What happens when you alter time?

[kimberlyd]

Let say you time travel to the distant past and exact a change there, like prevent Rome from being built or something. Would it cancel out the original time line or would it create a parallel time line that moves in conjunction to the original one? Would they eventually intersect and become one time line again?

 

 

[aparsons]

I think that each time travel event would create a new timeline starting from the moment you traveled to. The people in that timeline, even from the future in that timeline, would never know anything changed, because things will have always been that way. I don't think that there would be any way to merge these two timelines.

 

 

[kimberlyd]

Actually, based on your theory... they did cross. They crossed the moment the time travel happened. It is the moment when the time lines were single then split.

 

 

[Siren]

I think that each time travel event would create a new timeline starting from the moment you traveled to. The people in that timeline, even from the future in that timeline, would never know anything changed, because things will have always been that way. I don't think that there would be any way to merge these two timelines.

But now, is time one linear path, or can it fold over on itself? It would seem to me of something was to drastically change the course of time that you would have people popping in and out of a given scenario because suddenly, due to a change made to the past by a traveler, they had never been born, or conversely, had been born.

 

 

[kana_marie]

Honestly, I have never thought this through very thoroughly. I guess I always just assumed it would change the existing time line. If I start to think it through now, it makes more sense to me that it would create an existing time line. I may change my mind after I spend more time with it, but that is definitely what I'm leaning towards right now. I'm really glad you put this out there.

 

 

[Pinoy Jade]

Altering time is very bad. Knowing the future can also lead to a worse thing for the future. Knowing what would happen and altering the things that must have happen can lead to a serious disease in the time continuum. Watch the latest episode of The Flash, there is the time when Barry went back to the past and he altered something.

 

 

[kimberlyd]

But then again, there is the idea of multiple timelines. If this happens A is the outcome. If this happens B is the outcome. If this happens X is the outcome.... Like in that movie where the guy could see what would happen in the end depending on the decisions made.... I think Nicholas Cage was in it.... The Knowing I think.... I can't remember.

 

 

[Gpa]

Next (2007)

 

 

[kimberlyd]

Thanks Gpa, I could not remember the name of the movie for the life of me.

 

That movie pretty much portrays exactly what I was trying to say. Like a hand with all the digits. The palm would be the decision to be made and the digits are the different decisions you could make and their out come.

 

 

[joshposh]

Let say you time travel to the distant past and exact a change there, like prevent Rome from being built or something. Would it cancel out the original time line or would it create a parallel time line that moves in conjunction to the original one? Would they eventually intersect and become one time line again?

If you did that then everything that is known and done in the present will be different. You could possibly have not been born.

 

Now in response to the movie next. Nicolas Cages character could see in the future. He couldn't travel back in time. If you know the future, you could possible change it as the movie depicted.

 

Now if you want to see a movie that shows the true sense of the butterfly effect, check out "A Sound of Thunder". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318081/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_53

 

Anyways, both are just fictional movies and made for entertainment purposes.

 

 

[kimberlyd]

The person show exacted the change would know the difference, but those who are still in the timeline would not have a clue. However, there is a paradox there. Can you guys see what it is?

 

 

[quantumist]

There is an infinite amount of timelines and you cannot manipulate one, you can only create new ones. Think like playing a video game where every choice you make creates a new savegame

 

 

[Gpa]

 

An issue with infinite timelines is there MUST be ONE original timeline and ALL alternate timelines have NO PAST, prior to their creation.

 

 

[pinterest]

Kimberlyd said

 

Let say you time travel to the distant past and exact a change there, like prevent Rome from being built or something. Would it cancel out the original time line or would it create a parallel time line that moves in conjunction to the original one? Would they eventually intersect and become one time line again?

It depends on the amount of change and as to whether this change might be hierarchically sanctioned or not.The alien from Sirius B are supposed to be now helping this Earth in time line engineering.However these beings are highly highly qualified, but you can still get what's known as timeline event slides, which is a product of time engineering too much.

 

Myself I am acutely aware of this phenomenon, as I had seen the effects from some of the aspects of the Montauk related experiments which may have been in my area.To be exact, the news services reporting went out of whack, due to some of the projection expierments they were doing.

 

They were reporting people to have died when they did not.Events happening when they hadden't happend as of yet, it was a gneral mess.Then I almost phoned in the news concerns asking why the reporting was so whacky., but something had told me then to shut my mouth.I think what had occured was a time ripple, which is similar to someone makeing a wave with a table cloth, while there are still dishes and such placed upon the table top.

 

I won't disclose who those people were, mainly because the timelines seems to have stabilized down a good bit. So why rake things up?

 

I had an accident concerning time travel, so am aware what the effects are and when issues go wrong with time travel.I'm pretty sure that this was pre-montauk stuff and not alien interference of any sort.However if you start revving up a big time machine, such as a linear accelerator, this action pushes out time waves and can really screw stuff up beyond all imagination.

 

It seems to me, that an empire changed, would also greatly effect how that world would work.Pinter

 

 

[Mylo.X.]

An issue with infinite timelines is there MUST be ONE original timeline and ALL alternate timelines have NO PAST, prior to their creation.

"Thumbs-up" for this 1 simple, yet astute sentence.

 

 

[PaulaJedi]

An issue with infinite timelines is there MUST be ONE original timeline and ALL alternate timelines have NO PAST, prior to their creation.

IMHO, Time is infinite in all directions. It is our perception that creates the illusion of only going forward. Think of an exploding water balloon. The balloon doesn't just explode forward.

