Time Travel: Part Deux

At its base, the current theory of time travel seems to be more sympathetic to basic logic. For example, one cannot unexist. We also don't have to start questioning our adages because you still can't change the past, which, though not as glamorous, is logically comforting to me.

The new basic concept simply takes away the assumption there is only one space/time continuum. It kind of puts time travel on the same level as "Sliding Doors," there are innumerable minor deviations that spin off and create new parallel paths. So, to simplify it, taking yourself out of one space/time continuum is really comparable to whether or not you caught that train, went to that restaurant on that night, or were late for work on that day, etc. The only difference is the separate path you've created through time travel is not parallel, it's overlapping. (The movie Primer, written, directed, and produced by Shane Carruth illustrates this concept of time travel well. Although it's very dense. it shows this more "anticlimactic" form of time travel theory)

NOW

The reason for my sudden interest in time travel is partly because it's tangential to a topic I've been mulling over since I was five, when I had the sudden realization that "you can do whatever you want and no one can make you do anything." Upon announcing this revelation to the entire playground I was swiftly apprehended and placed in time out, but it was too late, I had discovered free will.

I have recently felt compelled to revisit the free will v. determinism debate (if it is in fact a debate) as it relates to cosmology. I am fascinated by the idea that mathematical equations could govern universal structure and balance. This brings us back to Einstein, I'll let the Albert Einstein Institute speak for him:

"The appropriate physical theory for describing our universe and its gravitational interactions is general relativity. In addition, one needs to take into account models for the properties of matter such as gas and electromagnetic radiation...this defines physical laws which constrain the properties of the cosmos, equations that any universe must obey. A universe that does satisfy the constraints is, in mathematical parlance, a solution to these equations, just as x=-2 and x=4 are solutions to the quadratic equation x2 - 2·x-8=0."

These are all inchoate thoughts, I have not extensively researched this yet. But if there were some mathematical component to the universe, with equations dictating its balance, then the free will/determinism question gets more complicated...

Time Travel : Part Un

A lofty topic I will take on in parts. My goal here is merely to flesh out my nascent thoughts on the subject. But first, a preface:

At the age of 9 I discovered Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, and, subsequently, the twin paradox. The source was my very own volume of encyclopedias, my only reference tool in those pre-internet times, which I poured over incessantly. For some reason I was particularly enamored with this one-sheet thought experiment and so in a frame and on my wall it went.

I was still incredulous when it came to "TV" time travel, which went way beyond the simple premise (stated by the theory of relativity) that the faster you travel through space, the slower you travel through time.

My interest in the subject was left off here and my opinion remained the same (until recently) - that it may be possible to slow the speed at which one moves through time. I decidedly did not believe in "time travel" because Einstein's theory does not allow one to "go back" in time, and Back to the Future's unfortunate dearth of scientific backing left me unswayed. Although I was relatively intrigued by the idea that the future was so sensitive to a minor change in the course of events.

This brings us to the present noise on time travel, harmonious in the acceptance of one major principle: One cannot alter a course of events that has already taken place: sorry Doc, no disappearing from pictures or setting off chain reactions that revoke Marty's existence. (I mean that concept right there is really illogical in and of itself - that one can "unexist.")