Perhaps one of the most beneficial discoveries civilisation could make is that real time travel is indeed possible despite objections such as the grandfather paradox (the idea that after you are born and grow up, you go back in time to when your grandad was a child and kill him, ensuring you would never be born; but if you weren't born, you couldn't kill your grandfather, he'd grow up and you would be born).
I believe the grandfather paradox can be solved by a principle of consistency. The possibilities of time travel are as varied as those of the imagination and include new sites for disposal of radioactive waste better understanding of history and prehistory, and finding the solutions to scientific puzzles. To illustrate the possibilities of consistency, please see the enclosed paragraphs which were typed after reading a) the book 'The Mind of God' by Prof. Paul Davies and b) 'The Ultimate Vanishing' (an article about black holes and Prof. Stephen Hawking in 'Discover' magazine's Oct. '93 issue).
Applying consistency to the grandfather paradox might mean it would be impossible (if the universe is truly a 'cosmic videotape') to produce any interference with the past that could produce a present different from the one we know. To present a means whereby changes in the past would not be possible if they produced a present different from the one we know, please see the 1st submission I sent to Science Wish List ('Video') which linked the 3rd dimension to a 'cosmic videotape' and the 4th & 5th dimensions suggested by Einstein et al to a 'cosmic VCR' and power source for that video cassette recorder.
Changes in the previous frames of our earthly videotapes simply aren't possible if they lead to succeeding frames being different from the way they were when the tapes/cassettes were last viewed. According to the idea of consistency (plus the enclosed poem), frames of the cosmic videotape could not be different from what history and current events reveal because different frames would not lead to 'cosmic origins' from 'a mini black hole' Me history, current events and the future would be pre-destined.
Though (according to these ideas) the world's present blood shedding and hostility are predetermined, so are cosmic origins from mini black holes. We can only reach the point where creation of our home - our universe -is possible by overcoming bloodshed and hostility
(which seek, at times, to preserve existing conditions at the expense of future progress). To reach this creation point, we must continually strive to develop knowledge and wisdom, love and peace, cooperation and ethical behaviour/thinking while at the same time cultivating patience and forgiveness - we all need to be patient with, and to forgive, the tendency of ourselves and others to backslide.
We have the free will to decide whether, at this crossroads in time, to strive towards the dream of making our home or to indulge an inclination for hostile acts and bloodshed. This universe we live in is not to be taken for granted - true, we already have somewhere to live: but only because it is predetermined that we'll use free will to practise some form of cosmogenesis (production of the cosmos). This free will exists because, although we're ultimately composed of the quantum waves or infinitesimal pulses of energy which program the entire cosmos, in people those quantum waves are organised into the unique human brain.
When we program the primordial (mini) black hole - see later sections of 'Cosmos Factory' - our free will determines how the cosmic videotape will unfold in the future. But the form of that programming or 'writing' is predetermined by the brain's being composed (at a level which is a million billion billion times smaller than the DNA in the nucleus of a microscopic cell) of quantum waves or infinitesimal pulses of energy, as well as being predetermined by our desire to perpetuate the universal (and human) condition which has been revealed by thousands of years of observation and experiment (he by the 'reading' we've done). Many people describe our computer-like read/write cycles as the will of God - I see this as an indication that a part of each of us (the subconscious, the soul, the electrophotic brain [see 'Fountain of Youth']) knows God must be the sum of ALL infinitesimal energy pulses or quantum waves (or as John 4:24 puts it, 'God is a Spirit . . .')
typed after reading THE MIND OF GOD, in order to illustrate the possibilities of consistency-
As Paul Davies states in his book, '(The astronomer Fred) Hoyle believes that the organization of the cosmos is controlled by a superintelligence' and Hoyle believes that by acting at the quantum level this superintelligence can implant thoughts or ideas from the future, ready-made, into human brain.'
THE MIND OF GOD also says that if this superintelligence acts backward in time - which, according to Stephen Hawking and his colleagues, can be thought of as just another spatial dimensionit could, as part of a self-consistent causal loop, create that universe and be what we term God. There are hints of this in the ideas of physicist John Wheeler, who learned his science from Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr (a famous pioneer of quantum mechanics).
