TIME. What happens if...

[bhouncy]

Professor Ronald Mallett thinks he can build a time machine this century using light. Information from the future could be sent back to when the machine is turned on.

What happens if in the future you don't sent back the information that you received when you turned the machine on from the future?

So say I switch on the machine and a message saying "Hello from 2009!" appears but when we get to 2009 we don't send that particular message back. This is some kind of paradox or is there a simple answer? :wtf:

bhouncy Reviewed by bhouncy on 03-14-2008. TIME. What happens if... Professor Ronald Mallett thinks he can build a time machine this century using light. Information from the future could be sent back to when the machine is turned on. What happens if in the future you don't sent back the information that you received when you turned the machine on from the future? So say I switch on the machine and a message saying "Hello from 2009!" appears but when we get to 2009 we don't send that particular message back. This is some kind of paradox or is there a Rating: 5

[Psycho4Bud]

Just in case, I'd like to have the Superbowl Champs names for the next 15 years. OH SWEET RETIREMENT!!!

Have a good one!:jointsmile:

[bhouncy]

Just in case, I'd like to have the Superbowl Champs names for the next 15 years. OH SWEET RETIREMENT!!!

Have a good one!:jointsmile:

I had a similar idea :jointsmile:

It made me think also of who would own the time machine. Knowing the future is a very powerful thing.

[Iyaman]

I think that by altering things in the past, we switch over to a different parrallel universe. Like jumping to a different 5th dimentional course.

[McLeodGanja]

Hello from year 2009!:yippee:

Hey, it's pretty fucking great here, but I can't tell you why. It is nice weather today.

[McLeodGanja]

I just built an imaginary time machine so we can do a thought experiment to see if it works, right here goes.... *click*

[dragonrider]

I just built an imaginary time machine so we can do a thought experiment to see if it works, right here goes.... *click*

Dammit! I said send the stock market quotes, not the funny papers! Who cares what Dilbert is doing in 2009?

[dragonrider]

I think that by altering things in the past, we switch over to a different parrallel universe. Like jumping to a different 5th dimentional course.

The universe is constantly "splitting" into every possible outcome for every possible decision and every possible random occurence. There are infinite numbers of parallel universes created every instant. In one parallel universe the information is sent back, and in another it isn't. Because they both exist, no paradox is created --- each timeline is internally consistent.

[THClord]

Reading this thread is just like watching Back To the Future.

[Coelho]

The universe is constantly "splitting" into every possible outcome for every possible decision and every possible random occurence. There are infinite numbers of parallel universes created every instant. In one parallel universe the information is sent back, and in another it isn't. Because they both exist, no paradox is created --- each timeline is internally consistent.

Well... its called the "many world interpretation" of quantum mechanics... but i think the ones who created this theory were a bit wrong. I wouldnt say the universe "branches", or "splits" every time a decision is taken. I would say always there were, there is, and always there will be all the possible universes with all the possible outcomes.
When a decision is taken, the univesre does not branch itself in two, one for each choice. Both universes, one for each choice, are already there. When we make a choice, we just choose what universe (from the two possible) we will percieve, and what universe we will ignore.
Usually our mind only can "understand" one universe at time, and thats why we think we did a choice. All the unending possibilities are there, but we only can percieve one of them at time.