I saw The Forbidden Kingdom last night. It was a fun movie. And despite it being basically a pure action movie, it also got me thinking about something deeper. Namely, the nature of time and the universe itself. Not to give anything away, but the movie shares something in common with Back to the Future: the present is only possible because of events that the main character changed in the past.
[warning: the following may hurt your brain, proceed at your own risk]Now, the most common theory of time travel you hear about is that the time traveller is actually traveling into an alternate universe. Thus, a paradox wouldn't arise if you, say, travelled back into the past and caused the death of your ancestors. You would be able to change the future through your actions, even in a way that would prevent you from being born in that future, because you would actually have been born into a different future (in the universe you started from). The problem with this idea is that there is no real explanation of how time travel would actually work. How would you make that jump to an alternate universe? But there is another way.
What if the passage of time were an illusion? Physicists consider time to be a dimension just like the three axes of the spatial dimensions (hence the notion of
spacetime). It is possible that when the universe began, all of time began with it. The past, present, and future would all exist simultaneously. Our perception that time only moves forward could be just an illusion, because that is all our minds are capable of perceiving.
This idea is comforting in one sense, because it bestows upon us a sort of immortality. Even after we die, even if the universe collapses back upon itself, our entire lives will still exist as a timeless pattern through four dimensions. But this idea is discomforting in another sense... it implies a lack of free will. There really is no need to worry about that, however. Whether we really have free will or not doesn't change anything in our lives. Wether we were pre-destined to make a decision or "chose" to make it, we wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
So what does this all have to do with time travel? Well, consider the universe. It exists in three dimensions. As a three-dimensional region, it has a shape to it. The general shape could be a sphere, or it could be something more complex. To see where I'm going with this, consider a flat (i.e. two-dimensional) piece of paper. Of course, a piece of paper isn't really two-dimensional since no matter how thin it is, it is still made up of three-dimensional partices, but bear with me.
If you were to draw two dots on opposite end of the paper, the shortest path between them would be a line running across the length of it. However, if you took the paper and curved it back on itself in the third dimension, you could make the two dots touch. Although the shortest path in the context of the two-dimensional surface of the paper is still that long line, the shortest path when considering this new third dimension is now reduced to zero.
If you were a two-dimensional being living within the surface of the paper, you would be unaware of this new path. You wouldn't be able to see into the third dimension, just as we are unable to see into the fourth dimension (i.e. time). We only perceive our three-dimensional surroundings in the context of one point in time, wherever (or whenever, you could say) we happen to be. Similarly, the 2-d being would only perceive its two-dimensional surroundings wherever it happens to be in 3-d space.
Now, if our 2-d being was somehow able to move past the "edges" of its 2-d universe, it would be able to travel between the faraway spots on the paper instantaneously. Taking this idea to the third dimension, we have the concept of a wormhole. If our 3-d space curves back onto itself in the fourth dimension, there can be two points in space that meet and thus could be instantaneously travelled between if we could only break through that "edge." Physicists believe that the incredible mass and density of black holes might create such large curvatures in space-time that a wormhole may be formed.
Now, finally, we can see how all of this applies to time travel. We can go one step further, and consider that four-dimensional space-time may curve back onto itself in the fifth dimension, if such a dimension exists. Voilà! We now have a wormhole through space
and time (e.g. 'the gate of no gate' from The Forbidden Kingdom).
edit: I recommend this cool
animation as a way of visualizing higher dimensions. It goes over ten dimensions, which interestingly coincides with the predictions of competing string theory models that there are either 10, 11, or 26 total dimensions. Of course, string theory is still highly speculative at this point, as are the animation's ideas about higher dimensions.
Comments (44)
DOOMDADDY LOVES YOU! However, you are missing a few points. Are you ready for this...and don't assume it is conjecture. I do have a link to photos of a working time machine at my site.
First, look at the patterns in creation and you will see the veiled character of time. Moons orbit planets. Planets orbit suns. But these orbits are not round and about, returning to the same place. They are traveling in spirals, within spirals, within spirals, ad infinitum. Time, being a measure of this phenomenal movement is also a spiral, within a spiral, within...well you get the picture. Next; WILL.