Further, the book suggests that a Theory of Everything explaining the entire universe could be attained if the universe operates as a closed loop in which its explanation is contained within itself. In other words, in which its output (the consequences of the Big Bang eg the nature of matter) is consistent with its input (the generation of the Big Bang Conceivably accomplished by humanity discovering matter's nature and applying that knowledge in combination with the idea addressed by scientists such as Alan Guth, Andrei Linde and George Greenstein of creating a universe in a basement or laboratory). When combined with so called time travel, the principle that TOE = I = O (Theory of Everything equals Input being consistent with Output) would allow humans to fulfil their destiny as parts of the cosmos and its superintelligence, and to play their role in the creation of their cosmos.
typed after reading THE ULTIMATE VANISHING, in order to further illustrate the possibilities of consistency -
The following poem seems to present a logical case for space-time being 'recycled' by means of the mini black holes Professor Stephen Hawking proposed twenty years ago. The poem is based on the article 'Through the Looking Glass' (ASTRONOMY magazine, Oct. '89) by U.S. astronomy professor George Greenstein and represents future scientific & technological advances by a fictional 'Supergirl' who travels through 4th dimensional 'subspace' to 5th dimensional 'hyperspace' so she can create the universe (this scenario draws on Prof. Hawking's statement that time can be thought of as another spatial dimension and mathematical equations developed by Albert Einstein which say a maximum of 3 universes could exist in our cosmos - using the above scenario, these would be space as we know it which would be connected to subspace [forming space-time] which would be connected to hyperspace).
Supergirl started collecting soft drink tins;
In weight they were proximately 20 lbs. the scales told her.
Her final plan addressed cosmic origins;
But first she must use the particle beam accelerator.
With heat and pressure confined by magnetised matter;
Where once there was lemonade (haute cuisine at a tea party of the Mad Hatter)
A mini black hole was made.
Energy transmitted inside the black hole 'condensed' into mass
Shred by pressure into the Cosmic Computer's 'bits of time-space'.
Guided by C.C.'s programming limits, bits were frozen together
Into particles of light, mass, anti-mass and negative matter.
Pursuing programs written with the bits of
space and time;
Parts followed an expanding 4-dimensional space-time.
From hyperspace her world arose; not by God the Creator
(Well, in a way, yes - God is the sum of all BInary
digiTS; and Supergirl is made of BITS)
Nor by spontaneous quantum fluctuation.
Because it is the universe of the Womanly Wonder
(Teams produce amazing advances - amazement can
also come from the individualist)
She must have created herself - now that's liberation!
The above poem speaks of creation of 4-dimensional space-time if Supergirl first journeyed back in time, say, 18 billion years from the present to create space-time; she could then travel back, say, 20 billion years from the present to create infinite hyperspace (the word infinite would mean forever expanding, as opposed to our finite sub-universe's alternating expansion and contraction) which would come into existence 2 billion years before the space we know. In order to create hyperspace 20 billion years ago, Supergirl must ensure that the infinite 4th dimensional space which allows time travel and which I've called subspace is already in existence - she could program front and back expansion into subspace (from 18 billion BC to present and 18 billion to 20 billion years ago).
Since 'subspace' is equivalent to 'time' in the Relativistic phrase 'space-time', and Einstein's Theory of Relativity says time cannot exist independently of space, the space we know not only expanded 'frontwards' to our current location but must also have expanded 'backwards' to meet the hyperspace of, say, 20 billion years ago. So we would live in a universe that could be thought of as an inflating balloon and space / subspace / hyperspace would be intermingling, interacting, parts of that unified universe - parts with different energy levels.
My reasons for thinking the Big Bang occurred in hyperspace are 1) Einstein's equations, and 2) this paragraph: Psychic researcher Robert Monroe once reported an OBE (out of body experience) during which he discovered that the realm he calls Locale III is like this realm of space as we know it (Locale I) except that it has no electricity or fossil fuel, but instead uses 'a sort of nuclear power'. If the 3 spatial dimensions we're familiar with can be termed Locale I, then Locale III may be Mr. Monroe's term for the domain of 5 spatial dimensions which Swedish scientist Theodor Kaluza proposed to Albert Einstein in a 1919 letter. Could Locale III's 'sort of nuclear power' actually be mass-energy fusion of the Big Bang type? The screen display of computers needs to be renewed and refreshed periodically - if the cosmos functions like the supreme computer, its multidimensional 'display' would also need refreshing and Big Bangs may recur regularly (they wouldn't form any other universes besides space, subspace and hyperspace but would recur at the same point in time and hyperspace).
