Our Progress

What I've Done
Throughout the progress of this blog, I've posted key information in making a time machine, in this case The TARDIS. Along the way I've posted various theories and scientific research, along with possible application and use for future models.

My Best Post and Why It's Good
I believe that my post, "The Grandfather Paradox - The Inconsistent Causal Loop", is the best post thus far. I was very thorough in explaining the information that I was presenting, but instead of presenting as a lecture, I added in some of my own experience researching the data, thus making it more of a "personal blog post."

What I'd Like to Improve On
Holding back. In a few of my posts I see that I may have too much of my own personality into the post, thus somewhat deviating from the given topic and making it too much of a "personal blog."

What I've Learned About Myself as a Learner
I have found that I crave professionally. In the midst of actually making the various posts, I have a tendency to look up certain words in the dictionary to actually use specific and more complicated words to make myself sound a lot smarter and more professional.

Where I'd Like to Go
Specifically, I'd like my blog to be a personal blog, but I still want to act like I know what I'm doing. However, I don't want it to be a total lecture, boring every reader that comes my way. So I must balance the personal and informative aspects of my blog to make it fun to read and a learning experience. 

Predestination Paradox - This has nothing to do with religion

Welcome back to TARDIS Talk my fellow Doctor Who fans and time traveling theorists!

Last week, we spoke about the Bootstrap paradox, which basically stated that there is no cause, instead it is the effect that becomes the cause.. which becomes the effect... that becomes ... the cause.... Okay, we're past that so let's move on already. What we're moving on to is like a branch of that paradox: The Predestination paradox. And no, it has nothing to do with religion so before you jump to conclusions, you better read this sentence first.

Going back on the internet, I came upon an entirely new website, explaining this paradox in the simplest way possible ("simple", being used loosely). The website is called the Examiner.

The Temporal (Predestination) Paradox is described as an event in a fixed point in time. It means that attempting to change something in the past, coming from the future, wont change anything. Instead it would become unchanged, actually staying as it were as an event. What really happens is when the future force attempts to change the past, that same force becomes what causes the event in the past.

Once again, this becomes a discussion needing an example. BACK TO OUR IMAGINATIONS!

Now, imagine yourself as a person... or an alien... OR AN ALIEN HUMANOID.... reading an article about a huge forest fire that happened about a month ago. You find out that it was a mere campfire gone wrong, and knowing the cause, you are inspired to try and stop it. So, you get in your time machine and go to the very place and time that the fire started. Arriving a few hours before the fire (assume it's night time), you set up camp. You get your tent up and then you start a campfire... the campfire... the camp- THE CAMPFIRE.... YOU WAKE UP THE NEXT MORNING AND FIND THAT YOUR CAMPFIRE WAS SO STUPIDLY MADE THAT IT SET FIRE TO YOUR TENT THAT YOU SET UP BY A TREE, THAT, IN TURN, WAS SET ABLAZE!.... you... you... just... oh my gosh, learn to make a campfire... geez.... Anyway, after that event, you realized that YOU are the actual cause of the same, great forest fire that inspired you to try and stop it.

A basic representation of the paradox using a billiard ball.

So, that is the Predestination Paradox. Yes, it does have a bit of disappointment for time travelers, but it's just something that can't be changed. Not ever.

Thank you all for tuning back in to TARDIS Talk! I hope to see you all again here and to learn more about time travel and the TARDIS. Goodbye!

On a last note: DID YOU GUYS SEE THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR? WASN'T IT AMAZING?! AHHHHHHHHHH! If you didn't see it, you shouldn't even be reading this blog until you have.

"Pull Yourself by Your Bootstraps" - The Ontological Paradox

Welcome back to TARDIS Talk, friends, strangers and possible aliens!

Last week, we talked about a paradox of time travel: The Grandfather Paradox. Today, we will be looking into yet another paradox. Don't worry, because this one won't be as mind boggling and confusing as the last paradox. This paradox basically follows a constant loop through time: The Ontological Paradox - more commonly known as the "Bootstrap" Paradox.

