Forward Time Travel

[EngProf]

Interesting concept about location. The only sci-fi I ever read that mentioned changing locations being a hazard in time travel had the time machine on a boat, engaging at high tide with the understanding that everything had to be secured for a almost-certain instant fall to whatever level the water was at (on the water due to the extremely unlikely event of colliding with something already there) and had checked for tides to be sure they didn't show up in high seas.
But positions of the planet? I think of stuff like this all the time and even I never thought of that before!
But watch this, it's hilarious:

And as for movies on the subject, I recently saw the 2012 movie, Safety Not Guaranteed and found it to be a really good small-budget film. It didn't hurt that it was filmed not terribly far from where I live, too. But if you're curious, watch the movie. If you read the Wikipedia plot, it's not nearly as fun as watching what happens. I thought it was great watching the whole concept escalate and it had a neat ending, I thought.

There is/was a "Dilbert" comic strip on the subject of time-travel and future-position.
In the first frame Dilbert and the other engineers are putting the test-subject/guinea-pig (person) into the time machine. In the second frame (as they are pushing the start button), Dilbert asks if anyone considered planetary motion with time. In the third frame the test-subject/guinea-pig is shown floating in interplanetary space, choking and turning blue.
(There is a bit of inside-engineering humor here, since we take courses that are specifically devoted to the calculation of such things.)

 

[EngProf]

Interesting concept about location. The only sci-fi I ever read that mentioned changing locations being a hazard in time travel had the time machine on a boat, engaging at high tide with the understanding that everything had to be secured for a almost-certain instant fall to whatever level the water was at (on the water due to the extremely unlikely event of colliding with something already there) and had checked for tides to be sure they didn't show up in high seas.
But positions of the planet? I think of stuff like this all the time and even I never thought of that before!
But watch this, it's hilarious:

And as for movies on the subject, I recently saw the 2012 movie, Safety Not Guaranteed and found it to be a really good small-budget film. It didn't hurt that it was filmed not terribly far from where I live, too. But if you're curious, watch the movie. If you read the Wikipedia plot, it's not nearly as fun as watching what happens. I thought it was great watching the whole concept escalate and it had a neat ending, I thought.

There is/was a "Dilbert" comic strip on the subject of time-travel and future-position.
In the first frame Dilbert and the other engineers are putting the test-subject/guinea-pig (person) into the time machine. In the second frame (as they are pushing the start button), Dilbert asks if anyone considered planetary motion with time. In the third frame the test-subject/guinea-pig is shown floating in interplanetary space, choking and turning blue.
(There is a bit of inside-engineering humor here, since we take courses that are specifically devoted to the calculation of such things.)

 

[EngProf]

Interesting concept about location. The only sci-fi I ever read that mentioned changing locations being a hazard in time travel had the time machine on a boat, engaging at high tide with the understanding that everything had to be secured for a almost-certain instant fall to whatever level the water was at (on the water due to the extremely unlikely event of colliding with something already there) and had checked for tides to be sure they didn't show up in high seas.
But positions of the planet? I think of stuff like this all the time and even I never thought of that before!
But watch this, it's hilarious:

And as for movies on the subject, I recently saw the 2012 movie, Safety Not Guaranteed and found it to be a really good small-budget film. It didn't hurt that it was filmed not terribly far from where I live, too. But if you're curious, watch the movie. If you read the Wikipedia plot, it's not nearly as fun as watching what happens. I thought it was great watching the whole concept escalate and it had a neat ending, I thought.

There is/was a "Dilbert" comic strip on the subject of time-travel and future-position.
In the first frame Dilbert and the other engineers are putting the test-subject/guinea-pig (person) into the time machine. In the second frame (as they are pushing the start button), Dilbert asks if anyone considered planetary motion with time. In the third frame the test-subject/guinea-pig is shown floating in interplanetary space, choking and turning blue.
(There is a bit of inside-engineering humor here, since we take courses that are specifically devoted to the calculation of such things.)

