Do you think a time machine is possible?

Question

I know the theory of relativity says it is but what are the chances that we will see a time machine in this life time?

Answer 1

Certainly, with a major restriction.  No time machine can be made that will allow someone to move backwards in time.  However, one can move forward in time with respect to a still clock by increasing one's speed, as shown by the twin paradox.

Answer 2

Depends on how much beer you drink.

Answer 3

no, quite simply.  we know that time runs in a continuous 'line'- we can't change the past or predict the future because of this.  

for a time machine to be possible, all moments in time would have to  be continuous in themselves and running in parallel.  if a time machine were to ever be possible, we would have time machines & people from the future materializing on our streets.  

Answer 4

In this lifetime? Virtually no chance. We don't know enough about the physics of time to make a time machine. I view this idea as simply impossible, although there are multiple standing theories that describe how to make a time machine.

There are multiple problems with making a time machine. Look up the "grandfather paradox" and read about it. This is one of the major problems when you mess around with time.

But one thing people don't understand is exactly *how* far back you will be able to travel. You can't travel back before the time the time machine was created. You both enter and exit through the time machine. In order for you to exit it, you must travel back to a time when the time machine was already in existence. So even if we did make a time machine, it wouldn't do us very many favors after its first created. We couldn't travel back millions of years because the time machine didn't exist then.

One of the popular theories about time travel is using high intensity lasers to bend a high intensity ray of light to a point where it completely warps space time and creates a hole. But this is a very vague theory... in order to create a wormhole, it has to have a negatively charged neck.

The chances of us every creating a time machine are very low. The chances of us creating a time machine in this lifetime... virtually none.

Answer 5

No,  time is an artificial idea.  It exists only in the minds of men in order to measure their universe.  There is only space and speed.

Answer 6

Travel is only possible in space, and time is not space. The theory of relativity doesn't say a time machine is possible. That is someones addition to it that doesn't really belong to it. Time slows down as one travels faster. At the speed of light, time becomes zero. No matter can travel at such a speed or anywhere near it. There is a Twins paradox in relativity. One twin might stay on our planet while his twin traveled at high speed in a spaceship. At a certain speed, the twin in the spaceship would perceive that he had traveled a year and aged that much. When he returns, his twin says ten years passed here, and he aged that much. Slowing of time is not time travel though.

Answer 7

In actual reality, no.  In virtual reality, maybe.  In broad and relatively crude ways we can predict the future and reconstruct the past with computer models of reality.  We can experience the results of such renderings in virtual reality.  (again, crudely - no one is going to mistake today's VR for actual reality.)  But  imagine the state of the art 500 to 1000 years in the future.  If we can model the universe (or our corner of it) perfectly, and generate faithful VR renderings of the results then we have a time machine.  We could wind the model forward or backward to visit the future or past.  We could interact and change things in the model and observe the results.  The results of the VR would change, but AR would continue unaffected.  But even this time machine creates a paradox - not grandfather paradox but a grand-child paradox.  If the model tells us that we get hit by a bus and die next week, we simply plan to stay home that day, avoid death, and insure the existence of our grand children.    But if the model were perfect, it would have calculated that outcome.  So the paradox is that a truly perfect model can not predict a future that we would not choose if we had the power to do so.

Answer 8

no. it's impossible to go into the past.

Answer 9

Chances are, a time machine is impossible. I think that at some point we will have the ability to travel close to the speed of light, but not in our own atmosphere. Only in space, which does mean that we will be able to travel extremely long distances and go to other planets but I seriously doubt a time machine will actually work. There just isn't a way to get that much energy.