Quanta wrote:
Time travel logically is possible, but not in the way you probably are thinking. Take for instance, the Andromeda Galaxy. When we look at it through our telescopes.. we're looking at it, as it was hundreds of thousands of years ago. In present time, it no longer looks like that.. but we're seeing what it used to look like. This is an illusion of light, the speed of light is only so fast.
If we place reflective mirrors outside our solar system, we could see Earth as it was 12 hours ago. If we place mirrors deeper into our galaxy ... that can expand themselves, depending on the future technology we'll be able to see Earth as it was hundreds of years ago.. and adjust it like a telescope to different time periods.. perhaps even get so intricate that we'll be able to see statues, hopefully even events. We won't be able to interfere with life, but we can view our ancestors.
Theoretically this is possible, but not with our current technology. It would take mirrors and lazers propelled into our galaxy .. and would take years to do, if not then life times. But, the idea of this must have already happened if people thought it up. So, perhaps in the future people are already staring at Earth as it was .. analyzing the progress, like archeologists. Who knows though the idea of warping actual humans by means of teleportation is just impossible.
I think it would take a prohibitively long time. Besides, we already have the means to do this. It's called Youtube.
The effect you're talking is like something I deal with as an electronic musician. My setup includes some kind of controller keyboard, usually my digital piano slab, but can also include an EWI or a pedal board. The MIDI signal travels from one or more of these controllers to a MIDI interface into the computer. From there, the signal may be routed to another synthesizer or keyboard, which would go back through the same or different MIDI interface. The synth makes sound, which travels through an audio cable into an audio interface which directs the sound into the computer for processing and/or routing, and from there it might go into one or more amplifier/speaker combinations.
The time delay involved, depending on processor speed and RAM, can range for a few milliseconds to a significantly longer period of time. Usually the delay (latency) is short enough to be unnoticeable, but at times, with heavier demand on the computer, can be intolerably long. Similarly, pipe organists, depending on the church or concert hall, might experience a delay between pressing the key to hearing the sound because the organist is at the mercy of organ mechanics and electronics, not to mention the time delay from the sound produced by the pipes until the sound reaches the organists ears. Some organists have gotten quite good at ignoring the feedback from the instrument and simply play the keys as though the sound produced was instantaneous. The point is that the moment that they keys were touched is in the past, and the resulting sound events reflect something that has already happened.
Apply the same principle to light. What we CAN'T do is get such a mirror deep enough in space and instantly see what our ancestors were doing. Even if the placement of such a mirror could happen instantaneously, we'd still have to wait the amount of time for light FROM earth to reach the mirror and then return.
On the other hand, we have the resource of recordable media to preserve our history, much of which can be (and is) archived on Youtube. Not that everything on Youtube is true and accurate, but it has the future potential of being mined for digital archeology.
17 May 2010, 9:57 pm
