Dimensions...I have no idea....

But as far as time travel, wasn't it Einstein that ran the test with the train, mirror, poles and electricity? The Theory of Relativity? Time is relative.

He basically proved that the faster you go, time slows down, and he suggests that if you hit a certain speed (speed of light?) time will stop. If you go faster than that speed you will actually start going backwards in time.

I guess that is one of the reasons astronauts who have been in space actually live .5 seconds or whatever 'earlier' than everyone else. More easily understood, I guess it just means it made them younger.

So technically, we could go back to being children if we went fast enough. BUT, everyone else would still be stuck in 'real time'. When we 'returned', would it be just US who have gotten younger? Or would the entire planet reverted back in time too? Wouldn't the entire world have to move that fast though?

If there is a hint of real time travel here, I guess it would be impossible to move forwards in time though....you'd have to stand still? hahaha

BUT...never say never.... :awinky:

I agree with Heather, there is so much more out there than my logical mind can see. If you were a bird, would you be able to comprehend cars? Computers? Nope. But they do exist.

As I am reading through this thread I found quite a few comments that fell right into line with my thoughts...Anything is or will be possible.

I guess the only way to sum it all up is to recommend a book of short stories by Philip K Dick. There is a story called "The Commuter" An average man becomes god due to a hole in the wall that separates two parallel timelines.

For any of you that might not know his work, he wrote the short story "We can remember it for you wholesale" which later became the movie Total Recall. And just recently another movie frome one of his shorts Minority Report.

Not sure if anyone heard this about a year ago but scientists were able to make the same atom appear in two places at the same time. It was only worthy of a small blurb in the Human Interest section of the paper...sad...

I think you would have to make a lot of assumptions.

I believe!

I remember before the web I use to tell people about it. I'd paint these elaborate pictures and they'd say, "No fucking way... it's a fad like Laser Disk & it can't happen."

As far as more esoteric concepts… yes I do. Not all, most.

Hey did anyone check out the press on the International Car Show? Who would have ever imagined that a car could go 400 mph??

Call it energy, life energy...whatever you like....'energy' is already proven to exist. Also, it's a proven fact that energy never dies...it only transforms.

Take for example electricity. From the dam to the plug in your house, through your lamp and into the light bulb. The energy of water has now been transformed into light. And as you know light goes on forever....

That part is not correct. If something travels faster than the speed of light the time dilation becomes imaginary, not negative. That has no meaning. The equation is not meant to handle speeds greater than c.

There is another solution to the equations where objects can ONLY go faster than the speed of light (never slower). The tachyon particle has been proposed that might travel faster than the speed of light but not slower. No one has found one. It is not necessarily true that there is one. It's just that it is a correct mathematical solution. This solution is analogous to the square root of 4. There are two solutions, 2 and -2. You might have a problem where the answer only makes sense as +2 though.

Special relativity tells us that as one approaches the speed of light one needs more and more energy to consider to accelerate. For an object with mass to reach the speed of light barrier requires more energy than exists in the entire Universe.

The theory of special relativity is actually very simple and anyone with a high school math background - just a little algebra acually - can play with the equations. General relativity though is an entirely different beast.



Last edited by Colin at Jan 16 2003, 01:48 PM

I feel I should add to my last post that I'm not saying 'ghosts' exist.....just that it is possible that they do.

No one really knows what happens to our energy when we die....but SOMETHING does happen....and I think 'ghosts' are an easy way for people to understand it because the concept of 'ghosts' sort of personifies 'afterlife existance'.....just like the personification of God....it makes it much easier to people to relate....

it wasnt an atom, it was a beam of light.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2049048.stm

this was all over the news when it happened. i think that these type of things are not really significant when people cannot relate to it, or when it has no clear application that will affect or more importantly, improve lives.

the details of this experiment is pretty much impossible to understand without a solid grasp of quantum physics.

They don't go backwards in time. They go forward in time slower than someone that stays on Earth.

Special Relativity deals with time dilation as it is caused by speed. Travel faster, time goes slower.

General Relativity deals with time dilation as it is caused by the warping of space-time. Time ticks slower near more massive objects.