 

[MisterCairo]

There is/was a "Dilbert" comic strip on the subject of time-travel and future-position.
In the first frame Dilbert and the other engineers are putting the test-subject/guinea-pig (person) into the time machine. In the second frame (as they are pushing the start button), Dilbert asks if anyone considered planetary motion with time. In the third frame the test-subject/guinea-pig is shown floating in interplanetary space, choking and turning blue.
(There is a bit of inside-engineering humor here, since we take courses that are specifically devoted to the calculation of such things.)

 

[MisterCairo]

Off topic, but another favourite of mine from Far Side:

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Ah, but that's exactly my point. Earth is moving through space at an estimated 18.6 miles per second/30 kilometers per second. If you travel only forward or backward in time and your location is fixed, the odds that Earth will be in the exact same place when you arrive are infinitesimal. I'd hate to be the person responsible for doing the math on that trip.

Sounds like you have an older version of our TX series of time machine,these were notorious for failing to follow the Earth's trajectory when calculating coordinates. With our latest model, the TX 400, you are assured of a pleasant & safe journey through time as it comes fully equiped with a global stationary device which ensures that the machine remains permantly on the earth & so all time travel will automatically find you, either in the past or the future, firmly on terra firma, there where the earth was or will be according to your chosen time frame. It should also be noted that, due to the lack of feedback from our customers using the older versions, we now offer a fail safe option, which will indicate in advance before arriving at your destination, any dangers that may have a bearing on your continued existance
Now, you gonna buy this thing or waste more time.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Here is another conundrum for time travelers; Could one go back in time & influence future events & if so, how would one know about it since what one knows, has been learnt by what has already been written.
For example, if one returned to say, 1939 to kill Hitler, thus preventing the second world war, the time traveler returning to 1939 wouldn't know that by killing hitler, it would prevent the second world war since it never happened & he/she would have no knowledge of it. If you or I today, decided to return to 1939 & kill Mr.H in order to prevent what ensued & had we been successful, we would'nt know today what could have taken place since it didn't happen.
In other words, we can't visit the past, change the future & know about it returning to the present since our present selves only know what has already occurred & not what could have been.
So the answer is no....no? no, yes, the only way we could know about our influence is by remaining in the past & deliberately selecting events our present selves knew had happened but then knew history had been changed in the future................but then our present selves would only know the changed future so we still wouldn't know that we had changed the future in the past.....oh hell !

I'll leave that in your very capable, time traveling hands.

 

[MisterCairo]

I loved having these discussions with my friends when I was 11 and 12 or so!

"Would you kill Hitler as a child, or wait until the first really bad event? Morally, why would it matter? Would there be created an alternate timeline, along with the one that happened, and if so, you did not "prevent" the war and holocaust, merely created a version without them, so what would be the point"?

And on, and on, and on.

Yes, it is true. I did not play Dungeons and Dragons in high school.

I wasn't cool enough...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Killing Hitler results in the immediate creation of an alternate time stream in which Hitler was killed, one which co-exists alongside the previous time stream in which Hitler was not killed. Whether you, as the killer of Hitler, continue exist in the new time stream as the only person with a memory of the one from which you came, or whether you're instantly jerked back into your own time stream, remains to be determined.

There are an infinite number of time streams in which there are an infinite number of ways in which Hitler was killed by an inifinite number of people. There are also an infinite number of time streams in which there are an infinite number of ways in which attempts to kill Hitler were foiled by a secret task force designed to intercept time-traveling assassins.

 

[NattyLud]

What if Hitler was himself a time-traveller on a [very poorly planned] mission to kill others who in some alternate future caused the annihilation of mankind?

 

[Fading Fast]

Killing Hitler results in the immediate creation of an alternate time stream in which Hitler was killed, one which co-exists alongside the previous time stream in which Hitler was not killed. Whether you, as the killer of Hitler, continue exist in the new time stream as the only person with a memory of the one from which you came, or whether you're instantly jerked back into your own time stream, remains to be determined.

There are an infinite number of time streams in which there are an infinite number of ways in which Hitler was killed by an inifinite number of people. There are also an infinite number of time streams in which there are an infinite number of ways in which attempts to kill Hitler were foiled by a secret task force designed to intercept time-traveling assassins.

