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A brief history
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Contents
Articles
Overview
Time travel 1 1 24 24 30 47 54 61 75 77 77 86 90 101 122 122 125 141 156 164 171 175 178 185
Physics
Multiverse Many-worlds interpretation Novikov self-consistency principle Wormhole Faster-than-light Chronology protection conjecture
Philosophy
Philosophy of space and time Eternalism Determinism Free will
Fiction
Time travel in fiction Parallel universe Alternate history Time loop Temporal paradox Grandfather paradox Ontological paradox Predestination paradox List of time travel science fiction
References
Article Sources and Contributors Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 204 210
Article Licenses
License 211
Overview
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the need for the traveler to experience the intervening period (at least not at the normal rate). Any technological device whether fictional or hypothetical that would be used to achieve time travel is commonly known as a time machine.[1] Although time travel has been a common plot device in science fiction since the late 19th century, and the theories of special and general relativity allow methods for forms of one-way travel into the future via time dilation, it is currently unknown whether the laws of physics would allow time travel into the past. Such backward time travel would have the potential to introduce paradoxes related to causality, and a variety of hypotheses have been proposed to resolve them, as discussed in the sections Paradoxes and Rules of time travel below.
Time travel
Time travel
In 1836 Alexander Veltman published Predki Kalimerosa: Aleksandr Filippovich Makedonskii (The forebears of Kalimeros: Alexander, son of Philip of Macedon), which has been called the first original Russian science fiction novel and the first novel to use time travel.[10] In it the narrator rides to ancient Greece on a hippogriff, meets Aristotle, and goes on a voyage with Alexander the Great before returning to the 19th century. In the science fiction anthology Far Boundaries (1951), the editor August Derleth identifies the short story "Missing One's Coach: An Anachronism", written for the Dublin Literary Magazine[11] by an anonymous author in 1838, as a very early time travel story.[12] In this story, the narrator is waiting under a tree to be picked up by a coach which will take him out of Newcastle, when he suddenly finds himself transported back over a thousand years. He encounters the Venerable Bede in a monastery, and gives him somewhat ironic explanations of the developments of the coming centuries. It is never Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig dance in a vision the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge. entirely clear whether these events actually occurred or were merely a dreamthe narrator says that when he initially found a comfortable-looking spot in the roots of the tree, he sat down, "and as my sceptical reader will tell me, nodded and slept", but then says that he is "resolved not to admit" this explanation. A number of dreamlike elements of the story may suggest otherwise to the reader, such as the fact that none of the members of the monastery seem to be able to see him at first, and the abrupt ending in which Bede has been delayed talking to the narrator and so the other monks burst in thinking that some harm has come to him, and suddenly the narrator finds himself back under the tree in the present (August 1837), with his coach having just passed his spot on the road, leaving him stranded in Newcastle for another night.[13] Charles Dickens' 1843 book A Christmas Carol is considered by some[14] to be one of the first depictions of time travel in both directions, as the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is transported to Christmases past, present and yet to come. These might be considered mere visions rather than actual time travel, though, since Scrooge only viewed each time period passively, unable to interact with them. A more clear example of backwards time travel is found in the popular 1861 book Paris avant les hommes (Paris before Men) by the French botanist and geologist Pierre Boitard, published posthumously. In this story the main character is transported into the prehistoric past by the magic of a "lame demon" (a French pun on Boitard's name), where he encounters such extinct animals as a Plesiosaur, as well as Boitard's imagined version of an apelike human ancestor, and is able to actively interact with some of them.[15] Another early example of backwards time travel in fiction is the short story The Clock That Went Backward by Edward Page Mitchell,[16] which appeared in the New York Sun in 1881. Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), in which the protagonist finds himself in the time of King Arthur after a fight in which he is hit with a sledge hammer, was another early time travel story which helped bring the concept to a wide audience, and was also one of the first stories to show history being changed by the time traveler's actions. The first time travel story to feature time travel by means of a time machine was Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau's 1887 book El Anacronpete.[17] This idea gained popularity with the H. G. Wells story The Time Machine, published in 1895 (preceded by a less influential story of time travel Wells wrote in 1888, titled The Chronic Argonauts), which also featured a time machine and which is often seen as an inspiration for all later science fiction stories featuring time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term "time machine",
Time travel coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle. Since that time, both science and fiction (see Time travel in fiction) have expanded on the concept of time travel.
Theory
Some theories, most notably special and general relativity, suggest that suitable geometries of spacetime, or specific types of motion in space, might allow time travel into the past and future if these geometries or motions are possible.[18] In technical papers, physicists generally avoid the commonplace language of "moving" or "traveling" through time ("movement" normally refers only to a change in spatial position as the time coordinate is varied), and instead discuss the possibility of closed timelike curves, which are worldlines that form closed loops in spacetime, allowing objects to return to their own past. There are known to be solutions to the equations of general relativity that describe spacetimes which contain closed timelike curves (such as Gdel spacetime), but the physical plausibility of these solutions is uncertain. Relativity predicts that if one were to move away from the Earth at relativistic velocities and return, more time would have passed on Earth than for the traveler, so in this sense it is accepted that relativity allows "travel into the future" (according to relativity there is no single objective answer to how much time has really passed between the departure and the return, but there is an objective answer to how much proper time has been experienced by both the Earth and the traveler, i.e., how much each has aged; see twin paradox). On the other hand, many in the scientific community believe that backwards time travel is highly unlikely. Any theory that would allow time travel would require that problems of causality be resolved. The classic example of a problem involving causality is the "grandfather paradox": what if one were to go back in time and kill one's own grandfather before one's father was conceived? But some scientists believe that paradoxes can be avoided, by appealing either to the Novikov self-consistency principle or to the notion of branching parallel universes (see the 'Paradoxes' section below).
