What would you use a Time Machine for?

[HeyYou]

So, it depends on which theory of time you prefer. In one theory, you can't change THIS present. If you go back in time, and change something, that creates a fork in the timeline, that is entirely new. As opposed to continuing along the same line, with the altered circumstances... With the former theory then, it is entirely possible that there already are multiple timelines, where different events have/have not happened. So, the question becomes, using my example, if I simply went back, and bought stock, then returned to the same moment that I had left, would I be returning to the same timeline? Or a different one. :)

[Deleted54170User]

Oh! Hey! That place on the 49th Parallel I was going to buy for crop land is just about a perfect picnicking place on the USA Canada border.

 

I saw a phone on a road nearby using Google Maps. One of them phones where people call to tell the border watch they are planning to cross over there to one side or the other. You can't miss it because the people cut down the forest along the border so the phone sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of the mile wide clear cut space. ( I didn't know lines were that wide. They didn't look that wide on the map! :teehee:)

 

Hm? You could sail right up to the beach on one side and find a Free Wi-Fi signal from one of the USA's major stores in Minnesota nearby that offer Free Wi-Fi while we shop there. Of course you could just use the border watch phone and ask one of the border patrol to Google it for you and upload it to your boats PC or Cellular phone. I'm sure the ones who are sailing around on the U. S. A. side in their patrol boats might like to chat about life in general since many of them don't have any excitement all all with the Peasant Cocaine Industries Peasant Farmers in Brazil all changing their crops to Cocoa these days.

[Striker879]

So, it depends on which theory of time you prefer. In one theory, you can't change THIS present. If you go back in time, and change something, that creates a fork in the timeline, that is entirely new. As opposed to continuing along the same line, with the altered circumstances... With the former theory then, it is entirely possible that there already are multiple timelines, where different events have/have not happened. So, the question becomes, using my example, if I simply went back, and bought stock, then returned to the same moment that I had left, would I be returning to the same timeline? Or a different one. :smile:

 

And the "observation" that would show which is in fact the case would be your bank balance at the end of the day after your return. I suspect that Paga and I would have more success with our "do over" ideas than you and DragonKing would have in the financial wizard arena, but I'm only certain of one thing ... there are nuances we haven't even considered yet.

 

Something that came to mind for me after that last post where I talked about time travelling forward in time.

 

As a given let's say that all possible futures are possible, some are more likely than others to come to pass, but the laws of probability apply. So instead of a "time machine" Elon comes up with a way to go really really fast (let's say 1/2 light speed). Off I go to say the edge of the Oort Cloud, or better yet to visit one of the Voyager space probes to bring back a piece that will prove that I made it (maybe the little plaque that had a bunch of info about us, and directions on where to find us ... probably not exactly the best info to just randomly distribute).

 

I get back but Elon is so old that his kid has taken over the business (what name did they finally decide on after their weird one was rejected for being too weird ... though somehow or another the star formerly known as Prince got to change his to something that isn't even pronounceable). The kid is the one who invents a machine to travel back in time.

 

I find myself a bit out of my element being so far into the future and kinda' out of date because all my emails were being sent to the wrong time, so Elon's kid agrees to send me back to 2020. Now I have been to one of those many possible futures (fortunately I was in the one where I didn't hit a chunk of asteroid at high speed ... not a pretty sight**).

 

When I get back to 2020 have I locked us into one particular timeline from all those that formerly were possible?

 

** A little like Griffin in Men in Black 3 where when he gets off the "jetpack" and is glad it wasn't one of the times that they blew up:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxOpl8w4vzY

[Striker879]

Oh! Hey! That place on the 49th Parallel I was going to buy for crop land is just about a perfect picnicking place on the USA Canada border.

 

I saw a phone on a road nearby using Google Maps. One of them phones where people call to tell the border watch they are planning to cross over there to one side or the other. You can't miss it because the people cut down the forest along the border so the phone sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of the mile wide clear cut space. ( I didn't know lines were that wide. They didn't look that wide on the map! :teehee:)

 

Hm? You could sail right up to the beach on one side and find a Free Wi-Fi signal from one of the USA's major stores in Minnesota nearby that offer Free Wi-Fi while we shop there. Of course you could just use the border watch phone and ask one of the border patrol to Google it for you and upload it to your boats PC or Cellular phone. I'm sure the ones who are sailing around on the U. S. A. side in their patrol boats might like to chat about life in general since many of them don't have any excitement all all with the Peasant Cocaine Industries Peasant Farmers in Brazil all changing their crops to Cocoa these days.

 

LOL ... you are always lookin' out for me Paga!! Good to know you have my back.

