Tuesday, June 06, 2006
[Science] No Evidence of Time Travel, Still Possible? Maybe
It occurred to me yesterday that I obviously will never acquire the ability to time travel (at least into the past) since I have no evidence of it. After all, if I ever do acquire the ability, then it does not matter at what point I do so (age 30, 60, 100, etc.) since whenever it does happen, I can always go back to any point in the past. The reasoning is that if I do acquire the ability to go back (presumably to help myself make my—uh, our—life better), then I would have done so and would know it. It does not matter if it happens tomorrow or 50 years from now; either way if I go back to my past then it has the same effect. Yet, I have never been visited by myself and so I clearly do not eveacquirere the ability in my lifetime.
However, that reasoning falls apart because there is no guarantee that if I dacquirere the ability, that I would come back to this point or any previous point in my life. It is entirely possible that for example, in 10 years I get the ability and then I come back in time tomorrow morning. Just because I have up until now, never been visited by my future self, does not mean that I do not eveacquirere the ability, since I did not need to come back this far. Tomorrow morning however is a different story, something may happen tomorrow morning which requires my intervention and so I will be visited by myself and thus know for sure that I do eventually come across the time-travel technology.
The point is that while there is no current evidence to support the idea that I will ever be able to travel back in time, it does not rule out the possibility since I may just not need to come back this far. This itrulyly the definition of "you never know what the future holds", since for all I know, tomorrow I may be visited by myself from the future who then helps to make my life better. It's impossible to completely rule that out withouentirelyly disproving the possibility of time travel altogether.
However, that reasoning falls apart because there is no guarantee that if I dacquirere the ability, that I would come back to this point or any previous point in my life. It is entirely possible that for example, in 10 years I get the ability and then I come back in time tomorrow morning. Just because I have up until now, never been visited by my future self, does not mean that I do not eveacquirere the ability, since I did not need to come back this far. Tomorrow morning however is a different story, something may happen tomorrow morning which requires my intervention and so I will be visited by myself and thus know for sure that I do eventually come across the time-travel technology.
The point is that while there is no current evidence to support the idea that I will ever be able to travel back in time, it does not rule out the possibility since I may just not need to come back this far. This itrulyly the definition of "you never know what the future holds", since for all I know, tomorrow I may be visited by myself from the future who then helps to make my life better. It's impossible to completely rule that out withouentirelyly disproving the possibility of time travel altogether.
