TIME TRAVEL

[s-man]

Here is one to wrap your head around. I first came upon this neat little paradox while reading "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku. THE BEST book on theoretical physics out there, and I have read most of the popular ones. A must-read. Anyway, here it is...

 

 

“Jane” is left at an orphanage as a foundling. When “Jane” is a teenager, she falls in love with a drifter, who abandons her but leaves her pregnant. Then disaster strikes. She almost dies giving birth to a baby girl, who is then mysteriously kidnapped. The doctors find that Jane is bleeding badly, but, oddly enough, has both sex organs. So, to save her life, the doctors convert “Jane” to “Jim.”

 

“Jim” subsequently becomes a roaring drunk, until he meets a friendly bartender (actually a time traveler in disguise) who wisks “Jim” back way into the past. “Jim” meets a beautiful teenage girl, accidentally gets her pregnant with a baby girl. Out of guilt, he kidnaps the baby girl and drops her off at the orphanage. Later, “Jim” joins the time travelers corps, leads a distinguished life, and has one last dream: to disguise himself as a bartender to meet a certain drunk named “Jim” in the past. Question: who is “Jane's” mother, father, brother, sister, grand- father, grandmother, and grandchild?

 

You lost me at "wrap your head around"...

 

The point of the paragraph is that the mother, father, child, and time traveller are all the same person. Then there is the question of where the person came from in the first place!

 

Its like the Terminator paradox...how could Kyle have been sent back the first time if the son didnt exist until Kyle knocked up Sarah C.?

[Illiterati-migration]

I've thought this was interesting: when we see a star die, which is 2000 light years away, we're actually seeing something that happened 2000 years ago.

 

So could we see back in time, if we could travel faster than light? If we could travel 2000 light years away, and have a telescope powerful enough to see earth, we could see Jesus walking on the earth, right?

 

No, because we'd still be moving forward in time, same as you. If you were moving at the speed of light away from the earth and you went 2000 light years away, we'd all toast each other and divvy up your collection.

[october]

Here is one to wrap your head around. I first came upon this neat little paradox while reading "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku. THE BEST book on theoretical physics out there, and I have read most of the popular ones. A must-read. Anyway, here it is...

 

 

“Jane” is left at an orphanage as a foundling. When “Jane” is a teenager, she falls in love with a drifter, who abandons her but leaves her pregnant. Then disaster strikes. She almost dies giving birth to a baby girl, who is then mysteriously kidnapped. The doctors find that Jane is bleeding badly, but, oddly enough, has both sex organs. So, to save her life, the doctors convert “Jane” to “Jim.”

 

“Jim” subsequently becomes a roaring drunk, until he meets a friendly bartender (actually a time traveler in disguise) who wisks “Jim” back way into the past. “Jim” meets a beautiful teenage girl, accidentally gets her pregnant with a baby girl. Out of guilt, he kidnaps the baby girl and drops her off at the orphanage. Later, “Jim” joins the time travelers corps, leads a distinguished life, and has one last dream: to disguise himself as a bartender to meet a certain drunk named “Jim” in the past. Question: who is “Jane's” mother, father, brother, sister, grand- father, grandmother, and grandchild?

 

You lost me at "wrap your head around"...

 

The point of the paragraph is that the mother, father, child, and time traveller are all the same person. Then there is the question of where the person came from in the first place!

 

Its like the Terminator paradox...how could Kyle have been sent back the first time if the son didnt exist until Kyle knocked up Sarah C.?

 

[greggy]

Here is one to wrap your head around. I first came upon this neat little paradox while reading "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku. THE BEST book on theoretical physics out there, and I have read most of the popular ones. A must-read. Anyway, here it is...

 

 

“Jane” is left at an orphanage as a foundling. When “Jane” is a teenager, she falls in love with a drifter, who abandons her but leaves her pregnant. Then disaster strikes. She almost dies giving birth to a baby girl, who is then mysteriously kidnapped. The doctors find that Jane is bleeding badly, but, oddly enough, has both sex organs. So, to save her life, the doctors convert “Jane” to “Jim.”

