Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Quantum time machine 'allows paradox-free time travel'
Telegraph ^ | 7/22/10 | Tom Chivers

Posted on 07/26/2010 1:28:23 AM PDT by LibWhacker

Quantum physicists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe it is possible to create a time machine which could affect the past without creating a "grandfather paradox".

Scientists have for some years been able to 'teleport' quantum states from one place to another. Now Seth Lloyd and his MIT team say that, using the same principles and a further strange quantum effect known as 'postselection', it should be possible to do the same backwards in time. Lloyd told the Technology Review: "It is possible for particles (and, in principle, people) to tunnel from the future to the past."

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: machine; physics; postselection; quantum; quantumcomputing; quantummechanics; teleportation; time; timemachine; timetravel
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-44 next last

1 posted on 07/26/2010 1:28:28 AM PDT by LibWhacker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

The world gets stranger every day...


2 posted on 07/26/2010 1:36:57 AM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

Let me know when I get a time machine for $795 at Best Buy....


3 posted on 07/26/2010 1:37:55 AM PDT by freebilly (No wonder the left has a boner for Obama. There's CIALIS in soCIALISt....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

I appreciate the science, but my first thought was — boy, if I could go back 20-30 years in time and buy MSFT, INTC and some other stocks...


4 posted on 07/26/2010 1:56:07 AM PDT by SmartInsight (Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. ~ G. J. Nathan)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker
The article is cheapened by the "Back to the Future" still. Why is it now "obligatory" for supposedly serious science articles to include pop culture references?

There are those that say that if time travel was possible, we would already have seen visitors from the future. Then again, our current world must seem so prehistoric and harsh to peoples of the future. After all, if it were possible today to travel back to say, the Middle Ages, would anybody actually want to go there?

5 posted on 07/26/2010 2:31:24 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (I am 29 days away from outliving Francis Gary Powers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

After the terribly stressful last six weeks and corresponding 20/20 hindsight, I’M IN. Where do I sign up??


6 posted on 07/26/2010 2:34:52 AM PDT by pillut48 ("Now is the time that tries men's souls...")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

hype. vaporware


7 posted on 07/26/2010 2:36:13 AM PDT by 4rcane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

Someone gave an interesting insight into the problem with time travel.

When you go into the past or future, the physical space around you isn’t still. The universe is expanding, the Sun tugs the Solar System at breath-taking speed into the Milky Way, which too is in rapid motion. One second of time travel implies a change in your physical position to such an extent that you would be over a million miles away from where you were in the “present”.

Interesting, eh?


8 posted on 07/26/2010 2:41:02 AM PDT by James C. Bennett
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

I’d LOVE to go back to ancient Rome. But then I remember there is no way I could pass myself off as a Roman citizen and would probably end up enslaved or tossed to lions.


9 posted on 07/26/2010 2:45:47 AM PDT by LibWhacker (America awake!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: The Magical Mischief Tour

And harder to keep up with! I used to be ahead of the curve on almost everything, could always see a use for every new piece of technology that came along. But now I can’t. I mean, what’s the use of Twitter? Or music on your phone?


10 posted on 07/26/2010 2:51:30 AM PDT by LibWhacker (America awake!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: James C. Bennett
I've thought of the same thing. Even the rotation of the earth must come into play. For example, if I could time travel to 12 hours ago, my physical location might well be somewhere in Asia (not even considering the variables you just mentioned). So any "time travel machine" would have to also make the necessary corrections for physical location - not only in the universe but for movements in the galaxy, solar system and even the rotation of the earth (and the shifting of continental shelves).

The more you think about time travel, the more difficult and complex it becomes.

11 posted on 07/26/2010 2:51:56 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (I am 28 days away from outliving Francis Gary Powers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: James C. Bennett
-- One second of time travel implies a change in your physical position to such an extent that you would be over a million miles away from where you were in the "present". --

Except the speed limit of "c" is on the order of 190,000 miles per second.

Plus there is the relativistic issue of choosing the supposedly stationary frame of reference. How does the time travel machine "know" that?

12 posted on 07/26/2010 3:13:38 AM PDT by Cboldt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

13 posted on 07/26/2010 3:18:06 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker
Paradox-free...

Isn't that what Obie's healthcare bill promised???

14 posted on 07/26/2010 3:19:45 AM PDT by gov_bean_ counter (Sarah Palin - For such a time as this...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cboldt

Maybe it was an hour, LOL!

I didn’t realise that error. Perhaps it could be corrected with an idea of distance, rather than velocity? Heh heh!


15 posted on 07/26/2010 3:23:21 AM PDT by James C. Bennett
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker
Of course, being able to travel backwards in time means that there must be a fixed future from which to travel from the perspective of the "now" in that previous time.

Very Presbyterian, lol.

16 posted on 07/26/2010 3:30:23 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: James C. Bennett

I think then you should use a spaceship of some sort. With computers we should be able to calculate where in this solar system we would be and what part of the galaxy and what part of the universe, etc. By the time time travel was actually possible that would likely be the best way.


17 posted on 07/26/2010 3:40:04 AM PDT by aft_lizard (Barack Obama is Hugo Chavez's poodle.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: SmartInsight
if I could go back 20-30 years in time and buy MSFT, INTC and some other stocks...

Mine too but then when I arrived back here, the Feds and the IRS would probably be waiting in my driveway......

18 posted on 07/26/2010 3:48:41 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Peanut butter was just peanut butter until I found Free Republic.........)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

Maybe our mess around us is the result of some Liberal time travelers.....yeah!!That’s the ticket....


19 posted on 07/26/2010 3:53:24 AM PDT by mo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

Been there, done that.

Literally.


20 posted on 07/26/2010 4:17:17 AM PDT by Eye of Unk ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act" G.Orwell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-44 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson