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A question about time travel (theoretical physics)...

Asked by wundayatta (58722points) September 9th, 2008

So I know that mathematecally, the universe could just as easily run backwards, as forwards. But in our reality, it only runs forwards.

Suppose we could break the light speed barrier. It seems to me that we could travel backwards in time (catching up to and passing light that was emitted in the past, thus experiencing those things again. But how could we move forward in time? If time only moves forward, those events have not yet occurred, and we can’t catch them, even if we can go faster than light. Due to chaos, there is an infinite possibility of future events.

This is why I don’t like multiple worlds theories: every second can be divided into an infinite number of parts, and in every one of those parts there is an infinite number of possibilities, so after one second, it seems to me the universe would have been multiplied an infinity of infinities and where would the space for all that be?

So how could we travel into the future? Seems to me we can only travel into the past (theoretically), assuming the light speed barrier is broken, and of course, that is theoretically impossible. Ergo, no time travel. Ever. Period.

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