Thread: Time travel into the future

According to the Special Theory of Relativity, at speeds approaching the speed of light, time dilation comes into effect. The consequences of this are that if your space ship leaves the Earth and travels at 90% the speed of light, the clock on your ship will tick half as fast relative to my clock back on the Earth. If your space journey takes one month according to your clock, two months will have passed for me according to my clock. You will have traveled one month into the future at your arrival back on Earth.

Now let's say it's 2050 and some billionaire entrepreneur, some future Richard Branson, invents a propulsive system and a space ship that is able to achieve near light-speed. He advertises Flights Into The Future, Tickets Only Ten Million Dollars. You buy your ticket, enter the ship and it accelerates to 90+% the speed of light for say six months ship time. Due to time dilation, during your voyage two hundred years will have elapsed on Earth. When your ship returns it's 2250. What an experience you will have experiencing future Earth!

The only drawback is it's a one-way voyage in time. You can never return to the world you knew when you left. What would be the consequences for you and for the future society trying to accomidate your fellow time-travelers? Would you have the courage to make this journey into an unknown future?

Hmm, good question, not sure whys its in the 'Astronomy & Cosmology' section though. Anyway..... that couple of billion you had would hopefully be enough to get you a mars bar, one problem would be if you did emerge from the space ship/time machine only to find that we had blown each other to shite and all the while more and more people are coming in their own space ships. No, having given it a bit of thought i don't think i would have enough courage or want too.

If I didnt have any family or friends that cared about me, then yes id do it.

What actually happens is when you get there your passport has expired, there's no record of your birth and you don't have one of those micro-chip implants. This all results in you being arrested as one of them non conforming terrorists. You are then considered a spy and shot immediately.

What happens when you show them your passport and try and explain to the man at the desk why you are a very youthful looking 250 year old.

I'd also point out that it would cost far, far, far more than $10,000,000. It's not like those ships can get re-used, nevermind the cost of somehow getting a ship to 90% the speed of light for 6 months. To purchase that trip you'd have to pay for the construction of the ship, the fuel, and everything else involved (plus the profit)

Originally Posted by Neutrino

I'd also point out that it would cost far, far, far more than $10,000,000. It's not like those ships can get re-used, nevermind the cost of somehow getting a ship to 90% the speed of light for 6 months. To purchase that trip you'd have to pay for the construction of the ship, the fuel, and everything else involved (plus the profit)

Why couldn't it get re-used for the same purpose of sending people further into the future? Granted, it might need some repairs, but if someone arrived in the future and didn't like it, they could always go further, along with some new passengers.

Anyway, It's obvious that in the future, such journey's would be outlawed, and all ships coming back would be blown up before entering the earth's atmostphere (and the passengers would be teleported to the mar's penal colony, or the maximum security artificial sattellite constructed inside of the Kuiper belt.

HAR HAR HAR!!

Originally Posted by benign psychosis

Originally Posted by Neutrino

I'd also point out that it would cost far, far, far more than $10,000,000. It's not like those ships can get re-used, nevermind the cost of somehow getting a ship to 90% the speed of light for 6 months. To purchase that trip you'd have to pay for the construction of the ship, the fuel, and everything else involved (plus the profit)

Why couldn't it get re-used for the same purpose of sending people further into the future? Granted, it might need some repairs, but if someone arrived in the future and didn't like it, they could always go further, along with some new passengers.

Re-using them in that fashion does nothing for the people who originally paid for the venture. From the point of view of the shipbuilder in the present, it's a 1-shot use and nothing they use the ship for in the future reduces that cost.

Wow...10-million to take a trip into the future, where yer money is likely worthless, no one likes you, your hobbies, clothes, and probably even yer language are outdated, and worst of all....Earth might not even be there anymore.

What a total downer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvd3kaupZ60

Originally Posted by Neutrino

Originally Posted by benign psychosis

Originally Posted by Neutrino

I'd also point out that it would cost far, far, far more than $10,000,000. It's not like those ships can get re-used, nevermind the cost of somehow getting a ship to 90% the speed of light for 6 months. To purchase that trip you'd have to pay for the construction of the ship, the fuel, and everything else involved (plus the profit)

Why couldn't it get re-used for the same purpose of sending people further into the future? Granted, it might need some repairs, but if someone arrived in the future and didn't like it, they could always go further, along with some new passengers.

