Hypothetical time travel question

[Argo]

So lets consider that the current hypothesis that only the forward time travel is possible is true.

Given the opportunity to travel into the future (but you won't be able to come back) - would you do it. Let's even say you have ability to continue travelling into the future until you find the time period that suits you, but of course there's always the small chance that life as you know it ends and you're stuck on a lifeless earth.

So would you do it, and if yes then how far into the future?

 

[Jeff7]

I'd have to travel to the future first to see if I would decide to do it.

 

[MartyMcFly3]

I'd find my way back. The only good thing about the future is the Hover Conversion that automobiles, skateboards, and other products/services underwent. It's pretty heavy stuff when you think about it, really.

 

[jagec]

I just got a girlfriend, so I'm going to have to say No.

 

[tasmanian]

How could you not. I couldnt stand living knowing that i could experience things people dream of.

 

[Argo]

In case people are wondering where this is coming from - I just saw the Time Machine on TNT yesterday.

 

[warmodder]

If I could slowly accelerate time to see what was happening first, that way I don't overshoot cool things like flying cars.

 

[her209]

Only if I could open up a savings account before time traveling.

 

[NanoStuff]

Absolutely, why would I want to come back?

I want to go far enough where death is optional not inevitable so I can see the whole of the future, but not so far as to miss the future. If I had to pick blindly, I would say 2040, after that it's probably smooth sailing.

Still, the time between now and 2040 may very well be most interesting with human borgification and all, so I'd hate to miss that. I'll just live it like a man and stay where I am.

 

[MovingTarget]

Buck Rodgers FTL. I'd miss too many people.

 

[BoomerD]

You sure we couldn't come back just long enough to buy lottery tickets with the winning numbers?

 

[coldmeat]

The year 3000 just looks like so much fun from what I've seen.

 

[QUOTH]

So we're talking a random jump, pick a date and pull a lever? What if you end up in/after WW III, or in a severe stage of the iceage, or after an asteroid hits the earth, or when we have evacuated the earth. What if people have evolved/genetically engineered themselves, would you been seen as a primitive freak, a second class human being?

I'm not shure I believe humanity will survive.

Going forward 10-100 years I doubt much will have changed. The world may be more/less stable, and consumer electronics will be awesome but I doubt much else will be different. As her2009 said, interest is your friend well, unless your name is lister.

 

[DangerAardvark]

Screw hundreds or thousands of years in the future. I'm going a million years. But even if you just went one hour into the future, you would die instantly due to the movement of the Earth.

 

[vhx]

Depends how far. I don't want to spawn in the middle of a ground zero nuclear blast area, catch some plague that has wiped out most of the Earth (or devoured by zombies), an Earth's that atmosphere has been raped by a coronal mass ejection, a sun that has advanced to a Red Giant, etc... Coincidentally The Time Machine happens to be a favorite book (and to some extent, the movie). I would like to go far enough to see how far humanity has been and what their legacy was. I'd also be interested in the next intelligent species to dominate the planet. ;P All that being said, I would go, my curiosity would be overwhelming. I would go and probably look up what happened in the past, that would probably consume most of my life in the future, however. ;P

@Quoth, why would you be considered primitive if you time traveled and they haven't?
"Get away from me lowly monkey man."
"Well this monkey man invented a time machine."
".... shit"

 

[QUOTH]

But even if you just went one hour into the future, you would die instantly due to the movement of the Earth.

Lol, forgot about that. You'd have todo the math for the movemnet, rotation and orbit of the earth. Plus the movement and expansion of the galaxy and universe. I think. I guess it depends on what you move relative to. [On this subject, I always wondered if you workout how the galaxy and universe is moving, and make yourself still in relation to space, would time move more quickly? The same way that the faster you move the slower time passes]

Of course you can't predict the movements perfectly without knowing everything thats going to happen [asteroids ect]. So the best plan would be to work out where the Earth is, and then go and sit in a spaceshuttle where the earth and moon definetly wont be, so you don't end up sat in solid rock, or a 100 feet off of the ground.

@Quoth, why would you be considered primitive if you time traveled and they haven't?
"Get away from me lowly monkey man."
"Well this monkey man invented a time machine."
".... shit"

And if a caveman showed you a pointy rock? The response would be "Aww, thats just lovely. I have a ball. Would like like to play with the ball?" "Jeff, hey, Jeff? Call up the research centre, they may want to run some tests on this thing."

"What, you could only go forward? And you didn't have super computers which perfectly predict the future via cause and effect at the quantum level? You thought Einstein was rigth? Stupid animal."

If we were to have this tech, then they will have improved on it. I'm also thinking more along the lines of the physical/mental differences due to evolution, or much more likely [as its faster and controlled] genetic engineering.


Or society will have advanced and there will be no bigotry. Who knows.

 

[TheNewbie]

Originally posted by: jagec
I just got a girlfriend, so I'm going to have to say No.

Oh the emotion... I didn't realize you are a homo.




I'd future travel only if its possible to take at least one more person with me, otherwise I'd have to say no.

On a more technical note, physically it should be possible to time travel. I think they already proved you can travel to the past (in matters of nano seconds so far, but hey, why be picky?), and if you can travel to the past, obviously the future already happened, so again technically speaking it should be possible, and that is without even going into the parallel universes theories, in which case you can travel back and forth to infinite possible locations on the time scale, though once you traveled out of your universe, it should be impossible for you to return, since that universe will disappear (for you) once you leave it.

 

[IamBusby]

Slightly off topic but Primer is without doubt the best Time travel movie ever.

It tries and succeeds in showing time travel in as realistic a way as possible.

 

[QUOTH]

Originally posted by: TheNewbie...and that is without even going into the parallel universes theories, in which case you can travel back and forth to infinite possible locations on the time scale, though once you traveled out of your universe, it should be impossible for you to return, since that universe will disappear (for you) once you leave it.

What? if were talking parallel universes then you can just go to 1 of trillions upon trillions of universes that the same things happened in till now, but X years have passed since. You could then travel back to your home universe [if you could find it]. The important thing is any changes you make in your original universe won't make any difference to any others.

[Disclaimer, everything I'm writing is pretty much opinion based on limited science ecucation, and pop science. So whatever, have fun theorising and speaking nonsence ]

 

[Bateluer]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor Spooky.

 

[Exterous]

I definitely would, but I would want to take a gun or something of the like with me so I could end things quickly if I end up in a pack of zombies or some such

 

[clamum]

As much as I'd like to, probably not, cause I'd be leaving my friends and family. If I didn't have any I would go without a doubt, though.

As far as how far into the future I'd go, I think I'd go 250 years.

 

[bignateyk]

You're all gonna feel pretty stupid when you travel past 2012 and find out that the world has already ended.

 

[Greenman]

It occurs to me that all of us are right now traveling into the future, with no method of return. So I guess I we all decided to go for it.

 

[Fenixgoon]

according to professor farnsworth, a time paradox occurs during time travel, and the time traveling party is automatically doomed to die. so, it's up to you now