If i had a time-machine ...

[txfirefighter]

Txfirefighter, you never really struck me as the religious type before. Or it is just more of a general "no making fun of religion" type of thing?

well, actually i am. but i also dont like when any religion is made fun of. i wont preach to anyone here but i feel how could i ever try and reach them with christianity if i mock them for their beliefs...

[txfirefighter]

Reminder to everyone and anyone,
be-careful of what you post. By posting remarks about race,religion ect.. there is a chance that it will cause problems and escalate into some type of argument. Which can = topic locked.

Obviously, no one in this post has the intent to cause trouble,(its all good) but to maintain forum peace it is a good idea to limit/carefully consider when dealing with the topic of religion.


Back to the topic.

Time and its machine.

noted and adhered to.


anways TImeline by michael Crichton is an awesome book about time as a dimension. awesome read (never saw the movie though)

[Blxz]

I still stick to my previous post that time is an illusion that we have created. Our need to measure and quantify things has led to this being so ingrained into ourselves that we can't take a step back and 'not' imagine it. Things are happening. We are not 'moving forward' in time (or sideways or backwards or any direction). Things are happening and we measure the 'pace' of that move/change by counting the number of times that an atom vibrates and comparing it to the change we are measuring.

Basically, there is no past or future other than memories which give us a false impression of things.

[Kamos]

Well of course if you want to be so abstract. Time is just a system of measurement built within the confines of society and a useful one at that considering our nature.
The entirety of society is just an adaptation to our existence. I could imagine other sentient creatures adapting differently.

[Blxz]

Exactly. But then people start using time to justify abstract physics. They are then using abstract, potentially non-existent things to justify the existence of other theories. At which point does it all become any more reliable than the medieval 'centre of the universe' theory? My main gripe about quantum theory is the place that 'time' occupies within it and how Einstein focused on this '4th dimension' and how modern physicists seem to have just taken the idea and run with it. But that discussion is beyond the scope of this document.

[1337]

If you talk about changes then time must exist. For changes to occur in a specific order they have to go along a timeline or else everything would happen on the same point (or not happen at all). If you lift your left hand and then your right, you can't say anything other then that: you lifted your left hand before your right, so there has to be time. If there's no time you wouldn't even be able to lift that hand up.

A more obvious example: You are sitting on a chair, now you go somewhere else (toilet, who cares). Now when you come back you see someone else sitting on the same chair. Again the only possible way that you and that other person are on the same space is because the time continuum exists and you are on the same space in different points of that continuum (be it a dimension or something else).

You have to take a more agnostic approach about this^^ Right now we (scientists) can't prove it nor refute it, but it works with all experiments/experiences that's why we stick with it. If you can't take that mental step and move along with a theory that isn't proved "scientifically" 100% then you'll stagnate and that's bad. (Although I'm not sure there aren't experiments that prove it already...)

We are also limited by our means to inspect it. Our eyes see some information but not everything (snakes see temperature for instance) if our microscopes get better we'll see more stuff and so on. Maybe there's already an animal that can see time or feel it flow or not.

-----------------

Does anyone here believe the big bang theory? I talked about it without thinking lol. For those who do, what was there before the big bang?

[Blxz]

It is interesting. I like your points. But I say that this whole "one thing happened after another" etc stuff that you say with arms and legs and toilets and chairs is simply something that we create. Like I said a few posts ago, our whole phyche is so intimately involved with the idea of time as a 'real' thing; we create and rationalise these weird situations. I move my leg, then move my arm. There is no real timeline. Something simply happened and then another thing happened in the same physical space.

Unfortunately it is almost impossible to explain this without using time related words. That is my point, we have it drilled into us from birth to death, our language consists of time. Because of this we imagine and create these paradoxes or rationales for why there must be time.

For the record, this is an interesting discussion. Whether I totally believe what I am saying or not....well I haven't made up my mind. But I do like thinking about things from different angles than the 'accepted norm'. Helps to understand why the accepted norm may well indeed be correct rather than just taking everything for granted because someone told me that it is so.

[1337]

For the record, this is an interesting discussion. Whether I totally believe what I am saying or not....well I haven't made up my mind. But I do like thinking about things from different angles than the 'accepted norm'. Helps to understand why the accepted norm may well indeed be correct rather than just taking everything for granted because someone told me that it is so.

I can't say I'm sure too that's the whole point of discussing i believe (well partly). Anyway the point of this thread wasn't to (dis)prove time, only to talk about what people could do with a time-machine (or a magical power or whatever floats your boat). Even Superman can rewind time by flying around the earth (never understood that even a bit meh).

I'd still like some ideas about what was before the big bang. Where is the start and what is the start of the universe? This is turning into a philosophical / metaphysical debate.

Also on a related note, let's say time exists and you can go back into the past, is there a way to acquire world domination? (taking notes)

[SilentHill]

The only way I can see world domination with a time machine is to prevent the human species from splitting apart 60,000+ years ago. Forming a single culture, language and nation from the very beginning, it would reduce conflict since morals, beleifs, wants, etcetera, would be generally the same. Growth would take a lot longer though since conflict is normally the main reason growth happens.
Might be an opportunity in the very far future as well though.

[Blxz]

Pre-bigbang hey.... Energy I guess.

I haven't read up on my big bang theory recently but thats when matter came into being; from energy right? So pre bigbang was lots of energy just chilling out and having a good time. For some reason or another it was focused into a single point and then a bar fight broke out and 'stuff' appeared. Suddenly its the 80's, Lennon is dead and everyone is having a shitty time in general.

That's how those things go I guess.

[toaster Assassin]

In the beginning there was nothing, then there was something,then it exploded. And that's why we have McDonalds all over the world. Any questions?




The theory was, I believe about a singularity that existed before space and that it expanded, rather than exploded. Energy converted to matter?

[Kamos]

No in the beginning there was nothing, then there was Calvin.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iRE1f7T37Zk/T ... enesis.gif

[SilentHill]

I still have some ways to read before I get to it but, The Grand Design - Hawking. Try's to explain how matter was created. I think it has to do with quantum theory, Specifically Heisenbergs uncertainty principle. But I'm not done reading it yet, I would suggest the book to everyone.

As for time again the reason I'm much more towards it as a dimension, is Special & General relitively, The earlier more so then the later. It really can't be imaginitive. For an example, All GPS Satellite clocks have to be made 38 microseconds slower (per day) or they would make increasingly inaccurate results to your location. This is because your location is found using time as a factor (d=vt) and that the conditions of satellites cause time to go faster by 38microseconds per day for them.

I think calvin and hobbes is what gave me a sence of irony as a kid.

[Blxz]

I wonder if the clocks need to be made slower because of the way we measure time? ie. atomic clocks. Therefore gravity would affect that and make the clocks gain time up in space away from the earths surface. This doesn't invalidate my theory at all.

[txfirefighter]

i look at my watch and it reads 1325 therefore there is time...


/steps away.

[DarkPonzu]

I'd make sure my parents never met

[Blxz]

I'd make sure my parents never met

Impossible. The only thing you would do is make your 'real' parents meet. Or cause a timeline collapse.

EDIT: Or create an alternate timeline where there is no record of you ever existing in which case the government would arrest you and stick you in jail for the rest of your life. =)