Time Travel in the 24th Century

[Reese_Hawkins 0]

For the dumb at heart, that was a SNL joke in the topic description, but I think everyone knew that....I hope...

 

Anyway, I am watching the new Enterprise episode "Cogientor" and they mentioned First Contacts in the first part of it, which immediatly brought up thoughts of the Star Trek movie of the same name.  So, being the amateur scientist I am, I thought of this:

 

"Have The Next Generation crew traveled back in time already, before the crew of Enterprise NX-01, or has thay yet to happen in their time?  So does the future have to happen before the past?  Or would the past occur before the future does like it should?"

 

Both result in a paradox of sorts.  What is everyone's thoughts on this?  Just a thought.

 

**Reese Hawkins**

[Images 0]

my advice is not to think about it or people will look at you like doc in back to the future

[MisterSmith 0]

Reese, as we can see from this weeks episode,"Regeneration", yes, the Next Generation crew has already come and gone.

 

For info on "Regeneration", here's the link to the synopsis: "Regeneration" - Next on Enterprise

[HyperDrive 0]

But you do raise an interesting point. Does time-travel in the past actually happen in the past, or in the 24th Century? Technically, if time travel is possible in the future, and someone travelled back to this time, would we ever know about it before the original time they left (the future).

 

Reese, there are several theories about what actually happens during time travel. Many of them just simply state that time travel is impossible; one of the more popular theories is that it is impossible to travel back in time before the time machine was originally invented. So, if you invented a time machine in 2055, you could not go back in time to see the dinosaurs, Picasso, the cotton gen, or anything that we know of now. You would only be able to go back in time to 2055, whether you left in 2430 or 2056, you will still only be able to go back to the original date and time the machine was built.

 

But, this raises another question. What if you didn't have a time machine? There are other theories, seen in a few Star Trek episodes and movies, that create the "slingshot" effect around dense-gravity stars. The is pure speculation, taking into mind that Warp 10 is the "time barrier". Of course, many people believe that Warp 1 is this "time barrier", and crossing it will cause time, for the people travelling at that speed, to see time in the outside completely stop. Then you cross into other theories, such as, Can we ever reach the speed of light?

 

So, your question would have to be answered in a speculative base. In theory, the Enterprise, depending on the medium of time travel it uses, could go back in time. So, no one knows if you would actually know that the Enterprise went back in time. And if you did, that means Picard knew he would go back in time, and made plans for the future in relation to events in the past; a paradox. Theories state that this is impossible.

 

So to be completely scientific, your question has no answer. Mainly because, no one knows. :o

 

~HD

[Images 0]

Well it also depends on your theories of what IS time? if time is like one long line then theoretically time travel into the past is possible but nobody's gone back any further then this point since it would cause the collapse of the universe. When you really think about it the universe is simply an arrangement of different particles each acting with it's own amount of energy. If you were to travel back in time you would change this arrangement of particles and send time into a new tangent. Even if the tangent's history was EXACTLY the same as the others, the arrangement of particles makes it a different future. Therefore no future to come to, it doesn't exist, therefore no past time travel therefore NOTHING exists after the point you went back to. However if you believe in a theory that time works on a white-out line basis, that the universe takes into account the original universe but is making corrections onto a new one which becomes the present one then it is possible and i think that is the one that most films, tv shows, etc use.

[Yvon Hawke 0]

TechTV has a show called Big Thinkers that has an episode regarding this very subject. They play it once every copule of months.

 

I suggest keeping an eye out for it. They discuss wormhole theories in the mix as well.

[Dumbass 0]

Now I know why Janeway gets those headaches!

[Reese_Hawkins 0]

I am an avid fan of TechTV, and I have seen the episode in which you refer to Yvon.

 

My theory is:  You can travel into the past, but once you do so, you are stranded in the time where you stop.  You cannot travel into the future, because the infinite outcomes that are possible for one person to make would be asking the time machine to tell the entire universe what to do, there are simply too many outcomes to predict what one will make.  For instance, say someone tried to travel into the future, I could press any key on this keyboard, a chinese man could choose Moo Goo Gai Pan over Egg Drop Soup, and a Russian could decide not to go drink, which would result in him getting a job toomorrow, that leads him to invent a new type of propulsion that lets us travel to stars in a short time, endless choices results in our failure to travel ahead.  And if you did, you would see nothing, because everything had not chosen a path to follow.  So travelling nto the past would result in us never knowing if they were successful or not.

[AndrewLyon 0]

Now I'm not a science nut, but I have a simple idea concerning time travlel. First, you can forward, but not backwards, unless you have a machine that sends you back, and you can recall despite any changes you made. Now the reason why I account for changes allowing you to call your self back is easy.

Imagine the starting of time like the first break in a tree chart. The furth time proceddes, the more breaks you get. Now lets pretend you're on limb 34-b. You don't like something you did to get to 34-b, but you have a time machine to go back, and change it so you end up at 34-A. Now while you made the decision to go back in time, we end up with a parelle universe where you don't do that.

See how it all works? Simple enough. Now lets just hope the first time traveller doesn't trash the planet. And if you're wondering why you can't go back in time, since I share the same thoery about the whole matter in the refined state can't go back to when it was unrefined, or as its better known as, natural resorces.