Let’s daydream together and imagine that the most famous scientist of all times, Albert Einstein was a traveller instead.
Maybe he would discover some new countries on our map, or maybe he would live in our days and be a famous TV show presenter? Can you imagine Einstein travelling around the world and talking to you via TV screen?
Personally, I would not be very original in this daydreaming session and just imagine that Einstein was a time traveller. I think the genius himself would be very happy with my choice.
Why? Well, let me take you to a history and science journey!
It was 1915; Instagram did not exist yet; however, Albert Einstein managed to more or less explain our world and establish another great discovery of humanity.
Of course, I am talking about his Theory of Relativity.
To this day, the General Theory of Relativity (GTO) remains the best description of gravity in modern physics. The predictions of the theory have been confirmed by numerous observations and experiments carried out both in the last century and today. Theory of Relativity predicted the discovery of supermassive black holes and gravitational waves. So as we say to these days again and again, “Einstein was right.”
Today, however, researchers are looking for a new theory that can explain why the universe is expanding with acceleration. And according to UTO, our universe should not expand faster and faster. Scientists believe that the mysterious dark energy – an invisible substance and the driving force of the universe – is responsible for accelerating the expansion of the universe. But there are other inconsistencies: recently researchers found a black hole in our galaxy, which, according to OTO and our knowledge of the evolution of stars, should not exist. So, we need a new fundamental theory of everything, which will be consistent with both UTO and quantum theory. Enough with difficult words, let’s go back to our traveller.
The genius of Albert Einstein…
Isaac Newton thought about the fundamental forces of the universe long before Albert Einstein was born. His thoughts on our place in the universe are best described by Shakespeare: “The whole world is a theatre, and the people in it are actors. Newton believed that all objects in the universe are actors on stage: the sun, comets, dog and even an apple. And the scene itself was space and time, two things that are absolute and nothing can affect them. The hand of the clock moves at a constant speed, no matter where they are, believed Newton. These thoughts gave birth to classical mechanics that could explain almost everything. But the word “almost” is unacceptable if we try to explain how the whole universe works, not just part of it.
After about two hundred years, Albert Einstein has assumed that space and time can be combined with all objects in the universe. What Newton thought Einstein made absolute was part of the play. According to OTO, three dimensions of space and one dimension of time are combined into one four-dimensional space-time. And space is not inviolable: there are massive objects that can affect the shape of space itself, as well as the flow of time. But that’s not all: Einstein argued that time is individual. Theoretically, this allows for the ‘possibility of special ‘paths’ in space-time that can bend back into the past – these are closed curves by which you can go back to an earlier moment in time.
One of the most talented philosophers and mathematicians of the 20th century, Kurt Godel, believed that a particle could reach a point in its own past by closed time curves. However, for Gödel’s assumption to work, our universe must rotate, and its size must remain constant. But you and I know very well that the universe is expanding with acceleration. Since Gödel, other scientists have created theories that relate to Einstein’s concept. But even if closed time curves do exist, you have to reach speeds above 220,000 kilometres per second to pass them.
However, the incoherence of UTO with the fact of the accelerating expansion of the universe and the existence of closed time curves is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to time travel because we face a much more serious problem: Einstein’s theory does not correspond in any way with quantum physics. And that’s the biggest problem in modern physics. We really need another theory to describe the universe. A theory that would take into account the quantum nature of matter.
One of the attempts to explain the universe by dotting all the dots above AND is string theory. Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory is known to have worked on it. However, the theory of strings is also not without problems: for it to be correct, it requires the existence of six additional dimensions of space. Along with the theory of strings, there is the theory of loop quantum gravity, the theory of causal sets and many others. However, despite the fact that, to date, none of them can fully explain everything that happens in the universe, scientists are not in a hurry to write them off. At least when thinking about time travel.
Thus, a study that scientists at Oxford University have been working on suggests that creating a time machine is actually possible. It examines the logical, metaphysical and physical possibility of time travel, based on the existence of closed time curves. Scientists believe that these curves can be detected by new technologies and argue that none of the alleged paradoxes excludes time travel. Also, in the paper, researchers write that time travel is possible according to the theory of quantum gravity, string theory and the theory of loop quantum gravity. Anyway, there are more questions today than answers.
Is it possible to stop time?
Albert Einstein has demonstrated that time is relative: it moves slower if an object moves quickly. Events do not happen in the prescribed order. There is no single universal “now” in the sense that Newtonian physics would describe it. It is true that many events in the universe can be ordered, but time is not always clearly divided into past, present and future. Some physical equations work in any direction. One aspect of the perception of time that many of us share is how we think about our past: we imagine it as a giant video library, an archive where you can see the records of your own life’s events. Some theoretical physicists, like Carlo Rovelli, go even further in their thinking, believing that time is not linear or does not exist at all. However, although some physicists assume that time does not exist, there is our perception of time. That is why the evidence of physics is at odds with how we perceive the course of life. Our understanding of “the future” or “the past” does not necessarily refer to everything in the universe but reflects the reality of our life here on Earth. However, as in Newton’s idea of absolute time, faith over time can mislead us.
We can say that time is a single and indivisible flow: there is a stretched thread between the past and the future, on which you can move.
It is in this picture of the world arise most famous loops and paradoxes: for example, if in the past you would kill your grandfather (don’t try it at home), you can disappear from the universe. Paradoxes arise because this concept (philosophers call it “B-theory”) states: the past, present and future are as real and immutable as the three dimensions we are used to. The future is not yet known, but sooner or later, we will see the only version of events that has to happen.
This fatalism generates the most ironic stories about time travellers. When an alien from the future tries to correct the events of the past, he suddenly discovers that he himself has caused them – in fact, it has always been so. Time in such worlds is not rewritten – it simply creates a cause-and-effect loop, and any attempt to change something only perpetuates the original version. This paradox was one of the first to be described in detail by Robert Heinline in his novel “In His Bootstraps” (1941), where it turns out that the hero was performing a task received from himself.
The theories about time travelling are seriously endless; some may seem a joke, some impossible and some quite logical. If we start digging deeper, we may end up in the loop of crazy questions with no answers, so instead, I recommend to ease your restless mind by reading our articles on Pickvisa.com.
Let’s finish this daydreaming article with the last words about Einstein.
The death of the great scientist is surrounded by mystery. Only a limited number of people knew about Einstein’s funeral. According to legend, together with him were buried the ashes of his works, which he burned before his death. Einstein believed that they could harm humanity. Researchers believe that the secret that Einstein took with him could really turn the world around.
We would never know the secrets this genius took with himself; however, I would like to think those were the evidence of time travelling, that could make Einstein the greatest traveller in the world.
Even though, let’s be honest most probably he is travelling somewhere across the universe at the moment…