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Is time travel going to be possible?

Debate Information

in the next 200-500 years, will we develop technology to time travel?
if so, just forward, backward, or both directions?
northsouthkoreajoecavalry
  1. Live Poll

    Is time travel going to be possible?

    12 votes
    1. Yes - just to the future
      25.00%
    2. Yes - to future and past
      33.33%
    3. Yes - just back in time
        8.33%
    4. No
      33.33%



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  • northsouthkoreanorthsouthkorea 221 Pts   -  
    Yes, as sicnisrhists are unlocking doors into these projects.
  • PowerPikachu21PowerPikachu21 213 Pts   -   edited July 2017
    They might make something along the lines of hyper sleep/cryogenic freezing (similar to how Fry ended up 1,000 years into the future in Futurama), though I don't count this as time travelling.

    And backwards time travelling seems very unlikely, as someone once said we'd be having tourists from the future if backwards time travelling was possible (even if it was outlawed). So if backwards time travelling isn't possible, technology for future travel doesn't seem very likely. I feel very comfortable with my theory that time travel won't exist, excluding going into hyper sleep.
    joecavalry
  • inc4tinc4t 186 Pts   -  
    @PowerPikachu21, never say never. What seems impossible now is just due to out limitations in thinking.
  • PowerPikachu21PowerPikachu21 213 Pts   -  
    @inc4t So does time travel seem possible? The technology would be incredibly complex, perhaps near impossible. And I haven't seen or heard of any alien or future beings from the future coming to the past. And in the future, if time travel is possible, they must have already made it, or else time itself becomes questionable. And if backwards time travel isn't possible, it would follow that forwards time travel would be similar technology; particles travelling through time. If backwards time travel isn't possible, forwards time travel is equally as unlikely.

    Even if we give humanity 500 years, I think the closest to travelling in time would be hyper sleep, which I don't count as time travelling exactly; as I'd imagine time travel is sending particles through time. Maybe teleportation could be found, but time travelling is just seemingly hard. Convince me that I'm wrong.
  • inc4tinc4t 186 Pts   -  
    @PowerPikachu21, do you watch starTrek?  They have many forms of time travel. There are many options: 
    1) space worm holes that allow travel much faster than speed of light, essentially bending time and space continuum. 
    2) time space anomalies that create disruptiion in the dimension, either a parallel universe or time travel.  It is not well controlled, but it is conceivable that technology can be developed to create such an effect.
    3) alien technology that can transport much faster than speed of light at warp speed. If we can travel much faster than speed of light than we start getting into weird issues like seeing the past from far away as light reflects.

    you claim that no one traveled here from the future. We cannot assert such claim, as we just wouldn't know.

    all I am saying that we don't know enough to claim that time travel is impossible.   100 years ago many things that are available today sounded completely insane.
  • PowerPikachu21PowerPikachu21 213 Pts   -  
    @inc4t

    1) This is definitely a theory I've heard, but it would be difficult to find one, let alone control one. And if backwards time travel did exist like this, is the government hiding the tourists? And the technology used to contain this? Just seems incredibly overwhelming thinking about how much energy is inside of this wormhole.

    2) This also seems complicated. While it's possible, it would be difficult to discover how to contain this energy and use it in a doorway.

    3) That assumes 1) Alien life exists, 2) Alien life has highly advanced technology, and 3) That technology goes through time via going hyperspeed.
  • inc4tinc4t 186 Pts   -  
    @PowerPikachu21, I agree with all your points above and all of these are just far fetched theories that seem highly improbable.  That said, none if these are "impossible", and given pace of innovation and a long enough time period we may see some unexpected ways for limited time travel. Maybe it will be something we completely don't anticipate today
    PowerPikachu21
  • George_HorseGeorge_Horse 499 Pts   -  
    There are many theories, but it is not likely even in the next 500 years. Maybe millions, but I do not think it will be possible, we can only wish.
    love2debatejoecavalry
    "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

    "A communist is like a crocodile" ~Winston Churchill

    We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.~Orson Welles
  • love2debatelove2debate 186 Pts   -  
    @George_Horse, that is a statement not based on facts.  200 years ago no one could imagine going to space either. Technology experiences exponential improvement and there will be a breakthrough at some point.
    joecavalry
  • It is possible that it is possible; therefore, it is possible.
    WhyTrump
  • WhyTrumpWhyTrump 234 Pts   -  
    It is possible that it is possible; therefore, it is possible.
    Makes sense to me. Unless proven that impossible it is possible.
    DawnBringerRivenjoecavalry
    WhyTrump - a good question
  • joecavalryjoecavalry 430 Pts   -  
    I believe that it may be ossicle tot travel through the past and future due to new scientific discoveries.
    DebateIslander and a DebateIsland.com lover. 
  • Vincent_CostanzoVincent_Costanzo 93 Pts   -   edited September 2017
    I don't like time travel. too many paradoxes.