Looking through the internet, I did not find a website, but I found a book excerpt. The excerpt gives basic information and examples of how the bootstrap paradox works. Unlike the Grandfather Paradox, I didn't have to read this 10 times just to have a basic understanding. The book I found was called Eating The Dinosaur and the short excerpt talking about the paradox can be found on page 60.

The Ontological Paradox states that effect eliminates the original cause of the effect and itself becomes the cause. . . . Perhaps an example would be a lot clearer.

Imagine yourself as a time traveler (obviously) and you just finished reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (a marvelous book I might add). You loved the book, you adored it, and you with your compulsive nature, wants to make sure that H.G. Wells writes it so it can be published. So, you get in your time machine with your copy of The Time Machine, travel to 1894, about one year before the book was published, and leave it at Wells's door. Then, Wells takes the copy, claims it as his own, and publishes it the next year for it to be copied once again for you to read in the future. 

That is the Bootstrap Paradox in the nutshell. Most of the time, in stories, the Bootstrap paradox becomes an essential part of the principles of cause and effect. This means that if you disrupt the loop, like if you didn't bring the book back to H.G. Wells in the past, the effect couldn't happen thus making the cause impossible. This either disrupts space time and reality, or just can't happen and the paradox occurs anyway.

Thinking about it now, this paradox will probably be something I will run into continually if I ever do time travel, whether accidentally or intentionally. 

If you'd like to learn more about the Bootstrap Paradox, I'd suggest you watch a couple of episodes from Doctor Who again. The one episode I would greatly recommend is Blink, and yes, it is the one with the weeping angels unfortunately. I'm sorry, but if you want to learn more about "Bootstrap", you're going to have to suck it up, deal with the angels, and watch that episode again.

Thank you everyone for again partaking in the discussion of time travel and the TARDIS. I hope this discussion wasn't as head pounding as the last.

On a last note, I am fabulous and you should be too! Goodbye!

The Grandfather Paradox - The Inconsistent Causal Loop

Welcome back to TARDIS Talk, my good followers of time travel!

So, for the last few weeks, we have been exploring the methods of time travel, but now, I will be reviewing with you vital information that I probably should have explained to you before I even started on how to time travel. We will want to - need to - know about the very mind boggling paradox of time travel: The Grandfather Paradox.

I went around, scoping about information to further explain what this famous paradox is. Upon finding the Time Travel Philosophy website, I found what I needed to explain how the Grandfather Paradox works. I literally had to read this about 10 other times to fully understand how this whole system of cause and effect works.

Basically, what this paradox states is that when you go back and time and take part in an action that contradicts you and your present, the universe, in all its splendor of space and time, will not allow it. Confused? Well I was too. Let's put it into an example.

Now, imagine you are a genius who finally created the first ever successful time machine and at the same time you hated your grandfather for no apparent reason. The next thing you know, you buy a gun, you get into your time machine, go back in time to whenever your grandfather was a young man, face the old-young man himself, and point the gun at him. Now, here is things start to get a little tricky. What happens when you pull the trigger? There are two ways that I can see this go down.

1. The gun fires and kills your grandfather instantaneously. You achieved what you were after. However, from killing your grandfather, you also indirectly killed your father, which also means you could not have been conceived and have been born to kill your grandfather back in time. So, if you haven't been born, then your grandfather will still be alive so that you could still be born to kill him again?

2. You pull the trigger, but something happens. Like I said earlier, with this kind of situation, the universe will not let a contradiction be set, so you can't kill your grandfather. Maybe you miss, maybe the gun malfunctions, maybe someone killed YOU in the midst of it all, but something will happen that will not let you kill your grandfather for a paradox to occur.

Does your head hurt yet? You see, this is what you call an Inconsistent Causal Loop which is basically a vicious cycle, all directed from a contradiction - a paradox - that just can't happen. 

With this information, I'm having very serious thoughts on how I would go about time travel, if it was actually successful that is. But this tells us that we cannot mess with the reality of time or else something on a universal level will erupt, all because you decided to mess with the cause and effect of the universe. 