Tourism in time
Stephen Hawking has suggested that the absence of tourists from the future is an argument against the existence of time travela variant of the Fermi paradox. Of course this would not prove that time travel is physically impossible, since it might be that time travel is physically possible but that it is never developed (or is cautiously never used); and even if it is developed, Hawking notes elsewhere that time travel might only be possible in a region of spacetime that is warped in the correct way, and that if we cannot create such a region until the future, then time travelers would not be able to travel back before that date, so "This picture would explain why we haven't been over run by tourists from the future."[19] Carl Sagan also once suggested the possibility that time travelers could be here, but are disguising their existence or are not recognized as time travelers.[20]
General relativity
However, the theory of general relativity does suggest a scientific basis for the possibility of backwards time travel in certain unusual scenarios, although arguments from semiclassical gravity suggest that when quantum effects are incorporated into general relativity, these loopholes may be closed.[21] These semiclassical arguments led Hawking to formulate the chronology protection conjecture, suggesting that the fundamental laws of nature prevent time travel,[22] but physicists cannot come to a definite judgment on the issue without a theory of quantum gravity to join quantum mechanics and general relativity into a completely unified theory.[23]
Time travel
In physics
Time travel to the past is theoretically allowed using the following methods:[24] Travelling faster than the speed of light The use of cosmic strings and black holes Wormholes and Alcubierre drive
Time travel
Using wormholes
Wormholes are a hypothetical warped spacetime which are also permitted by the Einstein field equations of general relativity,[31] although it would be impossible to travel through a wormhole unless it were what is known as a traversable wormhole. A proposed time-travel machine using a traversable wormhole would (hypothetically) work in the following way: One end of the wormhole is accelerated to some significant fraction of the speed of light, perhaps with some advanced propulsion system, and then brought back to the point of origin. Alternatively, another way is to take one entrance of the wormhole and move it to within the gravitational field of an object that has higher gravity than the other entrance, and then return it to a position near the other entrance. For both of these methods, time dilation causes the end of the wormhole that has been moved to have aged less than the stationary end, as seen by an external observer; however, time connects differently through the wormhole than outside it, so that synchronized clocks at either end of the wormhole will always remain synchronized as seen by an observer passing through the wormhole, no matter how the two ends move around.[32] This means that an observer entering the accelerated end would exit the stationary end when the stationary end was the same age that the accelerated end had been at the moment before entry; for example, if prior to entering the wormhole the observer noted that a clock at the accelerated end read a date of 2007 while a clock at the stationary end read 2012, then the observer would exit the stationary end when its clock also read 2007, a trip backwards in time as seen by other observers outside. One significant limitation of such a time machine is that it is only possible to go as far back in time as the initial creation of the machine;[33] in essence, it is more of a path through time than it is a device that itself moves through time, and it would not allow the technology itself to be moved backwards in time. This could provide an alternative explanation for Hawking's observation: a time machine will be built someday, but has not yet been built, so the tourists from the future cannot reach this far back in time. According to current theories on the nature of wormholes, construction of a traversable wormhole would require the existence of a substance with negative energy (often referred to as "exotic matter"). More technically, the wormhole spacetime requires a distribution of energy that violates various energy conditions, such as the null energy condition along with the weak, strong, and dominant energy conditions.[34] However, it is known that quantum effects can lead to small measurable violations of the null energy condition,[34] and many physicists believe that the required negative energy may actually be possible due to the Casimir effect in quantum physics.[35] Although early calculations suggested a very large amount of negative energy would be required, later calculations showed that the amount of negative energy can be made arbitrarily small.[36] In 1993, Matt Visser argued that the two mouths of a wormhole with such an induced clock difference could not be brought together without inducing quantum field and gravitational effects that would either make the wormhole collapse or the two mouths repel each other.[37] Because of this, the two mouths could not be brought close enough for causality violation to take place. However, in a 1997 paper, Visser hypothesized that a complex "Roman ring" (named after Tom Roman) configuration of an N number of wormholes arranged in a symmetric polygon could still act as a time machine, although he concludes that this is more likely a flaw in classical quantum gravity theory rather than proof that causality violation is possible.[38]
Time travel Physicist Robert Forward noted that a nave application of general relativity to quantum mechanics suggests another way to build a time machine. A heavy atomic nucleus in a strong magnetic field would elongate into a cylinder, whose density and "spin" are enough to build a time machine. Gamma rays projected at it might allow information (not matter) to be sent back in time; however, he pointed out that until we have a single theory combining relativity and quantum mechanics, we will have no idea whether such speculations are nonsense. A more fundamental objection to time travel schemes based on rotating cylinders or cosmic strings has been put forward by Stephen Hawking, who proved a theorem showing that according to general relativity it is impossible to build a time machine of a special type (a "time machine with the compactly generated Cauchy horizon") in a region where the weak energy condition is satisfied, meaning that the region contains no matter with negative energy density (exotic matter). Solutions such as Tipler's assume cylinders of infinite length, which are easier to analyze mathematically, and although Tipler suggested that a finite cylinder might produce closed timelike curves if the rotation rate were fast enough,[43] he did not prove this. But Hawking points out that because of his theorem, "it can't be done with positive energy density everywhere! I can prove that to build a finite time machine, you need negative energy."[44] This result comes from Hawking's 1992 paper on the chronology protection conjecture, where he examines "the case that the causality violations appear in a finite region of spacetime without curvature singularities" and proves that "[t]here will be a Cauchy horizon that is compactly generated and that in general contains one or more closed null geodesics which will be incomplete. One can define geometrical quantities that measure the Lorentz boost and area increase on going round these closed null geodesics. If the causality violation developed from a noncompact initial surface, the averaged weak energy condition must be violated on the Cauchy horizon."[45] However, this theorem does not rule out the possibility of time travel 1) by means of time machines with the non-compactly generated Cauchy horizons (such as the Deutsch-Politzer time machine) and 2) in regions which contain exotic matter (which would be necessary for traversable wormholes or the Alcubierre drive). Because the theorem is based on general relativity, it is also conceivable a future theory of quantum gravity which replaced general relativity would allow time travel even without exotic matter (though it is also possible such a theory would place even more restrictions on time travel, or rule it out completely as postulated by Hawking's chronology protection conjecture).
