if time travel was discovered, would it be shared?

[YUPPIE]

There's a saying that, more than galactic travel, time-traveling or at the least alternate reality travel is one of mankind's longest sought goals (fantasies in the context of current science).

But now that I've been thinking about it, if the feat of it was discovered eventually, how would it be unveiled to the world? Would it even be shared with regular people?

[XDurionX]

"Time travel" as in popular fiction, will never be "discovered" as it cannot exist.

[YUPPIE]

"Time travel" as in popular fiction, will never be "discovered" as it cannot exist.

there's an absurd amount of things that can't be explained by our current comprehension of logic

[XDurionX]

there's an absurd amount of things that can't be explained by our current comprehension of logic

And you think this is a counter-argument?

But to answer your question despite the flawed premise: If you "discovered" time travel, the absolute dumbest thing you could do was make this public.

Even the most "accurate" depictions are so incredibly naive and unscientific...there are gazillions of problems, some of which so fundamental that they cannot ever be solved. Let's start with the most basic questions: What is your frame of reference for time and space? Even if you can do impossible calculations so you somehow manage to end up on this planet, you'll most likely fall to your death or be buried alive. What happens if there's something "in your way"? What happens to your body or your psyche? Is the space insode the contraption you build somehow exempt from time travel? Why?

No, it's fantasy, and it will remain fantasy.

[YUPPIE]

And you think this is a counter-argument?

But to answer your question despite the flawed premise: If you "discovered" time travel, the absolute dumbest thing you could do was make this public.

thing about it is, it's not just limited to time travel. I've been wondering how we ever advance as a species if the idea of discovering something revolutionary cannot easily be brought forward or progressed because of the possibility of some nations witholding it from fear of others misuse

[XDurionX]

thing about it is, it's not just limited to time travel. I've been wondering how we ever advance as a species if the idea of discovering something revolutionary cannot easily be brought forward or progressed because of the possibility of some nations witholding it from fear of others misuse

If there's some "revolutionary" discovery, it's most likely made by an international network of acknowledged scientists working on public funding, so there's nothing "secret" about it to begin with. The real world is not a James Bond Movie. Our whole understanding of progress relies on peer review. Isolated incidents like for example Grigorij Perelman solving one of the millenium problems are incredibly rare and just don't happen in any meaningful probabiltiy.

Most people probably know the anecdote about Steven Hawking, throwing a party for time travellers.

[Endus]

This is considered one of the proofs that time travel can't exist.

If it could, then once it's figured out, you have the entire future history of humanity or whatever we evolve into to consider. Without catastrophe, millions and millions of years of time travelers. Such a wide swath of time that the earliest steps of humanity should have been heavily observed from visitors from the future; who wouldn't want to directly observe the day humanity made its first step onto the Moon?

You also have to assume that in those millions upon millions of years, jerkwads and idiots are gonna get access to the technology. Rich kids stealing dad's time machine for a lark, criminals deciding to change the timeline with a famous murder that they're gonna make no effort to conceal because they relish the notoriety. All kinds of shit. And we can look around and see exactly none of that happening.

That's the the big argument against time travel; that if it were possible, we would be dealing with an influx of time travelers from the entire future history of humanity and what comes after us. Because no such technology is going to remain under lock and key for that entire span of time, forever.

The other possibility is that the discovery of the means to travel back in time causes such a furor at the time of its invention that it creates a war that exterminates the entire human species before it really gets a chance to develop that tech to the point it can be used effectively. Cause if anyone escapes that war, even by using the time machine itself, then whenever they get to now has a time machine and a head start on replicating it. A Great Filter on time travel, basically.

[Shadowferal]

There's a saying that, more than galactic travel, time-traveling or at the least alternate reality travel is one of mankind's longest sought goals (fantasies in the context of current science).

Hmf...vibratory frequencies would need attunement..or so I would think. Otherwise you're dead in minutes.

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Dismising the obvious drawbacks just to play with the idea...it's too much a big "what if?" If reality changed would you be aware of it affecting you? Or would you still retain the memory of "what was?" Or was an alternate reality created?

[PC2]

But now that I've been thinking about it, if the feat of it was discovered eventually, how would it be unveiled to the world? Would it even be shared with regular people?

Well if the first person to invent it doesn't share his/her knowledge then we'd just have to wait for the second person to invent it, or the third and so on.

Currently there is no known laws that would make it physically impossible to travel to the past on a one-way trip. Meaning it is theoretically possible. However I do think we'll discover a new law, not a typical law of physics, but rather a law of information that will prevent us from ever traveling to a future where humanity is in a more advanced state.

[Temp name]

Currently there is no known laws that would make it physically impossible to travel to the past on a one-way trip

There is.
The fact that the only currently theorized way is to travel faster than light. Which requires literally infinite energy. Which is impossible.

