If you could go back in time once...

[asmo]

You do understand that if you can go back in time* "once" you can go back an indefinite number of times, right?

causality loops - they're a bitch..

For the layman: I would go back in time with all the materials and plans for my time machine (e.g. I would take a time machine with me - or at least all the know how to make one)..

This is also how I know that time travel will not be invented within my lifetime - because if it was to be, then I would have already come back in time and told myself about it.



* for the Wellsian traditional definition of time travel

[Ronin13]

You do understand that if you can go back in time* "once" you can go back an indefinite number of times, right?

causality loops - they're a bitch..

For the layman: I would go back in time with all the materials and plans for my time machine (e.g. I would take a time machine with me - or at least all the know how to make one)..

This is also how I know that time travel will not be invented within my lifetime - because if it was to be, then I would have already come back in time and told myself about it.



* for the Wellsian traditional definition of time travel

That's deep man...
Now that I think about it, I'd rather not go back in time... doing that crap gives you Parkinson's!

Too soon?
I'm shocked no one started in on all the paradoxes and pitfalls that theorists associate with time travel... like the butterfly effect...

[Dingo]

That's deep man...
Now that I think about it, I'd rather not go back in time... doing that crap gives you Parkinson's! .

Nice. Lol.

The real question I have, is the old standby whenever a time travel discussion comes up. If you were to go back in time and stop the inventor from creatimg a time machine, what would happen? I've got at least a very basic, layman's grasp of quantum theory, but this one is a stumper.

I think it's interesting that Hawking believes time has physical properties that can be manipulated by gravity. He postulates that different people could genuinely experience time at different speeds, in the right set of circumstances. Gives a whole new take on Einstein's "minute with a pretty girl vs minute on a hot stove" bit. :-)

[soldier-of-the-apocalypse]

Nice. Lol.

The real question I have, is the old standby whenever a time travel discussion comes up. If you were to go back in time and stop the inventor from creatimg a time machine, what would happen? I've got at least a very basic, layman's grasp of quantum theory, but this one is a stumper.

I think it's interesting that Hawking believes time has physical properties that can be manipulated by gravity. He postulates that different people could genuinely experience time at different speeds, in the right set of circumstances. Gives a whole new take on Einstein's "minute with a pretty girl vs minute on a hot stove" bit. :-)

What if it not a "machine" what if its caused by natural forces?

[asmo]

If you were to go back in time and stop the inventor from creatimg a time machine, what would happen? I've got at least a very basic, layman's grasp of quantum theory, but this one is a stumper.

Just a variation on the "grandfather paradox" with the same outcomes. Answer depends on if you believe in parallel timelines or not.

Go read some Heinlein.

[sniper7]

I'd go back and tell the founding fathers to write the 2nd amendment very clear with an unmistakable, long drawn out context that citizens can have whatever technology the military has to defend themselves from the government.

or I'd like to go back and tell my dad to buy a bunch of m16's when they were $1000, and also to sell the house, and put every single cent into either google, microsoft and apple when they are first put up for public offering.