Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity suggests that time travel to the past is possible via rotating wormholes and/or black holes. The actual technical practicality of actually carrying out such journeys need not concern us since this essay is in the realm of the thought experiment. Now, Stephen Hawking says time travel to the past is not possible because he proposes that there is such a thing as a yet undiscovered Chronology Protection Conjecture that prevents this and makes the world safe for historians. I’ve come up with a unified theory of time travel into the past that incorporates Einstein’s general theory of relativity, Hawking’s Chronology Protection Conjecture, along with other assorted bits like parallel universes that are thrown into the mix.
Time travel is a staple in sci-fi stories, novels, films, and TV series. And, time travel is possible – in theory. We all know about journeying to the future, which we do at the rate of one second per second, whether we like it or not. Apart from that, if one travels at close to light speeds relative to your place of origin, one can travel to the distant future (concerning that place of origin) without aging an equivalent number of years (the twin paradox). Travel to the past is allowed, too, via the weird physics inherent in rotating wormholes and maybe Black Holes, which is where Einstein’s general theory of relativity comes into play.
The problem is that relativity theory predicts wormholes, if they exist at all, wormholes will exist for nanoseconds and be very tiny to boot. Thus, it is not very useful in the foreseeable future for time travel. Because we don’t know exactly what the inside of a Black Hole is and where it leads, if anywhere, current thinking suggests that jumping into Black Holes is a more useful means for committing suicide than for traveling to the past. However, the jury is still out on that one.
Anyway, the fun bit about time travel is the various paradoxes that arise, the grandfather paradox being the most famous one. That is, what if you travel back in time and kill your grandfather before he sired your father (or mother)? If you did that, it means that you could never have been born, but if you were never born, you couldn’t go back in time to kill your ancestor. This is the sort of stuff sci-fi authors (and philosophers) love – ditto physicists! My favorite time travel paradox, however, is the one where you get something for nothing. Say you have this edition of “Hamlet,” and you want Shakespeare to autograph it. So back you go in time to Shakespeare’s era. You knock on his door, but the housekeeper says he’s out for the day, but if you leave the book, he’ll autograph it, and you can come by and collect it the next morning. When Shakespeare comes home, he sees the book, reads it, and is so impressed he spends the night making a copy. The next morning, you come back, collect your now autographed edition of “Hamlet,” and return to the present day with your now precious book. The question now becomes, where did the original “Hamlet” come from? You didn’t write it, but Shakespeare didn’t either, as he plagiarized your copy, which he then passed off as his work.
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Another favorite is meeting yourself. Say you’re 50 and not all that well off. You get the brilliant idea to travel back in time and convince your younger self to invest in some stocks you know will pay off big time later on down the track. And so it comes to pass that your younger self so invests, and becomes filthy rich, only to lead such a high life, dies of a heart attack at the age of 45! Or you always regretted not proposing to the love of your life when you were young, and thus go back and convince your younger self to muster up the courage and do so. He does, but as they fly off on their honeymoon, the plane crashes with no survivors. Sometimes you don’t know when you’re well off.
Is that right? No, it’s wrong!
There’s still one very nasty loose end here. What’s to prevent those from a parallel universe from meddling and altering our time stream? It’s not enough for them to have a Prime Directive against that – we all know Prime Directives are meant to be broken! So, it looks like Hawking’s Chronology Protection Conjecture must apply to those visitors from parallel universes to our Universe as well. I mean, what difference does it make to your existence whether you travel back in time within your universe and kill your mother before you were conceived, or some serial killer escaping from a parallel universe to our Universe who kills your mother before you were conceived – even though in the latter case there’s no paradox, you still wouldn’t have been conceived of here in anyone’s philosophy!
There’s still one more problem on the horizon. Just because a macro Black Hole or wormhole plunks you into a parallel universe (and of course, you’ve got to be able to survive the trip itself, which might be problematical) doesn’t mean you’re going to be with spitting distance of your ultimate destination(s) – say a parallel Earth(s). So, time travelers might need more conventional transport,ike Flying Saucers (okay, forget the saucers – like spaceships with fins and rocket motors). But then what’s there to distinguish a visiting time traveler from a parallel universe from, say, a run-of-the-mill extraterrestrial from within our Universe? Maybe you could just put out the welcome mat for both options!
One final thought. Could there be Clayton’s time travel? – Time travel without traveling in time? At the risk of making Einstein turn over in his grave, I’m going to propose a universal NOW across all universes. Now I know that NOW, when it comes to observers, it is a relative thing. An observer in Martian orbit sees Mars’ NOW somewhat before you on Planet Earth sees the same Mars’ NOW because the speed of light is finite. And relative motions and velocities complicate what is NOW. But, I propose (a thought experiment, remember) instantaneously freeze-frame the entire collection of universes’ NOW. Everyone and everything everywhere comes to an instant standstill. Right! We now have a universal NOW that we can study at our leisure (the freeze doesn’t apply to you and me – we’re outside the space-time continuum).
**Quantum foam – the world may look pretty smooth from a distance, but as you keep magnifying the finer details, the micro world gets ever so slightly bumpier. Close in some more, and things get rougher still until, at the quantum level, everything is a seething cauldron of tumultuous activity. It’s like the sea that looks perfectly smooth and tranquil from Earth orbit, but at rowboat level, you’re terrified as that 50-foot wave comes crashing down on you.
