Gafoo’s Blog

I am sure that title just draws you in immensly. I was reading Lee’s blog today and he had a post that referenced an article about time travel. Since I have read the book In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat: Quantum Physics And Reality I figured I would put up a blog post on the subject. I highly recommend this book if time travel and the nature of the universe type things interest you. For a physics book, it’s a suprisingly easy read. If all of this isn’t your cup of tea, then just hang on for a new Chris’s Playlist coming soon. Anyway, on with the show
Schrodinger’s Cat is an interesting paradox in the world of quantum mechanics. The basic premise (and I know I am generalizing it greatly) is that matter can (and does) exsist in more than one state (in the case of the experiment it is 2 states) and through our intervention (observation in this case) we place it in one state, rather than many (perhaps so we can understand it, who knows?). Some physicists have taken it a step farther and hypthosized that there are an infinite number of quantum universes (states of matter) and through our intervention we are always passing through to different ones.
This physicist takes it one step further and believes that he can travel through time on this theory (within the next decade no less). His idea is that he will somehow warp space (which in the process warps time since time is a part of space) and pass to a different quantum universe and time will be a variable in the equation. The obvious downfall being that there is no way in knowing where (or when) he will end up.
This leads me to an interesting debate. Is time travel possible? Most people take the position that if it is possible then we should have seen it by now (assuming time is linear). I think that is not necessarily true. If the theory of infinite quantum universe pans out (so far, no one has been able to prove or disprove it) then perhaps in some future point when time travel does exsist, then maybe we also determined a way to exsist in a quantum bubble which shields us from anything in “the pasts” quantum universe. This would support the current view and time travelers simply wouldn’t appear to exsist (even though they really do). However, to go down that road, you must consider the possibilty that when (or if) a quantum infraction occurs (someone showing up in our world), the time traveler would immediately cease to exsist (or some other chaos theory outcome). It’s possible that in the future, we would know (or theorize) that quantum infractions would cause catastrophic results and as such, would have taken precautions to avoid them (the quantum bubble). This is supposition however, since a quantum infraction would include simply exsisting somewhere you didn’t belong (X years in the past, different quantum reality, etc..). But who knows, if the human race haven’t completely annihilated each other by then, maybe we would also understand how to control our quantum universe enough to “travel” with it through time (hey, I’m nothing if not optimistic!). Interesting ideas for sure. Time travel can exsist IMHO. Your thoughts…