I've become quite incensed against the condition of the 'time travel community' on the web and in these discussion boards. To my mind there's too much bark and not enough bite, so to speak. Keep in mind that I'm not attacking the spiritual or mental claims of time travel - those are a wholly different ballpark. But there seems to be a large number of people parroting misinformation about physics in general. There are many claims out there that time travel has been achieved, but no proof positive. It's said that extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence, but I'd be willing to settle for any evidence whatsoever.
I read quite often attacks on those tenets of modern physics, the theories of relativity. Fact is, they are wrong in some aspects. But Newton's theory of gravitation is really wrong, and we still use it for everyday calculations. It still works in the arena where it was designed. Relativity, our best theory about time and space, still works excellently in that area. Quantum effects et al. may mess around with it on smaller scales or in situations it doesn't deal with well, but it works where we need to use it. This means you won't be making a time machine in your living room. Unless you have a cylinder ten times solar mass in your living room, or some negmatter, &c. The fundamental tenets of physics have been proven time and time again, and I have yet to see experimental results which challenge them (for example, relativity) on a basic level (eg 'time dilation does not occur'). We have to go by best assumptions, and until proven otherwise, the best assumption is that almost all of current physics is right. Can anyone challenge this?
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think time travel's impossible. But it won't come from flying in the face of proven theories. Personally, I'd love to get into some discussion about TT possibilities, like what we'd see going around a Tipler cylinder, or how wormhole TT would work. Some real discussion would be great.
At any rate, I expect to get flamed for this post. But I just had to say it: theories require proof. Einstein had a theory; you have a theory. Einstein had proof; where's yours?
I read quite often attacks on those tenets of modern physics, the theories of relativity. Fact is, they are wrong in some aspects. But Newton's theory of gravitation is really wrong, and we still use it for everyday calculations. It still works in the arena where it was designed. Relativity, our best theory about time and space, still works excellently in that area. Quantum effects et al. may mess around with it on smaller scales or in situations it doesn't deal with well, but it works where we need to use it. This means you won't be making a time machine in your living room. Unless you have a cylinder ten times solar mass in your living room, or some negmatter, &c. The fundamental tenets of physics have been proven time and time again, and I have yet to see experimental results which challenge them (for example, relativity) on a basic level (eg 'time dilation does not occur'). We have to go by best assumptions, and until proven otherwise, the best assumption is that almost all of current physics is right. Can anyone challenge this?
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think time travel's impossible. But it won't come from flying in the face of proven theories. Personally, I'd love to get into some discussion about TT possibilities, like what we'd see going around a Tipler cylinder, or how wormhole TT would work. Some real discussion would be great.
At any rate, I expect to get flamed for this post. But I just had to say it: theories require proof. Einstein had a theory; you have a theory. Einstein had proof; where's yours?
