Time Travel

I'm thinking that the first topic will be time travel. How it could work, why it couldn't, mechanism for travel, pseudo-science behind it, problems that could arise and that sort of thing. Feel free to post your own, whether derived from mine or entirely yours.



My Time Travel Theory:

Time is a dimension, just like up/down, left/right, front/back, etc. When time passes, it’s not actually the time that changes, but the people/objects moving through it. (Analogy: When you walk down the street, you’re the one moving; not the sidewalk.) Time travel would therefore be the process of changing your location in the time stream, and could be accomplished through the same mechanism as dimension hopping, only the “direction” you travel in is different. A dimension-traveling machine could be modified to time travel, but there’s a high possibility of error since that’s not what it was originally built for. It would be easy to end up not only displaced In time, but in dimension or plane as well.

A timeline is actually more like a tree than a straight line. When something happens, there are several possible outcomes, and each one splits the timeline like so many branches. If you were to go back in time, the timeline would be split at the moment you arrive: one branch with you in it, and one without. Thus, a time paradox is impossible, as you would have come from the branch without your time-displaced self.

Traveling back to your original location before time hopping would be incredibly difficult, as you would need to have incredible precision to return to the exact moment you left in the right branch of such a hugely complicated “time tree”. It would be far more likely that you’d end up in an adjoining branch, where the world would be different from the one in which you started. The difference could be so subtle that you wouldn’t even notice it; like if you ate a different type of cereal that morning or a coin flip landed on the opposite side. It might not even effect you at all. Or it could be something drastic, like the onset of a nuclear war or something.

There are quite a few possibilities for error in my time travel theory that could add a bit of a twist to a story, and the more in-depth explanation of the process could help add a more scientific, logical feel. Modifying an existing dimension-hopping mechanism; either by accident or intent; might be more likely than making a new time traveling one from scratch. Feel free to make use of these ideas in any story in which they could help.





The next topic will be zombies. Suggestions include magic vs science, creation, biological systems (or lack thereof), ability to differentiate between own kind and the living, hunger for living flesh/brains, level of intelligence (or lack thereof), lifespan, and mode of infection.

Perhaps we should create this as a topic unto itself, that way we an have a thread for each thing, zombies, time travel, etc.

Time Travel and Kyle's Law of Immutable Temporal Dynamics:
Anyone who's studied Einstein's theories will smugly tell you that time travel is impossible. However, these people are completely wrong. Time travelling into the future is not only possible but happens every instant of every day (we're all traveling into the future right now, at a rate of 1 second per second) but travelling back in time is considerably more difficult.
Although difficult travel into the past is possible. However the thing many people immediately worry about is paradox, the theory that changing things in the past will cause severe repurcussions in the present and future. Despite the widespread belief in the idea it is completely untrue. People need not be afraid of paradox due to an obscure scientific theory known as Kyle's Law of Immutable Temporal Dynamics. This law states that the timeline is an unchanging line that extends from the beginning to end of the universe. All events occur in chronological order along this line. What this means is that it is impossible to change anything, and thus create paradox, because anything a person travels back in time to do has already occured. Essentially, the changes a person makes when they go back in time are already recorded in history before they leave for the past. Due to this law the only way to truly cause paradox would be to not go back in time and cause the change. However, since there is no limit as to when you can go back in time, the only way to actually cause a paradox is to die before being able to go back.
Thankfully, this means that time travellers do not really have to worry about causing paradoxes by their mere presence, and can thus enjoy the thrill and wonder of time travel free of anxiety and the fear of returning to a different world than they left, or destroying the universe.

Good idea.