Time Travel part II
aka "the problem with time travel"
About 2 months ago we discussed time travel. Well, I wrote about it and maybe you read it. I did invite you to comment, but the discussion remained one-sided… I’m not at all offended. You’re sniffling, not me.
But there is one thing I missed discussing, and I want it to bring it up now. It is this: why I believe time travel is impossible.
Now I’m speaking within reality, not fiction, if just for a moment, but I wish it to bleed over into our stories. For fiction may be how we resolve this issue. Science has taken many of fiction’s ideas and turned them into reality. We are, shall I say, often its muse. Stirring the wells of imagination not only in our children and couch potatoes, but even in our physicists and theorists, experimenters who were once children themselves, and may be couch potatoes once they get home.
And here is the problem: time travel stories are so concerned with traveling in time that they forget that we are also traveling in space. It should not be sufficient to put in a date for the machine to pinpoint within the time dimension. It must also locate us within the universe, which, I will point out, is not earth-centric as we are.
Here on earth, we use GPS, or global positioning system, to locate ourselves on the planet. We use latitude and longitude coordinates to chart out our locations even without technology. We use maps of continents, countries, regions, coastlines, oceans, and more to navigate the world. But how do we navigate the universe?
We have not charted it. We have no UPS (well, not one that stands for universal positioning system at any rate). There are no latitude and longitude for the universe. If there was, it must be centric to something. On earth, it’s earth. In the solar system, it would be the sun. In the Milky Way, perhaps it would be the black hole at the center. But in the universe?
Now you might be asking, who cares? We can’t travel the universe! FTL (faster than light) travel is a myth that breaks known physical laws. It’s all a scientific impossibility anyway, so just have fun with it! (This is all another subject, but bear with me.)
Well, yes! And no. If you haven’t already realized (and I’m not the originator of this idea, so it’s a good chance you have), time travel as usually depicted within fiction—by machine, by device, by science and not magic—pretends as if time is centric to the earth. If you go back in time on a certain block in Omaha, you’ll be there still on whatever date you went back to. Never mind that the earth is hurtling through space, around the sun, spinning on its axis, and the sun is hurtling through space itself.
So why wouldn’t you end up in the same physical space you started in, here in good ol’ 2025, but no longer in Omaha and instead in the distant void of space, because 50 years ago, Earth was not where it is now within the universe?
Do you see the dilemma? How does your time travel machine-device know to lock you, not in the physical space of the universe, but in the physical space of earth? It wouldn’t, not logically, without some sort of positioning system and a computer that could pinpoint where, exactly and precisely and without error because, boy, that would be a fatal error, in the physical universe this street corner in Omaha or this cabin in the Idaho mountains or this cathedral in England would have occupied 50 years ago, or 10 years from now, or even tomorrow, for that matter!
It’s all too monumental to even consider, without even considering that the universe is expanding as well, so stories to date have circumvented it by… ignoring it and hoping you don’t notice. Or not even considering the possibility to begin with. Or using magic because anything is possible in fantasy!
But it’s not all hopeless. We don’t need to relegate time travel to the waste bin or the strictly fantastic landscape of Marvel and Narnia. At the same time, ignoring it should be behind us. Let’s tackle it head-on!
Some possible work-arounds include—
1— Quantum mechanics
This one will cause eyes to roll as well, since it’s been used to explain almost every otherwise impossible scientific breakthrough in fiction, to a point it starts to feel like a lazy cop-out. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Quantum mechanics, in real life, is the most likely solution to this problem.
Unfortunately, we are still working on actually understanding things at a quantum level, and in particular how it works with the macro-physical world and its physical laws. If there is a true unifying theory between the two that is more than just “promising” or “intriguing,” I haven’t heard it.
That said, the concept of quantum entanglement, for instance, could present a solution to the time travel conundrum. The possibilities here are endless, and so are the potential cop-outs.
2— Consciousness
Since no one really seems able to quantify consciousness (aka, the meaning of life?) on a scientific level, there is conjecture that consciousness may be centric to the universe. If so, it could be used to explain time travel without the subsequent problem of concurrent space travel. A universal consciousness would not need to calculate space travel, so if someone could tap into that consciousness, and become, shall we say, conscious of the larger consciousness, then perhaps all dimensions of time and space become a possibility.
3— Simulation theory
If the universe is truly just a simulation, which might explain the strangeness of quantum mechanics or even consciousness itself, then all one needs to do is hack into the system and voila! travel in time wherever, whenever, however. It’s about becoming a master of the simulation, and not just some bytes within.
4— Wormholes
This one may be too obvious to be this low, but as intriguing as it may be in reality, it’s been used in fiction many times over. Portals are, essentially, wormholes, if the portals are not simply based in fantasy. Wormholes are generally used to beat FTL (see above) but it may also solve the time travel-space travel dilemma. A wormhole in space and time may be the new wrinkle the world needs.
5— Time is earth-centric
If you postulate that time is not a universal force, but somehow relevant to earth—or at least that our time cannot escape our gravity, perhaps—then you have a work-around that traps the time traveler to earth, and GPS or whatever earth-centric positioning system is once again relevant to time travel. I feel like this is a lazy, unimaginative solution, because it allows for all the old-time time travel without having to change a thing, but in the right hands (i.e. not used as a throwaway explanation, but well-thought-out and central to the plot), it has promise.
6— Multiple dimensions
I’m speaking of dimensions in the sense of 3D, as in, our world is three-dimensional, and 4D if you consider time the 4th. But if it’s more than that and we just can’t perceive the others? If a device could not only prove the existence of these dimensions, but utilize them also, then it could be that this time/space problem becomes moot. A 3D time, for instance, would greatly enlarge our understanding of what time is.
Likewise a 7D space would also allow for brand new directions within our world in which, maybe, a single position in 3D space becomes a silly question, the same way a single point in 1-dimensional space is a non-starter in a 3D world.
And finally, a world in which time is just another dimension of space could allow a space-time traveler to pinpoint a location within it as a single point, and not as two points—time and space—coinciding.
7— Time is just a construct
If time is a construct of consciousness and not a physical truth, as some have conjectured, then the answer may lie within the consciousness solution above. If we could simply perceive the universe outside the construct of time, then time travel itself may become obsolete, and all of time may lie before us as a landscape from a jet window. If time was truly a collective fabrication that allowed us to experience the universe not all at once, then consciousness is truly king, or it’s a simulation, or… well, why don’t you decide!
Add in your own possibilities, and let’s get to tackling this issue. No more ignoring this problem. Let’s work it out in our fiction, and see where our imaginations take us! Tell me your thoughts in the comments, and let’s discuss the problem of time travel.
About me: Read about me in the about me section!
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