Ponder Place

Part 2 of the our last Ponderment, again we are expounding on the possibilities of self-manipulation in the world of time travel.

Marcus wrote:

If I were to develop a working theory for time travel and then go back in time and give myself the secret [to time travel] does that mean that I would never have to actually develop the secret because future me would have given it to past me?

You ask a very good question. I think it touches on the fundamental problem with time travel. The way I see it. We are living one of two scenarios.

The first is that time travel is impossible. No ifs, ands or buts about it. It just simply is not possible. I say this because if it were possible, I would have already told myself about it.

Actually that’s not entirely accurate. Saying the above made me wonder.

Perhaps the problem is that we are not within range of interest. Let’s say that in order for someone to actually want to travel back in time. It would be to interact with themselves. Whether it be for money interests (stock market, etc), love interest, knowledge, etc.

Therefore, it’s only logical that the earliest we will encounter time-travel is 80-110 years before it is actually discovered. Where the discoverer will be traveling back in time to tell him/herself about it.

It’s more likely that someone would travel back in time to talk to Hitler, or some other celebrity. Which skews the 80-110 year limit, but even then, that concept still applies. The human race is unlikely to encounter any time traveling tourist until we are within a certain range of interest to time travelers.

The second scenario is that time travel requires information and is only able to collect that information in real time. This would mean that traveling back in time is only possible through the data range that the time traveling “device” was present to record.

Therefore if at 12:00pm May 19th, 2007; you were to complete whatever is required to time travel. It would only be possible to travel back up to that moment it was completed. Attempting to travel to a time previous to that would result in your being ejected into an existence very much similar to the Bermuda Triangle … only in this scenario the Bermuda Triangle is real.

The second scenario is easiest to accept. As it cuts out the possibility of the scenarios you’ve presented me in todays question, and yesterdays questions.

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