A Unified Theory of Time Travel

"A Unified Theory of Time Travel"," The actual technical practicality of actually carrying out such journeys need not concern us since this essay is in the realm of the thought experiment. I've come up with a unified theory of time travel into the past that incorporates Einstein's general theory of relativity; Hawking's Chronology Protection Conjecture, along with other assorted bits like parallel universes that are thrown into the mix. And, time travel is possible - in theory. Apart from that, if one travels at close to light speeds relative to your place of origin then you can travel to the distant future (with respect to that place of origin) without aging an equivalent number of years (the twin paradox). The problem there is that relativity theory predicts worm holes, if they exist at all, will exist for nanoseconds and be very tiny to boot, and thus not very useful in the foreseeable future for the purposes of time travel. Anyway, the fun bit about time travel is the various paradoxes that arise, the most famous one being the grandfather paradox. If you did that it means that you could never have been born, but if you were never born you couldn't go back in time to kill your ancestor. Say you have this edition of ""Hamlet"", and you want Shakespeare to autograph it. You knock on his door, but the housekeeper says he's out for the day but if you leave the book he'll autograph it and you can come by and collect it next morning. You come back the next morning, collect your now autographed edition of ""Hamlet"", and return to the present day with your now very valuable book. Another favorite is you meeting yourself. You get the brilliant idea to travel back in time and convince your younger self to invest in some stocks you know will pay off big time later on down the track. He does, but as they fly off on their honeymoon, the plane crashes with no survivors. Or if you can travel back in time, then of course others can to. And so you might have any number of people going back to particular historical focal points, each with their own particular agenda (most of which will be mutually exclusive), and ultimately causing havoc. In other words, history would never be fixed, rather always be fluid. Since we believe that history (or the past) is fixed, then that what's written on your history book page today will not alter overnight. (Don't we all really wish some past something, personal and trivial, or perhaps something of major significance could be changed and you'd be that instrument of change?) Its paradoxes and situations such as the above that prompted Stephen Hawking to postulate that there is as yet an undiscovered law or principle of physics which prohibits time travel to the past - he calls it his 'Chronology Projection Conjecture'. So, putting it all together, here's my theory of time travel: my unified theory of time travel, at least to the past. Relativity theory allows for time travel into the past, but, IMHO, only to parallel universes (otherwise known as alternative or mirror or shadow universes) where no paradoxes can happen. There are serious reasons behind the speculation that what's on the other side of a Black Hole and/or wormhole is another universe. The Black Hole or wormhole 'exit' isn't within our Universe. It's fate. Therefore, there are no unexpected ripple effects other than what was destined to happen. Therefore, there will be no paradoxes arising. Why can't you go back in time in your own universe? That would mean that at a specific time and place you both were not (originally) and were (as a result of going back) present. And if you were to travel back in time to a set of time and space coordinates you were actually originally at, then there would be two copies of you occupying the same space at the same time - also a paradox. If you go back in time and kill your grandfather, but your grandfather in a parallel universe, then you don't prevent your existence, just the eventual existence of yourself, your other self, in that parallel universe. In your original (our) Universe, Shakespeare is still the legitimate author. However, you could go from parallel universe B to parallel universe C, but, hence never return to either universe A or B - Hawking's Chronology Protection Conjecture again. If they then time travel to another parallel universe, then that might account for some missing persons' cases! In short, we can time travel to other parallel universes but not to our own; entities from other parallel universes can visit our Universe. Both Einstein (relativity) and Hawking (Chronology Protection Conjecture) are satisfied and happy campers. What's to prevent those from a parallel universe meddling and altering our time stream? It's not enough for them to have a Prime Directive against that - we all know Prime Directives are meant to be broken! So, it looks like Hawking's Chronology Protection Conjecture must apply to those visitors from parallel universes to our Universe as well. The Hawking Chronology Protection Conjecture not only prevents time travel paradoxes in general, but it also prevents parallel universe time travelers meddling and altering our timeline; ditto we humans time traveling to someone else's parallel universe. So, if we go to parallel universe B or those from parallel universe B visits us, we'll, or they'd be respectively out of phase with respect to the universe they are now in. I say for all practical purposes as now and again what's out of phase (high probability - the usual state of affairs) will sync into phase (that's rare). That's my rendering of the Hawking Chronology Protection Conjecture - he could well have other ways and means in mind. Now an obvious question is how do all the parallel universe ghost photons get into our physics labs where double slit experiments are carried out? I mean there are no local macro Black Hole or wormhole exits present - are there? Yes in fact there are! Not a macro wormhole, but a micro wormhole - actually wormholes. It's just that they are at quantum levels - incredible tiny; way subatomic in size. They are just part of the quantum foam** reality at super microscopic levels, a reality at the level where all things exhibit the quantum jitters or quantum fluctuations. Just put a photon detector in a totally dark and sealed room. Some photons can pass through 'solid' matter. If you look at a bright light, you'll still see light even if you close your eyes. The ghostly bits aside, parallel universe time travelers (or even ordinary time travelers from within our Universe assuming Hawking is wrong)) might explain the sometimes uncanny, often incredible look-a-likes that we all seem to have. There's still one more problem on the horizon. So, time travelers might also need more conventional transport - like Flying Saucers (okay, forget the saucers - like spaceships with fins and rocket motors). Could there be a Clayton's time travel? - Time travel without traveling in time? At the risk of making Einstein turn over in his grave; I'm going to propose a universal NOW across all universes. An observer in Martian orbit sees Mars' NOW somewhat before you on Planet Earth sees the same Mars' NOW because the speed of light is finite. But, I propose (a thought experiment remember) to instantaneously freeze-frame the entire collection of universes' NOW. Right! We now have a universal NOW that we can study at our leisure (the freeze doesn't apply to you and me - we're outside the space-time continuum). Now there's no reason to assume that all parallel Earths are identical in all aspects. Other Earths would differ in various ways, some minor, some major. There was no parallel asteroid impact 65 million years ago; thus no human beings around the traps 65 millions later. I say 'near' because you can only stretch the term 'Earth' or 'Earth-like' so far and no farther, before it's not Earth or Earth-like. If a parallel 'Earth' has Venus-like temperatures, it is not Earth-like. If it has no life on it, even though in all other respects it is a near carbon copy of our Earth, it is not Earth-like. There's no reason to assume that evolutionary development; that evolutionary development rates would proceed in each and every case in an identical fashion. In some parallel Earths, cavemen and saber tooth tigers rule. Others in our absolute NOW, on yet other parallel Earths, or parallel earthlings, might have just invented the wireless or landed on their Moon (if they have one). So, you could seemingly travel to the past and future while actually remaining in our NOW. **Quantum foam - the world may look pretty smooth from a distance, but as you keep magnifying the finer details, the micro world gets ever so slightly bumpier. It's like the sea that looks perfectly smooth and tranquil from Earth orbit, but at rowboat level, you're terrified as that 50 foot wave comes crashing down on you. Richard; Time Travel in Einstein's Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time; Phoenix, London; 2002: Hawking, Stephen W. ; The Future of Spacetime; W. Norton and Company, N. ; 2002: Randles, Jenny; Breaking the Time Barrier: The Race to Build the First Time Machine; Paraview Pocket Books, New York; 2005: Toomey, David; The New Time Travelers: A Journey to the Frontiers of Physics; W. Norton & Company, New York; 2007: . TRY SOMETHING NEW JUST CLICK HERE