Thank you for coming to join the discussion of time travel in TARDIS Talk! I hope I didn't make you cry in this blog, because I know how confusing and mind boggling it is, but bear with us for a little bit longer, because it's all going to get EVEN MORE CONFUSING.

Factors to Go Back - Part 4: The Wormhole

Welcome back time travel theorists of the internet!

Today, we will be analyzing yet another purely theoretical way of time travel: the wormhole. To start off here, we must ask, "What is the wormhole?" The wormhole is a "cut" or shortcut, yet another defect in space-time. Although purely theoretical, scientists have found it possible that they exist, however very small in size.

Exploring the inter webs once more, I found the Live Science website and found more about the wormhole than I had expected. I found that the wormhole would be able to send a ship or any object from one end of the tunnel to the other, at the speed of light... sort of. What it really would be doing is taking a shortcut, making the time and distance to travel short.

One thing that we have found in actually making wormholes is the immense amount of energy to make the wormhole turn into an actual means of time travel, rather than location travel. That, and then the stability of opening it by exotic matter. These challenges in the wormhole itself prevent any further research from being able to even control, or find a wormhole. However, theoretically, if controlled and directed in a certain way, it can be absolutely used to travel through time. Although it is theoretical as a real thing, it bounces off Einstein's theory of general relativity, so there is some hope for any existence of it.

At least one of the tunnels would have to be accelerated
through time, at a certain point, for this to be a viable
means of time travel.

So, could wormholes actually be used to travel through time if any existed at all? Could we be able to generate one? How would we control it? Many questions need to be answered to know whether THIS theory would be a valid way to time travel.

Thank you for coming back to TARDIS talk and exploring the wonder of time travel and the many possibilities! Now, I have covered all that I can cover, or everything that has been researched thoroughly, in traveling back in time. Next time, I will be explaining something that I probably should have gone over with you all at the beginning: the dangers of going back in time. For now, goodbye my friends and I will see you then!

Factors to Go Back - Part 3: Cosmic Strings

Welcome back friends to TARDIS Talk!

Last time, we took a glance into a cosmic phenomena that was theoretically capable of time travel: the black hole. Today, we will be looking at one other cosmic phenomena, somewhat similar to the black hole. We will be looking at the Cosmic String.

I went into the internet again to search for information on these defects in space time and I came upon the Anderson Institute website. I found very interesting information, part of it being applying the cosmic string to an actual time machine construction.

To start off, what is the cosmic string? A cosmic string is a "string" or threadlike object throughout the universe and space. It is extremely thin, even smaller than an atom that is pushed under immense pressure. Because of this very reason, it has a massive gravitational pull to anything relatively near to it.

(The box and red dots represent the universe;
the white lines, cosmic strings)

The way this works in time travel is time dilation. This means that if you put two of these defects in space together, they will create a time - like curve that if traveled around a certain way, the gravity and velocity could propel you faster, slowing down time and ultimately bringing you back to the past. This brings us back to relativity, so be sure to keep that in mind. By this theory of connecting two cosmic strings, or one string to a black hole, we could be able to use them to travel in time.

These strings are all mostly theoretical and have yet to find actual legitimate evidence of it in space. Although we have yet to find actual cosmic strings to use at our disposal, scientists have discovered clumps of matter being pulled close together in space, suggesting a gravitational phenomena.

Anyway, thank you for tuning back in to TARDIS Talk. Next time, we will be exploring yet another theory in time travel: the Wormhole.

Once again, I thank you all for coming to take part in TARDIS Talk! And now, I must bid you goodbye.... for now.

Factors to Go Back - Part 2: The Black Hole

Welcome back everyone, to Tardis talk! 

Now, last week we started off our backwards time travel with the theory of going faster than the speed of light. Today, we will be talking about existing cosmic phenomena within our galaxy and other galaxies: The Black Hole.

