exop_forensics
Temporal Novice
Disclaimer: I have intentionally "shelved" my book knowledge on this subject so as to force a reexamination of my assumptions. I am not a physicist, nor am I an expert on relativity, quantum mechanics or time travel.
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Scoped/Definitions: "Time travel" refers to matter moving from one time coordinate to another. All objects participate in this generic form of "time travel." "Anomalous time travel" refers to matter and energy traversing the time continuum "the wrong way" or at a "faster rate."
Quotes above highlight where this definition may fall apart. In the case of John Titor, a definition is set immediately that nullifies his whole theory. In one statement, Titor's time-machine disintegrates.
And so here lies a machine that can travel "10 years an hour" (forward or backward). One might ask if a device exists that would allow John to travel through the 10 hour long continuum while the machine is engaged at full power. Can we really place another time machine within Titor's 10 year/hour and help it travel back through the hour while the external machine is traveling forward? Does this mean that the internal time machine trumps the outer? As they say in the movie Space Balls, "ludicrous speed."
So I would wager that time travel should be instantaneous, unless I wish to leave the door open for nested time machines (which might be an interesting model for something else--I'll save that one for another "time").
But that's the problem, how do I "instantaneously" move from one time coordinate to another. In the case of three dimensional movement, moving from one coordinate to another "instantaneously" involves infinite velocity, which is--by definition--the state at which one is at two different places at the same time. Na[t]ive reasoning will try to reconcile this "paradox" (1=2) by either making two perfectly identical objects in space, or by pinching the manifold of space to make the two different coordinates the same (thus requiring an additional "dimension" for which to allow for the acrobatics of the existing manifold).
Let's try Einstein's famous train-embankment light beam experiment with a train traveling at the speed of light: two lightning bolts (A and B) strike the ground at an interval distance "simultaneously" while the train with an observer fixed at the midpoint between the events is traveling at the speed of light. Which lightning event is visible to this observer?
Proof that Anomalous Time Travel is Impossible:
(1) TTor needs to relocate from time coordinate A to some distant time coordinate B on his world.
(2) TTor must exit his world at A and reappear at B
(3) In a wormhole, TTor is still connected to the same fabric of space-time containing A and B
(4) TTor has to travel through space and time in order to go through time--this happens at a finite rate, therefore "time" is involved. What time? Certainly not the same continuum of clocks synchronized to the points A and B.
(5) Either that or TTor must exit world at A and reappear at B instantaneously--this means infinite negative energy.
Options (5) and (4) lead to absurdity, therefore anomalous time travel is impossible.
Comments: Problems with the above argument? Sure. But at least I'll get a chance to hear someone explain how a time traveling device within a time traveling device is supposed to work.
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Scoped/Definitions: "Time travel" refers to matter moving from one time coordinate to another. All objects participate in this generic form of "time travel." "Anomalous time travel" refers to matter and energy traversing the time continuum "the wrong way" or at a "faster rate."
Quotes above highlight where this definition may fall apart. In the case of John Titor, a definition is set immediately that nullifies his whole theory. In one statement, Titor's time-machine disintegrates.
And so here lies a machine that can travel "10 years an hour" (forward or backward). One might ask if a device exists that would allow John to travel through the 10 hour long continuum while the machine is engaged at full power. Can we really place another time machine within Titor's 10 year/hour and help it travel back through the hour while the external machine is traveling forward? Does this mean that the internal time machine trumps the outer? As they say in the movie Space Balls, "ludicrous speed."
So I would wager that time travel should be instantaneous, unless I wish to leave the door open for nested time machines (which might be an interesting model for something else--I'll save that one for another "time").
But that's the problem, how do I "instantaneously" move from one time coordinate to another. In the case of three dimensional movement, moving from one coordinate to another "instantaneously" involves infinite velocity, which is--by definition--the state at which one is at two different places at the same time. Na[t]ive reasoning will try to reconcile this "paradox" (1=2) by either making two perfectly identical objects in space, or by pinching the manifold of space to make the two different coordinates the same (thus requiring an additional "dimension" for which to allow for the acrobatics of the existing manifold).
Let's try Einstein's famous train-embankment light beam experiment with a train traveling at the speed of light: two lightning bolts (A and B) strike the ground at an interval distance "simultaneously" while the train with an observer fixed at the midpoint between the events is traveling at the speed of light. Which lightning event is visible to this observer?
Proof that Anomalous Time Travel is Impossible:
(1) TTor needs to relocate from time coordinate A to some distant time coordinate B on his world.
(2) TTor must exit his world at A and reappear at B
(3) In a wormhole, TTor is still connected to the same fabric of space-time containing A and B
(4) TTor has to travel through space and time in order to go through time--this happens at a finite rate, therefore "time" is involved. What time? Certainly not the same continuum of clocks synchronized to the points A and B.
(5) Either that or TTor must exit world at A and reappear at B instantaneously--this means infinite negative energy.
Options (5) and (4) lead to absurdity, therefore anomalous time travel is impossible.
Comments: Problems with the above argument? Sure. But at least I'll get a chance to hear someone explain how a time traveling device within a time traveling device is supposed to work.
