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Quantum physics: Is time travel theoretically feasible?

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No
38% 430 votes Total: 1139 votes
Yes
62% 709 votes

Of all the attributes which define the universe we find ourselves in, time presents us with the most perplexing of issues. Some will suggest that time does not exists while others propose that it is a medium that can be exploited for voyage into time already past and to the future as well. No one has yet proposed any theoretical notion of how time travel in any physical sense might be facilitated, and therefore it remains but a whimsical human fantasy. But such fantasies have often in the past become the substance upon which profound realities have been erected.

Until 1905, time was thought pretty much to be a constant, but a young graduate student in theoretical physics discovered through rational induction some awesomely new perceptions about time. His name of course was Albert Einstein and the notion that he would bring to us, was that time was not a constant but a variable. It was part of his theory of special relativity. Over the next forty years, as Einstein's notions became better understood, the idea of time dilation evolved in the minds of some humans into a conceptual status which supported the idea of time travel. You would not find any mention of the concept in respected journals of physics, but realized instead on the pages of comic books and dime store novels. Here in the repository of fictional possibilities, one could find realities of every conceivable notion. Super heroes, ray guns, spaceships and machines which could transport mortal humans between different dimensions of time.

Some early novels like Mark Twain's 1889 novel, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain" presuppose the essence of time travel, but offered no concept of its mechanism. In 1895, the British author, made most famous for his War of the Worlds, wrote a novel titled "The Time Machine," which introduced for the first time the idea of a vehicle which could transport its occupants back in time. The author envisions time as a fourth dimension, an astute observation for sure, but he provides little explanation of the principle upon which his machine facilitates temporal transport. Is it possible that some thoughts about time could have been fashioned in the mind of a young Albert Einstein, through reading books like Well's Time Machine? Perhaps. In 1960, H.G. Wells novel the Time Machine was adapted for the big screen, and if time travel was not already a subject of intrigue in the minds of many baby boomers, it soon would be. Indeed, in 1966, Irwin Allen,


Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:

Quantum physics: Is time travel theoretically feasible?

No
  • 1 of 36

    by John Traveler

    Of all the attributes which define the universe we find ourselves in, time presents us with the most perplexing of issues.

    read more

  • 2 of 36

    by Gary C. Gibson

    A field of space and time appears to be the substratum of the mass-energy of the universe coinciding historically with it's

    read more

Yes
  • 1 of 41

    by Wayne Leon Learmond


    The Time Barrier

    Will it be feasible one day, to be able to travel back in time? Will we, one day, break the time barrier

    read more

  • 2 of 41

    by Wenbin Nah

    "Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution" -Edward Teller

    No discussion involving the feasibility

    read more

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