Re-using them in that fashion does nothing for the people who originally paid for the venture. From the point of view of the shipbuilder in the present, it's a 1-shot use and nothing they use the ship for in the future reduces that cost.

Imagine for a second that the shipbuilder is a corporation or a government.

Imagine for a second that the shipbuilder is a corporation or a government.

Not sure where you're going with that?

Originally Posted by Neutrino

I'd also point out that it would cost far, far, far more than $10,000,000. It's not like those ships can get re-used, nevermind the cost of somehow getting a ship to 90% the speed of light for 6 months. To purchase that trip you'd have to pay for the construction of the ship, the fuel, and everything else involved (plus the profit)

I don't know why I'm even saying this, but why does the ship have to have only one seat? $10 million doesn't cover one person, but the cost of adding second, third, fourth, etc, more people decreases.

Originally Posted by benign psychosis

Why couldn't it get re-used for the same purpose of sending people further into the future? Granted, it might need some repairs, but if someone arrived in the future and didn't like it, they could always go further, along with some new passengers.

Um, who said it comes back? Granted if the theory holds, going faster will send us forward in time...but going back is a heck of a lot harder. Not to mention this thing would have to have the capability to not only turn itself around, but the power to come back. It's easier just to build them one-way.

Originally Posted by benign psychosis

Anyway, It's obvious that in the future, such journey's would be outlawed...

People going back through time is a problem, but not forward. What's the threat of people moving forward through time?

"Hello, I'd like to tell you highly advanced humans of the future how to make a pistol! And I can even show you how to build a com-pu-ter!"

Originally Posted by benign psychosis

Imagine for a second that the shipbuilder is a corporation or a government.

Um, yeah...

MSRP $10million
Corporate $15.99million (without training or maintenance package)
Government $2-Billion (built 10 years before needed, takes 12 years to acquire if correct forms are used.)

I think I saw a documentary about a guy who did that and ended up in the year 3000, it seemed to work out pretty well for him, think it was called futurama.

I don't know why I'm even saying this, but why does the ship have to have only one seat? $10 million doesn't cover one person, but the cost of adding second, third, fourth, etc, more people decreases.

Definitely true, but I'm thinking this would be a hundreds of billion dollar cost. The shuttles today cost about 2 billion to make and I imagine a ship constructed to accelerate to, and withstand 0.9c is going to dwarf that to say the least. Nevermind the cost of accelerating something to that unimaginable velocity, and maintain it for months - ignoring things like flight path and whatnot. Of course it's not really important, we all know it'd be really, really expensive.

Originally Posted by wolf

Um, who said it comes back? Granted if the theory holds, going faster will send us forward in time...but going back is a heck of a lot harder. Not to mention this thing would have to have the capability to not only turn itself around, but the power to come back. It's easier just to build them one-way.

Yeah, who said it comes back?

Originally Posted by benign psychosis

Anyway, It's obvious that in the future, such journey's would be outlawed...

People going back through time is a problem, but not forward. What's the threat of people moving forward through time?

Originally Posted by wolf

"Hello, I'd like to tell you highly advanced humans of the future how to make a pistol! And I can even show you how to build a com-pu-ter!"

I assumed that by bolding the word obvious, along with the absurd claim, followed by "HAR HAR HAR" would lead people to think I was being silly. Stupid me! Anyway, now that you bring the question up, people from the past could bring weapons or diseases with them and infect the future? Perhaps if pistol making had become a lost art and all weapons of high technology were also banned, as well as the information surrounding their creation, someone could cause some damage with der wittle pistol. Haven't you ever seen or read any sci-fi movies or books? lol

Originally Posted by wolf

Um, yeah...

MSRP $10million
Corporate $15.99million (without training or maintenance package)
Government $2-Billion [i](built 10 years before needed, takes 12 years to acquire if correct forms are used.)

lol@correct forms.

