[itachi-san]

A group of 5 space-explorers are checking out an ancient device found on Mars located 4 hours from their home station. 2 of them (Kiba and Shino) then exit the station and journey 4 hours to the mysterious relic. They both touch it at once and Mars explodes instantly with no possible survival for any life on the entire planet.

Kiba and Shino however, are sent exactly 4 hours into the past and teleported to the immobile confines of a cell in viewing distance of the ancient device. Their bodies are completely subdued, and there is a window in front of them so they can see only the device and a tight perimeter around it. Just under 4 hours after they arrived in the cell they saw their past-selves (Kiba-4 and Shino-4) walk up to the device, touch it, disappear and then the explosion kills both Kiba and Shino.

But, Kiba-4 and Shino-4 were sent back in time 4 hours and were teleported into the inescapable cell and the process repeats infinitely with Kiba-8 and Shino-8 triggering it again, and so on...

So, are they dead? do they have eternal life? what spins can you put on this scenario to make it easier to answer?

[akaslickster]

I could see that a burst of energy from beyond had rejuvenated their lives. Perhaps a mercenary from the planet Zelophumnia, his name is Balascoitrae and he has magical powers that no one has ever seen before. Want more?

[Guest]

How many inescapable cells are there?

You'd need one for every time they went back, if they didn't want to share it with their past selves. I imagine the whole area would get a bit crowded after a few iterations. Though after a few times of watching the explosion the oldest ones would die of dehydration, starvation, old age or whatever.

[Guest]

How many inescapable cells are there?

You'd need one for every time they went back, if they didn't want to share it with their past selves. I imagine the whole area would get a bit crowded after a few iterations. Though after a few times of watching the explosion the oldest ones would die of dehydration, starvation, old age or whatever.

No they wouldn't, it says that they die in the explosion when they are in the cell, they don't go back in time again. There would never be more than the two of them in the cell at one time.

It doesn't seem like this situation could really happen with an infinite time loop. This is why I don't believe that time travel is possible. At least not going back in time, as going forward in time is theoretically possible.

[Guest]

Hey, wasn't there a movie based on this premise? Two guys invent a tie machine and keep have the present them and the future them and they have to be careful not to cross each others paths. Interesting. It's called Primer, here's the IMDb link...http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/

[Yoruichi-san]

Wow...this is like a story idea I had awhile ago, that I have yet to write into a novel (like many of my story ideas XP)

But basically, I look at this scenario using a mathematical concept. Some functions are periodic (go through cycles of values), like the sine or cosine function. If we use y to represent time to the external world, and x to represent time for a specific person, for a normal person living a normal life, the function is y=x (linear increasing). For these two, their function is y=sin(x). We can think of the time that the guys see the device as y=0 (which corresponds to x=0, x=pi, x=2pi, x=3pi, etc), which increases until the time they touch the device, which we can think of as y=1 (which corresponds to x=pi/2, x=5pi/2, y=9pi/2, etc), at which point they get "sent back" (y decreases) to four hours before they find the device, which we can think of as y=-1 (corresponding to x=3pi/2, x=7pi/2, x=11pi/2, etc.). They then go forward in to y=0 ago and so on.

Actually, it's somewhat more complex...I would use the idea of "branches" in Complex Analysis...at least, that's what I use for my story. It involves applying this to a real/imaginary mapping (real on one axis, imaginary on another axis), creating a helix in time, and in this case, the nth branch would correspond to kiba/shino-n/4...but I'm not sure I can explain it in the length of one post...guess you'll just have to read my novel (once I write it, of course ;P).

But in truth, I don't really believe in time travel...I'm pretty sure it's been proven impossible XP...but it makes for good philosophical discussions .

[Guest]

i don't believe in time travel either

i reckon once something's happened it's happened and it's over and the future hasn't happened yet

i think there aren't an infinite number of 'us'es in existence. just us now

[Guest]

I think my problem with time travel is this:

Lets say i go back to 1933 Germany, and kill Hitler - then that would effect so many things. I believe even if time travel is possible we should not go there. Humans will make mistakes and we have no idea how that will effect the future.

[Guest]

Ya humans will make mistakes but they will also do stuff on porpuse that would change things even just talking to other ppl might change things

[Guest]

But in truth, I don't really believe in time travel...I'm pretty sure it's been proven impossible XP...but it makes for good philosophical discussions .

I think that time travel is possible but only to future.

Astronauts who travel at a very high speed (in those rockets) are actually ahead in time than normal humans by a fraction of second.

[Guest]

yeah, that's true. Going to the future, if you killed yourself, then that would be that. But if you go to the past and kill yourself, you never would have killed yourself, so you would have lived to kill yourself,

[Guest]

yeah, that's true. Going to the future, if you killed yourself, then that would be that. But if you go to the past and kill yourself, you never would have killed yourself, so you would have lived to kill yourself,

Why do you always think of killing yourselves

It doesn't mean that you have an another copy of yourself living at that time. It simply means that you leave this time and reach that time.

[Guest]

yeah, that's true. Going to the future, if you killed yourself, then that would be that. But if you go to the past and kill yourself, you never would have killed yourself, so you would have lived to kill yourself,

That's why I don't believe travelling backwards in time is possible. The only way it could be would be if you went to the past in a parellel universe, so anything you change would not affect your universe.

[Guest]

If you travelled back in time you cant change anything (because we have already seen the results of history in the present). Therefore if it was possibly to go back in time, it would be pointless.

[Guest]

That's why I don't believe travelling backwards in time is possible. The only way it could be would be if you went to the past in a parellel universe, so anything you change would not affect your universe.

i don't think parallel universes could exist because

if everything is the same but just a little bit different, as time progessed things would be a lot different and so it wouldn't be very parallel after a few years

[Guest]

i don't think parallel universes could exist because

if everything is the same but just a little bit different, as time progessed things would be a lot different and so it wouldn't be very parallel after a few years

I never said it was likely, just that it's a possibility. I don't really believe they exist either, just that they are the only way time travel in the past would be possible(which I don't believe is possible). Besides, parallel universes don't have to be similar, they can be completely different.

Edited July 26, 2008 by Frost

[TwoaDay]

well, responding to a more previous post you could not go back and kill hitler because you can only go back in time to the moment you turn on your time machine but if you did kill hitler he would already have been killed so if happen to be able to back that far your assassanation attemt would fail and not be recorded in history.