If you had a time machine...

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Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
17,768
485
126
When computers become powerful enough an alternate reality could be created to allow a human to experience the past with such detail they would not know the difference from the current reality. In such the future could be simulated. This could probably help sick people (schizophrenia?) too.

It could also let people try something and see what the consequence would be for their actions in a synthetic reality (The Family Man - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218967/). It could also drive people crazy too! (making them want something even more that they cannot have thus keeping them in VR where their real life falls apart, etc.) This is already seen in things like Second Life, etc.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,606
17,992
126
When computers become powerful enough an alternate reality could be created to allow a human to experience the past with such detail they would not know the difference from the current reality. In such the future could be simulated. This could probably help sick people (schizophrenia?) too.

It could also let people try something and see what the consequence would be for their actions in a synthetic reality (The Family Man - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218967/). It could also drive people crazy too! (making them want something even more that they cannot have thus keeping them in VR where their real life falls apart, etc.) This is already seen in things like Second Life, etc.

Wrong... we have auto rosy glasses when we think of the past. If we experience the past as factual as you describe, we would be very unhappy.
 

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
17,768
485
126
Wrong... we have auto rosy glasses when we think of the past. If we experience the past as factual as you describe, we would be very unhappy.

It really depends on YOUR past. I would not want to experience my childhood again, however.
 

Locut0s

Lifer
Nov 28, 2001
22,205
44
91
When computers become powerful enough an alternate reality could be created to allow a human to experience the past with such detail they would not know the difference from the current reality. In such the future could be simulated. This could probably help sick people (schizophrenia?) too.

It could also let people try something and see what the consequence would be for their actions in a synthetic reality (The Family Man - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218967/). It could also drive people crazy too! (making them want something even more that they cannot have thus keeping them in VR where their real life falls apart, etc.) This is already seen in things like Second Life, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Depends on what you call time travel. You could go back in time to an alternate universe that's very close to the present one, but a bit different. Get your winning lotto numbers, then come back to the present time/universe. Nothing's been broken, and it'll all continue to work properly :^P
Again, quantum mechanics dictates that other than random chance, the numbers from the alternate universe will be different. You'd literally have to "win the lottery" just to get the right numbers. And remember, shifting in and out of universes constitutes a change in each universe's quantum state too. The scenario you pose would literally have to be:

Universe 1 (Yours) - Time 0 (The point you leave) = Future lotto number set
Universe 2 (Alternate) - Time 1 (The point you arrive) = Lotto numbers correspond to Universe 1 / Time 2, the point you reenter.

Assuming the "unexpected" nature of time travel (you can jump in and out of timelines/universes at will), as you can see, the state of Universe 1 changes at the point you leave it, as well as reenter it. Same with Universe 2. Quite literally, you would have to guess which alternate universe is going to have the matching lotto numbers to your universe's future taking into account the changes to both universes as you leave and reenter them. The only way to accomplish this is to know all possible futures, and given our nature of existing in a dimension which time is (apparently) linear, we have no capability to do this even with a time machine! If we had a time machine, we could probe timelines, but then we run in to the paradox that by probing various timelines, we're changing the state of each of their universes.

Simply put - it's not possible (yet).
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,606
17,992
126
It really depends on YOUR past. I would not want to experience my childhood again, however.

I had a good childhood. Not everyone is known as The Frequently Missing Child to the local police department.


PS my qute in SunnyD's sig is waaaay out of context.
 
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Arcadio

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2007
5,637
24
81

Because when you bring the numbers back to the present, your reality would be diverged into one of the alternate Universes just by bringing the numbers back. In this alternate Universe those numbers are probably not the winning numbers, unless you got really lucky.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,606
17,992
126
Why do people have to resort to violence?

We need a Pandora's vacuum cleaner...

I am not talking about me going over and rubbing you off. I am talking the guvernment taking you out since you are a national security risk.
 

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
17,768
485
126
I am not talking about me going over and rubbing you off. I am talking the guvernment taking you out since you are a national security risk.

They have no jurisdiction or authority. Do the words diplomatic immunity ring a bell? Sure there's plausible deniability as well. They are just a bunch of crooks anyway that spend spend spend. It's ridiculous. But I won't even stoop down that low to discuss politics. I don't like submarines - especially ones that can go that deep. ;)
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,606
17,992
126
They have no jurisdiction or authority. Do the words diplomatic immunity ring a bell? Sure there's plausible deniability as well. They are just a bunch of crooks anyway that spend spend spend. It's ridiculous. But I won't even stoop down that low to discuss politics. I don't like submarines - especially ones that can go that deep. ;)

right... people don't get killed because of the jurisdiction limit.
 

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
17,768
485
126
right... people don't get killed because of the jurisdiction limit.

Where's the risk?

Buying lottery tickets? LOL

This Friday I will get off in Miami and buy $10k of Lottery tickets in your honor. LOL
 

GlacierFreeze

Golden Member
May 23, 2005
1,125
1
0
No Back To The Future was full of plot holes.

The picture that Marty was carrying around would NOT change nor would the newspaper that the Doc had (in part 2). The current things in the future would change but papers would not and people would not disappear.

If Marty did not play (guitar) at the dance and George never hooked up with Lorraine THEY would not be his parents in the future and he would just be an orphan. (like me)

The whole thing with time travel is questionable because if it were possible in the first place someone surely would have come back to our time (future's past) and done something, right? Or it's done wisely not to mess anything up and we just don't know. (yeah right!)

I don't believe that. Prove it.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,606
17,992
126
Where's the risk?

Buying lottery tickets? LOL

This Friday I will get off in Miami and buy $10k of Lottery tickets in your honor. LOL

Say a foreign agent grabs you. Forces you to give up the numbers then win and siphon the money out of the USA.
 

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
17,768
485
126
I don't believe that. Prove it.

What force is going to make the ink change in a printed media? Think about it.

Say a foreign agent grabs you. Forces you to give up the numbers then win and siphon the money out of the USA.

I have bodyguards that won't allow that. Even if such a scenario did exist I have the number committed to memory. In such a situation I pick the wrong numbers on purpose so they don't win. Tough luck guys. They will have a hard time sitting down with their uzis sticking out of their anus! :p
 
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sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,606
17,992
126
I have bodyguards that won't allow that. Even if such a scenario did exist I have the number committed to memory. In such a situation I pick the wrong numbers on purpose so they don't win. Tough luck guys. They will have a hard time sitting down with their uzis sticking out of their anus! :p

Silly girl, did you think we, I mean them, would let you go?
 

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
17,768
485
126
Silly girl, did you think we, I mean them, would let you go?

LOL they cannot even find Bin Laden, are concerned about college students downloading telesyncs of Avatar in their dorms meanwhile malware is costing corporations billions yearly in lost revenue. Should be pretty obvious who buys out seats, eh? ;)

Can't you buy lottery tickets online?
Heck you can play poker online connected to your bank account!
 
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GlacierFreeze

Golden Member
May 23, 2005
1,125
1
0
What force is going to make the ink change in a printed media? Think about it.

The change never happened because that's how it always was, if you know what I mean.

And I was being kinda sarcastic in my other post. hehe (how can anyone "prove it?")