Time Travel

[old.user4556]

So I was watching T2 the other night and it got me thinking a silly thought.

If for Skynet to exist, the original terminator had to go back and the battle to ensue so that the arm and smashed CPU could give Cyberdyne systems the idea which eventually lead to Skynet and the terminator going back in time, yes?

So I thought; if time travel or a time machine really existed in that form one day in the future, surely we'd have invented it long before now because all we'd need to do would be to go back in time to, say, 2006 and give some scientists the plans on how to build it so that they could actually build the time machine to allow us to go back and give ourselves the plans to fulfill that act. No?

Ok

 

[Edmond]

The theory goes that if and when time travel is invented, it would only possible to travel as far back as the date it was invented, not before

But the whole thing makes my head hurt tbh

 

[DaGaffer]

There are sooo many theories and ways to accommodate time travel without violating causality, I don't even know where to start. In the case of the Terminator universe the events of T3 kind of imply that the events of T2 (call it "Arnie Universe") created an alternate universe where Skynet became sentient 6 years later than planned and that universe is where T4 happens (call it "McG" or "shit" Universe). Unfortunately, the franchise tries to have its cake and eat it by putting the original film and T2 in the same universe (if it wasn't, how would John Connor know he needed to send back a second Terminator?)

So basically the laws of physics changed between T2 and T3. Oops.

As for your point about "time travellers would be here by now", true but only if we live in a solitary universe. If the many worlds theory were true, then every time a time traveller went back to a certain point he'd effectively create a new universe, as there would be an infinite number of universes in this theory, the chances of us ever meeting a time traveller are effectively zero.

edit - or there's the theory Edmond mentions, which is based around a theory called Closed Timelike Curves.

 

[nath]

Personally I think Terry Gilliam had it right with 12 Monkeys.

 

[Damini]

World Exclusive Video: Time Travel Scientist Dr. Ronald Mallett, History Channel - Video

 

[DaGaffer]

Personally I think Terry Gilliam had it right with 12 Monkeys.

Which also seems to be the theory Lost is going for. I'm not keen on an entirely subjective level as it seems to rule out free will, but that doesn't mean its wrong though.

 

[old.Tohtori]

This is a viable scenario too.

Human race died about ten thousand years in the future due to the invention of the time machine.

As a last act, we loaded up one spaceship with people, memory erase thingies and enough iridium nukes to take out the dinos and other "needed elements".

Then, wait a while, adjusts earth, remove the invention of time travel from our genes(or place an inhibitor to ivent one, which would activate if someone got close), erase memories with a few androids left as observers in a cloaked spaceship(ufos=shuttles) and start the human race from scratch without the possibility of a time-travel invention.

Now that i mention it, i think i'll go write a short story about it.

 

[Raven]

what?

 

[nath]

Which also seems to be the theory Lost is going for. I'm not keen on an entirely subjective level as it seems to rule out free will, but that doesn't mean its wrong though.

Yeah I thought of that but decided not to mention it because 12 Monkeys and Lost really shouldn't be in the same sentence as one another.

I'm not sure that the 12 Monkeys scenario rules out free will, I don't know that a fix run of events implies that we have no choice. It's a bit of a mindfuck area though.

 

[Trem]

DaG is far too smart, I hate him





I also need to watch 12 Monkeys again, haven't seen it for ages.

 

[Edmond]

I also need to watch 12 Monkeys again, haven't seen it for ages.

I got it on DVD for about £3 a few years ago, never did watch it, i have seen it though, but it was years ago. Brad Pitt was great in it

 

[Trem]

Aye, as was Bruce.

I hated it first time I saw it but loved it the second time, strange.

 

[Tom]

nyom, spiders.

 

[ECA]

Surely the problem is going back and tinkering with stuff changes future events, that means that travelling back in time is a horrible horrible idea. You could possibly change events so that you no longer exist in your current time when you travel back to it and that would be fucked up. ( You'd physically be there but nobody would know you, you'd have no house/bank accounts/etc ).

The only logical thing to do is to only ever travel forward in time, but future time might not want past-time fucking in its shit so might have some sort of time-travel police, thus rendering the whole thing redundant anyway.

 

[Mabs]

perry bible fellowship to the rescue !

 

[old.Osy]

This explains why: