Tag Archives: time travel

science of time & time dilation

The Philosophy of Time and Time Travel – Part 1/2

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This is taken from Appendix 4 my new book, How to Time Travel, to be published by early September 2013.

What does philosophy have to do with science? The answer is simple. Your philosophy of time will determine whether you believe time travel is even a scientific possibility. Of the three major philosophical schools on time, only one allows for the possibility of time travel to both the past and future. From this standpoint, it is critical that you know the major philosophies of time and know where you stand on the subject.

Philosophers have been pondering the nature of time for thousands of years. A philosophy of time weaves through almost every ancient culture. For example, the earliest view of the nature of time by a Western philosopher dates back to ancient Egypt and the Egyptian philosopher Ptahhotep (2650–2600 BCE). Indian philosophers and Hindu philosophers also wrote about time dating back to roughly the same period. The ancient Greek philosophers, such as Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Plato, wrote essays about the nature of time roughly around 500 BCE to 350 BCE.

Many early writers questioned the nature of time, the cause of time, and the unidirectional flow of time, often referred to as the “arrow of time.” One of the most interesting aspects when studying the philosophy of time is that some cultures, like the Incas, dating back to about the thirteenth century, considered space and time woven together. Centuries before Einstein published his now-famous special theory of relativity, which scientifically unified space and time (i.e., spacetime), the Incas philosophically unified space and time into a single concept called “pacha.”

There is a question about time that has ancient roots and that continues to trouble modern scientists and many religions, namely: Did time have a beginning? Through the ages, philosophers and scientists have struggled with this question, and no widely accepted answer has emerged. Not surprisingly, the “time had no beginning” camp, which originated with the ancient Greeks, held solid ground for over several millennia. The Greeks were formidable philosophers. However, the emerging world religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, slowly chipped away at the Greek philosophy of an infinite past. They simply taught that a deity made the world, and this suggests a beginning of time. Religious philosophers backed these teachings. Christian philosophers, such as John Philoponus, Muslim philosophers, such as Al-Kindi, and Jewish philosophers, such as Saadia Gaon, argued mathematically that infinities do not exist in reality. If you accept this premise, logically you are backed into a corner and must concede that time had a beginning. In other words, if infinities do not exist in reality and are merely a mathematical construct, then time cannot have an infinite past. This argument was refined and became known as the “argument from the impossibility of completing an actual infinite by successive addition.” Simply stated, you cannot complete infinity by adding successive events. Since an infinite past would imply the addition of success events, it ruled out an infinite past. Some notable scientists aligned with this thinking, the most famous today being Stephen Hawking, who argued that time began with the big bang. Dr. Hawking believes that events before the big bang have no observable consequence. It is not clear that this proves time had a beginning. Other physicists, such as Lawrence Krauss, author of A Universe from Nothing (2012), and I, author of Unraveling the Universe’s Mysteries (2012), argue events occurred that preceded and caused the big bang, which implies time preceded the big bang. It does not prove, though, that time has an infinite past or a beginning.

Almost all of us believe we understand time. In fact, when first asked a question about the nature of time, most of us will begin to explain it. However, as we attempt to explain it, the complexity of time’s nature emerges. Augustine of Hippo (354 CE–430 CE), known to Christians as St. Augustine, eloquently made this observation: “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not.” The most difficult thing I encountered regarding the nature of time was trying to explain it to my six-year-old grandchild. That is when Einstein’s famous quote hit home: “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.”

Fortunately, though, as the sands of time counted millennia after millennia, three major philosophical schools on the nature of time emerged. We will examine them and discuss their implications regarding time travel in our next post.

Multiple overlapping clock faces with various times, creating a surreal and abstract time concept in blue tones.

Is Humankind Ready for Time Travel?

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There is a high probability that scientists will unlock the secrets to human time travel before the end of this century. The technologies needed to develop a real time machine are already coming together.

Let us consider forward time travel, also known as “time dilation”. Particle colliders, like the CERN Large Hadron Collider, are routinely able to accelerate subatomic particles, like a muon (i.e. a negatively charged particle about two hundred times heavier than an electron), and cause time dilation (i.e. extend the life span of the particle by a factor of ten or more). How does this relate to human time travel?