Time travel The physicists Gnter Nimtz and Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, claim to have violated Einstein's theory of relativity by transmitting photons faster than the speed of light. They say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons energetic packets of light traveled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft (unknown operator: u'strong'm) apart, using a phenomenon known as quantum tunneling. Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of." However, other physicists say that this phenomenon does not allow information to be transmitted faster than light. Aephraim Steinberg, a quantum optics expert at the University of Toronto, Canada, uses the analogy of a train traveling from Chicago to New York, but dropping off train cars at each station along the way, so that the center of the train moves forward at each stop; in this way, the center of the train exceeds the speed of any of the individual cars.[47] Some physicists have performed experiments which attempted to show causality violations, but so far without success. The "Space-time Twisting by Light" (STL) experiment run by physicist Ronald Mallett attempts to observe a violation of causality when a neutron is passed through a circle made up of a laser whose path has been twisted by passing it through a photonic crystal. Mallett has some physical arguments that suggest that closed timelike curves would become possible through the center of a laser which has been twisted into a loop. However, other physicists dispute his arguments (see objections). Shengwang Du claims in a peer reviewed journal to have observed single photons' precursors, saying that they travel no faster than c in a vacuum. His experiment involved slow light as well as passing light through a vacuum. He generated two single photons, passing one through rubidium atoms that had been cooled with a laser (thus slowing the light) and passing one through a vacuum. Both times, apparently, the precursors preceded the photons' main bodies, and the precursor traveled at c in a vacuum. According to Du, this implies that there is no possibility of light traveling faster than c (and, thus, violating causality).[48] Some members of the media took this as an indication of proof that time travel was impossible.[49][50] Non-physics-based experiments Several experiments have been carried out to try to entice future humans, who might invent time travel technology, to come back and demonstrate it to people of the present time. Events such as Perth's Destination Day (2005) or MIT's Time Traveler Convention heavily publicized permanent "advertisements" of a meeting time and place for future time travelers to meet. Back in 1982, a group in Baltimore, MD., identifying itself as the Krononauts, hosted an event of this type welcoming visitors from the future.[51][52] These experiments only stood the possibility of generating a positive result demonstrating the existence of time travel, but have failed so farno time travelers are known to have attended either event. It is hypothetically possible that future humans have traveled back in time, but have traveled back to the meeting time and place in a parallel universe.[53] Another factor is that for all the time travel devices considered under current physics (such as those that operate using wormholes), it is impossible to travel back to before the time machine was actually made.[54][55]
Time travel
This form of "travel into the future" is theoretically allowed (and has been demonstrated at very small time scales) using the following methods:[24] Using velocity-based time dilation under the theory of special relativity, for instance: Traveling at almost the speed of light to a distant star, then slowing down, turning around, and traveling at almost the speed of light back to Earth[56] (see the Twin paradox) Using gravitational time dilation under the theory of general relativity, for instance: Residing inside of a hollow, high-mass object; Residing just outside of the event horizon of a black hole, or sufficiently near an object whose mass or density causes the gravitational time dilation near it to be larger than the time dilation factor on Earth. Additionally, it might be possible to see the distant future of the Earth using methods which do not involve relativity at all, although it is even more debatable whether these should be deemed a form of "time travel": Hibernation Suspended animation
Time dilation
Time dilation is permitted by Albert Einstein's special and general theories of relativity. These theories state that, relative to a given observer, time passes more slowly for bodies moving quickly relative to that observer, or bodies that are deeper within a gravity well.[57] For example, a clock which is moving relative to the observer will be measured to run slow in that observer's rest frame; as a clock approaches the speed of light it will almost slow to a stop, although it can never quite reach light speed so it will never completely stop. For two clocks moving inertially (not accelerating) relative to one another, this effect is reciprocal, with each clock measuring the other to be ticking slower. However, the symmetry is broken if one clock accelerates, as in the twin paradox where one twin stays on Earth while the other travels into space, turns around (which involves acceleration), and returnsin this case both agree the traveling twin has aged less. General relativity states that time dilation effects also occur if one
Time travel clock is deeper in a gravity well than the other, with the clock deeper in the well ticking more slowly; this effect must be taken into account when calibrating the clocks on the satellites of the Global Positioning System, and it could lead to significant differences in rates of aging for observers at different distances from a black hole. It has been calculated that, under general relativity, a person could travel forward in time at a rate four times that of distant observers by residing inside a spherical shell with a diameter of 5 meters and the mass of Jupiter.[24] For such a person, every one second of their "personal" time would correspond to four seconds for distant observers. Of course, squeezing the mass of a large planet into such a structure is not expected to be within our technological capabilities in the near future. There is a great deal of experimental evidence supporting the validity of equations for velocity-based time dilation in special relativity[58] and gravitational time dilation in general relativity.[59][60][61] However, with current technologies it is only possible to cause a human traveller to age less than companions on Earth by a very small fraction of a second, the current record being about 20 milliseconds for the cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev.