We do not ordinarily have free will as one or two dimensional creatures on your piece of paper. What comes or way determines our being. But, if we rise in consciousness above that two dimensional plane to perspective above it, where your two points (birth to death) can be perceived, we then have some degree of will. But, where and how we are born and die is still beyond us. If we rise yet another octave to where that which observes these two points is, in turn observed. That which observes self, with diligent practice, takes on the character of higher self. This is called, in some schools of though "OVER I". Higher Self is capable of seeing across adjoining coils of time.
i think what your suggesting is that time is not an illusion but rather that our perception of the directionality of time, "forwards", is an illusion right?
me and my friend greg used to talk about some of these ideas in chemistry class in high school instead of paying attention (because chemistry sucks and is boring).
one thing we talked about also used 2D world. suppose we were only able to perceive in 2D and a being that was able to move through and perceive in 3D came into contact with our world. all we could see of them would be a 2D slice of them. also they would appear to have superpowers. for example, let's say a 2D perceiving person was in 2D jail, which would be a rectangle drawn around them. a 3D perceiving person could simply lift them off their world and deposit them back outside their jail, an impossible task for any 2D perceiving person.
apply this to what we perceive as our 4 dimensional world, with our warped perception of time, and you could conceive of a being that can perceive and move themselves through higher dimensions. if these beings exist, perhaps that's what we normal human beings see as ghosts, aliens, prophets, and gods.
With my fascination with string theory, I think now, more than before, I want to see this film.
Meanwhile... @vikas - A part of me has an inkling that we have far more than just 4 dimensions.
Higher Self becomes immortal in this view of time. It has free will and acts, simultaneously over thousands of our so called years. Is this so difficult to comprehend? What is the life span and effect of WILL of men like Michaelangelo or Di Vinci? They are time travelers. And UFOs...why assume they are extraterrestrial instead of shadows left by future time travel technologies. Why assume reincarnation, rather than simultaneous being across time? There is no paradox involved when one gets past the linear allusion to the true fluid nature of time. Life has been very interesting, because of an ability to reach back and forth through it.
A snail is one dimensional, perceiving only that which is immediately ahead. A serpent is two dimensional, seeing about a plane. A bird is three dimensional, seeing all about, including up and down. Man is four dimensional because, though awkwardly, he does perceive time in a limited way. Enlightened man is fifth dimensional in an ability to perceive all of time as a point in a greater scheme.
@XINERGY - i too think we have more than 4 dimensions (in fact our dimensionality should be the same as the dimension of our universe right? but perhaps not). however, we can only see 4 dimensions, and we most likely have a warped sense of time, the 4th dimension.
perhaps the practice of meditation and reaching nirvana are simply a way for us to allow us to perceive the higher dimensions of our universe and maybe it's the same with certain drugs.
@vikas - No, man is capable of conceiving a fifth dimension. It is likely they are infinite in existence, but we are ultimately as limited as the one dimensional snail, in the number we have sensory appartus to perceive.
@sean - You kidder, you. If you are going to that way about it, no rides in my time machine for you.
Dang! leaving words and letters out. MUST be the keyboard. Can't keep up with my time frame.
@BADBOYDOOMDADDY - what about women or transvestites? i disagree that we're limited by our senses because our minds can understand abstract concepts that our senses don't help with.
Oh, and by the way, a two d creature, a bug say, would just end up on the back side of the paper if it wandered over the edge. They are trapped by the limitations of their perceptive apparatus.
This is not unlike, say a young Christian going through a spiritual crises and becoming a Satanist; just another belief system. Trapped, I tell ya, like mobius rats!
@vikas - Transvestites??????? Is that some kinda monk or sumpin'. Seriously though, abstract concepts are limited by our senses. Now, as I pointed out, most of mankind is four dimensional, but there are exceptions who are fifth dimensional. Fifth dimensional perception is not the norm, but not all that rare. Einstein is a good example of this type.
Click HERE to see a real working time machine.
Yes, it really works. When operated, hours become minutes while Leonardo Di Vinci stares over my shoulder in envy.
@BADBOYDOOMDADDY - LAME. Here's a video of a REAL time machine, in action.
@sean - OH MY GAUD!!! Disco is what makes time travel so dang dangerous!
@vikas - Oh, almost missed this one; when I say man, I of course mean mankind. Women are mankind. Men merely assist.
Then when we get older we get past the one dimensional zipper and see others.
@vikas - You're right, I was referring to the passage of time as the illusion, in the case that time is a dimension like any other. Have you heard of the book Flatland? It's very similar to what you're saying about the 2-d world. I learned of that book from an awesome book called The Fourth Dimension.
@XINERGY - I wouldn't see the movie because of any interest in time travel, it is a pretty minor part. It just got me thinking about it ;)
Wow, you're right. My brain is hurting. I picked the wrong time to read this, I'm going to bed now! lol
@patrick - Good then. Now that that pressure is off...
I've seen Imagining the Tenth Dimension video months ago. I love when things get me thinking, thinking, thinking....
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on time travel. It's got me thinking again.
Time is a real bitch, it's unlike any of the dimensions that we have grown to love. I have many concepts on the universe (as well as other than our own), but time seems to be the biggest obstacle we face. It's all about getting places fast (before we die), and we really can't get anywhere in our lifetimes, at least not at the present time. Time sucks