As far as I know, the only trick anyone has been able to think of regarding going backwards in time requires travelling through wormholes in space that connect to other parts of the Universe through a backdoor. (basically). At least that is the most popular such idea. Kip Thorne at Cal Tech is into this.

[/b][/quote]
Thanks for that Colin....it's been a long time since I read up on it...interesting...you mean 'imaginary' in the sense that we don't KNOW what happens??

Sorry, yes, that is exactly what I meant.....I didn't mean astronauts go back in time, but rather that because they are traveling at fast speeds, time slows for them.

General relativity sounds very interesting.....maybe I'll delve into a few good books about. :awinky:

No, it is an unfortunate fact that the term imaginary was used for "complex numbers". It's not as exciting as it sounds. I believe it was the mathematician Leonard Euler than coined the term. He coined a lot of them.

Imaginary numbers: The square root of -1 is defined as i. That means that i times i is -1.
i is "imaginary".

The basic point is that if you plug a velocity greater than the speed of light into Einstein's
time dilation equation used in special relativity, you get the square root of a negative number. In that sense, the answer is imaginary. What does that mean? Probably nothing. It probably means the equation isn't true for speeds faster than the speed of light.

Thorne's "Black Holes and Time Warps" is supposed to be pretty good but I haven't read it. Hawking's two bestsellers are very readable.

Einstein wrote a book called "Relativity". It's not bad but nor is it great. The Thorne and Hawking books would probably be more interesting.

If anyone wants to learn "the real thing", "Gravitation" by Wheeler, Misner, and Thorne will keep you busy for the next 5 years. My thesis advisor studied under Misner.

My parents believed that if enough people believed in something, they could make it true. I think they were wrong. Hippy Madness.

No, it is an unfortunate fact that the term imaginary was used for "complex numbers". It's not as exciting as it sounds. I believe it was the mathematician Leonard Euler than coined the term. He coined a lot of them.

Imaginary numbers: The square root of -1 is defined as i. That means that i times i is -1.
i is "imaginary".

The basic point is that if you plug a velocity greater than the speed of light into Einstein's
time dilation equation used in special relativity, you get the square root of a negative number. In that sense, the answer is imaginary. What does that mean? Probably nothing. It probably means the equation isn't true for speeds faster than the speed of light.[/b][/quote]
Wow, okay....I am horrible in math...I failed algebra 11 twice...until I finally worked my ass off and passed. :P

I'm more an English Lit. person... :awinky:

Concepts I understand, it's the formulas that throw me for a loop.

Thanks for the book suggestions!!

Are you working on a Physics Doctorit? (sp?)

"Will AI robots, indistinguishable from humans, one day live in our homes?"

Damn!! MikeAI robots..... then MikeAI clones.... then what?? We should cut it off before it gets started.

No, I was a physics undergrad.

No, I was a physics undergrad.[/b][/quote]
I was under a physics grad a few times :awinky:

As to your questions:

AIDS- yes I believe there is a cure. Only a matter of finding it.

Man-violence- as a species it is possible but EXTREMELY improbable!! :awinky: Individually, yes. It is quite easy, just a matter of willpower.

AI robots- yes, I believe we will be able to go beyond TNG's Data and get life like androids.

Time travel- I'll quote Captain Kathryn Janeway on this one!!

<u>"Ever since my first day on the job as a Starfleet Captain, I swore I'd never let myself get caught in one of these Godforsaken paradoxes. The past is the future, the future is the past, it all gives me a headache." Captain Janeway(a.k.a. Kate Mulgrew) from the episode Future's End Pt. I
</u>

I take the last question to be is there a Q in the universe? Of this I would have to say no. Aliens, yes, beings like the Q, no.

mmmm - is that mating season in Arkansas? he he


Voodoo practitioners work that angle very well - the faith to make something happen

a Funny aside, was speaking with a non industry friend on the phone and telling them about this ongoing discussion we're having on a adult webmaster chat board - whoda thunk - adult Internet companies and Physics, Essentialism, AI and other assorted interesting topics

It's your fault Colin for starting this thread and being so damn edumakated :P

Which is NOT a good sign for mankind's evolution!! I think porn is to blame as too many people are :wankit: and not enough time is spent on "worldly" pursuits!! :blink:



Last edited by TheEnforcer at Jan 16 2003, 03:06 PM

I was just minding my own business (errr .. literally) when this discussion broke out.

Of course the same thing could be said about you and marriage!! :blink: DOH!!

:P

Which is NOT a good sign for mankind's evolution!! I think porn is to blame as too many people are :wankit: and not enough time is spent on "worldly" pursuits!! :blink:[/b][/quote]
Well, I think when one is young every book is filled with things not known - some of them even interesting.

Have you people not figured it out yet?

COLIN IS FROM THE FUTURE!

He was sent back from the distant future to learn firsthand how intelligent early man was. He engages us in stimulating conversation to gauge our degree of advancement. Remember Spanker? Remember how we thought he was hiding in a bunker? IT WAS A RUSE! I overheard Colin in Vegas while he was conversing via wormhole phone with his bretheren in the far future. They sent Spanker to the future to do experiments on him. Poor, poor Spanker.

The good thing is that Serge is next :)

shazbot

Okay....whew! That makes a lot more sense. I was just about to ask which brand of coffee he was drinking - I think mine has failed me. *slaps self in face* Wake up brain! Wake up!

Interesting discussion folks....interesting thoughts & theories...

I guess I'm more of the "hippy crowd" way of thinking - I think *anything* is possible. Just look at how far the world has progressed just in our own lifetimes in the ways of technologies and medical advancements - that alone should give hope to the possibilities of the future.

Just my 60's love-child, hippied-out two-cents... :inlove: :inlove:

I always took you for a na-nu, na-nu type of guy...

Did you come to Earth in an egg spaceship?

I always took you for a na-nu, na-nu type of guy...

Did you come to Earth in an egg spaceship?[/b][/quote]
No. but I had an "egg chair" in college,

See example here:
http://www.sixdifferentways.com/images/bal...001-emma056.jpg

http://www.sixdifferentways.com/imag...01-emma056.jpg
Nice shoes

Colin had those shoes in college also :)

Colin had those shoes in college also :)[/b][/quote]
I have those shows NOW. Why are you acting new here? You know I don't shop at the GAP ;-)

nice 404 page. A child flipping you off. lol

Thats JR's work. You know how he is.

Thats JR's work. You know how he is.[/b][/quote]
http://www.pleasurelabs.com/pics/213.jpg

Four years ago, this was done with a single photon.

JR, your comment, "these type of things are not really significant when people cannot relate to it, or when it has no clear application that will affect or more importantly, improve lives." is so right on.

There are all kinds of amazing scientific research papers being published every year that won't appear in the newspapers or that do and no one cares. Science advances become known much faster when they are marketed well. Without someone taking the time to explain the papers in English, they do not become very well known. If a story is not picked up by the Associated Press or Reuters, it may sit dormant for years - or more likely forever. A good marketing scientist will tell a good story

What living scientists can most of us name? They are probably all best-selling science authors. Our personal lists of known scientists will not usually be of the best ones but rather they will be of the best science writers and the ones that know how to market themselves and are good at politics.

How can there be limitations if they can be broken?

Why must the results be devastating?

"Warning to others?" What are you afraid of and why?

But do you believe it is possible and that it will happen? Assume 1000 years of progress (no catastrophes), will it likely happen? What would you bet on 100 years?

In physics, energy is just the ability for a system to do work. Work is just force x distance.*

I don't really know what people mean when they use the term energy in a sentence like "I believe god is an energy force" or "there is a 'life energy' ". I mean, I vaguely understand the idea but no one seems to have a precise definition that would allow someone to evaluate it. Whatever is meant, it does not seem to be the same thing as the physics definition.

-------------
*If I hold a rock a certain distance off the ground that rock has "gravitational potential energy". I can turn that potential energy into kinetic energy by dropping it. As it drops the rock increases in kinetic energy (it moves faster). The potential energy drops by an equivalent amount. At the end we could have an apparatus that the rock hits and transforms that kinetic energy into electrical energy. If someone is willing to stand there all day and drop rocks, we can power a small motor with it.

Now, I have no idea what this has to do with ghosts or what might be meant by energy as it relates to ghost. Of course, I've heard these things all my life and continue to ask people and no one has yet satisfactorily explained it to me.

To answer the original question...
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreampt of in your philosophy." (William Shakespeare)