Referring to the above poem again and the subject of black holes, here's a method for the creation of Hawking radiation that's based on Relativity (Hawking radiation is the emission of subatomic particles from a black hole's gravitational field).
Maybe the poem's 'bits of time-space' (which would actually be infinitesimal pulses - quantum waves - of electromagnetic/gravitational energy) undergo change imposed by Relativity's 4th dimension and vibrate between an 'on' state (presence of a pulse) and an 'off' state (absence of a pulse). (In other words, the quantum waves or minute pulses travel.) When 'on', the quantum waves/space-time bits would form subatomic particles because of the relativistic principle that energy is equivalent to mass. It may be that spacetime - more precisely; its actuating curvature combined with its quantum-wave-generated artificial intelligence (similar to electrical or light pulses in a sufficiently advanced electronic or optical computer generating AI) - forms quantum waves into superimposed holograms when making particles eg a hologram made from quantum light waves might be combined with ones made from quantum gravity waves and other quantum waves.
The black hole's massive gravity would be the trigger of the tendency to assume this 'on' state. Since Relativity tells us acceleration is equivalent to gravitation, objects travelling near the speed of light (the velocity of all electromagnetic waves - 186,272 miles per second) would also experience an increase in mass. If, as the poem implies, space-time bits make up both space and matter, increase of matter means increase of space (which, assuming the object is finite and exists 1n space-time, means decrease - ie slowing -of time: so-called time dilation has been experimentally confirmed).
The following letter seems an appropriate addition to Cosmos Factory - so here it is:
April 24, 1996 TIME AUSTRALIA Letters GP0 Box 3873 Sydney, NSW 2001
Dear Editor,
Is it disrespectful to wonder if something good can ever
come from a terrible illness like prostate cancer? Does
irreverent logic suggest the disease might be the key to
understanding the universe? I refer to 'The Man's Cancer'
(April 22) stating '. . . cryotherapy involves pushing
metallic probes into the prostate and circulating liquid
nitrogen at -126 degrees C through them . . .' and '. . .
prostate tissue immediately adjacent to the catheter (used
to warm the urethra) does not freeze . . .'
Curiosity about cold and heat might lead us to the four laws of thermodynamics, which deal with the ways in which energy such as heat can be passed from one body of matter to another. Of the four laws, our attention might focus on the first (energy can neither be created nor destroyed). so if energy can't be created, where did the normal body heat in the prostate gland ultimately come from?
The energy exists now and always must (though not always in the form of a physical prostate). If the energy wasn't created, it must have been somehow recycled. The most obvious source of this recycled energy (which takes the form of prostate tissue, in accord with Einstein's statement that energy and matter are interchangeable) is living prostates.
Advances in genetic engineering, cloning and 'artificial life' research may mean the time is close when doctors and scientists can recycle energy originating in prostate and other tissues from a donor cell to a newly fashioned organ for transplant, or indeed, they may recycle energy to fashion a complete new body. We should remember that prostates and bodies (some with ovaries) that lived thousands of years ago also consist of recycled energy.
If the source of this recycling is bodies living in the near future, time travel must be possible whether we like it or not. If our current ideas about paradoxes and what is realistic decide time travel is pure fantasy, we must (a) conclude that the first law of thermodynamics is wrong, and (b) ask ourselves why the applications of biotechnology should be limited to what residents of the late 20th century can imagine.
Now, where did the energy of the universe-creating Big Bang come from?
Should 'The Man's Cancer' be retitled 'The Man's (and Woman's) Cosmos'? Don't you find it satisfying that humans' destiny is to create (with a small 'c') themselves? Of course, we can't be called Creators (with a large 'C') or Gods - though the universe's existence depends on us, it is equally true that our existence depends on the universes Naturally, this loop is inconceivable if time is unquestionably considered to always operate as a straight line - but if 'energy can neither be created nor destroyed', how can time be exclusively rectilinear?
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