 

 

[AuditorMaterial]

"an empire change"... Interesting that comment was made; I recently experienced a time slip. When I was a kid, my mother and sister worked in a pickle packaging plant one year. I was about 5 years old at the time, and after seeing the snakes, birds, and mice swimming around in the outdoor pickle vats, I have never been able to stomach the taste of vinegar since then. I travel the world and have eaten dog in Korea, pigeon in QingDao, scorpions in BeiJing, but for the life of me I cannot stand the taste of vinegar. I'm also a Christian, and have read the entire Bible, and the new testament, especially the gospels, I have read and re-read many times. For decades now, I have jokingly justified my dislike of vinegar by making an arguably out of context argument that goes like this: (1) Jesus rejected vinegar offered to him on a hyssop stalk while on the cross, (2) We are to be like Christ, (3) ergo, we should also reject vinegar. For decades now, this has been a cute way for me to deflect pickles and other vinegary things at family get togethers. Only one small problem now, my wife showed me recently that Jesus DID accept the vinegar offered to him on a hyssop stalk. So then, yes, empires could change, if Jesus' mind could change about accepting vinegar immediately prior to his earthly death.

 

 

[Love Rooster]

"an empire change"... Interesting that comment was made; I recently experienced a time slip. When I was a kid, my mother and sister worked in a pickle packaging plant one year. I was about 5 years old at the time, and after seeing the snakes, birds, and mice swimming around in the outdoor pickle vats, I have never been able to stomach the taste of vinegar since then. I travel the world and have eaten dog in Korea, pigeon in QingDao, scorpions in BeiJing, but for the life of me I cannot stand the taste of vinegar. I'm also a Christian, and have read the entire Bible, and the new testament, especially the gospels, I have read and re-read many times. For decades now, I have jokingly justified my dislike of vinegar by making an arguably out of context argument that goes like this: (1) Jesus rejected vinegar offered to him on a hyssop stalk while on the cross, (2) We are to be like Christ, (3) ergo, we should also reject vinegar. For decades now, this has been a cute way for me to deflect pickles and other vinegary things at family get togethers. Only one small problem now, my wife showed me recently that Jesus DID accept the vinegar offered to him on a hyssop stalk. So then, yes, empires could change, if Jesus' mind could change about accepting vinegar immediately prior to his earthly death.

[Gpa]

IMHO, Time is infinite in all directions.

Then you are changing the rules concerning alternate timelines. Supposedly, they form... begin... when a choice is made. You are saying they form and a past is created in/for that new timeline also.

 

Think of an exploding water balloon. The balloon doesn't just explode forward.

In our 3-D existence it explodes in all 3 directions but, in the 4th-D of time...it only explodes...forward.

BTW, if anyone can figure out how to "un-explode" that water balloon, they would be well on their way to discovering how to go backward in time.

 

 

[PaulaJedi]

Then you are changing the rules concerning alternate timelines. Supposedly, they form... begin... when a choice is made. You are saying they form and a past is created in/for that new timeline also.

BUT, if you return to your point of origin, THAT point has a timeline leading up to it as well, so the path to the past is always there.

 

 

[Mylo.X.]

No, Jesus did NOT accept the vinegar.

[Gpa]

BUT, if you return to your point of origin, THAT point has a timeline leading up to it as well, so the path to the past is always there.

I can't get a visual of that. Can you explain it a little more.

If my timeline tree conjecture is correct, if nothing else, time travel will be one hell of a game of twister.

 

 

[Darby]

Let say you time travel to the distant past and exact a change there, like prevent Rome from being built or something. Would it cancel out the original time line or would it create a parallel time line that moves in conjunction to the original one? Would they eventually intersect and become one time line again?

Well, of course if you cancelled the Roman Empire nothing would change. The past 2,000 years of the development of Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and the Americas would be as we know it. Rome had zero influence on our history. <Head slap>

 

 

Seriously, if the Roman Empire never existed you would not be asking about the effects on history if the Roman Empire never existed; nor would you be musing about the "original time line". If it never existed there is nothing to cancel. Memories are recollections of the past. If something never existed in the past you will not wonder about it.

 

Here's the real problem with this sort of scenario. Think about it and try to answer the questions for yourself rather than rely on my assessment:

 

1. Fred Dokes is a major player in history as you know it.

 

2. You don't like what Fred Dokes did 1,000 years ago.

 

3. You time travel to the past to fix Fred Dokes errors.

 

Question 1: If you fixed Fred Dokes' errors, which occurred 1,000 years ago, how did you know about Fred Dokes errors in the first place?

 

Question 2: If Fred Dokes' errors were fixed 1,000 years ago what motivated you to time travel to his era and change history?

 

Question 3: If Fred Dokes' errors were fixed 1,000 years ago and you do not time travel to his era what physical agency intervened to affect the change in history?

 

This is not a faux paradox. It is a real paradox, assuming the scenario as you have phrased your questions. How does one change the past, live in the present, remember the past as it was before it was changed, know that the past has been changed to the situation that they desire yet decide to travel to the past and change it?

 

You might respond that you don't like the past as it is presented therefore you time travel to the past to change it. The problem is that it is the past. Whatever happened in the past is how you will recall the past...the change had already happened 1,000 years before you were born.

 

There's no easy way of getting around this conundrum.

 

 

[PaulaJedi]

I can't get a visual of that. Can you explain it a little more.If my timeline tree conjecture is correct, if nothing else, time travel will be one hell of a game of twister.

Retrace the branches. Current time may move "forward", but the past doesn't disappear. Even if you branch off and create a new timeline, the new timeline would potentially still connect to the old one, leaving a point to point path. And yes, the multiverse would be a mess.

 

 

[Gpa]

Ah, I see now. Still, the past of an alternate timeline would then be the past of another alternate timeline... on-and-on. It wouldn't have it's own distinct past.