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Time perception
Time perception can be apparently sped up for living organisms through hibernation, where the body temperature and metabolic rate of the creature is reduced. A more extreme version of this is suspended animation, where the rates of chemical processes in the subject would be severely reduced. Time dilation and suspended animation only allow "travel" to the future, never the past, so they do not violate causality, and it's debatable whether they should be called time travel. However time dilation can be viewed as a better fit for our understanding of the term "time travel" than suspended animation, since with time dilation less time actually does pass for the traveler than for those who remain behind, so the traveler can be said to have reached the future faster than others, whereas with suspended animation this is not the case.
Time travel Daniel Greenberger and Karl Svozil proposed that quantum theory gives a model for time travel without paradoxes.[66][67] In quantum theory observation causes possible states to 'collapse' into one measured state; hence, the past observed from the present is deterministic (it has only one possible state), but the present observed from the past has many possible states until our actions cause it to collapse into one state. Our actions will then be seen to have been inevitable.
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Time travel
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Theory of compossibility
David Lewis's analysis of compossibility and the implications of changing the past is meant to account for the possibilities of time travel in a one-dimensional conception of time without creating logical paradoxes. Consider Lewis example of Tim. Tim hates his grandfather and would like nothing more than to kill him. The only problem for Tim is that his grandfather died years ago. Tim wants so badly to kill his grandfather himself that he constructs a time machine to travel back to 1955 when his grandfather was young and kill him then. Assuming that Tim can travel to a time when his grandfather is still alive, the question must then be raised: can Tim kill his grandfather? For Lewis, the answer lies within the context of the usage of the word "can". Lewis explains that the word "can" must be viewed against the context of pertinent facts relating to the situation. Suppose that Tim has a rifle, years of rifle training, a straight shot on a clear day and no outside force to restrain Tims trigger finger. Can Tim shoot his grandfather? Considering these facts, it would appear that Tim can in fact kill his grandfather. In other words, all of the contextual facts are compossible with Tim killing his grandfather. However, when reflecting on the compossibility of a given situation, we must gather the most inclusive set of facts that we are able to. Consider now the fact that Tims grandfather died in 1993 and not in 1955. This new fact about Tims situation reveals that him killing his grandfather is not compossible with the current set of facts. Tim cannot kill his grandfather because his grandfather died in 1993 and not when he was young. Thus, Lewis concludes, the statements "Tim doesnt but can, because he has what it takes," and, "Tim doesnt, and cant, because it is logically impossible to change the past," are not contradictions; they are both true given the relevant set of facts. The usage of the word "can" is equivocal: he "can" and "can not" under different relevant facts. So what must happen to Tim as he takes aim? Lewis believes that his gun will jam, a bird will fly in the way, or Tim simply slips on a banana peel. Either way, there will be some logical force of the universe that will prevent Tim every time from killing his grandfather.[74]
Time travel travel itself, i.e. how to travel through time, but instead call to attention differing rules of what happens to history.). As used in this section, timeline refers to all physical events in history, so that in time travel stories where events can be changed, the time traveler can create a new or altered timeline. This usage of "timeline" is fairly common in time travel fiction,[1] and is distinct from the usage of "timeline" to refer to a type of chart created by humans to illustrate a particular series of events (see timeline). This concept is also distinct from the concept of a world line, a term from Einstein's theory of relativity which refers to the entire history of a single object (usually idealized as a point particle) that forms a distinct path through 4-dimensional spacetime. 1. There is a single fixed history, which is self-consistent and unchangeable. In this version, everything happens on a single timeline which does not contradict itself and cannot interact with anything potentially existing outside of it. 1.1 This can be simply achieved by applying the Novikov self-consistency principle, named after Dr. Igor Dmitrievich Novikov, Professor of Astrophysics at Copenhagen University. The principle states that the timeline is totally fixed, and any actions taken by a time traveler were part of history all along, so it is impossible for the time traveler to "change" history in any way. The A man travelling a few seconds into the past in a time traveler's actions may be the cause of events in their single self-consistent timeline. This scenario own past though, which leads to the potential for circular raises questions about free will, since once the causation and the predestination paradox; for examples of traveller has decided to enter the time machine, then as soon as his own double appears, there is circular causation, see Robert A. Heinlein's story "By His absolutely no way for him to change his mind. Bootstraps". The Novikov self-consistency principle proposes that the local laws of physics in a region of spacetime containing time travelers cannot be any different from the local laws of physics in any other region of spacetime.[79] An example of such kind of time travel occurs in the japanese light novel and anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. In this story, every time a time traveler has to go back in the past, he or she gets the feeling he should make sure everything happens exactly as it is remembered. No indication is given about what would happen otherwise, though. Also, in the first episode of the second season, an apparent causal loop is noticed, which is then explained by a reformulation of Gdel's theorem. 1.2 Alternatively, new physical laws take effect regarding time travel that thwarts attempts to change the past (contradicting the assumption mentioned in 1.1 above that the laws that apply to time travelers are the same ones that apply to everyone else). These new physical laws can be as unsubtle as to reject time travelers who travel to the past to change it by pulling them back to the point from when they came as Michael Moorcock's The Dancers at the End of Time or where the traveler is rendered a noncorporeal phantom unable to physically interact with the past such as in some Pre-Crisis Superman stories and Michael Garrett's "Brief Encounter" in Twilight Zone Magazine May 1981. 2. History is flexible and is subject to change (Plastic Time) 2.1 Changes to history are easy and can impact the traveler, the world, or both Examples include Doctor Who and the Back to the Future trilogy. In some cases, any resulting paradoxes can be devastating, threatening the very existence of the universe. In other cases the traveler simply cannot return home. The extreme version of this (Chaotic Time) is that history is very sensitive to changes with even small changes having large impacts such as in Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder".
