The Theory of Nothing

Is time travel possible?

Is time travel possible?

I have discussed some of the ideas for this in previous posts, but I believe it needs some clarification, especially since it’s germane to science fiction. As I said before, time travel into the future is possible because of Einstein’s relativity theories. All one has to do is travel at near light speed in a spaceship for a while and then return to Earth. Time in the spaceship will be slowed relative to time on Earth. Thus, one would essentially be in the future.

Time travel into the past is another problem but is still possible because of Einstein’s theories. However, creating a portal into the past requires a boatload of energy, something we can’t presently do.

The idea of time travel goes back to ancient times. The Qur’an tells about people who go to sleep in a cave and wake up after 309 years. The Qur’an also tells us that Allah (God) day is one thousand of our days. The Bible also says the same thing in the New Testament Book of Peter II.

Many famous authors have incorporated time travel into their stories. H.G. Wells’ ‘Time Machine’, and Washington Irving’s ‘Rip Van Winkle’ use this idea.

Backward time travel is employed by Charles Dickens in ‘A Christmas Carol’, and Mark Twain used it in ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’.

There are many modern stories that use time travel as their main theme.

But is time travel feasible? The answer is that currently it’s not, but in the future it may be possible.

One way to go back in time requires traveling at faster than light speed. Einstein told us that this is not possible. There are ways to cheat. One of these is to use a wormhole to travel large distances at speeds lower than light. Wormholes could be conduits into the past and distant regions of space. The problem here is finding a wormhole large enough and stable enough to allow this.

A wormhole could be created but it would require a tremendous amount of energy to not only form it but also to keep it open. A wormhole could be made using negative energy. What the heck is that? Quantum physicists say that it’s possible using the Casimir effect, which uses the zero-point (vacuum) energy of a quantized field. This is another of those crazy quantum ideas in which two metal plates placed very close are affected by virtual zero-point particles despite being in a vacuum. In any event, calculations have shown that such an effect could be created using a reasonable amount of energy. Scientists are not sure that this is possible, however.

The other goofy idea is a Tipler cylinder. If a cylinder is infinitely long and spun fast enough along it axis then a spaceship flying around the cylinder on a spiral course could travel back in time. Unfortunately, the speed required is not possible with current materials. Another variation is to use a cosmic string, but so far no one has found one.

Besides, good old Stephan Hawking says that these ideas are impossible. That does it for me. Not!

Like most ideas in Science Fiction, they often become possible with time, and time travel will more than likely become one of those things that will be possible eventually. However, there is one problem I have with this, and that is that no one from the future has visited us, at least not that we know of. There have been many claims of this kind of event, but nothing that has been verified. If someone did come back and change history, we could be in a parallel universe different than the one we started in. That’s another idea that needs to be explored.

Thanks for reading.