Originally Posted by neutrino

Not sure where you're going with that?

I'm using the terms government/corporation to denote any long standing financial entity. Maybe I'm thinking too far ahead of everyone else here. See excessivly crude business model below.

1) Ship built by government/corporation for $1 billion in 2050
2) Ship has 50 seats priced at $10 mil each
3) Ship goes vroom around the solar system
4) Ship arrives in port for time traveling ships in 2075
5) Ship passenger area extended to 100 seats@$15 mil/seat inflation, lol)
6) Advance in technology allow for ships to be built for $250 mil
7) More ships = More passengers = more money
8) Ships all go vroom around the solar system
9) Ships arrives in the future port for time traveling ships in 2100
10) Advances in technology allow for ships to be built for $50 mil
11) A pattern begins to emerge

Or maybe I'm just nuts

Originally Posted by Neutrino

Definitely true, but I'm thinking this would be a hundreds of billion dollar cost. The shuttles today cost about 2 billion to make and I imagine a ship constructed to accelerate to, and withstand 0.9c is going to dwarf that to say the least. Nevermind the cost of accelerating something to that unimaginable velocity, and maintain it for months - ignoring things like flight path and whatnot. Of course it's not really important, we all know it'd be really, really expensive.

Well, we'd have to assume that technology would have advanced to such a level that developing such a starship would be feasible for commercial use (otherwise rich billionaire dude wouldn't be readily making them, or selling them for $10mil rides).

Second, I don't think you'd need anything as complicated as the space shuttle. Assuming you just wanted to go to the future, you wouldn't need a cargo bay, all those computers and lab parts, nor anything for gliding.

Of course the real problem comes from the time lag. What I mean is the 6-months travel time. People can't just sit for 6 months staring out the windows...they'd be in the future but they'd all be psycho-lobotomized. So this would have to be a considerable starship, along the lines of Sky-Lab at least. More and more we're seeing that this is drastically going beyond the limits of funding, even if the fare was increased to 2-billion a pop.

The only way around it is to assume that in the future, when we can travel at such high speeds with passengers, that starship construction will have gotten a lot cheaper...which is understandable, I think.

Originally Posted by benign psychosis

Anyway, now that you bring the question up, people from the past could bring weapons or diseases with them and infect the future? Perhaps if pistol making had become a lost art and all weapons of high technology were also banned, as well as the information surrounding their creation, someone could cause some damage with der wittle pistol. Haven't you ever seen or read any sci-fi movies or books?

Germs aside, what would the reaction be, you think, if say an egyptian somehow got thrown into the future and arrived here, today? He could tell us how the pyramids were built, who killed king tut, and why they couldn't paint like normal people. Those lost arts and technologies probably wouldn't make too much of an impact today, or even 500 years ago.

Granted if we eventually blow ourselves into oblivion and some past dudes show up with technology we've lost...it would kinda be helpful. Get us back on track (so we can do it all again, you know?).

Originally Posted by Wolf

Germs aside, what would the reaction be, you think, if say an egyptian somehow got thrown into the future and arrived here, today? He could tell us how the pyramids were built, who killed king tut, and why they couldn't paint like normal people. Those lost arts and technologies probably wouldn't make too much of an impact today, or even 500 years ago.

I think you are just purposely trying to find situations where a visitor from the past wouldn't have an impact on the future. Anyway, what you are describing would have a profound effect on archaology and egyptology, among others. It would fill in alot of gaps...

It might be a little different if Jesus & Mary, Buddah, Hitler, Stalin.. etc were shot into the future.

is it just me, or did this guy just think up a way to get rid of our current day garbage. haha, he started a garbage man company. nice

We should just chuck our trash into the nearest planetary waste receptacle. (Also known as volcanoes.)

We should launch our nuclear waste into the sun. But that's another story...

Originally Posted by Wolf

We should just chuck our trash into the nearest planetary waste receptacle. (Also known as volcanoes.)

We should launch our nuclear waste into the sun. But that's another story...

wow, talk about speeding up the global warming process

and, wow, talk about messing with the nuclear fusion that occurs on the sun(could be wrong on this one though)

Can anyone explain to me why time dilation occurs? Why does time slow down at near light speed?

