Who invented time travel?

I don't think reading a book counts as time travel. In that case, doing anything is time travel because you are interacting with something that *was* in the past.
 
how about the person who invented time, whoever that might have been. or at least the measurement of time. or maybe the concept of time zones. i know there are several state lines i can cross and either lose or repaeat an hour. :confused:
 
I personally think its some kind of trick question with one of those "I never would have thought of that" or "why didn't I think of that" answers. Because no one could have "invented" time or time travel.
 
So, if I travel back to 1969 and I was frozen in 1967, I could go look at my frozen self. But, if I'm still frozen in 1967, how could I have been unthawed in the 90's and traveled back to the Sixties?

*goes cross-eyed*

Oh, no, I've gone cross-eyed.
 
for example, in that movie the time machine that I just saw,
he goes back in time to keep his girlfriend from dying, but if she hadn't died he never would have made a time machine so she would have still died so he would have made a time machine and gone back in time and....

you get the point :)
 
Yes, that is the essence of paradox. Maybe you could go back in time and have a look around, but you could not go back with a goal of changing the past and have any chance of success, because if you succeeded, you would negate your motive for going back in the first place.

This is not to say you couldn't change anything -- you just couldn't change the thing which made you decide to go back...
 
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the time portal. As you know, Austin Powers was frozen in 1967. Therefore, I time travel to 1969, two years after he was frozen. Security will be lax and I'll strike when he is totally helpless. First, I take Austin Powers' mojo. Then I begin my domination of the world.

*maniacal laugh*

Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha!
 
Time travel...

It's about innerspace, not outerspace.

One person, having the power to control the destiny of the world, would be the master of the game. That person would also get bored pretty quickly, freezing points in time to return and change consequences at will. A time machine would eventually mean creation by thought. In other words, the best example of why time travel already exists is, believe it or not, in the movie Bill & Ted's excellent adventure: if an agreement is made to do something in the future that will change the past, will it affect the present?

The paradox is that if this could happen nothing could exist. Time travel exists, but only within our minds. It's already been invented. So who invented it? Who's responsible for coding our DNA?
 
Originally posted by MacLuv
In other words, the best example of why time travel already exists is, believe it or not, in the movie Bill & Ted's excellent adventure: if an agreement is made to do something in the future that will change the past, will it affect the present?

There is no difference between past and future. It's already set, and you can't change it. Sure you can travel in "time", but it depends on what your definition of time is. I think time is an illution created by us humans, and that other animals have different notions of time. E.g. one day for us can seem like ten days for a rat. It's all relative. In other words, time doesn't really exist. There is no fourth dimension or anything silly like that. Time is simply something we measure like we measure speed and distances.

Originally posted by MacLuv

The paradox is that if this could happen nothing could exist. Time travel exists, but only within our minds. It's already been invented. So who invented it? Who's responsible for coding our DNA?

You're really asking "why on earth do we live at all?". I don't know :p
 
Originally posted by ksv
There is no difference between past and future. It's already set, and you can't change it.

I have no control over the future?
robotguy says
Code:
sometimes if i assemble things now

the way i want them to be

i can step into the future of my desire.

Is how much control I have over the now determine how much of the future I control?


Time, however, is precisely what is absent from all these projections. Ethernet is a system based on the intelligence of terminals; ATM is a system based on the intelligence of switches and networks. All the arguments for ATM miss the law of the microcosm: the near annual doubling of chip densities, the spiraling increase of computer power surging on the fringes of all networks as transistor sizes plummet over the next decade.




the beginnings of critical mass
 
Originally posted by MacLuv
I have no control over the future?

Hard to tell. I some way you have, but what you're going to do isn't going to change. E.g. if you decide to run across australia, and then change your mind and don't do it anyway, that wouldn't change the future.
 
Originally posted by ksv
Hard to tell. I some way you have, but what you're going to do isn't going to change. E.g. if you decide to run across australia, and then change your mind and don't do it anyway, that wouldn't change the future.

If time exists only in our heads, why does it take physical action to change the future? What would happen if our minds were unable to record the actions of ourselves and others--or observe change in the world around us at all?
 
Originally posted by MacLuv
If time exists only in our heads, why does it take physical action to change the future? What would happen if our minds were unable to record the actions of ourselves and others--or observe change in the world around us at all?

Remember you're talking about time as we humans experience it like that was exactly what's happening. We can't change the future. We do observe changes in the world around us. That's just how we is. We also have a notion of time, a piece of metal doesn't. For the piece of metal, there is no difference between one day and a hundred years, because it isn't alive.
 
If we're going to define history as identical with our perceptions, then arguably we each inhabit our own universe. None of us has the same set of experiences, none of us remembers things the same way. We all perceive things differently and we all have different dreams. Some hallucinate - from drug use, mental illness, or a variety of other causes.

The timeline between our respective ears is personal, and if it changes from one day to the next, how would we even know? Can you remember something one way, but also remember remembering it differently on another day? I know *I* don't.

Journeys in "inner space" are relevant, and can certainly be discussed, but I am skeptical that any sort of universal truths can be found there.

Personal truths, sure. But not universal.
 
Originally posted by JohnnyV
The first time traveler was the first person to read a book/wall/symbol. The inventor of Time Travel was the author of the book/wall/symbol. Go Read.

Who was the first person?
 
The first person to read or write, or recognize a manmade symbol of any kind? Hunnh??

Well, if you're a Christian or Jew, maybe you mean Adam? Conversing with Eve about past events ought to count too, eh? Audible symbols ought to be as good as visual ones.

Leaving aside the Bible, what possible 'first ever manmade symbol' (not just the first that we have record of, but THE FIRST) do you mean?
 
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