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Time travel 2.2 History is change resistant in direct relationship to the importance of the event i.e., small trivial events can be readily changed but large ones take great effort. In the Twilight Zone episode "Back There" a traveler tries to prevent the assassination of President Lincoln and fails, but his actions have made subtle changes to the status quo in his own time (e.g. a man who had been the butler of his gentleman's club is now a rich tycoon). In the 2002 remake of The Time Machine, it is explained via a vision why Hartdegen could not save his sweetheart Emmadoing so would have resulted in his never developing the time machine he used to try and save her. In The Saga of Darren Shan, major events in the past cannot be changed, but their details can alter while providing the same outcome. Under this model, if a time traveler were to go back in time and kill Hitler, another Nazi would simply take his place and commit his same actions, leaving the broader course of history unchanged. In the Doctor Who episode The Waters of Mars, Captain Adelaide Brooke's death on Mars is the most singular catalyst of human travel outside the solar system. At first, the Doctor realizes her death is a "fixed point in time" and does not intervene, but later defies this rule and transports her and her crew to Earth. Rather than allow human history to change, Captain Brooke commits suicide on Earth, leaving history mostly unchanged. 3. Alternate timelines. In this version of time travel, there are multiple coexisting alternate histories, so that when the traveler goes back in time, he/she ends up in a new timeline where historical events can differ from the timeline he/she came from, but her original timeline does not cease to exist (this means the grandfather paradox can be avoided since even if the time traveler's grandfather is killed at a young age in the new timeline, he still survived to have children in the original timeline, so there is still a causal explanation for the traveler's existence). Time travel may actually create a new timeline that diverges from the original timeline at the moment the time traveler appears in the past, or the traveler may arrive in an already existing parallel universe (though unless the parallel universe's history was identical to the time traveler's history up until the point where the time traveler appeared, it is questionable whether the latter version qualifies as 'time travel').
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Time travel under the parallel universe hypothesis. This scenario has the potential to preserve free will, but breaks symmetry between universes.
James P. Hogan's The Proteus Operation fully explains parallel universe time travel in chapter 20 where it has Einstein explaining that all the outcomes already exist and all time travel does is change which already existing branch you will experience. Though Star Trek has a long tradition of using the 2.1 mechanic, as seen in "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Tomorrow is Yesterday", "Time and Again", "Future's End", "Before and After", "Endgame" and as late as Enterprise's Temporal Cold War, "Parallels" had an example of what Data called "quantum realities." His exact words on the matter were "But there is a theory in quantum physics that all possibilities that can happen do happen in alternate quantum realities," suggesting the writers were thinking of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Michael Crichton's novel Timeline takes the approach that all time travel really is travel to an already existing parallel universe where time passes at a slower rate than our own but actions in any of these parallel universes may have already occurred in our past. It is unclear from the novel if any sizable
Time travel change in events of these parallel universe can be made. In the Homeline setting of GURPS Infinite Worlds there are echosparallel universes at an early part of Homeline's history but changes to their history do not affect Homeline's history. However tampering with their history can cause them to shift quanta making access harder if not impossible. A type of story which could be placed in this category is one where the alternative version of the past lies not in some other dimension, but simply at a distant location in space or a future period of time that replicates conditions in the traveler's past. For example, in a Futurama episode called The Late Philip J. Fry, the professor designed a forward-only time travel device. Trapped in the future, he and two colleagues travel forward all the way to the end of the universe, at which point they witness a new Big Bang which gives rise to a new universe whose history mirrors their own history. Then they continue to go forward until they reach the exact time of their initial departure. Although this journey is not exactly a backward time travel, the final result is the same. In the Japanese manga, Dragon Ball Z, the character Trunks travels back in time to warn the characters of their deaths soon to come. This does not change his time line, only creates a new one in which they do not die. Soon two of the characters destroy the lab where the monster Cell is being created, stopping him from absorbing the androids, creating a third time line. Later it is revealed that Trunks is killed by Cell in the future, then travels to three years before any of the events occurs, which creates a fourth time line. No matter what any character does in the past, their own original time line is unchanged. Immutable timelines Time travel in a type 1 universe does not allow paradoxes such as the grandfather paradox to occur, where one deduces both a conclusion and its opposite (in the case of the grandfather paradox, one can start with the premise of the time traveler killing his grandfather, and reach the conclusion that the time traveler will not be able to kill his grandfather since he was never born) though it can allow other paradoxes to occur. In 1.1, the Novikov self-consistency principle asserts that the existence of a method of time travel constrains events to remain self-consistent. This will cause any attempt to violate such consistency to fail, even if seemingly extremely improbable events are required. Example: You have a device that can send a single bit of information back to itself at a precise moment in time. You receive a bit at 10:00:00 p.m., then no bits for thirty seconds after that. If you send a bit back to 10:00:00 p.m., everything works fine. However, if you try to send a bit to 10:00:15 p.m. (a time at which no bit was received), your transmitter will mysteriously fail. Or your dog will distract you for fifteen seconds. Or your transmitter will appear to work, but as it turns out your receiver failed at exactly 10:00:15 p.m., etc. Examples of this kind of universe are found in Robert Forward's novel Timemaster, the Twilight Zone episode "No Time Like the Past", and the 1980 Jeannot Szwarc film Somewhere In Time (based on Richard Matheson's novel Bid Time Return). In 1.2, time travel is constrained to prevent paradox. How this occurs is dependent on whether interaction with the past is possible. If interaction with the past is possible and one attempts to make a paradox, one undergoes involuntary or uncontrolled time travel. In the time-travel stories of Connie Willis, time travelers encounter "slippage" which prevents them from either reaching the intended time or translates them a sufficient distance from their destination at the intended time, as to prevent any paradox from occurring. Example: A man who travels into the past with intentions to kill Hitler finds himself on a Montana farm in late April 1945. In the The Dancers at the End of Time series, Michael Moorcock invented a plot device called the Morphail Effect. This causes a time traveler to be ejected from the time in which he or she is about to cause a paradox.
