I have come to believe that the future does not exist until it has become the present and it is not possible to reverse time. if it is possible to travel to the past, then there is a predetermined future, because our present is their future. this means that their is also a predetermined future for us, because the people of the future would also be able to travel back in time, which would mean, if time travel was possible, that their is no free will, because are futures are decided.

I have come to believe that the future does not exist until it has become the present and it is not possible to reverse time. if it is possible to travel to the past, then there is a predetermined future, because our present is their future. this means that their is also a predetermined future for us, because the people of the future would also be able to travel back in time, which would mean, if time travel was possible, that their is no free will, because are futures are decided.

I agree that rime reversal is impossible. But I think that to disprove it you'll need more. What if there is only one present and time travel was a matter of removing the time traveler from time then reversing the flow of time then re-introducing the traveler into time? That probably didn't make much sense, Oh well.

And this is where the theory of alternate dimensions come in and fix all. Although, it kinda destroys free will...unless we have only one "true conciousness" that travels a certain path and IF we go back in time we can travel on a different path through time.

Heres another theory. Maybe there is no past or future only now. Maybe what we think we remember never really happened it just coincides with where we're at right now. Take a dream for instance. You have all these memories of things that happened but when you wake up you realize they were all false memories. They just coincided with the dream you were having at the time.

I think if its possible to travel into the future but not the past may be because the past becomes set in stone but the futures dynamic so if you were to travel into the future it would just be another now and its past may not coincide with the now you were in before travelling into the future but you wouldn't even know it because you would have new memories that coincide with the present your in now.

I read somewhere that Einstein had discovered principles that may explain time travel but mainstream science rejected the idea.

I just read the Einstein theory on time travel. Its fairly simple but a few things don't add up. Supposedly the speed of light remains to same relative to the observer regardless of the observers velocity in the same direction or opposite the light ray.

They say if a mans travelling at half the speed of light in a train and shines a flash light inside the train and measures the velocity of the light rays they will measure the normal speed of light and not half the speed of light like you would think since light always has the same velocity regardless of the velocity of its source. Then if the guy watching the train pass by measures the velocity of the light from the guy on the trains flashlight you would logically assume that its velocity would be more than the normal speed of light because of the added velocity of the train but again light travels with the same velocity regardless of how fast its source is moving so it would measure the normal velocity of light.

This implies that time is relative to the velocity of the observer.

Heres something that doesn't add up though. Lets say you have a train travelling at the speed of light . Hypothetically if someone in that train shone a laser pointer towards the front of the train the light won't just be suspended in one area in the carriage since it would only move at the same speed the trains going. The laser would hit the wall at the front of the train but obviously this makes no sense since an outside observer would measure the laser beam as going the exact same speed as the train.

What if you attached a big laser to the front of the train heading towards the brick wall. Lets say there was lots of mist so you could see the whole laser beam. Lets say the train conductor was looking out the front window. He should be able to see the laser beam since it will travel ahead at the speed of light. Would an outside observer see this laser beam?:confused::confused::confused:

I know this is an experiment that can't be carried out but I'd love to know the answer to this. This question deserves a thread of its own.

Heres another theory. Maybe there is no past or future only now. Maybe what we think we remember never really happened it just coincides with where we're at right now. Take a dream for instance. You have all these memories of things that happened but when you wake up you realize they were all false memories. They just coincided with the dream you were having at the time.

this is what i also have been thinking of. and so if you travel to the future, you cannot return to your original time, because that time no longer exists, except in our memories.

tell that to the terminator. but yea i dont think that time travel is possible

I think if its possible to travel into the future but not the past may be because the past becomes set in stone but the futures dynamic so if you were to travel into the future it would just be another now and its past may not coincide with the now you were in before travelling into the future but you wouldn't even know it because you would have new memories that coincide with the present your in now.


But what makes the 'past' the 'past'?
The Now before the Now you are experiencing Now?
If a future Now will enevitibly become a Now and then a past Now, what makes a future Now so different from a present Now?
What it seems you are saying is there is this continuous flow of time, and every moment the force advances your Now, the river freezes behind you.
That seems weird and unnecessary to me.

Why must the past be so different from the future? the laws of physics work just as good in both directions.

But what makes the 'past' the 'past'?
The Now before the Now you are experiencing Now?
If a future Now will enevitibly become a Now and then a past Now, what makes a future Now so different from a present Now?
What it seems you are saying is there is this continuous flow of time, and every moment the force advances your Now, the river freezes behind you.
That seems weird and unnecessary to me.

Why must the past be so different from the future? the laws of physics work just as good in both directions.

the difference between the past and future is that the past is known, and the future is not.

Heres something that doesn't add up though. Lets say you have a train travelling at the speed of light . Hypothetically if someone in that train shone a laser pointer towards the front of the train the light won't just be suspended in one area in the carriage since it would only move at the same speed the trains going. The laser would hit the wall at the front of the train but obviously this makes no sense since an outside observer would measure the laser beam as going the exact same speed as the train.

actually, in theory the light cast by the laser would be suspended in air, all science points to it (save scarcely acknowledged loons). in fact it would impossible to move forward because that would mean you're travailing faster then the speed of light.

p.s. what does this have to do time travel?

Yea Ian I misunderstood it. This principle doesn't apply if your travelling at the speed of light. Travelling anything under the speed of light it does apply though. If your travelling at a mm per second less than the speed of light then you'd see the laser pointer travel ahead normally. This is still crazy shit.

This has a lot to do with time travel. If the person travelling at high speeds just under the speed of light and a stationary outside observer can both measure the light travelling from the laser pointer as having the normal speed of light then obviously something weird is going on. Time is slowed for the person travelling at high speeds. Theoretically the person travelling at high speed could be travelling for a hundred years but to him it was only a year so he didn't age.

Take a look at this link
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time/think.html
you don't have to go faster than the speed of light because according to this observation (I dont know how the hell they managed to measure this) the speed of light is relative to the observer depending on his velocity so this either means that time passes by at a different rate for something with high velocity or else a space moving at high velocity becomes completely warped. According to this theory its a combination of both.

I haven't thought deeply into this and I don't feel like doing it now but this phenomenon implies a lot of crazy shit for our scientific theories of space and time.