I found more information on the black hole from several websites, all addressing the same thing, that the black hole is purely theoretical. One of the sites that helped me understand a bit more was the HowStuffWorks site, once again. What I found was not extensive or vast information on the black hole, but rather just a brief introduction to what it is, since no one has really confirmed if it will really work in time travel or not. 

What HowStuffWorks talks about is what the black hole was and, in theory, what it can do.  First off, what is the black hole? A black hole is what happens when a star dies. When the star dies, the nuclear fusion reactions stop and at the same time, the star's gravity pulls in objects and compresses the core. As the core compresses, it eventually creates a supernova explosion and the aftermath is a highly compressed and massive core. This core now becomes a black hole, creating a hole in space-time, hence the name "black hole". 

How does time travel tie in to the black hole? Well, since it is a hole in space time, there a theories where the hole can transport to different places and possibly, different times. Think of this black hole as a tunnel, where the beginning is the black hole and the end is the white hole. The white hole is basically the exit where, unlike the black hole, spits out objects entering from the black hole. Considering this theory and the fact that it is technically a hole or rip in space-time, time travel could actually be possible. However, we couldn't really control it. 

There are many obstacles preventing actual travel via black hole, considering it would probably crush you when you enter it (unless you're traveling via KERR black hole). Overall though, this is just one other theory to time travel, one that might be actually accessible, although near impossible. 

Next time, on TARDIS Talk, we will be talking out the Cosmic Strings, yet another theory for time travel. No, its not a literal string if you're wondering, but more like a defect in space and time, kind of like a black hole.

Anyway, until next time my friends! Keep it classy.

Factors to Go Back - Part 1: Faster than the Speed of Light

Welcome time travelers, once again, to TARDIS Talk!

Today, I will be discovering and researching the fundamental concept of going faster than the speed of light in order to travel back in time. "Faster than light?", you ask? Well, it might seem a bit odd, but if you know Einstein's famous theory of relativity, then you will understand.... kind of...

I have actually found this type of information before, looking for theories. Of course, like every great thinker, I used the internet. Again, I used Google to search up stuff. Very resourceful aren't I? I came across one very interesting website who seemed to really know what they were talking about. This website was the LiveScience site.

LiveScience described the theory of time travel by going faster than light to great extent, explaining how the theory worked. But, what interested me first of all was that physicists are actually changing their mind about the possibility of time travel because of one such discovery: they found subatomic particles, called neutrinos, going faster than light. If this experiment is actually confirmed, the thoughts of time travel could actually be confirmed as well!

Now, onto the theory of relativity. When I first found this information, it came as a surprise to me how it actually worked in the case of time travel. It's a bit complicated to think of, I know, but it actually makes sense once explained a bit more.  It works like this: When you accelerate toward the speed of light, your experience of time changes in such a way, that a second for you, at that speed, would be much longer for the people traveling at normal speed. So, in relation to you (approaching light speed), the outside world becomes slower. Then, once you hit light speed, it stops. So, if this is the case, if we EXCEEDED light speed, would time flow backwards? With the information given to us, this type of theory would actually make some sense. 

Unfortunately, there are a lot of barriers to approaching, as well as breaking light speed, but if we could, time travel, as we know it, could actually be accomplished. So far, we already found neutrinos to achieve it, now we will need to figure out how we make a whole living body achieve that.... Maybe a radioactive boost? Hmm...

Anyway, NEXT TIME, we will be exploring, already existent cosmic phenomena, or more plainly, the black hole.

Goodbye! And if your head hurts from thinking about light speed and relativity and such, that's good BECAUSE it is a sign I am making progress in educating you. Till we meet again, in good fortune and fancy bow ties. 

Traveling to The Past

Hello everyone! I am wearing a bow tie today! I am very happy...

Anyway, TODAY, I will be discussing with you backwards time travel, its possibility, and, if it is possible, how we would be able to achieve it. We'll be talking about backwards time travel for quite a bit, so sit back and just read through these series of posts. This is probably the most common use of time travel ever seen on T.V. or thought about.

So, to find out about this information I went to The Library. Actually no, sorry, I just wanted to make a reference. (Hopefully you Whovians understand.) What I actually did was use the POWER OF THE INTERNET, mainly google, to find out the possibilities of backwards travel. 

