Truth about time travel?
Pretty much first post I've ever made on reddit, but I felt this revelation/theory/analogy of time travel was so crazy that I just had to share it somehow (and somewhere people might actually be interested enough to read this nerdy nonsense).
The assumption before you read any of the below is that you have some sort of understanding of random physics concepts (though not very in-depth I have to admit).
Summary/TL;DR - I propose time travel to the past is impossible, at least not to any "normal" sentient creature living in the third dimension.
So the background for this thought experiment was watching a clip from the final sequences of the superhero movie "Zack Snyder's Justice League".
--- Movie spoilers ahead ---
So essentially one particular superhero - Flash, has the ability to move at super fast speeds without bound by realistic limitations that physics would impose due to his connection with the "Speed Force" (loosely explained). In the climax of the show, the band of heroes lose a fight to save the world. Flash then begins running faster than the speed of light to reverse time to the moment the heroes lost the fight and saves the day.
--- Movie spoilers end ---
This led me to wonder - But does moving faster than speed of light really allow one to "run back in time" like how the superhero Flash did in the movie?
All the theories ahead are loosely "cross-checked" with existing concepts of relativity that have been some sort of proven.
Now back to the question: Does moving faster than the speed of light allow us to "run back in time"?
Quoting the answer given by a quick google search, the speed of light is 299 792 458 m/s. Let's call this <c>.
One simple way to confirm that moving faster than <c> (assuming it is possible for an object with matter like us) does not allow us to travel back in time is to imagine us being the object moving faster than <c>. This would simplify the example by taking relativity out of the equation.
We already know there are distances longer than what light can travel "instantaneously". Take for example a distant planet Neptune. Travelling faster than <c> from Earth to Neptune still requires "positive time", calculated by the actual distance between Earth and Neptune divided by our speed faster than <c>. So we can verify that we have not travelled back in time even though we have moved at a speed faster than the speed of light.
So what is the implication of us travelling faster than <c>? Essentially I believe all it does is make observable phenomena (to us in this case) extremely weird and perplexing. One very simple way of perceiving this is that after you move faster than the speed of light you would essentially be leaving behind afterimages whenever you move (you are no longer physically present at the location but light/photons suggests you are still at that location).
Now that we have discussed about going back in time, what about stopping time? While it certainly sounds entire unfeasible, we are indeed able to theoretically "stop" the time of something. What do we typically think of when we talk about "stopping" the time of something? That something is unable to move. And we already know that there is a term in Physics that matches this description when overly simplified - Zero Kelvin/Absolute zero. So if we freeze a particle on Earth to Zero Kelvin/Absolute zero, we have essentially frozen the time of that object WITH RESPECT TO US. But the particle is still moving with Earth's rotation. This brings us to the next topic.
What about going into the future then? It is entirely possible and has been in fact proven by existing phenomena. I list two possible ways to "go into the future":
(Scenario 1)
The spaceship holding our physical body stays stationary (Earth's rotation, bla bla bla). We force the elementary particles in our body to move extremely slowly/close to absolute zero. We essentially "stop" our own time, while the rest of the world "continues on" at normal time.
This is the form of time travel "into the future" depicted by popular science fiction - Cryostasis.
(Scenario 2)
The spaceship holding our physical body accelerates to high velocities such that the elementary particles in our body APPEAR to move extremely slowly/close to absolute zero. We essentially "stop" our own time relative to the spaceship(?), while the rest of the world "continues on" at normal time.
This is the form of time travel "into the future" that has been proven to exist in the world - Time dilation.
I conclude that relativity is a bitch, it makes phenomenon in time hard to perceive without first defining a point of reference.
But one thing that seems to denounce the possibility of conventional time travel to the past is the physical implication that we need to bring the entire world to zero Kelvin (think about the insane amount of energy required!), then somehow reverse every single particles' trajectory to match the previous state in time. But even then, can we really say that we are going back in time and not forward in time?
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracytheories/comments/mgldx4/truth_about_time_travel/
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