 

Actually I have had "an interaction" with "officials in boats" while out on my boat, on more than one occasion. The first one didn't "proceed as normal" shall we say, and the guy who was driving their craft was well aware of my opinion of his boat handling skills (or perhaps lack thereof would be more accurate). I didn't have my 12 gauge flare gun with me in the dingy, so there was no need to scuttle their boat after the "interaction" to hide any evidence.

 

The second time was with the "chase/recon" element from our version of a coast guard cutter. The cutter was anchored off Grand Bend (where I was headed after a three day trip down the lake ... late in the afternoon of a very long third day). I'd seen a rather odd apparition on the western horizon a bit north of passing Goderich, a fast moving dark hull right at the distorted edge of a water horizon on a hot day. As I got close to Grand Bend and saw the cutter at anchor I spotted a big black hulled inflatable making straight towards the cutter and figured that it was what I'd seen northbound on the horizon earlier.

 

Suddenly the inflatable makes a turn towards me, so I stop (was no wind so I was motoring) and wait for them. Of course when they come alongside I can see that they are completely outfitted for going to war, but they aren't adversarial or running me over (this time I was in the bigger craft). The usual, where you from, where you going, how many on board etc ... but then I had a question for them.

 

One of our former seasonal boaters in Gore Bay was an OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) officer, and I knew he was on a secondment to a joint task force of RCMP, Canada Border Services and OPP and was aboard a relatively new vessel in the size range of the cutter (100 to 150 feet), so I asked them whether or not he was onboard (he was, but they wouldn't tell me that).

 

Over the time I was staying in Grand Bend (about a week) I'd get visits from the "black inflatable boys" and everybody in the marina would be giving me sidelong glances afterwards (I am as anonymous in Grand Bend as I am here ... an unknown who at times is hard to miss). "John" (not his actual name) and I enjoyed the chance to catch up on things like his dad (that John was recovering from cancer) and how things were working out for the two of them on his dad's boat in it's new home harbour.

 

And of course I did sort of revel in the notoriety.

Edited July 26, 2020 by Striker879

[Striker879]

Perspective ... there is nothing more imprtant than finding perspective:

 

https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2020/07/26

[Deleted54170User]

Perspective I got a little of something like that yesterday.

[ReqviemEnvy]

Hell, time travel again? This is Recliffe all over again! Hmm... Back in time, huh? If it would be allowed, I would probably travel back in order to prevent the Chernobyl incident, everyone would be better off if that thing never went off, right? If not that, then probably somethin' selfish for personal gain. Investing money into companies that turned out to become giants in their industries? That would give plenty of cashback...

[Striker879]

Hell, time travel again? This is Recliffe all over again! Hmm... Back in time, huh? If it would be allowed, I would probably travel back in order to prevent the Chernobyl incident, everyone would be better off if that thing never went off, right? If not that, then probably somethin' selfish for personal gain. Investing money into companies that turned out to become giants in their industries? That would give plenty of cashback...

 

What ... no more Stalker: Shadows of Chernobyl ??

 

So you are aligning with Hey and others ... and I fully understand the allure of that (and ya ... not an exceptionally "original" question to ask, I know).

[ReqviemEnvy]

 

Hell, time travel again? This is Recliffe all over again! Hmm... Back in time, huh? If it would be allowed, I would probably travel back in order to prevent the Chernobyl incident, everyone would be better off if that thing never went off, right? If not that, then probably somethin' selfish for personal gain. Investing money into companies that turned out to become giants in their industries? That would give plenty of cashback...

 

What ... no more Stalker: Shadows of Chernobyl ??

 

So you are aligning with Hey and others ... and I fully understand the allure of that (and ya ... not an exceptionally "original" question to ask, I know).

 

Ha, right. Originality is just burning with this question. But nevermind that, let's blow up a couple more atomic reactors, so Stalker gets more travel options! Mwaha, that would be interesting to see.

[Striker879]

 

 

Hell, time travel again? This is Recliffe all over again! Hmm... Back in time, huh? If it would be allowed, I would probably travel back in order to prevent the Chernobyl incident, everyone would be better off if that thing never went off, right? If not that, then probably somethin' selfish for personal gain. Investing money into companies that turned out to become giants in their industries? That would give plenty of cashback...

 

What ... no more Stalker: Shadows of Chernobyl ??

 

So you are aligning with Hey and others ... and I fully understand the allure of that (and ya ... not an exceptionally "original" question to ask, I know).

 

Ha, right. Originality is just burning with this question. But nevermind that, let's blow up a couple more atomic reactors, so Stalker gets more travel options! Mwaha, that would be interesting to see.

 

 

LOL ... gee Envy, to look at you I'd never in a million years guess you had such a mean streak.

 

How about some virtual nukes enabling virtual travel destinations ... only innocent electrons get harmed, but they have no mass so they can't fight back (hmm ... could lead in "shocking" directions though I suppose ... always a catch!!).