The first thing to catch my eye was the HowStuffWorks site. The name itself seemed simple  so I decided that was my place to go.

What I found was familiar information, some that I had briefly covered in my last post. It talks about the theory of relativity, something that we talked about already, concerning the "faster-than-light" possibility of time travel (specifically, backwards). And it also proposes the idea of, rather than using space propulsion technology, using the existing cosmic phenomena: the black hole. The ways of travel are explained once again by this website, but what caught my eye was a law of physics, not referring to travel, but to reality. What they talk about, is the law of causality, or cause and effect.

The law of causality got me thinking about if time travel could actually be possible, not in terms of travel, but in terms of reality. Could I travel back in time without causing a paradox and utterly violating and quite possibly changing our way of reality? Could I travel back and not create an alternate reality? I started to think about this and came to a conclusion. This kind of violation can be prevented, only if we don't do something stupid, like go back and, oh I don't know, sabotage America to make us LOSE WORLD WAR II. Because, if we do something like that, it would surely create a paradox, because it changes one of the most influential aspects of the events that have already taken place, thus also making another reality, where Germany won. I know it's a bit morbid, but it's the most cliche example of alternate reality I could use.

I have already gotten an idea of the reality aspect of time travel which I will have to look deeper into, but for now, I will have to research travel options. What should I start with, light speed or black hole?

So, yes, for the next week or so, our time travel discussion will now be focused on the travel back in time.

And once again, I bid you farewell to your thoughts and your theories.

Goodbye!

The First Factor: Time Travel

Welcome back to TARDIS Talk!

For the next few weeks, we will be exploring the TARDIS's main function: Time Travel. I will be researching what time travel truly is, and how it can be achieved. This is a VERY big concept, with its many questions on the possibility for us to even achieve it, and the many other theories on how it may actually be possible.Of course, we will be talking about backward time travel as well as forward, but for the time being, we will be focusing on how time may even be traversed in general. 

There are many theories on how time travel can be achieved, so I googled the theories to see what I could get. I stumbled upon a website, Space.com, which thoroughly described the various theories. 

I found various premises in the research. A popular theory, being Einstein's theory of special relativity, addresses time slowing down or speeding up, depending on your speed, relative to something else. Then there are other assumptions for time travel such as the wormhole, the black hole, general relativity, and (for all you Whovians) the Time Vortex. There are many thoughts of time travel out there in the world, which I will be addressing some, if not most, of. 

So, Time Travel, traveling to and fro from point to point on the timeline of the world/universe. This is what I will be covering for the next few weeks or so, and hopefully I'll be able to cover enough ground to have an idea for what to do in the actual construct. What I'll have to find out first: What will I have to do to achieve light speed, make a black hole, and such other concepts? I must ponder on this awhile. 

And at this, I bid you, Farewell.

Josh

Into the TARDIS [Talk]

Hello Whovians and other mortals!

In this blog I will be learning about various things regarding the TARDIS, but will ultimately be in an effort to construct my own. I will be learning about time travel itself, finding ways to make it possible. I will also be studying how the TARDIS moves through space the way it does, rather than just moving like a car. I want to study this, because like all fans of Doctor Who and most physicists, I would like to travel through time and space, and make what seems to be only a dream for most scientists and Whovians, a reality. This blog is speaking to the many Whovians out there who have always wanted to traverse time and space in a TARDIS, and also to those who simply would want to achieve time travel. With this blog, I hope to "satisfy" their desire for time travel, and to give them insight on the possibilities of an actual time machine. Many of you will certainly expect many posts relating to research from physicists, theories of time travel, and various explanations regarding the features of the TARDIS. I hope this blog will be able to satisfy your need or desire to know what time travel truly and if it is truly possible. So for now, I bid you farewell, for I have much research to do ahead of me.

Thank You! Goodbye! Geronimo! Allon-sy! Fantastic! Etc. 

You're favorite TARDIS talker, Josh.