General Clark Wants To Focus U. S. Resources and On Unlocking The Secrets Of Time Travel

Wired News ^ | September 30, 2003 | Brian McWilliams

[mrobison]

Wesley Clark: Rhodes scholar, four-star general, NATO commander, time-travel fanatic?

During a whirlwind campaign swing Saturday through New Hampshire, Clark, the newest Democratic presidential candidate, gave supporters one of the first glimpses into his views on technology.

"We need a vision of how we're going to move humanity ahead, and then we need to harness science to do it," Clark told a group of about 50 people in Newcastle attending a house party -- a tradition in New Hampshire presidential politics that enables well-connected voters to get an up-close look at candidates.

Then, the 58-year-old Arkansas native, who retired from the military three years ago, dropped something of a bombshell on the gathering.

"I still believe in e=mc², but I can't believe that in all of human history, we'll never ever be able to go beyond the speed of light to reach where we want to go," said Clark. "I happen to believe that mankind can do it."

"I've argued with physicists about it, I've argued with best friends about it. I just have to believe it. It's my only faith-based initiative." Clark's comment prompted laughter and applause from the gathering.

Gary Melnick, a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said Clark's faith in the possibility of time travel was "probably based more on his imagination than on physics."

[Shaka]

Faith in science? Means he's more dangerous than ever. He's a freak and an atheist...he fits right into the Dem party.

[Calpernia]

PING!

[RightWhale]

we should not be making fun of Clarke for something he didn't say

Of course not. It is possible he could be president; he is a candidate after all. Shouldn't we at least see what he actually has to say about things rather than make up caricature statements?

[Lockbar]

"The Clintons probably put Wes up to this one - Bill would love to go back in time and get that blue dress dry cleaned..."


LOL dirtboy! You win best laugh of the day award, atleast in my house. :-)

[CyberAnt]

Yeah, in the trash heap of history!!

[jimkress]

Thanks for agreeing with me that Clark does not say anything about time travel in the article.

[Natural Law]

He definately has a liberal approach to science. Facts are irrelevant when he feels or believes.

[petercooper]

"use your time machine to help me recover the embarrassingly long period of time I spent staring at the picture in post #63, trying to decide which one was the best-looking."

1st row standing - all the way on the right

[HAL9000]

NY Post - November 23, 1997 -

BILL WANTED UFO PROBE: HUBBELL BOOK

By DEBORAH ORIN

President Clinton was intrigued by UFOs and wanted to know if they really existed, says a new book by his golfing pal, disgraced Justice Department official Webb Hubbell.

Hubbell says finding out about UFOs was one of the top priorities Clinton gave him in sending him over to a job as one of Attorney General Janet Reno's top deputies.

Clinton had said, "if I put you over at Justice I want you to find the answers to two questions for me," Hubbell recounts.

"One, who killed JFK. And two, are there UFOs."

"Clinton was dead serious. I had looked into both, but wasn't satisfied with the answers I was getting," Hubbell adds.

[Calpernia]

Revenge PING for that pic you pinged me to yesterday :)

[petercooper]

dims love the word "dastardly"

[Elliott Jackalope]

Hey! That's not General Clark, that's Whit Bissell! Good ol' Whit. Had some of the best lines of the 50's. Especially in "I was a Teenaged Frankenstien". What a great movie.

[Physicist]

Is it just me or was Clarke not talking about time travel at all and the reporter leaped to the conclusion? I got the impression he was speaking of travelling faster than the speed of light for purposes of space exploration which is not the same thing as time travel.

FTL implies the possibility of time travel. Here's an example I worked out for an old thread:

Just after the stroke of midnight on January 1, 3000, a tachyon beam signal, travelling at four times the speed of light, is sent from Earth towards the starship Tempus Fugitive. The message is "Ping!" At the time the message is sent, the ship is 0.8 light years from Earth, travelling at a speed of 0.8 times the speed of light.

By the time the tachyon signal reaches the starship, it is 1 light year away, as measured from the Earth. But on the Tempus Fugitive, the Earth is only 0.6 light years away (Lorentz contraction).

The date of this event is April 1, 3000, just after 6:00 AM, as measured on Earth. But in the reference frame of the starship, this event is contemporaneous with events taking place on the morning of January 30, 2999 on Earth (frame dependence of simultaneity). [Geek alert: t' = gamma*t - L*beta*gamma/c; if t=0.25 years and L=1 l.y., beta=v/c=0.8, and gamma=1/sqrt(1-beta^2)=5/3, then t'=-0.9166 years.]

The Tempus Fugitive replies with an "Ack!" upon receipt of the message. It takes .15 years for the signal to traverse that distance, but the Earth is travelling away from the starship at .8 c, so the signal takes .1875 years or 68.4 days for the signal to reach Earth. But in the starship's frame of reference, time on Earth is moving only at .6 its regular speed, so only 41 days pass there (time dilation). The return signal arrives on Earth on March 11, 2999, almost nine months before the original message was sent.

[commandante_zero]

Sherman, set the Wayback for.....

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

So when did he say he believed in time travel? He said he believed that man could figure out how to go faster than light, not time.

[tophat9000]

Time travel I have a hard time buying... but going from point a to point b with out passing through all points in-between i.e travel in our ever day “three dimensions” straight lines (in effect travel faster that light) could be ... it is speculated there maybe many dimension.. there could by short cuts between two points in space

Never say never ... never say always

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

These astronomers are only kinda sorta scientests. You see they can make theory's, just like the other scientests, the only problem is that they and maybe 20 generations or more of their grandchildren will be dead before they are proved wrong. Note I didn't say right. That is because their accountability is so low I don't think there will be very many theory's proved right.

[Consort]

If time travel is possible, then it was/will be developed in our past or in our future — in other words, it exists. I think that time travel is not time dependent; if it was/will be developed in any time period, then it is available to all time periods, past or future.

[BSunday]

Hey General:

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

299,792,458 meters/second. It's not just a good idea; it's the Law.

No, not a law, a theory. The theory of relativity. As long as its a theory it could be wrong, it's not proven. Yes, they have proved parts of it, buy timing space flights on board and on earth. But you don't know if it follows the same curve right up to the speed of light.