It is a scientific fact that humans within a spacecraft traveling at a velocity near the speed of light would experience time dilation (i.e. forward time travel). A one-year journey, measured on a clock onboard the spacecraft, would be equivalent to decades on Earth. One technology envisioned to power such a spacecraft is a matter-antimatter propulsion engine. CERN scientists, using the Large Hadron Collider, are able to produce and store small quantities of antimatter. The United States Air Force has been funding antimatter research since the early 1960’s. If this research is successful, it could result in a spacecraft with a matter-antimatter propulsion engine, capable of velocities we can only read about in science fiction.

Time travel to the past may be just a decade away, according to Dr. Ronald Mallett, an American theoretical physicist, author, and full professor at University of Connecticut. Dr. Mallett is attempting to twist spacetime using a ring laser (i.e. a laser that rotates in a circle) by passing it through a through a photonic crystal (i.e. a crystal that only allows photons of a specific wavelength to pass through it). The concept behind “Spacetime Twisting by Light” is that by twisting space, via the laser, closed timelike curves will result (i.e. time will also be twisted). A closed timelike curve means that an object, like a neutron (i.e. a subatomic particle), will be able to travel backward in time. Dr. Mallett’s work is still in the research stage, but it represents serious time travel research by a solid member of the scientific community.

While all signs point to humankind having the ability to travel in time by the end of this century, will humankind be ready for time travel?

Most people think of time travel as either science fiction or just another frontier of science. Few realize the weapon potential of time travel. However, it is the ultimate weapon. Any government capable of enabling human time travel can dominate the world. That government can control history. If they can control history, they can control their future. The government’s agents, the time travelers, can intervene and change the past. Similarly, time traveling agents to the future will know with certainty the outcome of any event. The need for spies, secret agents, spy satellites, and the like, will become obsolete. The time machine will be the ultimate weapon, time travelers the ultimate soldiers.

If the capability to time travel is acquired by more than one government, wars as we know them will likely cease. In their place, governments will fight over “history”. Each government will seek to write its own history, and assure its future success. The “world line” (i.e. the four-dimensional path each reality traces in spacetime) will bend and twist to the will of the time machine.

The potential of using time travel as a weapon is real, and we do not know if humankind will be able to control it. If we look to history, humankind has deployed weapons, like nuclear bombs, without knowing the full long-term impact. For example, the Fat Man nuclear bomb detonated above the city of Nagasaki, not only killed 60,000 – 80,000 people in the first four months, but the long-term effects included a 25% increase in the cancer rate of survivors during their lifetime.

There is hope. Humankind recognized the uncontrollable nature of biological weapons before deploying them as weapons of mass destruction. In a 1969 press conference, United States President Richard M. Nixon stated, “Biological weapons have massive, unpredictable, and potentially uncontrollable consequences.” He added, “They may produce global epidemics and impair the health of future generations.” In 1972, President Nixon submitted the Biological Weapons Convention to the U.S. Senate: “I am transmitting herewith, for the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons, and on their Destruction, opened for signature at Washington, London and Moscow on April 10, 1972. The text of this Convention is the result of some three years of intensive debate and negotiation at the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament at Geneva and at the United Nations. It provides that the Parties undertake not to develop, produce, stockpile, acquire or retain biological agents or toxins, of types and in quantities that have no justification for peaceful purposes, as well as weapons, equipment and means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict.”

Will humankind be able to control time travel in a similar fashion to biological weapons? If the answer is yes, then time travel and the associated technologies may serve humankind, assuring humankind’s survival. If the answer is no, the world line may become the new battleground, as each nation seeks to rewrite their history. Would it be possible to twist the world line beyond recognition? Will time itself fall victim to humankind’s carelessness?

With nuclear weapons, the doctrine of nuclear deterrence kept humankind from destroying itself. With time travel, we need a similar doctrine. I submit for your consideration that doctrine needs to be: Preserver the World Line.

Lou Del Monte’s new book, How to Time Travel, is expected to be released on Amazon in early September 2013.

Close-up of an ornate clock face with Roman numerals illuminated by a warm golden light.

Check Out My Huff Post Blog Article, “Time Travel to the Future Is Real”

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Click on the link below to read the Huff Post Science Article:

“Time Travel to the Future Is Real”

– Physicist Louis Del Monte discusses time travel to the future, including time dilation and time travel experimental evidence in this Huffington Post article.

Close-up of an ornate clock face with Roman numerals illuminated by a warm golden light.

Is Time Travel Possible? Part 1 (video)

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In Part 1, Louis Del Monte, scientist and author, explores the possibility of whether time travel is possible. Watch as Louis Del Monte uncovers three of the most popular theories science proposes for time travel: Faster Than Light, Worm Holes, and Black Holes. Although these remain popular theories, they are not practical with today’s science. In addition, Del Monte explains some of the general obstacles that scientists encounter regarding time travel, such as the “grandfather paradox.”

Feel free to brows Del Monte’s new book “Unraveling the Universe’s Mysteries,” available at Amazon.com http://amzn.to/STe9fW and Barnes and Noblehttp://bit.ly/RAv4FL. Del Monte’s research delineates the energy required for time travel to the future.

A colorful tunnel with vibrant, streaking lights creating a dynamic, futuristic visual effect.

Is Time Travel Possible?

Categories, Time Travel

Few subjects fire up our imagination as much as time travel. H.G. Wells’ classic novel, The Time Machine, published in 1895, remains popular to this day. However, let us ask a serious scientific question: Is time travel possible?

Actually, no law of physics prohibits time travel. Indeed, numerous solutions to Einstein’s general relativity equations predict time travel is possible. Time dilation experiments (i.e. slowing down time), routinely performed with particle accelerators, lend credence that time can be scientifically manipulated.

The science community proposes three methods to travel in time. In brief, they are:

  1. Faster-than-light (FTL) time travel to the future – A clock traveling near the speed of light runs slower that a stationary clock. For example, it is an experimental fact that a clock on a jet plane flying over the airport runs slower than a clock at the airport.
  2. Using wormholes – A wormhole is a theoretical entity, in which space-time curvature connects two distant locations (or times). We infer wormholes from Einstein’s general relativity.
  3. Using black holes – Most scientists believe time travel requires enormous energy. Since a black hole already has the enormous energy we need, scientists postulate we could use it as a time machine.

None of the above time travel methods is within the grasp of today’s science. However, as we so often observe, today’s science fiction becomes tomorrow’s science fact.

In addition to the obstacles presented by the above time travel methods, some scientists have surfaced other obstacles, namely time travel paradoxes. Time travel paradoxes are thought experiments that illustrate that time travel may potentially violate causality (cause and effect). The most famous time travel paradox is the known as the “grandfather paradox.” It goes something like this: You travel back in time and meet your grandfather. When you meet him, you change events in such a way that he misses the opportunity to meet your grandmother. Thus, your grandfather never meets your grandmother, and they never marry. What happens to you? Theoretically, you will never be born.

Do time travel paradoxes make time travel impossible? Many scientists say they do not, and are able to propose numerous theories, themselves thought experiments, to resolve time travel paradoxes. Among them are Kip Thorne, an American theoretical physicist and Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology until 2009, who argues that time paradoxes are imprecise thought experiments, which can be resolved by numerous consistent solutions.

We started this post with a deceptively simple question: Is time travel possible? The majority of the scientific community believes it is possible. In fact, some well-known theoretical physicists, like Michio Kaku, believe that time travel is an engineering problem. Even time travel paradoxes do not appear to present insurmountable obstacles.

In my book, Unraveling The Universe’s Mysteries, I present an original solution to Einstein’s equations of special relativity that delineates a relationship between existence and energy. The equation, which I term the “Existence Equation Conjecture,” appears to shed light on the mystery of time dilation, and to some extent on time travel. In fact, with the equation, I am able to predict the effects of time dilation on subatomic particles accelerated near the speed of light. The equation also provides a foundation to explain the universe’s accelerated expansion, which is the subject of a previous post, “Unraveling The Universe’s Accelerated Expansion,” http://bit.ly/RqWFYD.

It may be hard, if not impossible, to believe that time travel is possible. Yet, solutions to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, time dilation experiments, and the Existence Equation Conjecture suggest that time travel is possible. Welcome to the edge of science, where physics and metaphysics blur.