From: perkins@tallis.enet.dec.com (Eric Perkins)
Newsgroups: alt.sci.physics.new-theories
Subject: Time Travel (a different perspective):
Date: 18 Nov 92 18:15:24 GMT
Reply-To: perkins@tallis.enet.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Littleton MA


Time Travel (from a different perspective)

In  reading all of the articles posted so far concerning time travel  there
has  never been a definition of what is time travel. So I will start of  by
posing the two possible alternatives as to what is time travel.

Traditional  portraits  of time travel depict someone  or  something  which
leaves  one time frame of reference and enters into another time  frame  of
reference  physically.  For example someone enters  a  "time  machine"  and
disappears from view and ends up someplace/sometime else visible  to  other
people. The physical body of the object or person has disappeared form view
of  the  observers  and  has entered the view of  the  new  people  in  the
different time frame.

(For sake of simplicity I will use only the example of time travel into the
future  since that is the way most of us have experienced time to  date.  I
will  limit it to the description of a person traveling through time  since
again we are most use to experiences happening to ourselves and not talking
about what it is like for an object to experience something)

Now  lets  take the point of view of a person who is in the "time machine".
What  they  experience is a loss of consciousness with one  time  frame  of
reference  and  an awakening into another time frame of reference.  All  of
their "old" experiences are back then and they are now experiencing time  a
large quantum ahead of where/when they were.

Definition of Time Travel:
So  from  the  point  of  view  of the person traveling  through  time  the
definition  of time travel would be the loss of consciousness in  one  time
frame  of  reference and the emergence of consciousness into  another  time
frame of reference. The actual physical location of the person is not  part
of  the  time travel since that only required physical travel which we  can
all do simply be walking or being carried from one spot to another.

Now, how do we achieve time travel.

I  would  submit  that most if not all of us experience one  form  of  time
travel every day (mostly during the night) and that we have witnessed  many
other  forms of time travel either ourselves or with other living organism.
OK, so here is goes...

When  we sleep, we usually loss consciousness during the night and wake  up
during  the morning. During the time that we are asleep we are usually  not
aware  of the passing of time, even though time is passing around  us.  The
one  difference between sleep and "real time travel" is that  the  body  is
probably aging at the same rate as time is passing. So the benefits of time
travel are not realized.

(As  a  side note I would like to see some evidence that the body  ages  at
exactly  the same rate as the passage of time but so far I have  not  found
any  reason to presume that you age less when you sleep than when  you  are
awake. You certainly have less stress (usually) and it is true that if  you
NEVER  sleep  you  will  probably not live very  long  (probably  die  from
exhaustion),  but I cannot prove that you age slightly less  when  sleeping
than  when  awake. Also since everyone else in the world  also  sleeps  you
cannot jump in time simply by sleeping).

So  while sleeping matches the definition given so far of time travel  most
of  us  have not considered it a form of time travel since we cannot really
benefit from it.

So  probably we should then add to the definition of time travel the clause
that  the  time traveler's physical body does not age at the same  rate  of
traveling in time.

But  we  have  also  seen  evidence of this in history.  In  the  cases  of
organisms kept in a deep freeze, their bodies have been preserved  and  the
can  be  living  millions of years after their contemporaries  have  become
extinct.  This  is also the basis for suspended animation  for  deep  space
travel,  essentially suspending the aging process of the body  and  causing
the person to loss consciousness for that amount of time.

So  to  conclude I would say that we all experience a form of  time  travel
(although  limited in its usefulness) by sleeping every  day  and  that  to
achieve  further time travel you could freeze or suspend your aging process
for  a time. You could probably achieve this by being put to sleep (slowing
your metabolism) and possibly taking some kind of drug which would slow the
actives in your cells to the point where they were not aging as fast as the
rest of the world around you.

Any thoughts, comments, rejecting of this "definition" of time travel?

So  far I have only talked about time travel in the forward sense. There is
also the possibility of time travel in the reverse sense (at least that  is
what  the movies and science fiction writers lead us to believe).  I  would
contend that time travel backwards is NOT possible (at least for us  mortal
souls).  The  requirements for backward time travel  would  be  to  removed
oneself from time itself, and then to "turn the pages of time" backwards. I
do  not think it is possible for one to "remove" themselves from time.  For
one  thing, if you were able to do that you could not think of what  to  do
next,  since there would be no next, because everything is in the  present.
The only thing you could do is "move" time either forward or backwards, and
then jump back into time at the present.

If you think of time as a strip of tape or the surface of a CD:
Up  until  now I have been talking about how one could stand still  on  the
tape or CD and allow time to move past them without them being aware of  it
or  having  any  effect on their bodies. Since all we  experience  is  time
moving  forward  (at  least I have not had the experience  of  time  moving
backward, yet). In order to move back in time you would have to be able  to
cause  your body to be removed from time "tape" or "CD" and move  the  tape
backwards to another point, and then to replace yourself onto the  tape  or
CD.  This presents the problem of actually controlling time which I do  not
think is possible for mere mortals to do.

Any comments or thoughts on backwards time travel?

-- Eric
========================================================================
-- Note: All views questions, and thoughts are my own and in no way
--       represent those of my employer or anyone else.
--
-- I can be reached by the following means:
-- Eric Perkins               E-Mail : perkins@tallis.enet.dec.com
-- Digital Equipment Corp     Phone  : (508) 952-3144
-- 153 Taylor Street          FAX    : (508) 952-3023
-- Littleton, MA 01460-1407
=======================================================================
Newsgroups: alt.sci.physics.new-theories