What would you do if you are able to travel to the future and the past? I've always been thinking about this. I'll probably travel to the future and learn new stuff and apply to the present world. Might also want to find out what'll happen to me so that I can prepare now.

I always like the time travel theme movies eg. Back To The Future and Frequency. Will these really happen????

These movies and concepts always intriged me. March 8th, 2002 is the new version HG Wells Time Machine, which the old one left you with the burning question, what three books would you take into the future?

Time Travel, is it possible? Is TV/Radio possible? Is flying possible? It has been said if we can go far enough at the speed of light, and had a sensitive receiver, we could hear the speaches of yesteryear. (The movie Contact brought this out.)

If it was possible, I would love to see what the future would be like say in 200 years from now.

Stephen Hawking says the proof that time travel will never be possible lay in the fact that we have not been overrun by tourists from the future.

Although I suppose that this could also mean that we are just really boring.

The time travel that Dennis mentions is a reality and if you read up on the behavior of subatomic particles you'll find that time travel is not at all uncommon, complete with paradox and all.

Just think of the Mentalist show you could do

I do time travel all the time. I go forward at the approximate rate of one second per second.

Yak quotes Stephen Hawking as saying "the proof that time travel will never be possible lay in the fact that we have not been overrun by tourists from the future."

Hmmm. Really! But how do we know?
After all, would they tell us?
And, if they did, would we believe them?

cheers,
Peter Marucci
showtimecol@aol.com

I was going to say the same as Peter but he beat me to it. How do we know they are not here. Probably posing as Japanese tourists, (they take a phenomenal number of photographs).

Dean Koontz's book Lightning had an interesting time travel plot, turns out the people are coming from the PAST.

Harry Harrison's Technicolor Time Machine was amusing.

Paul Hallas.

Actually I dated a chick who was from the year 2133 but I'm not supposed to say anything.

And I think when Mr. Hawking mentioned we would be overrun I think he ment that literally. If you were to extend the equation far enough into the future it would easily make the earth uninhabitable.

Yak writes, about time travel: ". If you were to extend the equation far enough into the future it would easily make the earth uninhabitable."

Good grief! IT'S HAPPENING!

cheers,
Peter Marucci
showtimecol@aol.com

if I had the ability to travel back in time then I would travel to the past so I can make up for the things I lost, especially my girl

I would travel to the past to find out where I parked my car on grad night. It's still a blurrrrrr...and it's still missing.

And then I would go back to meet some of the greats like: Houdin, Alexander, Houdini, Koran, Vernon, Waters, Andruzzi, and, and, and, et al.

The Hawking's idea presupposes that this time line has already repeated itself. What if we are in the first time line ever... then the future has not happened so no one could have traveled back from there.

I believe there is a book called Teahouse of the August Moon... it was written by the same guy that did Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It has a funny premise that a guy is doing outstanding magic by using time travel.

At one point he vanishes a red handkerchief then breaks a vase that was an ancient one and inside the vase was the handkerchief. It's later explained that he vanishes the handkerchief then travels back in time when that vase was being made and puts it in there, so it can be found by him in the future. Sort of puts a crimp in Max Malini's career.

Now as for me: I think if I could do both I would, but if I only had one choice I would go to the future and see the marvels that are happening then... I'm sure they would look as magical to me as a caveman appearing now and seeing me view small people talking in a lighted box aka the TV.

Time travel can be explained by a Superman story from 1961 entitled "Superman's Greatest Feats." In it, the Atlantean, Lori Lemaris, wonders whether or not Superman could have prevented the Sinking of her Continent of Atlantis. Deciding to try it, Superman time-travels into the Past, and sure enough, succeeds at preventing Atlantis from sinking. With that in mind, he wonders if he can prevent other historical tragedies as well. Confidently, he manages to save General Custer from getting slain at the notorious Massacre. And, among other historical tragedies, he also saves Abraham Lincoln from his assassination. Having done all that, Superman returns to the Present time, and goes to a Public Library to see if the history BOOKS have been changed IN ACCORDANCE with the changes he made from his time-travel.