    If you accept the concept of linear time, one event leads to the next which leads to the next etc. Then anything that you did in past with time travel already happened at the time that you went back to do it. Say if you went back in time to kill Hitler. with linear time, if you go back you did whatever you do in the past which means it's already happened. So you know you're going to fail. But if that keeps you from going back then you never tried but if you do you are going to fail. Or say you can change the past, and you go back and kill Hitler. That means he never comes to power which means there's no WWII or a holocaust. Which means that you have to reason to go back. so you don't. But if you don't, Hitler comes to power. so you do. and because you did you didn't and because you didn't you did. Then you're trapped in an infinite logic loop. Then, what if there are multiple branching timelines and every decision makes a new timeline. How do you know that you changed the timeline that you originally came from and didn't just trap yourself in the new one. Then there's the butterfly effect and we all know how that could go.
    PowerPikachu21
  • @Vincent_Costanzo I agree time travel is full of paradoxes, and while interesting to think about, it would be best if it didn't exist. (Also, time travel is why I didn't like the ending of Free Birds. The idea of time travel gets used pretty nicely, except the "reveal" at the end just made it just to complete a time loop. It also ties in nicely with Vincent's logic with how travelling back in time to fix something makes it pointless and paradoxical.)
  • WakeWake 124 Pts   -  
    People who think that time travel will be possible are also people that think we can colonize Mars. Go ahead and try it. The ONE thing that seems to move faster than light it is quantum entanglement. And that appears to not be a transfer of information at all but the same particle peeking out of the front and back end of the universe.
  • NopeNope 397 Pts   -  
    If time travel is the movement between to points in time doesn't that mean we are always time traveling in to the future. Whats with the polls.
  • MikeMike 97 Pts   -  

    Yes, we travel through time, when your velocity is different relative to those standing still. 

    Nope
  • NopeNope 397 Pts   -  
    Mike We are on earth so time travels slower for us then in space because of gravity. Plus aren't you all ways moving through time.
  • ChangeMyViewChangeMyView 61 Pts   -  
    Time travel will be posssible eventually in a meaningful way.
  • EdrilEdril 67 Pts   -  
    Forward time travel is possible (we do it constantly). And due to relativity, there are ways to speed it up and slow it down. Moving very fast or being in a gravity well will make time slow down for you but not anyone else. For example, if you travel at 99% the speed of light away from earth for 5 years, then come back at the same speed, you will have aged 10 years, but the rest of the earth will have aged 100 years. (numbers aren't legit, made up for the sake of conversation).

    Backwards time travel is only possible with alternate dimensions realities, or alternate timelines, otherwise there would be logical paradoxes like killing your father before you were born...
    Nope
  • NopeNope 397 Pts   -   edited December 2017
    Edril Do you think there could be a random time loop. Like you from the future comes to the past and does something that causes events that led to you in the future going in to the past. No paradoxes because everything past you does leds to future you going back in time and doing that thing. The loop is just there.
  • EdrilEdril 67 Pts   -  

    @Nope
    No. Logical paradoxes cannot exist in reality, only in thoughts and conversations.
    If I go back in time, I will have the ability to prevent my own birth. This is a situation that cannot exist because it is a paradox.

    1. It's possible for my birth to be prevented
    2. My birth already happened.


    These to premises cannot exist in the same universe.

  • NopeNope 397 Pts   -  
    Edril It is not a paradoxes. A time loop in which you go back in time a do something to prevent you going back in time cannot exist. Every thing future you does in the past has already happened in the past to lead you to go back in to the past. You don't change the past. This is because their is no beginning to the time loop. You cannot do two things at the same time. You cannot go back in time and change anything as everything you do will was always in the past.. Thier were always to yous in the past and thier actions will always lead to you going back in the past and doing the same thing. Doesn't the fact you don't change the past mean that such a loop is not a paradoxes ming it could exist?
  • EdrilEdril 67 Pts   -  
    @Nope
    What forces me to do or not do certain things?
    If i travel back to before i was born, what prevents me from killing my father?
  • NopeNope 397 Pts   -  
    Edril If you were to kill your father the time loop would not exist. Time loops only exist if you won't stop your capability to go into the past. If you wen't back in time in a time loop you won't killing your father. Something would happen to prevent it or you would decide not to because otherwise you would not be in a time loop.  
  • EdrilEdril 67 Pts   -  

    @Nope

    I don't think you understand what I'm saying. Even if I don't want to kill my father, backwards time travel within the same universe / timeline, creates the possibility of a paradox. The universe doesn't allow for this.

    Gravity doesn't work because we all agree to obey it. It's not voluntary, it's a fundamental property of the universe. Just like how the universe isn't some God figure saying, "ok you can use that time machine, just promise you won't cause any paradoxes".

    You're implying that there would be some force that literally prevents me from making the decision to cause a paradox and also prevents me, or anyone from accidentally doing so. I don't know what that could be.

    ...

    Thinking on this a little more, trying to see your point... You're saying that the fact that I exist to go back in time implies that for whatever reason, we know that I will either fail or decide not to kill my father. We know this like we know all historical events. But that is a very fatalist viewpoint. That means that the future is already "written"; all events are already set on a path that cannot be diverged from.

    It's hard to grasp the concept of future events being in a state of "already happened". Perhaps it's just a semantic issue though...


    Still, I'm not convinced. There's no theory that I've ever heard of that would allow for backwards travel like there are for forwards travel.

  • NopeNope 397 Pts   -  
    Edril Their is two ways I think of time. One were the future does not exist suggesting time loops are not possible where the past grows and the present is in infinity thin line between the future and present like it is the surface of the past sens the surface is infantry thin. This theory allows for free will. The seconded theory is like time is a line that goes on forever. The present is a signal point on this line. This theory would seem to allow time loops and does this because it suggest free will is an allusion and we can't change the future. It just feels like we can because we don't know what is going to happen in the future. The lack of free will is what allows for a time loop. A higher dimensional thing maybe able to look a are time and seeing what we are going to do and what has happened as all part of this line. Sense we have no way of knowing which one it is or if it is another we can't really say time loops are not possible right?
  • NopeNope 397 Pts   -  
    Edril Their is two ways I think of time. One were the future does not exist suggesting time loops are not possible where the past grows and the present is in infinity thin line between the future and present like it is the surface of the past sens the surface is infantry thin. This theory allows for free will. The seconded theory is like time is a line that goes on forever. The present is a signal point on this line. This theory would seem to allow time loops and does this because it suggest free will is an allusion and we can't change the future. It just feels like we can because we don't know what is going to happen in the future. The lack of free will is what allows for a time loop. A higher dimensional thing maybe able to look a are time and seeing what we are going to do and what has happened as all part of this line. Sense we have no way of knowing which one it is or if it is another we can't really say time loops are not possible right?
  • EdrilEdril 67 Pts   -  

    @Nope

    It think we need to make an important distinction between a lack of free will and fatalism.

    Fatalism is the idea that the future is already determined, and there is no possibility to diverge from that course.

    A lack of free will simply means that we are not the authors of our thoughts and decisions. They arise in consciousness due to genetic, environmental, and random causes in our brains.

    You can have a predetermined future while still having free will. It's just that there is a record, somewhere or somehow, of which choices you will freely make.

    Nope
  • averyaproaveryapro 150 Pts   -  
    I think that time travel will eventually be possible. I think that if at first, we weren't able to travel both forward and backward in time that we would be able to "travel" to the future following along the lines of hypersleep. However, I think that we doubt it in our minds because it is a pretty farfetched idea but there are more than likely thousands of people researching, working and trying to make time travel machines. If someone were to make it, however, and it was to actually work I don't think that the government would allow it. For example, if you were to go back in time because something happened that you didn't want to happen, then you just altered the timeline and created a new timeline in history. Think about what would happen to our world if there were thousands of different timelines. If any of you guys watch The Flash, you saw what happened when Barry created Flashpoint, and he had to go back and change time. 
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