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Time travel Example 1: A man from the End of Time period travels to the past and is executed. Instead of dying (which would cause a paradox), he experiences a return to the End of Time Example 2: Time travelers sometimes visit the End of Time from their own epochs in the past. Those that attempt to return to their own period are likely to reappear inadvertently at the End of Time. The general consequences are that time travel to the traveler's past is difficult, and many time travelers find themselves adventuring deeper and deeper into their future. If interaction with the past is not possible then the traveler simply becomes an invisible insubstantial phantom unable to interact with the past as in the case of James Harrigan in Michael Garrett's "Brief Encounter". While a Type 1 universe will prevent a grandfather paradox it doesn't prevent paradoxes in other aspects of physics such as the predestination paradox and the ontological paradox (GURPS Infinite Worlds calls this "Free Lunch Paradox"). The predestination paradox is where the traveler's actions create some type of causal loop, in which some event A in the future helps cause event B in the past via time travel, and the event B in turn is one of the causes of A. For instance, a time traveler might go back to investigate a specific historical event like the Great Fire of London, and their actions in the past could then inadvertently end up being the original cause of that very event. Examples of this kind of causal loop are found in Robert Forward's novel Timemaster, the Twilight Zone episode "No Time Like the Past", EC Comics stories like "Man who was Killed in Time" (Weird Science #5), "Why Papa Left Home" (Weird Science #11), "Only Time will Tell" (Weird Fantasy #1), "The Connection" (Weird Fantasy #9), "Skeleton Key" (Weird Fantasy #16), and "Counter Clockwise" (Weird Fantasy #18), the 1980 Jeannot Szwarc film Somewhere In Time (based on Richard Matheson's novel Bid Time Return) the Michael Moorcock novel Behold the Man. In a scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and his friend Hermione Granger are being attacked by Dementors when Harry sees somebody whom he thinks is his father come up and cast a charm to save them. Later, Harry and Hermione go back in time to save 'an innocent man from a terrible fate'. During the period they are back in time, Harry ends up casting the charm to save his own life, and realises that it was himself whom he saw, not his father. Casual loops are also featured in 1972's Doctor Who, in the three part The Day of the Daleks, where three freedom fighters from the future attempt to kill a British diplomat they believe responsible for World War Three, and the subsequent easy conquest of Earth by the Daleks. In the future they were taught an explosion at the diplomat's (Sir Reginald Styles) mansion with foreign delegates inside caused the nations of the world to attack each other. The Doctor (Jon Pertwee), figures out that they caused the explosion all along by way of a temporal paradox. In the 2006 crime thriller Dj Vu there appears to be causal loops, as Agent Doug Carlin decides to send a message back in time to save his partner's life, but this will eventually cause his death. Later in the movie, though, Carlin is able to change events and create an alternate reality. This apparent paradox can be explained by multiple previous unseen time travels in a type 3 universe. In the videogame Escape from Monkey Island there's a section in which the player, controlling Guybrush Threepwood, gets some items from his future self in the Swamp of Time. Soon after that, he will become the future Guybrush and will have to give the items to his past self in the same order. This is an example of causal loop because those items were created purely from the time travel. Anyway if the player doesn't repeat every action properly, will cause a paradox that sends Guybrush back to the entrance of the swamp, implying a type 1.2 universe.
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The Novikov self-consistency principle can also result in an ontological paradox (also known as the knowledge or information paradox)[80] where the very existence of some object or information is a time loop. GURPS Infinite Worlds gives the example (from The Eyre Affair) of a time traveler going to Shakespeare's time with a book of all his works. Shakespeare pressed for time simply copies the information in the book from the future. The paradox is that nobody actually writes the plays.