 

“Jim” subsequently becomes a roaring drunk, until he meets a friendly bartender (actually a time traveler in disguise) who wisks “Jim” back way into the past. “Jim” meets a beautiful teenage girl, accidentally gets her pregnant with a baby girl. Out of guilt, he kidnaps the baby girl and drops her off at the orphanage. Later, “Jim” joins the time travelers corps, leads a distinguished life, and has one last dream: to disguise himself as a bartender to meet a certain drunk named “Jim” in the past. Question: who is “Jane's” mother, father, brother, sister, grand- father, grandmother, and grandchild?

 

You lost me at "wrap your head around"...

 

The point of the paragraph is that the mother, father, child, and time traveller are all the same person. Then there is the question of where the person came from in the first place!

 

Its like the Terminator paradox...how could Kyle have been sent back the first time if the son didnt exist until Kyle knocked up Sarah C.?

 

[Illiterati-migration]

Here is one to wrap your head around. I first came upon this neat little paradox while reading "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku. THE BEST book on theoretical physics out there, and I have read most of the popular ones. A must-read. Anyway, here it is...

 

 

“Jane” is left at an orphanage as a foundling. When “Jane” is a teenager, she falls in love with a drifter, who abandons her but leaves her pregnant. Then disaster strikes. She almost dies giving birth to a baby girl, who is then mysteriously kidnapped. The doctors find that Jane is bleeding badly, but, oddly enough, has both sex organs. So, to save her life, the doctors convert “Jane” to “Jim.”

 

“Jim” subsequently becomes a roaring drunk, until he meets a friendly bartender (actually a time traveler in disguise) who wisks “Jim” back way into the past. “Jim” meets a beautiful teenage girl, accidentally gets her pregnant with a baby girl. Out of guilt, he kidnaps the baby girl and drops her off at the orphanage. Later, “Jim” joins the time travelers corps, leads a distinguished life, and has one last dream: to disguise himself as a bartender to meet a certain drunk named “Jim” in the past. Question: who is “Jane's” mother, father, brother, sister, grand- father, grandmother, and grandchild?

 

You lost me at "wrap your head around"...

 

The point of the paragraph is that the mother, father, child, and time traveller are all the same person. Then there is the question of where the person came from in the first place!

 

Its like the Terminator paradox...how could Kyle have been sent back the first time if the son didnt exist until Kyle knocked up Sarah C.?

 

 

Speaking of people who are their own parents/siblings...

[greggy]

Here is one to wrap your head around. I first came upon this neat little paradox while reading "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku. THE BEST book on theoretical physics out there, and I have read most of the popular ones. A must-read. Anyway, here it is...

 

 

“Jane” is left at an orphanage as a foundling. When “Jane” is a teenager, she falls in love with a drifter, who abandons her but leaves her pregnant. Then disaster strikes. She almost dies giving birth to a baby girl, who is then mysteriously kidnapped. The doctors find that Jane is bleeding badly, but, oddly enough, has both sex organs. So, to save her life, the doctors convert “Jane” to “Jim.”

 

“Jim” subsequently becomes a roaring drunk, until he meets a friendly bartender (actually a time traveler in disguise) who wisks “Jim” back way into the past. “Jim” meets a beautiful teenage girl, accidentally gets her pregnant with a baby girl. Out of guilt, he kidnaps the baby girl and drops her off at the orphanage. Later, “Jim” joins the time travelers corps, leads a distinguished life, and has one last dream: to disguise himself as a bartender to meet a certain drunk named “Jim” in the past. Question: who is “Jane's” mother, father, brother, sister, grand- father, grandmother, and grandchild?

 

You lost me at "wrap your head around"...

 

The point of the paragraph is that the mother, father, child, and time traveller are all the same person. Then there is the question of where the person came from in the first place!

 

Its like the Terminator paradox...how could Kyle have been sent back the first time if the son didnt exist until Kyle knocked up Sarah C.?

 

 

Speaking of people who are their own parents/siblings...

[october]

Here is one to wrap your head around. I first came upon this neat little paradox while reading "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku. THE BEST book on theoretical physics out there, and I have read most of the popular ones. A must-read. Anyway, here it is...

 

 

“Jane” is left at an orphanage as a foundling. When “Jane” is a teenager, she falls in love with a drifter, who abandons her but leaves her pregnant. Then disaster strikes. She almost dies giving birth to a baby girl, who is then mysteriously kidnapped. The doctors find that Jane is bleeding badly, but, oddly enough, has both sex organs. So, to save her life, the doctors convert “Jane” to “Jim.”

