[Sleeve Of Wizard]

I tried imagining alternate pasts once or twice. But then I realized how much different everything would be. Like, seriously. I mean, there are infinite variables in one person's life that could change the entire course of history, really.
Take Beethoven. His influence created the Romantic Era, which the early Modern movement. And the Modern movement alienated a whole bunch of aspiring musicians, who turned to Blues music. And voila, Popular music was born.
Now what would happen if Beethoven hadn't heard that once piece of music which subtly defined his music? He becomes another Mozart clone, fades into the background. Just like that, history had changed dramatically. And that's just one person. What would happen if we chose a major event? My head hurts to think about it.



EDIT: I know there's a lot of generalizations in there. And the actual situation is a crapload more complex. I just chose Beethoven because it's easy for me to do a cause and effect of someone so influential.

It depends on how far back in time you go to make the change. Mathematically, there are more deviations possible if you went back a thousand years than if you went back just one year. The infamous "Butterfly Effect". Of course it depends on what you change, too. Personally, I think even if we had the technology to go back in time, it should never be done, it's just too dangerous. Lol, this reminds me of Blackadder when he went back in time with his time machine

[Cheveyo]

It depends on how far back in time you go to make the change. Mathematically, there are more deviations possible if you went back a thousand years than if you went back just one year. The infamous "Butterfly Effect". Of course it depends on what you change, too. Personally, I think even if we had the technology to go back in time, it should never be done, it's just too dangerous. Lol, this reminds me of Blackadder when he went back in time with his time machine

Personally, I'm of the camp that believes every choice anyone makes ever creates a separate time line. In other words, time isn't just a straight line. It's like a super complex tree of infinite branches.
So going back in time and changing something wont affect the people where you're from. Instead, you'll travel to a different branch where what you did had already happened. You'll simply stop existing in the old branch. Maybe you'll be replaced by another version of you that did something to cause the world to be like it is, or maybe you'll just be gone forever.

I'm going to stop myself here. I always get headaches if I let myself try and figure out all the possibilities.

[Ecky]

^ Logically sound, but there is no reason to suppose that the other timelines have to "exist". Think Schroedinger's Cat.

[mickyj300x]

^ Logically sound, but there is no reason to suppose that the other timelines have to "exist". Think Schroedinger's Cat.

Unless you believe the Many Worlds theory (which would explain a lot of quantum stuff). While there's no proof for it, it explains a bit.
And Schrodinger's Cat was more aimed as a thought experiment to explain the weirder quantum stuff. It wouldn't work with a cat because the cat is observing itself.
/nerd

[Letol]

A spaceship that travels away from Earth at almost the speed of light could slow time down relative to the position in space-time, while those on Earth progress at the normal rate.

When a ship that flies away from Earth at a slower rate of time, supposedly returns to Earth, the person inside the ship would not have aged as much as people that lived on Earth. Your kids may be aged and gray, while you still walk around with vigor and pep.

I realize that this is widely accepted, but I've always thought that there was a little... "hole", so to speak, in this kind of statement. It's really rather hard for me to explain and it probably won't make any sense unless I could create an animation (might not even make sense then), but here goes nothing.

First off, a key (I'm going to try to make some sort of picture to help explain):

O = Earth
| = Light
: = Light from when you originally left Earth
/ \ = 1 day on Earth marker (alternates between / and \)
- = You
(Days on Earth will be counted as 3 lines of light, the third line being the marker)

Now, when you originally travel away from Earth at a speed close to light, let's say that you look out of a window in the back of your ship. It will seem as if time has slowed down, but really, you can't trust your eyes. Your eyes work by taking in light, but if you're travelling close to the speed of light, you'll just be moving alongside beams of light slowly passing you. This would cause you to see very little to no difference when you look at Earth.

[Day on Earth: 1 Day on Earth from your perspective: 1 ] O-
[Day on Earth: 2 Day on Earth from your perspective: 1 ] O||:-
[Day on Earth: 3 Day on Earth from your perspective: 1 ] O||\||:-
[Day on Earth: 4 Day on Earth from your perspective: 1 ] O||/||\||:-

What I'm trying to depict in that picture is simply that you're moving alongside the light.

Now, once you turn around and start heading back towards Earth near the speed of light, though, you'll see the light that was originally travelling behind you speed by you as you speed back towards Earth. I believe that time would almost appear to "fast-forward" as you travelled back to Earth until you finally make it back. This would be because instead of travelling alongside the light like before, you would now be travelling in the exact opposite direction of it causing it to speed by you as you speed by the light yourself, thus catching you up to Earth's time.

[Day on Earth: 5 Day on Earth from your perspective: 2 ] O||\||/||\-||:
[Day on Earth: 6 Day on Earth from your perspective: 4 ] O||/||\-||/||\||:
[Day on Earth: 7 Day on Earth from your perspective: 6 ] O||\-||/||\||/||\||:
[Day on Earth: 8 Day on Earth from your perspective: 8 ] O-||/||\||/||\||/||\||:

So I hope I didn't fail too much trying to explain that, though looking back at the "pictures" I made, it looks rather confusing. Regardless, the point I'm trying to make is that I believe that time is all about perspective. Take distant supernovas, for example. We know that they happened a very long time ago, but the light is just now reaching us. That doesn't mean that we're in the future or that supernova is in the past, does it? Light is our only means of deciphering time and with such a vast universe, it just isn't possible to create a single "here and now".

I'm going to stop before I begin to ramble, but I'd also like to say that I believe that time is completely set in stone, you aren't going to the future or to the past. I mean, really, it was thought up as a convenience. The idea that it's possible to manipulate something created in our minds is pretty absurd, in my opinion.

Also, one last thing. Sorry for any run-on sentences if there's any left in there, I'm horrible about those lol.

[rose]

You think it's really possible? Interesting.

I think I might have done it, travel in time in dreams. Some quite overwhelming. Guessing if it's possible to do such a thing, maybe that's why I haven't been able to remember hardly any dreams for eons.

[Ecky]

Stuff

Intuitively, that is what I came up with before I took modern physics.

[Letol]

Intuitively, that is what I came up with before I took modern physics.

Well, I've already signed up for my classes this semester, but I'll try to get modern physics next semester.

[subxer0]

. By that i mean, what if i were to able to re-live my life from birth (scary thought) with the knowledge i've acquired in this lifetime?

get out of my head lol

[rose]

Intuitively, that is what I came up with before I took modern physics.

cool...and my guess studies in physics sow it might be possible