As you approach light speed, you gain mass, exponentially or something (which is why only things with NO mass can reach light speed, 0^100=0), so you begin to warp space-time at a certain point, and if you warp spacetime, you slow down time.

Originally Posted by Legendary

As you approach light speed, you gain mass, exponentially or something (which is why only things with NO mass can reach light speed, 0^100=0), so you begin to warp space-time at a certain point, and if you warp spacetime, you slow down time.

Or to answer the question precisely... "It seems to be one of the fundamental laws of the universe we find ourselves in".

So the speed doesn't really matter, it's just because of your mass that you warp space-time?

Hmm.. so time will appear to move differently on planets with larger mass compared to smaller ones? Or does it not work like that?

Time dilation is due to the speed of light being constant as measured from every refrence frame. In other words, your friend in a spaced ship is traveling 90% the speed of light, wizzing past you on the earth. He emits a photon of light from the front of his ship in the direction his ship is traveling, and you on earth measure the photon's speed as 300,000kps. Now he emits a photon from the rear of his ship opposite the direction his ship is traveling, and you on earth measure the speed of the photon. Your measure it as still traveling at 300,000kps. You cannot add or subtract the speed of the ship to the speed of the photon, so the speed of light always remains constant, not matter the circumstances. In order for this to be so, measurements of space and time must be flexible.

Another reason for time dilation is the effect of length contraction. Space contracts for the ship in its direction of flight. Lets say there is a star one light year away. You are on earth and your friend in his space ship. His ship accelerates to 90% the speed of light to the star and returns. From your perspective on earth the ship will take 810 days to make its journey and the distance traveled is 2 light years. From your friend's perspective, because he is traveling 90% the speed of light, for him the distance to the star has shrunk by a factor of .5, so he travels a shorter distance to the star and back and so his journey takes less time relative to you. From his perspective his journey has only taken him 405 days to complete.

So, from your point of view, 810 days have elapsed for you on earth but only 405 days have elapsed for your friend. But when you measure his distance traveled it is still 2 light years, so to equalize his shorter distance traveled with your longer measurement of the distance to the star, you must streatch his shorter distance to your measurement of the distance traveled. This also streaches his elapsed time. So, from your perspective, for every day on earth only .5 days have passed on the ship (405/810). From your point of view his clock is ticking slower than yours. This 'equalizing' of distance is what you observe from your refrence frame.

Space ship's shorter measured distance traveled equalized
to your longer measured distance (what you actually observe)


__ = distance / = one day

...__/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/__/__ Ship's d-t

..._/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_ Your d-t


This is how I view the cause of time dilation. Hope all this makes some sense.
Why these effects occur and are real is answered very well by Megabrain's answer.

The rest iof the universe has a hard time keeping tabs on something the faster it goes :P

Originally Posted by nukesforthelose

wow, talk about speeding up the global warming process

and, wow, talk about messing with the nuclear fusion that occurs on the sun(could be wrong on this one though)

Yer being sarcastic, right? :?

Originally Posted by Development

Can anyone explain to me why time dilation occurs? Why does time slow down at near light speed?

I could spit it all out for you, but I think you'd get a better understanding by doing a little research into Special Relativity. Wikipedia's got a good article on SR which explains time dilation, mass-energy relation, etc.

I think I kinda understand it now. This helped!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UesMB4_nFAY

Originally Posted by Development

I think I kinda understand it now. This helped!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UesMB4_nFAY

Hey, cool tube find!

Isn't there a section in this forum for useful stuff? A place where we can put useful links to articles and concept-videos?

Originally Posted by Development

So the speed doesn't really matter, it's just because of your mass that you warp space-time?

Hmm.. so time will appear to move differently on planets with larger mass compared to smaller ones? Or does it not work like that?

Correct!! Time will move at a different rate on different planets. Gravity affects time. Further more as gravity follows an inverse square law, by the time you (or anyone dies) your head will be a different age to your feet !!

Crazy stuff, eh !?

We all know what would happen, Just watch Planet of the apes.