Boil that thinking down enough and you have the Terminator movies.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And there's also an infinite number of time streams in which Hitler is foiled by an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters creating an infinite number of superweapons. It makes you think.

What if the existence of Hitler is the sole fixed point around which all possible time streams converge?

 

[Fading Fast]

And there's also an infinite number of time streams in which Hitler is foiled by an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters creating an infinite number of superweapons. It makes you think.

What if the existence of Hitler is the sole fixed point around which all possible time streams converge?

You're just saying that because Hitler season just started up again on cable.

 

[Zombie_61]

Sounds like you have an older version of our TX series of time machine,these were notorious for failing to follow the Earth's trajectory when calculating coordinates. With our latest model, the TX 400, you are assured of a pleasant & safe journey through time as it comes fully equiped with a global stationary device which ensures that the machine remains permantly on the earth & so all time travel will automatically find you, either in the past or the future, firmly on terra firma, there where the earth was or will be according to your chosen time frame. It should also be noted that, due to the lack of feedback from our customers using the older versions, we now offer a fail safe option, which will indicate in advance before arriving at your destination, any dangers that may have a bearing on your continued existance
Now, you gonna buy this thing or waste more time.

Oh no! Miss Lizzie's "Boys From Marketing" still exist in the future! Son of a...

Here is another conundrum for time travelers; Could one go back in time & influence future events & if so, how would one know about it since what one knows, has been learnt by what has already been written...

There's another conundrum. If a person did go back in time to kill Hitler and was successful, would that person's memories be altered to match the facts of the new Hitler-less timeline? If they were, that would mean Hitler never comes to power, so there's no need for that person to go back in time to kill him, so Hitler isn't killed, and history unfolds as it already has.

Killing Hitler results in the immediate creation of an alternate time stream in which Hitler was killed, one which co-exists alongside the previous time stream in which Hitler was not killed. Whether you, as the killer of Hitler, continue exist in the new time stream as the only person with a memory of the one from which you came, or whether you're instantly jerked back into your own time stream, remains to be determined.

There are an infinite number of time streams in which there are an infinite number of ways in which Hitler was killed by an inifinite number of people. There are also an infinite number of time streams in which there are an infinite number of ways in which attempts to kill Hitler were foiled by a secret task force designed to intercept time-traveling assassins.

There are those who believe "past", "present", "future", and all of those "infinite time streams", occur simultaneously, running parallel to each other like lanes on a highway. As we (and every living sentient being everywhere in the universe) each make choices, alternate "lanes" are constantly being eliminated and/or created. Assuming for the sake of this discussion those people are correct, traveling from any point in time in any one of those time streams to any other point in time in any one of those time streams would be a simple matter of "changing lanes"; we just haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Humankind, as a group, regularly tends to perceive itself as being the ultimate life form in the universe as we currently know it. But when you begin to examine issues like this, it's fairly easy to conclude we are ultimately as unimportant in the grand scheme of things as ants making underground tunnels in our gardens. Just as those ants have absolutely no concept of we humans and how we live our lives, we humans have no concept of the larger workings of the universe.

 

[Haversack]

But what if it is a car that goes back in time to kill Hitler?...

 

[Haversack]

On a more serious note, while the physics of time-travel and the potential paradoxes it entails are at present unknowable, I've often speculated on what effects time-television would have on society. To define terms, it could only view the past with sight and sound but unlimited by place on Earth, and that the technology would have been broadly released and readily duplicable.

 

[Zombie_61]

But what if it is a car that goes back in time to kill Hitler?...

The principle is still the same. The car can't send itself back in time; someone has to send it. If the plan succeeds Hitler becomes nothing more than a historical footnote at best, history is re-written, there's no reason to send the car back to kill him, he lives, and history proceeds as we know it.

 

[Benny Holiday]

I've been driving an old Delorean time machine around the last year or so and, while it gets good mileage and the ride is pretty smooth, it does have one major drawback: the kids are always in the back whining, "Are we then yet? Are we then yet?"

 

[Tiki Tom]

I wonder how many responses he received...