Monday, December 29, 2014

The Reality of Time Travel

            Ever since the late nineteenth century, traveling through time has been a sort of ambiguous fantasy implicated only in stories, songs, and imagination. It was the wish of nostalgic poets, the dream of writers and pensive historians, and only in secret, the delirious vision of realistic scientists. However, as modern day scientists contemplate the Theory of Relativity and the complexity of Quantum Physics, the “whimsical” question of whether time travel would ever be possible outside of science fiction films and books, has never felt less whimsical. Time travel is indeed possible outside of science fiction and with advanced modern technology, as well as knowledge in astrophysics and quantum physics, humankind is not far from the legitimate ability to travel through time.
            Albert Einstein theorized that time is the fourth dimension, and it moves at different rates depending on where it is. Meaning that passing through space close to the speed of light, is essentially, slowing down time. However, in his opposition to time travel, Einstein declared travel at light speed impossible, suggesting that traveling at such speeds would completely stop time, rendering the traveler’s further nonexistence. Overall, the fault in Einstein’s theory against time travel will be become evident because scientists will show that faster than light travel is possible without death. Although the Theory of Relativity is the basis of time travel opposition, many other false oppositions have been made to time travel in addition to the famous Theory of Relativity.

            There are plenty of theories on why time travel would not be possible, for instance, the occurrence of paradoxes, the destruction by black holes, and the instability of wormholes. For example, the most widely cited opposition, one cited by renowned British scientist Stephen Hawking himself, is the famous Grandfather Paradox. The Grandfather paradox is widely suggested as proof for the impossibility of time travel, stating that if a man traveled backward through time in order to kill his grandfather, he would in fact, negate his own existence, because by killing his grandfather, there is no way for his father to be born, meaning there is no way for him to be born, and no way for him to kill his grandfather. This renders him unable to time travel, thwarting the entire situation as a whole. None of it ever happened. In reference to black holes, Stephen Hawking states that travel through black holes is highly impossible due to the fact that every piece of matter that passes through a black hole, shrinks to individuality. To complete his opposition, Hawking also declares that wormholes are extremely impractical for time travel because they are exceedingly unstable, in that they would disintegrate before anyone could even step inside. However, relating to paradoxes, they can be escaped by the suggestion of a parallel universe or the nonexistence of interaction between travelers and history during time travel. Destruction by black holes can be avoided by using their inverted counterparts, white holes. Wormholes could be used for faster than light travel by manual enlargement in which they would be held open for periods of time, making time travel possible. The opposition of time travel however, is also suggested by certain laws of physics.
            Scientists who oppose time travel attempt to prove their theories by physics, specifically theories such as the Chronology Protection Conjecture, as well as the force of gravity on wormholes. In his Chronology Protection Conjecture theory, Hawking exclaims that if time travel were truly possible, we as human beings in this moment, would be bombarded by tourists from the future, as if there would be no way to keep the idea confidential or controlled. The force of gravity has also been popularly referenced in the fact that it would crush the openings of wormholes, therefore vanquishing any travelers within that are trying to get to the other side. In order to steady the opening of the wormhole, scientists would need the opposite force of perhaps the deepest and most profound things in the universe, negative mass and negative energy. However, the Chronology Protection Conjecture can easily be disproved as previously mentioned in the enforcement of non-interaction between travelers and the past. This interaction could potentially take over the world, changing history drastically, so it is patently implied that the lack of human interaction with the past would be enforced in the possibility of time travel. The Chronology Protection Conjecture is essentially, an underestimate of future scientific advancement, and in response to the force of gravity on wormholes, scientists will theorize the legitimate existence of profound anti-matter. Scientists have indeed found ways to dodge these supposedly adamant laws of physics relating to the opposition of time travel.
            More plausible than the opposing theories to time travel, are those supporting time travel, such as the bending of space time, the use of white holes as well as black holes, and the Casimir Effect. Time travel by the bending of space-time was found possible in 1930 by an American mathematician named Kurt Gödel. He proved that when traveling fast enough, time and space essentially become one singular object, and in this intensely fast speed, it is indeed possible to bend that singular object, allowing one realistically to travel through time. A famous astronomer from America named Carl Sagan believed that tiny black hole to white hole tunnels could possibly exist without an individuality. Tunnels such as these could exist, connecting dissimilar segments of the universe. In response to the fact that a wormhole would supposedly spontaneously shut as soon as a traveler were to step into it, there is a possibility of holding it open with such an anti-gravity machine founded upon a quantum effect entitled, the Casimir effect. The support of time travel can also be proved through pure physics.
            Time Travel is proved by physics through the gravitational field of a neutron star, super-massive black holes, and nontraversable wormholes as well as the existence of real time machines. If the existence of wormhole tunnels that allow time to be slowed down at one end, is accepted, and assuming that Einstein was correct in his theory that gravity impedes time, it would possible to impede time by shifting the opening of a wormhole in the gravitational field of a neutron star. Then, the traveler could simply go through time, by going through the wormhole. As these wormholes could quite possibly exist, there are many that wouldn't work in such a way, these are called nontraversable wormholes. These are like black holes in that once a traveler finds himself inside, he can never get out. As if this weren't enough proof of legitimate time travel, time machines do in fact, already exist. For example, the moon is approximately four light minutes away from Earth. This means that as an individual peers through a telescope to see the moon, he essentially finds himself looking back in time to four minutes ago. The moon that he is seeing is not one from the very moment of sight on Earth, but from four seconds earlier, and although the viewer is not able to take his body back to the time sees while gazing at the moon, he is able to send his sense of sight back in time, and witness the past, first hand, with his eyes. This proves the fact that time travel is possible right now, although it is not necessarily, or entirely physical. At the center of most galaxies including our very own, The Milky Way, there is something called a super-massive black hole. Their immense size allows the tidal forces with which they are involved, to sustain human life. One would be literally be able to float above and oversee the situation’s horizon in order to see time stand completely still, to witness the entire successive antiquity of the universe drawn across a cosmological canvas before one’s eyes, as if it were a famous painting.
            To oppose the ability to travel through time is to underestimate the scientific advancement of the future, to belittle the generations forward, and to dismiss humankind’s posterity as nothing more than a fanciful whim. In fact, to say that the idea of travel through time is impossible is to render the science of the future merely quotidian.
            Time travel is indeed possible outside of the mystical, fantasy-filled books and films of science fiction, in fact it is proven so by scientific discoveries of the gravitational field of a neutron star, super-massive black holes, and more. Humankind is not at all far from the legitimate ability to time travel, as sure as progress is inevitable.