicide to actively sellect the world line that has a negitive entropy.
Quantum suicide and immortality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You would enter this highly unprobable world line and exit it at the period of history that you wanted to travel back to.
spectrumisgreen
Temporal Novice
Hi Paul
Bit of a newbie on here myself.......
Your theory is certainly very interesting and certainly no less plausible than any other I have ever read.....
Thanks for an interesting 5 minutes read. I have read a series of scifi-alternative universe/history-fantasy books that had entropy as a secondary plot line (The Eyre affair and sequels by Jasper Fforde)
Simon
Bit of a newbie on here myself.......
Your theory is certainly very interesting and certainly no less plausible than any other I have ever read.....
Thanks for an interesting 5 minutes read. I have read a series of scifi-alternative universe/history-fantasy books that had entropy as a secondary plot line (The Eyre affair and sequels by Jasper Fforde)
Simon
Well here is a video from the BBC that talks about the arrow of time. They correctly point out that time reversing itself does not break any known laws of science. (watch it at 3:10 for the interesting bit.)
So it is clear that the standard scientific model does not rule out time travel by negative entropy.
The second law of thermal dynamics is only a law because it is infinitely unlikely. So it's not really a law in the classical sense.
Here is a video about the quantum world and some of it's effects on reality.
The next video is the classic double slit experiment.
I believe that the results of the double slit experiment is caused by the universe fragmenting into different world lines.
That your observation can define which world line you are in.
If this is true then my theory of time travel by negative entropy maybe correct.
So it is clear that the standard scientific model does not rule out time travel by negative entropy.
The second law of thermal dynamics is only a law because it is infinitely unlikely. So it's not really a law in the classical sense.
Here is a video about the quantum world and some of it's effects on reality.
The next video is the classic double slit experiment.
I believe that the results of the double slit experiment is caused by the universe fragmenting into different world lines.
That your observation can define which world line you are in.
If this is true then my theory of time travel by negative entropy maybe correct.
Darby
Epochal Historian
So, given that the speed of light limit is real, how do you propose to determine the position, velocity, mass, momentum, spin etc. of every subatomic particle in the universe simultaneously at some time in the past (or future) without a time machine in order to create a time machine?
And given that you want to rearrange the positions of all subatomic particles in the universe "now" into positions and states to mimic the past, how do you propose to do that without creating work - which increases entropy?
How do you propose to interact with these subatomic particles without creating quantum entanglement, quantum decoherence or any other quantum effects?
And last, given that Special Relativity gives a generally correct description of relativistic time, how do you propose to determine "what time is it" in the entire universe such that all clocks and rods are unambiguously equal everywhere in the universe irrespective of their relative velocities?
A question of my own: Why, during the past 48 hours, has one poster accused physicists of being "hung up" on gravity with another poster accusing the same people of being "obsessed" with the speed of light? Do these posters know something about General Relativity that the rest of us don't know?
I don't think the universe has anywhere near that amount of definition.
If you can't measure something it's a wave not a particle.
Is there an actual universe out there?
Does observation bring things into reality?
Each world line would be an open system.
In the same way a fridge is an open system.
A fridge becomes cooler on the inside, but warms the air on the outside. As a whole the fridge increases the average temperature of the kitchen.
In the same way that a decrease in entropy of one world line would result in an increase in entropy in many other world lines.
If the Many worlds interpretation is correct then the world line were the arrow of time is reversed would already exist.
It does not need to be created or manipulated into being. It needs to be selected
Again I don't see how this prevents a world line were the arrow of time is reversed.
That's just an ad-hoc statement.
vodkafan
Temporal Navigator
My instructor used to say this all the time when I was learning to faultfind electrical systems many years ago. Time was money in an industrial setting. A machine would have malfunctioned and he would say: " Now what has happened and why has it happened? " At the beginning I would say something like "I think..." and he would cut me down straight away with exactly those words " I don't care what you think. Tell me what you know." I used to dread it like a mental slap as I was only a trainee but it was very good for getting me to focus.
Well it's called the heisenberg uncertainty principle for a reason.
But I can say that the double slit experiment is highly suggestive that partials are not partials if there is no one there to view them. They are waves. The act of observation turns a fuzzy wave into a particle.
The double slit experiment is very well known.
This whole question is well known.
If a tree falls in a Forrest and no one is there to hear it does it make a noise?
This is connected to the Schrödinger's cat,
which is connected to quantum suicide / immortality,
which is connected to a many worlds lines view of the universe,
which is connected a world line with a negative entropy,
which is connected to the reversal of the arrow of time idea.
If the many world line view of quantum mechanics is true and every possibility is played out on it's own world line, then there must be a world line with a negative entropy and a reversal of the arrow of time. No matter how unlikely it is, it must be the case.
Negative entropy and a reversal of the arrow of time does not break any of the laws of physics, it's just highly unlikely to happen.
If all of the above is true, then the question is how do you select which world line you experience.
Well the problem is if the theory is not correct then the user would be killed. So it's a huge leap of faith.
I think this video really explains the dangers of such an experiment. Watch it from 5:30 to see the part of the video that deals with quantum suicide.
Unless you are really sure that it would work. or another way can be found to actively select the world line then I think it's too risky.
OK just for fun here is a rough design.
Firstly I would start with a body for my time machine. Something to isolate myself from the environment.
A large fridge may work.
I would need a chair inside to sit on.
under the chair would be a large amount of explosives.
The departure would look a little bit like this:
Of course the secret is in the triggering system.
It's the triggering system that makes time travel possible for the person inside.
The triggering system would have to measure the arrow of time both inside and outside the fridge.
The bomb would only be triggered if the arrow of time outside the fridge was the same as inside the fridge.
Firstly I would start with a body for my time machine. Something to isolate myself from the environment.
A large fridge may work.
I would need a chair inside to sit on.
under the chair would be a large amount of explosives.
The departure would look a little bit like this:
Of course the secret is in the triggering system.
It's the triggering system that makes time travel possible for the person inside.
The triggering system would have to measure the arrow of time both inside and outside the fridge.
The bomb would only be triggered if the arrow of time outside the fridge was the same as inside the fridge.