The Time Travel "Zipper Theory"

By JPGriffin · Apr 23, 2012 · 410 · 3
  1. This was my original comment to a blog post on this forum, but the scope of what I had to say deserves more than a comment. To expand on the concept of time travel, something I may very well incorporate into a sci-fi book, I'd like to make a few examples of why and how this theory of why we haven't seen time travel is possible.

    One of the most notable ones I'd hope everyone would recognize is the long-running tales of Doctor Who. We all know the famous TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) that he uses, and just looking at its name we can see that the idea of a zipper fits perfectly. "Time and relative Dimension" refers to a time and its current path, "Parallel Universe" in Layamon terms. Each Dimension they travel to has its own path in time, and with it infinite number of branches for possible futures. This is why The Doctor's trips to the future almost always end up with "That's not supposed to happen;" his entrance to the setting, or any prior alterations since his last visit, had changed the outcome of some event, and thus sent him to a different line in the future. So, maybe in this sense, more of a tree-branch visual could be used.

    Should someone invent time-travel in the near or distant future, they would need to be able to travel back in time and keep everything unaltered. A famous scientist once said that the mere observation of an experiment can change its outcome, so merely viewing an incident can alter the time-traveler's intended course. It'd be nearly impossible to go to the past and remain on the original course, being our own course, when infinite changes are possible and all the more probable.

    As for the manner of how to travel in time, to go back would be fairly simple in theory. All it would require is the compression of time into the larger branches passed along the way. Of course that requires finding the forces that affect time itself, but that will come in the future. Going forward, though, means traveling down a single path until one reaches a single point a predetermined point further on. Beyond that, it means literally unraveling time before you, and unless if our technology allows us to pick which path we take, there's no guarantee that said time-traveler will ever return.

    Food for Thought by J.P. Griffin

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  1. 123456789
    "A famous scientist once said that the mere observation of an experiment can change its outcome, so merely viewing an incident can alter the time-traveler's intended course. "

    I believe you're referring to wave function collapse. This a phenomenon exclusive to the observer and on the quantum scale. I don't think it applies to your argument about the macroscopic world and altering time.
    123456789, Apr 23, 2012
  2. mugen shiyo
    I think it's not possible, JP. I mean, consider that if time exists and it can be traveled through, then all time must exist in it's full range in every instance or possibility. That means you have infinite time lines spanning from infinite points on all those infinite time lines which stretch into infinite. If the universe was like my hard drive it would have crashed.

    To picture it, say time is a line. Most believe there was a beginning but I've always argued that if you can always have a second ahead then you can always have a second back and that would mean time moved as infinitely into the future as it does into the past. But for simplicity, lets say this line had a point at it's beginning and stretched into infinity. Now, that line can have an infinite number of points. each point represents a unit of time. In that unit of time anything could happen which changes the course of the rest of that time line. Only one choice keeps it going straight ahead. The other choices begin to spread around that point in a circle. An infinite number of rays in an infinite number of degrees around that point. And that point could be the very beginning point. Now imagine every infinite moment along the original number line spanning with those lines. And those lines that span out from those points also have points. And the rays that come from them also have points. Infinities on top of infinities to an infinite extent. This would mean that even now the very first second of creation continues to spawn infinite possibilities for the path of the rest of existence from the very moment of the dawn of time. That means that all of time is beginning in a parallel world over and over again infinitely- each slightly different than the last.

    I only say it's impossible because my mind could never chart that crap out and even attempting to seems reckless to me. But that was how I saw it. But I agree also with you saying that it would be impossible to travel to your past and live out your future on that same track. This all reminds me of that movie 12 Monkeys, lol.
    mugen shiyo, Apr 23, 2012
  3. JPGriffin
    Another movie to watch when I have a chance. To 1-9, Even the mere knowledge that you have existed in the past beyond your own existence means that said future you may return to includes knowledge you wouldn't have gained earlier. That knowledge alone will affect actions you take when returning, and if you return to a point beyond your original time, then you may see a future "in sync" with the third-party observers, but if you return even a second, nanosecond at that, before you left, then you throw yourself into a parallel universe, where you exist with the knowledge gained (or left behind). Not so significant, but a parallel existence at that (also a paradox, but that's a whole different matter entirely).

    And to Shiyo- The universe is a large, large place. We exist only in space, with a single instance of time. The only way we may ever know for sure is, in my opinion, by contact from said 4th-dimmension inhabitants. And I agree completely with the infinite points theory you gave, which actually goes along with what I'm trying to prove- the further back you go, the more chances there are to throw off the future. I can't recall the name, but a short story (also a film) told of a Dinosaur-hunting enterprise. It used time travel, and every group hunted the same Dinosaur, destined to die in moments after intervention. Because someone stepped on a butterfly, just a single butterfly, the world was thrown into chaos. The further back you go, the more careful you have to be.

    And a note on "charting that crap out," if a man from the 16th century was told I could message you instantly from halfway across the continent in nanoseconds, he'd kill me for blasphemy. Who's to say it's no different for us and a future generation?
    JPGriffin, Apr 24, 2012
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