Does the Chaos Theory disprove Time Travel

[warrush]

Hi guys, first real post. I'm not very knowledgeable in science, so I'd like some help with this. I know that Time Travel (to past, not future) is theoretically possible, but doesn't the Chaos Theory say otherwise? If I were to travel into the past, just by me being there would change the present, which probably would in turn keep from, or delaying me, traveling in the past in the first place. Wouldn't there be billions of variables that would occur if say, you travelled back 200 years.

 

I would also like to know if traveling to the future is even theoretically possible, because I don't really see how it is.

[Baby Astronaut]

Interesting scenario, going back in time might change the events leading to the invention of your time machine. Oh, and welcome

 

Now, let's see. We're at the speculation phase with time travel. So you might not get any conclusive response from others. And just so you're warned, the thread could be moved to an appropriate section if a moderator decides it.

 

With that out of the way, I'd like to add something a bit curious. If you travel into the past, you're likely just traveling into your future. Dwell on that a moment, you'll get it. See? Thoughts in your head are still progressing forward, not backwards. Pretty cool, eh?

[ajb]

In essence yes. This is one issue with time travel. However, it maybe possible to have consistency. That is, you always had a place in history. You can't change anything as that is the way it was.

 

See the Wiki article on Novikov's self-consistency .

 

 

Another possibility is given by the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. When you travel back in time you leave the world you belong to and enter another. As such you cannot effect thing in the past in your original world.

 

See the Wiki article on many-worlds.

 

Or maybe you can change things and we lose causality.

 

However, it is not really fully understood if time-travel is possible or not. In the context of classical general relativity there appears no obvious reason why not. However, when you include quantum effects it seems that any attempts to construct a time-machine are thwarted. I don't think this is a "fully fledged" theorem in semiclassical gravity, but these ideas lead Hawking to his now (in)famous chronological protection conjecture. This could well be wrong. One needs a full quantum theory of gravity to really investigate time-travel.

[bob000555]

Well if we accept that there are 11 dimensions of reality ,as is proposed by string

theory, then the time machine could not only transport us back through the forth dimension(time) but also

through the fifth dimension to an entirely new time line. Our actions would have

no bearing on the time line in which the time machine is invented and used.

I am posting on my new blackberry and its quite difficult to type so please excuse any irregularities.

[Klaynos]

Well if we accept that there are 11 dimensions of reality ,as is proposed by string

theory, then the time machine could not only transport us back through the forth dimension(time) but also

through the fifth dimension to an entirely new time line. Our actions would have

no bearing on the time line in which the time machine is invented and used.

I am posting on my new blackberry and its quite difficult to type so please excuse any irregularities.

 

Most string theories still only have 1 temporal dimension, and the other dimension are curled up.... they are not dimensions like are commonly portrayed by programs such as sliders.

[PrinceOfDragons]

Or you were meant to travel back in time in the first place thus leading you to build your time machine.

[ajb]

Or you were meant to travel back in time in the first place thus leading you to build your time machine.

 

In a "Novikov self-consistent" way.

[samtheflash82]

this isnt really the right place for this but short answer to your question is: no.

since noone has ever travelled back in time, the chaos theory has never been proven. therefore it cannot be used to disprove any other theory, being that it is an unproven theory itself.

[ajb]

this isnt really the right place for this but short answer to your question is: no.

since noone has ever travelled back in time, the chaos theory has never been proven. therefore it cannot be used to disprove any other theory, being that it is an unproven theory itself.

 

How do you prove chaos theory? By theory we are referring to a mathematical theory, that is a "collection of knowledge".

 

Chaos theory is part of the wider theory of dynamical systems, which is self-consistent. Roughly, chaos theory deals with dynamical systems that are very sensitive to their initial conditions.

 

The original question would be better stated as "in the context of a specified physical theory, e.g. general relativity, does chaos theory shed any light on the issue of time-travel and closed time-like curves?"

[samtheflash82]

How do you prove chaos theory? By theory we are referring to a mathematical theory, that is a "collection of knowledge".

 

Chaos theory is part of the wider theory of dynamical systems, which is self-consistent. Roughly, chaos theory deals with dynamical systems that are very sensitive to their initial conditions.

 

The original question would be better stated as "in the context of a specified physical theory, e.g. general relativity, does chaos theory shed any light on the issue of time-travel and closed time-like curves?"

 

Well I guess my wording was bad. What I mean is, since noone has travelled back in time, the effects, if any, that Chaos Theory might have, are unknown, and therefore basically irrelevant.

[ajb]

Well I guess my wording was bad. What I mean is, since noone has travelled back in time, the effects, if any, that Chaos Theory might have, are unknown, and therefore basically irrelevant.

 

I am not sure I would state they are irrelevant quite that easily.

 

Theoretical/mathematical physics, which is what we are really talking about here as there is no experimental evidence* of time-travel is a mathematical pursuit. Then as such maybe chaos theory is highly relevant. I don't honestly know.

 

The question is then how does the mathematical constructs relate to nature? Maybe time-travel bares little relation to nature, maybe it does!

 

 

* Maybe see Mallett who is actively working on the experimental side!

[sonofgallifrey]

If you were to travel into the past you would have always been there. Everything that will ever happen has already happened. Time is not linear it happens all at once and the way we see it simultaneously.

[juanrga]

Hi guys, first real post. I'm not very knowledgeable in science, so I'd like some help with this. I know that Time Travel (to past, not future) is theoretically possible, but doesn't the Chaos Theory say otherwise? If I were to travel into the past, just by me being there would change the present, which probably would in turn keep from, or delaying me, traveling in the past in the first place. Wouldn't there be billions of variables that would occur if say, you travelled back 200 years.

 

I would also like to know if traveling to the future is even theoretically possible, because I don't really see how it is.

 

Time travel is not theoretically possible. All studies about time travel that I know ignore fundamental theories as thermodynamics or quantum theory.

 

Deterministic chaos theory says nothing about time travel, but non-deterministic chaos theory predicts that the evolution of the universe is irreversible.

 

The same about time travel to future. Once one includes the physics of irreversibility, time travel is prohibited. Therein Ilya Prigogine famous phrase: "Future is not given".