 

“Jim” subsequently becomes a roaring drunk, until he meets a friendly bartender (actually a time traveler in disguise) who wisks “Jim” back way into the past. “Jim” meets a beautiful teenage girl, accidentally gets her pregnant with a baby girl. Out of guilt, he kidnaps the baby girl and drops her off at the orphanage. Later, “Jim” joins the time travelers corps, leads a distinguished life, and has one last dream: to disguise himself as a bartender to meet a certain drunk named “Jim” in the past. Question: who is “Jane's” mother, father, brother, sister, grand- father, grandmother, and grandchild?

 

You lost me at "wrap your head around"...

 

The point of the paragraph is that the mother, father, child, and time traveller are all the same person. Then there is the question of where the person came from in the first place!

 

Its like the Terminator paradox...how could Kyle have been sent back the first time if the son didnt exist until Kyle knocked up Sarah C.?

 

 

Speaking of people who are their own parents/siblings...

[14 of spades]

I've thought this was interesting: when we see a star die, which is 2000 light years away, we're actually seeing something that happened 2000 years ago.

 

So could we see back in time, if we could travel faster than light? If we could travel 2000 light years away, and have a telescope powerful enough to see earth, we could see Jesus walking on the earth, right?

 

No, because we'd still be moving forward in time, same as you. If you were moving at the speed of light away from the earth and you went 2000 light years away, we'd all toast each other and divvy up your collection.

 

what rob says actually makes "sense" (provided that we can travel faster than light, which we supposedly, can't).

 

he just says whether we'd be able to SEE jesus walk the earth. assuming we can travel faster than the speed of light (for argument's sake, let's say instantaneous travel), and teleport to a location 2000 light years away. we "should" be able to "see" jesus walking the earth. we wouldn't, however, be able to INTERACT with jesus - because we didn't time travel per se, we just caught up to the tip of the light rays emitted by jesus when he walked 2000 years ago.

 

interesting concept, but of course, to try to collect a bunch of light rays emitted 2000 years ago and focus them into something visible, not gonna happen...

[Rob]

I've thought this was interesting: when we see a star die, which is 2000 light years away, we're actually seeing something that happened 2000 years ago.

 

So could we see back in time, if we could travel faster than light? If we could travel 2000 light years away, and have a telescope powerful enough to see earth, we could see Jesus walking on the earth, right?

 

Yep, but relativity doesn't allow travel faster than the speed of light. At that point all of the mass in our bodies would be converted to pure energy.

 

Kind of like how the Flashes pushed Superboy into the Speed Zone in Infinite Crisis?

[october]

I've thought this was interesting: when we see a star die, which is 2000 light years away, we're actually seeing something that happened 2000 years ago.

 

So could we see back in time, if we could travel faster than light? If we could travel 2000 light years away, and have a telescope powerful enough to see earth, we could see Jesus walking on the earth, right?

 

Yep, but relativity doesn't allow travel faster than the speed of light. At that point all of the mass in our bodies would be converted to pure energy.

 

Kind of like how the Flashes pushed Superboy into the Speed Zone in Infinite Crisis?

 

I would say exactly like how the Flashes pushed Superboy into the Speed Zone in Infinite Crisis.

[Rob]

I've thought this was interesting: when we see a star die, which is 2000 light years away, we're actually seeing something that happened 2000 years ago.

 

So could we see back in time, if we could travel faster than light? If we could travel 2000 light years away, and have a telescope powerful enough to see earth, we could see Jesus walking on the earth, right?

 

No, because we'd still be moving forward in time, same as you. If you were moving at the speed of light away from the earth and you went 2000 light years away, we'd all toast each other and divvy up your collection.

 

No, that's why I said faster than the speed of light, which October said is impossible. (However, I assumed my entire premise was impossible, but an understandable idea to view events that occurred in the past.) You would need to travel 2000 light years in like a year. Maybe have your molecules teleported. Now the trick is developing a telescope that can see 2000 light years away.

[Rob]

Is this the definition of "comic book nerd"?

[14 of spades]

the resolution of a telescope required to do that would be so impossible to fathom - i mean light rays will hit clouds, asteroids, air etc. on it's way out of the atmosphere - light rays will be lost.