The philosopher Kelley L. Ross argues in "Time Travel Paradoxes"[81] that in an ontological paradox scenario involving a physical object, there can be a violation of the second law of thermodynamics. Ross uses Somewhere in Time as an example where Jane Seymour's character gives Christopher Reeve's character a watch she has owned for many years, and when he travels back in time he gives the same watch to Jane Seymour's character 60 years in the past. As Ross states "The watch is an impossible object. It violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the Law of Entropy. If time travel makes that watch possible, then time travel itself is impossible. The watch, indeed, must be absolutely identical to itself in the 19th and 20th centuries, since Reeve carries it with him from the future instantaneously into the past and bestows it on Seymour. The watch, however, cannot be identical to itself, since all the years in which it is in the possession of Seymour and then Reeve it will wear in the normal manner. It's [sic] entropy will increase. The watch carried back by Reeve will be more worn that [sic] the watch that would have been acquired by Seymour." On the other hand, the second law of thermodynamics is understood by modern physicists to be a statistical law rather than an absolute one, so spontaneous reversals of entropy or failure to increase in entropy are not impossible, just improbable (see for example the fluctuation theorem). In addition, the second law of thermodynamics only states that entropy should increase in systems which are isolated from interactions with the external world, so Igor Novikov (creator of the Novikov self-consistency principle) has argued that in the case of macroscopic objects like the watch whose worldlines form closed loops, the outside world can expend energy to repair wear/entropy that the object acquires over the course of its history, so that it will be back in its original condition when it closes the loop.[82] Mutable timelines Time travel in a Type 2 universe is much more complex. The biggest problem is how to explain changes in the past. One method of explanation is that once the past changes, so do the memories of all observers. This would mean that no observer would ever observe the changing of the past (because they will not remember changing the past). This would make it hard to tell whether you are in a Type 1 universe or a Type 2 universe. You could, however, infer such information by knowing if a) communication with the past were possible or b) it appeared that the time line had never been changed as a result of an action someone remembers taking, although evidence exists that other people are changing their time lines fairly often. An example of this kind of universe is presented in Thrice Upon a Time, a novel by James P. Hogan. The Back to the Future trilogy films also seem to feature a single mutable timeline (see the "Back to the Future FAQ [83]" for details on how the writers imagined time travel worked in the movies' world). By contrast, the short story "Brooklyn Project" by William Tenn provides a sketch of life in a Type 2 world where no one even notices as the timeline changes repeatedly. In type 2.1, attempts are being made at changing the timeline, however, all that is accomplished in the first tries is that the method in which decisive events occur is changed; final conclusions in the bigger scheme cannot be brought to a different outcome.
A version of the ontological paradox. The appearance of the traveler is the result of his disappearance a few seconds later. In this scenario, the traveler is traveling along a closed timelike curve.
Time travel As an example, the movie Dj Vu depicts a paper note sent to the past with vital information to prevent a terrorist attack. However, the vital information results in the killing of an ATF agent, but does not prevent the terrorist attack; the very same agent died in the previous version of the timeline as well, albeit under different circumstances. Finally, the timeline is changed by sending a human into the past, arguably a "stronger" measure than simply sending back a paper note, which results in preventing both a murder and the terrorist attack. As in the Back to the Future movie trilogy, there seems to be a ripple effect too as changes from the past "propagate" into the present, and people in the present have altered memory of events that occurred after the changes made to the timeline. The science fiction writer Larry Niven suggests in his essay "The Theory and Practice of Time Travel" that in a type 2.1 universe, the most efficient way for the universe to "correct" a change is for time travel to never be discovered, and that in a type 2.2 universe, the very large (or infinite) number of time travelers from the endless future will cause the timeline to change wildly until it reaches a history in which time travel is never discovered. However, many other "stable" situations might also exist in which time travel occurs but no paradoxes are created; if the changeable-timeline universe finds itself in such a state no further changes will occur, and to the inhabitants of the universe it will appear identical to the type 1.1 scenario. This is sometimes referred to as the "Time Dilution Effect". Few if any physicists or philosophers have taken seriously the possibility of "changing" the past except in the case of multiple universes, and in fact many have argued that this idea is logically incoherent,[73] so the mutable timeline idea is rarely considered outside of science fiction. Also, deciding whether a given universe is of Type 2.1 or 2.2 can not be done objectively, as the categorization of timeline-invasive measures as "strong" or "weak" is arbitrary, and up to interpretation: An observer can disagree about a measure being "weak", and might, in the lack of context, argue instead that simply a mishap occurred which then led to no effective change. An example would be the paper note sent back to the past in the film Dj Vu, as described above. Was it a "too weak" change, or was it just a local-time alteration which had no extended effect on the larger timeline? As the universe in Dj Vu seems not entirely immune to paradoxes (some arguably minute paradoxes do occur), both versions seem to be equally possible. Alternate histories In Type 3, any event that appears to have caused a paradox has instead created a new time line. The old time line remains unchanged, with the time traveler or information sent simply having vanished, never to return. A difficulty with this explanation, however, is that conservation of mass-energy would be violated for the origin timeline and the destination timeline. A possible solution to this is to have the mechanics of time travel require that mass-energy be exchanged in precise balance between past and future at the moment of travel, or to simply expand the scope of the conservation law to encompass all timelines. Some examples of this kind of time travel can be found in David Gerrold's book The Man Who Folded Himself and The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter, plus several episodes of the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation and the android saga in the anime Dragon Ball Z.
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A gradual time travel, as in the movie Primer. When the time machine is red, everything inside is going through time at normal rate, but backwards. During entry/exit it seems there would have to be fusion/separation between the forward and reversed versions of the traveler.