What he finds, SHOCKS him, because despite what he had done, all the history BOOKS still show that Custer died in the Massacre, and Abraham Lincoln died from his Assassination, etc. This of course does Not make any sense to Superman because he KNOWS he made all those changes in the past.

Perplexed, Superman flies into the time stream again in order to investigate. This time, however, he is caught in a sudden Whirlpool. This inadvertent whirlpool flings him into a PARALLEL universe. Out of curiosity,Superman checks the history BOOKS in that parallel world and receives another SHOCK. Because he discovers that in this parallel world,the history books have recorded Superman as having INDEED preventing the tragedies which he had accomplished.

Having made that discovery in the Parallel Universe, Superman goes back into the time-stream to return to HIS own universe. Back home again,he sees of course that the history books still show there were NO changes. That is, Lincoln was slain by the assassain, etc.

Superman's realization is that he NEVER made any changes in the history of his world. Instead, all the tragedies he prevented, took place in a Parallel Universe. The point is that Time-Travel is really NOT time travel. INSTEAD,it's a trip into a PARALLEL universe.

I remember reading a story in some old science-fiction magazine where a guy had built a time-travel machine. In the machine, you not only had to set the time coordinates, but also spatial coordinates that were based on your location relative to the sun.

Naturally, a villain finds out about this invention, and devises a way to take advantage of the time machine. When the villain burst into the lab, he forces the inventor at gunpoint to set the machine so that the villain could go back in time 6 months. The villain is briefly distracted by the entry of a lab assistant, and the inventor is able to knock the gun out of the villain's hand. A fist fight ensues, but the villain finally breaks free, and is able to start the time machine and go back 6 months.

The assistant is concerned, but notices the scientist doesn't seem as concerned that the villain has used the time machine. The assistant asks, "Aren't you afraid that he's already acted on his plan, and possibly hurt many other people in the process?" The inventor said, "Not really. He's been dead for half a year now." The assistant asks how he could possibly know that. The inventor replies, "I did just as he said, I sent him back 6 months in time to this very spot. 6 months ago, the Earth was on the opposite side of the sun – so he appeared in the vacuum of space!"

The pertinent question is: how could you tell if you were in the past/future of one's own history or in an alternate universe? At its most base the combination of the uncertainty principle and the accuracy limitations in Information Mechanics suggest one could not. Who says what's on the other side of a door is nicely connected to where one is now?

Heinlein's been there - so has Crichton - IMHO it's been a no-brainer since the "many worlds" idea was floated a generation ago.

Marvel did the parallel universe thing as well with The Thing traveling back in time to give a serum that Reed developed to his younger self (the serum would only work on his earlier physical body). After a knock down drag out fight, he knocks his older self unconsous (sp) and administers the serum. The younger self becomes normal and The Thing returns to the present where Reed tells him that his actions have created another universe where he's normal, but that this will not affect him at all!

I have to wonder though, how often did the Thing's strength save the day? And now there a universe where he didn't exist! THAT would have made for some interesting stories.

Ed, is that one of the Marvel What If series?

It is also possible that the tourists from the future find us disgusting and dirty iving in polluted cities with fog and smoke everywhere and therefore do not wish to visit us. It's like going to a dirty beach for vacation.
Maybe in the future all cars are clean and they run on nothing but sunlight, there are no factories and people only eat fruit and live in communities where therre only fear are of those who live underground. (Why do I think I have read this somewhere?)
On a more serious note. I taught Time Machine to an ESL class here in Taiwan but they used an "Easy reader" version of it and I feel they completely missed the point of the story. It was purely an exercise in learning new vocabulary. Yawn!!!

Some say our government has already accomplished this as a reality...but of course, they will never admit it.....

Maybe all the people from the future are dead!