Monday, August 06, 2007

Those Sneaky, Obnoxious Jews Are Inventing A God Damned Time Machine

I'm sorry. I hope you all understand that that title is, to me, funny as hell. And, I don't, at all, mean it to be anything but satirical.

Anyway, the weird thing is, while I don't actually believe that Jews are sneaky, and obnoxious, there is a Jewish man who is, apparently, on his way, to inventing a time machine.


Or, so that is what this article claims. Check it out:


NETANYA, Israel — Researchers at the Technion University (Haifa, Israel) claim they have developed a theoretical model of a time machine that, in the distant future, could enable future generations to travel into the past.

The team's findings were published in the latest issue of Physical Review.

"In order to travel back in time, the spacetime structure must be engineered appropriately," explains Professor Amos Ori of the Technion's Faculty of Physics. "This is what Einstein's theory of general relativity deals with. It says that spacetime can be flat. That is " it has a trivial, simple structure. But it can also be curved with various configurations."

The team stresses the main question is whether — according to the principles of curvature development in the theory of relativity — a time machine can be created. "In other words " can we cause spacetime to curve in such a way as to enable travel back in time? Such a journey requires a significant curvature of spacetime, in a very special form."

The researchers explain that traveling back in time is actually closing time-like curves so we can go back to an event at which we were present in the past. In flat space, it is not possible to close curves and go back in time. In order for closed time-like curves to exist, there has to be a curvature of a specific form on spacetime.

The question Prof. Ori is investigating is whether the laws of gravity permit the development of spacetime with the required curvature (closed time-like curves).

In the past, scientists raised a number of objections to this possibility. Now, Prof. Ori is proposing a theoretical model for spacetime that could develop into a time machine.

The Technion researchers suggest their model overcomes some of the questions, which, until now, scientists have not succeeded in solving. One of the difficult claims against a time machine was that, in order to create a time machine, it would be necessary for it to contain material with negative density. And since as of now we do not have such material — and it is also not clear if the laws of nature enable the existence of such material in the quantities required — it is not possible to build a time machine.

The team's theoretical model does not require material with negative density -- the proposal is essentially a vacuum space that contains a region field with standard positive density material.

"The machine is spacetime itself," Prof. Ori explains. "Today, if we were to create a time machine " an area with a warp like this in space that would enable time lines to close on themselves " it might enable future generations to return to visit our time. We, apparently, cannot return to previous ages because our predecessors did not create this infrastructure for us."


Prof. Ori, one of the few scientists in the world investigating this issue, emphasizes that we still do not have the technology to control gravitational fields at will, despite the fact that the theoretical principles of how to do this exist. "The model that we developed at the Technion is a significant step but there still remains a number of non-trivial open questions," he stresses. "It may be that some of these questions also will not be solved in the future. This is still not clear."


Ok, so here's the thing, if it is possible to build a time machine, it would seem that we would already have been visited by human beings from the future. Now, I am going to have to admit how strange I am, but ok, here goes:

I have considered this possibility.

In other words, it does not seem completely implausible that, indeed, we truly have had our normal course of events interrupted, and helped along by the work of people who actually time-traveled and inserted themselves, with future knowledge, into the our political and artistic structure.

Abraham Lincoln and William Shakespeare stand out as two entirely unprecendented human beings, if you ask me. In other words, if you study their lives, it is my opinion, that they brought knowledge to their time which had no intellectual precendent in history. I have always wondered at this.

I understand a bit about Einstein, and I actually understand where his ideas came from, but, as much as I have studied Lincoln and Shakespeare, I can not fathom how they became who they were.

I know that sounds completely fucking nuts, but, hey, think about it for awhile and get back to me.

Oh man, I can not wait to hear the shit I'm going to get over this post.

:)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is intriguing. Time travel would explain a lot of phenomena in history. Think back to when ancient people would try to describe something that has no correlation in their reality. It would appear to them as "magic" or "sorcery" - when in fact, it may be simple science we take for granted today (or in the near future, as the case may be.) Imagine the consternation a simple flashlight or Zippo lighter would've caused.

I agree with your assessment of Lincoln and Shakespeare. And I'd like to add one more to the mix: Merlin.

I think King Arthur was a man far ahead of his time, thanks to Merlin who, far from being a sorcerer, was merely an accomplished scientist from the future. That he arrived on the scene at one of the crux points of history when the declining Roman Empire receded from British shores and the Saxon emigration was changing European demographics - and managed to unite the disparate Celtic tribes into a powerful culture and medieval superpower - is unprecedented, as well. Perfect timing, one might say.

I'd speculate that Merlin was the time traveler, and molded young Arthur to be the greatest leader of his age.

Fun things to ponder. Great post, Pastorius!

Epaminondas said...

Isaac Asimov - 'Science, sufficiently advanced always appears to be magic' - The Foundation

Time for everyone to re-read GUNS OF THE SOUTH by one of the greatest Time travel/alt history/sci fi guys of all time.
The bad guys can travel too