does the past still exist ?

[d_brennen]

I'm still struggling with the concept of space-time after reading Prof. Cox's Why Does E=MC²? Going to read it again when time permits /guffaws

 

[Elrein]

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk

 

[DiscoDave]

Yes

 

[sbweightman]

something something milk... pasteurised?

 

[Six6siX]

OP are you Jaden Smith?

 

[Arsonist]

Yes.
No.
Maybe.

I don't knooowwww,
Can you repeaaat theeee questioonnn!!!

 

[SPG]

which past

 

[johnloo]

just wondering if the past still exists or is it instantly gone and only exists in memory but then as the light has to travel from objects we see and our brains have to process this then we never see the present
does the past exist or maybe even the future as well
been thinking about this a lot for some reason

I always thought that time the past exists at the same time and the present but not the future.my theory on ghosts is that they are the past that has some how cross over to the present.

 

[new boy]

The past existed, the present exists, the very recent past is what we sense / experience due to delay of the speed of light / sound, but we can probably just call that the present TBH because humans are slow so its not really going to make much difference.

Nothing good will come from analysing this any deeper, nothing but madness lies beyond this point.

 

[LOAM]

None of you exist and never have. I can only be sure of myself.

 

[FoxEye]

Does it really matter... you can't interact with the past.

Time travel will always be fantasy - it would violate the natural order and cause so many paradox-type problems that it simply must be impossible.

About the Brian Cox thingy...surely if all things from all time exist at the same time, then every second that goes by the amount of energy needed to sustain all the matter in the universe in all its past states is growing continually? That doesn't make any sense.

Anyway, like I said, time travel should always be impossible. Opens too many Pandoras boxes for it to be possible. Do you really want to find out that you are your own grandfather?

 

[new boy]

Its pretty much possible to travel forward in time (by that I mean you could travel 10,000 years into the future and meet your great great great great whatever, but backwards... not so much.

 

[do_ron_ron]

just wondering if the past still exists or is it instantly gone and only exists in memory but then as the light has to travel from objects we see and our brains have to process this then we never see the present
does the past exist or maybe even the future as well
been thinking about this a lot for some reason

According to Prof Brian Cox it does but you cannot go backwards.

 

[FoxEye]

Its pretty much possible to travel forward in time (by that I mean you could travel 10,000 years into the future and meet your great great great great whatever, but backwards... not so much.

Yes it's the going backwards that would destroy the universe

"Travelling forwards" would basically equate to either preserving yourself to be revived by future generations, or slowing the passage of time.

Either way, time marchers forwards, not back, whether the rate of passage is variable or not.

 

[new boy]

Yes by travel forwards I meant you move forwards through time faster than your "peers" and thus can potentially outlive them and there offspring and there offspring offspring etc

Obviously this is a thing for example look at satellites, GPS and leep milliseconds.

EDIT - I OFC know u know this

 

[FoxEye]

Yes by travel forwards I meant you move forwards through time faster than your "peers" and thus can potentially outlive them and there offspring and there offspring offspring etc

Obviously this is a thing for example look at satellites, GPS and leep milliseconds.

EDIT - I OFC know u know this

You just have the teensy weensy problem of travelling at or near the speed of light

 

[muon]

You know what, i've just finished watching Brian Cox' new episode of Forces of nature, He has a truely wonderful way of putting across and explaining complicated Physics and such, in a way that is beautifully simple.

This week he addressed this very subject.

Specifically 51min onwards
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...ature-with-brian-cox-2-somewhere-in-spacetime

Yeh, I was just about to say, funny the OP made this thread now. I liked that explanation.

Yeah I saw him say that but it didnt make sense to me, seemed like he was contradicting himself, earlier in the program he had said we cannot go back to events in the past, however if he is saying that the events of the past still exist somewhere then logically we can go back to them (not with our current know how but if something exists then it can be gone to, just beyond our abilities at the moment), which seems a contradiction to his earlier statement

I don't think he was contradicting himself.

Just because it exists doesn't mean there must be a way of getting there.

For example, if an object is travelling away from us at the speed of light. How do you ever catch up with it? Does that object not exist?

 

[new boy]

You just have the teensy weensy problem of travelling at or near the speed of light

not really, like I said, GPS would work if we didn't take into account how the satellites travel through time slower than we do on earth...

 

[FoxEye]

not really, like I said, GPS would work if we didn't take into account how the satellites travel through time slower than we do on earth...

But the time they gain/lose is measured in milliseconds/ year or something.

If you want to outlive your great, great grandson, you're going to need to move *much* quicker than a satellite, which is already going at silly speeds.

 

[new boy]

But the time they gain/lose is measured in milliseconds/ year or something.

If you want to outlive your great, great grandson, you're going to need to move *much* quicker than a satellite, which is already going at silly speeds.

Yes, but its all about speed in proportion to other things which makes things both confusing, and possible. I know u understand this and I know u know that I do. Its a very confusin subject that takes a long time to get ur head around even after u understand the basics