 

to have the resolution to see a human walking the earth.... i mean - we haven't even confirmed the existence of other PLANETS of nearby STARS... if we can't see those planets, we ain't gonna see a fishy in a stream on those planets.

 

its a nice thought experiment, but from an optics standpoint, it's unfathomable.

[joe_collector]

The point of the paragraph is that the mother, father, child, and time traveller are all the same person.

 

But wouldn't the kidnapped child also need to be taken back in time before being deposited at the orphanage? Further back than when Jim met Jane and conceived her/he?

[october]

The point of the paragraph is that the mother, father, child, and time traveller are all the same person.

 

But wouldn't the kidnapped child also need to be taken back in time before being deposited at the orphanage? Further back than when Jim met Jane and conceived her/he?

 

Yes, the paragraph omitted that part. He just says "dropped off at the orphange", I guess we are meant to assume he traveled back in time to do it.

[Aman619]

I've thought this was interesting: when we see a star die, which is 2000 light years away, we're actually seeing something that happened 2000 years ago.

 

So could we see back in time, if we could travel faster than light? If we could travel 2000 light years away, and have a telescope powerful enough to see earth, we could see Jesus walking on the earth, right?

 

nope. youd have to overtake the light reflections off of Jesus which have a 2000 light year gead start on you. And since nothing can travel faster than speed of light, no can do.

[Stifler-migration]

I confess to not fully understanding it, but I believe Einstein's theory of relativity provides that time travel is possible... something to do with time slowing down as a person travels faster.

Correct. We are all already time travelers in a small way. For example, when you're traveling at a high rate of speed in an airplane, time is actually moving a tiny fraction slower for you than it would be for a friend waiting at the airport for you to land. When you do land, you'll essentially have time traveled that tiny fraction of a second into your friends future.

 

In other words, if you had both been born at the exact same instant and were exactly the same age...you're friend would now be a fraction of a second older than you.

[14 of spades]

what about someone already at a position 2000 light years away looking at earth with a big magnifying glass? they don't have to overtake anything.

 

rob's point isn't trying to discuss theoretical physics. his point is that at a position 2000 light years away - hypothetically, u "should" be able to see jesus walking, if u had a strong-enough magnifying glass.

[Aman619]

I've thought this was interesting: when we see a star die, which is 2000 light years away, we're actually seeing something that happened 2000 years ago.

 

So could we see back in time, if we could travel faster than light? If we could travel 2000 light years away, and have a telescope powerful enough to see earth, we could see Jesus walking on the earth, right?

 

No, because we'd still be moving forward in time, same as you. If you were moving at the speed of light away from the earth and you went 2000 light years away, we'd all toast each other and divvy up your collection.

 

No, that's why I said faster than the speed of light, which October said is impossible. (However, I assumed my entire premise was impossible, but an understandable idea to view events that occurred in the past.) You would need to travel 2000 light years in like a year. Maybe have your molecules teleported. Now the trick is developing a telescope that can see 2000 light years away.

 

would you? the whol epremise is to travel far enough away to catch up to the light rays from Earth 2000 years ago. And, in this scenario, that where we traveled to - - - so you wouldnt need a super powered telescope, unless that power was in order to collect the faint light into a picture. And it would be very faint, Not only would th eoriginal reflected light be fragmented and diminished by its journey...but of all the light reflected off Jesus in all directions, you will be only able to see the tiniest percent of an angle in one minute direction. Actually. youd have to CHOOSE WHERE to go, not JUST 2000 light years away, because th elight only would be visible in about 40% of the sky. All the other reflections would have bounced off Jesus into the Earth itself.

[14 of spades]

I confess to not fully understanding it, but I believe Einstein's theory of relativity provides that time travel is possible... something to do with time slowing down as a person travels faster.

Correct. We are all already time travelers in a small way. For example, when you're traveling at a high rate of speed in an airplane, time is actually moving a tiny fraction slower for you than it would be for a friend waiting at the airport for you to land. When you do land, you'll essentially have time traveled that tiny fraction of a second into your friends future.

 

In other words, if you had both been born at the exact same instant and were exactly the same age...you're friend would now be a fraction of a second older than you.

 

yes, unbelievably this has been proven. they've mounted atomic clocks on airplanes and have flown them around. the clocks moved at different speed than land clocks.