Time travel one-way to the future is possible though. It's called going fast / being near heavy objects.
The closer you are to light speed the "slower" time will pass for you, and the "faster" it'll pass for everyone else.

And unlike time travel backwards, this has actually been tested and found to be accurate. Look up muon experiments if you want to actually understand it

To answer OP: Time travel cannot, and will not exist. Because if it exists, it will be spread at some point. If it gets spread at some point, people will do stupid things with time travel, like visit long-dead celebrities, or attend Stephen Hawking's time traveller party.
Okay, but what if we live in a timeline that corrects for things like that? Then the most stable timeline is one in which time travel never gets invented, and as such, it will eventually be un-invented, or just never invented in the first place.

[Kathandira]

When I think of Time Travel, I think of a machine which needs immense energy to function.

Going backward wouldn't be very useful, since if you go back to say our current time, we wouldn't have the energy source needed to send them back.

The best that can be done would be to travel back to a time where that energy source is available so you can return from the test. Otherwise, it is likely a one way trip.

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There is.
The fact that the only currently theorized way is to travel faster than light. Which requires literally infinite energy. Which is impossible.

Time travel one-way to the future is possible though. It's called going fast / being near heavy objects.
The closer you are to light speed the "slower" time will pass for you, and the "faster" it'll pass for everyone else. .

Or! Not going anywhere at all.

If you break out of the earth's rotation and its orbit around the sun, Time for you moves far slower than it does for those on the planet (using earth time). So if you did this for a few years, decades would have passed on Earth.

[XDurionX]

If you break out of the earth's rotation and its orbit around the sun, Time for you moves far slower than it does for those on the planet (using earth time). So if you did this for a few years, decades would have passed on Earth.

This is not true, the difference would be absolutely negligible. Yes, the earth moves fast enough through space for it to be noticeable, but the relativistic effects are absolutely not perceivable by any regard, certainly not "decades".

[PC2]

There is.

Not currently. Currently scientists don't know why humans only experience time in the forward direction when the laws of physics don't prohibit backward travel. It's an unsolved mystery. If people already knew the answers to all of this stuff then it wouldn't be the subject of continuous debate.

The fact that the only currently theorized way is to travel faster than light. Which requires literally infinite energy. Which is impossible.

That's just one conjecture though and there's no proof that time travel requires FTL.

Time travel one-way to the future is possible though. It's called going fast / being near heavy objects.
The closer you are to light speed the "slower" time will pass for you, and the "faster" it'll pass for everyone else.

And unlike time travel backwards, this has actually been tested and found to be accurate. Look up muon experiments if you want to actually understand it

That's fine but typically we're talking about a form of time travel where all your family members you left on Earth aren't dead when you arrive in your desired time/destination.

[Kathandira]

This is not true, the difference would be absolutely negligible. Yes, the earth moves fast enough through space for it to be noticeable, but the relativistic effects are absolutely not perceivable by any regard.

Help me understand since math is not my strongest suit.

If a ship or space station was stationary next to the sun. The earth would travel around it while we stood still.

How would that affect the person who is stationary? If we use Earth time to keep track, how long would pass for you, while the earth makes 1 complete rotation?

[XDurionX]

Help me understand since math is not my strongest suit.

If a ship or space station was stationary next to the sun. The earth would travel around it while we stood still.

How would that affect the person who is stationary? If we use Earth time to keep track, how long would pass for you, while the earth makes 1 complete rotation?

First question would be, what means "stationary next to the sun", as sun itself is not stationary.

[Kathandira]

First question would be, what means "stationary next to the sun", as sun itself is not stationary.

Good question, The reason I use "Stationed next to the sun" is because the sun itself and the planets that rotate around them are not stationary in space. So we can say next to the sun means within the sun's gravity so we don't get left behind while our solar system keeps moving away from us.

[Endus]

First question would be, what means "stationary next to the sun", as sun itself is not stationary.

We should also probably point out that space itself is not static, either.

[Shadowferal]

How would that affect the person who is stationary? If we use Earth time to keep track, how long would pass for you, while the earth makes 1 complete rotation?

But you're never stationary. You, and the space you're occupying are always in motion at any given moment in time.

[s_bushido]

This is considered one of the proofs that time travel can't exist.

Well, there's also the idea that time travel back in time is physically impossible, while going forward isn't. Since essentially all that takes is extremely high speeds/gravity.

But would it be shared? I think governments would try to keep a lid on it. But something like that would probably be impossible to keep under wraps forever. And if people know it's possible, someone else is bound to figure it out.

[Daedius]

Space is littered with the frozen corpses of time travellers because they never took into account the planet is never in the same spot from the present and past.