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Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers

arxiv.org

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Re: Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers

#141

Post by dm2 »

jsonmez wrote: post #130

This makes no sense... here is why: "Hey Bob, you idiot! Someone found you by a stupid tweet you made. Then they posted a research paper online and now everyone knows about time travelers. Go back and fix it." "Done" The very act of publishing the results of this study could have caused the results to be changed, thus showing a non-positive match...

Wouldn't that be indicating that Nagasaki and Hiroshima were better off destroyed rather than saved?

Wouldn't that also imply that the future would end up a better place if the World Trade Center was destroyed and the Iraq / Afghanistan wars did actually happen?

The two things above make me think that time travelling in the past (without a pre-built exit point) is never achieved.

Otherwise, someone would have came back and prevented them, unless that is too risky because then time-travel might not be invented.

Maybe time-travel creates an alternate universe and the original continues, but at-least life (and the time-travelers) have a chance in this new universe copy.

Re: Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers

#142

Post by jagermo »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #14
awjr wrote: post #10

Isn't the issue here that they are describing the methods through which they are trying to determine time travel. In effect, telling anyone in the future exactly what not to do. Let's also assume that somebody had a reason to travel into the past, say to kill Hitler. Our timeline would record that an Austrian artist was murdered in the 1920s. We would not consider this historically significant. I think time travel is…

"...say to kill Hitler." Everybody kills Hitler on their first trip. http://www.abyssapexzine.com/wikihistory/

thank you. I was thinking about this fantastic story the other day and I was wondering if I'll ever find it again. Bookmarked.

Re: Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers

#143

Post by krisgee »

Vaskivo wrote: post #102
precisioncoder wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't we as well need a counterpart to "frag" such as "pop" for all the people saved/born due to the change? Then if the "good guys" corrected the original "frags" those "popped" people would be re-"fragged" which would cause a split group of "good guys" to attempt to "correct" the previously "corrected" history?

Not really. It's cosmology is weird. The universe is kind of a mutable thing full of "sentient force" (it's time travellers). When a paradox is formed, it's defense mechanism kicks in to eliminate the paradox. That defense mechanism is the good guys (the continuum). Frag is associated with what you KNOW. Information is usefull but very dangerous. Imagine this, I go to Auschwitz and see all that horror. I decide to ki…

I like the book's example of simple frag with the beer.

So the setup is that you and your time travelling buddy are watching the big Sportsball match on TV in both of your relative presents.

You want a beer so you go to the fridge and there isn't any. So you jump Downstream a couple of minutes, grab a brew and jumps up. Uh oh, don't drink and Span because you just fragged your friend as you are both drinking the same beer.

Your friend is naturally peeved and tells you to fix it. So, what you do is:

* Buy a pack of the same brand of beer and put it in the fridge

* Put a note on one of the bottles telling yourself and your friend not to touch it

* Span (Jump) Upstream a few hours so it's cold then jump back to just after you took the beer from the fridge yourself and put the new beer (the one that was cooling in the present -> future) in so your friend can grab it when he wants a beer.

* You also have to not run into yourself so you jump back up to after the point where you left for the future so as punisment you miss the big sportspile. However all is well because you friend just fills you in regularly and you both enjoy your tasty beverages.

Re: Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers

#144

Post by chenster »

venomsnake wrote: post #42
awjr wrote: post #10

Isn't the issue here that they are describing the methods through which they are trying to determine time travel. In effect, telling anyone in the future exactly what not to do. Let's also assume that somebody had a reason to travel into the past, say to kill Hitler. Our timeline would record that an Austrian artist was murdered in the 1920s. We would not consider this historically significant. I think time travel is…

And have you thought about how many potential hitlers were pruned in the WW2 ... every one that died in the conflict could be much worse than him. So maybe Hitler was a historical fuse. A maniac just 20 years later could have destroyed humanity. Dead serious here, assume that nuclear weapons were available from day1. So maybe there was time travel manipulation to ensure WWII so that humanity could survive.

Sounds like a plausible sci-fi story!

Re: Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers

#147

Post by mathattack »

delinka wrote: post #106
mathattack wrote: post #103

With a cursory look, I couldn't figure out if this was serious. Assuming it is, I'm convinced that Time Travel doesn't exist because casinos and sports betting exist, and casinos would go broke if time travel existed. (Unless you altered time so much travelling in time that you altered everything in the future)

If we consider that multiple "time lines" can exist in parallel (multiverses perhaps?), and if we consider that changing an event is the equivalent of making a new decision and branching into a new multiverse, then it stands to reason that at least one universe still exists where casinos and sports betting have not gone broke. And it must be this one.

This seems less likely than time travel is impossible, no?

Re: Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers

#148

Post by Ensorceled »

bushido wrote: post #110
Ensorceled wrote: post #12

If you are interested in time travel: I saw the movie "About Time" last night and it was both awesome and romantic. Perfect date movie for the geek/non-geek couple. And now at least this discussion thread is not completely useless :-)

Well if you're really interested in time travel fiction, nothing beats Doctor Who.

True, very true. But my girlfriend has a negative interest in watching Doctor Who but loved About Time.

Re: Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers

#149

Post by anon4 »

primitivesuave wrote: post #30
praptak wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let's also assume that somebody had a reason to travel into the past, say to kill Hitler. Our timeline would record that an Austrian artist was murdered in the 1920s. This would prevent World War 2 and the associated advances in technology, possibly including those leading to the time travel being possible in the first place.

You could also imagine the converse, where someone from the future brings back all scientific knowledge, thus reducing the time it takes scientists of the past to invent time travel, which in turn leads to that person bringing back all scientific knowledge sooner, perpetuating onwards until massive amounts of knowledge are acquired in small amounts of time. Such is the nature of the grandfather paradox.

Given that people cannot learn infinitely fast and progress needs time to happen, there will be a point of equilibrium.

Re: Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers

#150

Post by infruset »

cleaver wrote: post #138
infruset wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I would probably go back to 2009 and mine bitcoins (or fill captchas for 5 BTC a piece..) with a CPU..

I'd say the very fact that most Bitcoins weren't created in the first few hours is a good indicator that there are no time travellers. Or if travellers do exist, access to time travel has been restricted, or perhaps Bitcoins and possibly even currency is not of interest in the future. In fact, time travel could render investments obsolete.

There, you just found proof that Bitcoin is going to collapse in the future!
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