2. In The Time Machine, H.G. Wells explains that we are moving through time with a constant speed. Time travel then is, in Wells' words, "stopping or accelerating one's drift along the time-dimension, or even turning about and traveling the other way." George Pal, director of the 1960 adaptation based on Wells's classic, accordingly chose to depict time travel by employing time-lapse photography. To expand on the audio playback analogy used above, this would be like rewinding or fast forwarding an analogue audio cassette and playing the tape at a chosen point. Perhaps the oldest example of this method of time travel is in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1871): the White Queen is living backwards, hence her memory is working both ways. Her kind of time travel is uncontrolled: she moves through time with a constant speed of 1 and she cannot change it. T.H. White, in the first part of his Arthurian novel The Once and Future King, The Sword in the Stone (1938) used the same idea: the wizard Merlyn lives backward in time, because he was born "at the wrong end of time" and has to live backwards from the front. "Some people call it having second sight", he says. This method of gradual time travel is not as popular in modern science fiction, though a form of it does occur in the film Primer.
Time travel Bombs" to propel an enemy several seconds into the future, during which time the movement of the Earth causes the unfortunate victim to re-appear in space. Much earlier, Clark Ashton Smith used this form of time travel in several stories such as "The Letter from Mohaun Los" (1932) where the protagonist ends up on a planet millions of years in the future which "happened to occupy the same space through which Earth had passed". Other science fiction stories try to anticipate this objection and offer a rationale for the fact that the traveler remains on Earth, such as the 1957 Robert Heinlein novel The Door into Summer where Heinlein essentially handwaved the issue with a single sentence: "You stay on the world line you were on." In his 1980 novel The Number of the Beast a "continua device" allows the protagonists to dial in the coordinates of space and time and it instantly moves them therewithout explaining how such a device might work. The television series Seven Days also dealt with this problem; when the chrononaut would be 'rewinding', he would also be propelling himself backwards around the Earth's orbit, with the intention of landing at some chosen spatial location, though seldom hitting the mark precisely. In Piers Anthony's Bearing an Hourglass, the potent Hourglass of the Incarnation of Time naturally moves the Incarnation in space according to the numerous movements of the globe through the solar system, the solar system through the galaxy, etc.; but by carefully negating some of the movements he can also travel in space within the limits of the planet. The television series Doctor Who avoided this issue by establishing early on in the series that the Doctor's TARDIS is able to move about in space in addition to traveling in time.
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Notes
[1] Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction by Jeff Prucher (2007), p. 230 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iYzi8m8FbEsC& lpg=PP1& pg=PA230#v=onepage& q& f=false). [2] Revati (http:/ / www. mythfolklore. net/ india/ encyclopedia/ revati. htm), Encyclopedia for Epics of Ancient India [3] Lord Balarama (http:/ / mayapur. com/ node/ 1160/ ), Sri Mayapur [4] Yorke, Christopher (February 2006). "Malchronia: Cryonics and Bionics as Primitive Weapons in the War on Time" (http:/ / jetpress. org/ volume15/ yorke-rowe. html). Journal of Evolution and Technology 15 (1): 7385. . Retrieved 2009-08-29. [5] Rosenberg, Donna (1997). Folklore, myths, and legends: a world perspective. McGraw-Hill. p.421. ISBN0-8442-5780-X. [6] "Choni HaMe'agel" (http:/ / www. jewishsearch. com/ article_395. html). Jewish search. . Retrieved November 6, 2009. [7] Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996), 120. [8] Alkon, Paul K. (1987). Origins of Futuristic Fiction. The University of Georgia Press. pp.9596. ISBN0-8203-0932-X. [9] Alkon, Paul K. (1987). Origins of Futuristic Fiction. The University of Georgia Press. p.85. ISBN0-8203-0932-X. [10] Yury Akutin, "" (http:/ / az. lib. ru/ w/ welxtman_a_f/ text_0090. shtml) (A.V. and his novel Strannik), 1978 (in Russian). [11] "Missing One's Coach: An Anachronism" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=jfPAwAnj9JUC& pg=RA1-PA701#v=onepage& q& f=false). Dublin University magazine: a literary and political journal, Volume 11. books.google.com. . Retrieved 4 December 2011. [12] Derleth, August (1951). Far Boundaries. Pellegrini & Cudahy. p.3. [13] Derleth, August (1951). Far Boundaries. Pellegrini & Cudahy. pp.1138. [14] Flynn, John L.. "Time Travel Literature" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20060929071327/ http:/ / www. towson. edu/ ~flynn/ timetv. html). Archived from the original (http:/ / www. towson. edu/ ~flynn/ timetv. html) on 2006-09-29. . Retrieved 2006-10-28. [15] Rudwick, Martin J. S. (1992). Scenes From Deep Time. The University of Chicago Press. pp.166169. ISBN0-226-73105-7. [16] Page Mitchell, Edward. "The Clock That Went Backward" (http:/ / www. horrormasters. com/ Text/ a2221. pdf) (PDF). . Retrieved 4 December 2011. [17] Uribe, Augusto (June 1999). "The First Time Machine: Enrique Gaspar's Anacronpete". The New York Review of Science Fiction 11, no. 10 (130): 12. [18] Thorne, Kip S. (1994). Black Holes and Time Warps. W. W. Norton. p.499. ISBN0-393-31276-3. [19] Hawking, Stephen. "Space and Time Warps" (http:/ / www. hawking. org. uk/ space-and-time-warps. html). . Retrieved 2012-02-26. [20] "NOVA Online Sagan on Time Travel" (http:/ / www. pbs. org/ wgbh/ nova/ time/ sagan. html). Pbs.org. . Retrieved 2010-05-25. [21] Matt Visser (2002). "The quantum physics of chronology protection". arXiv:gr-qc/0204022[gr-qc]. [22] Hawking, Stephen (1992). "Chronology protection conjecture". Physical Review D 46 (2): 603. Bibcode1992PhRvD..46..603H. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.46.603. [23] Hawking, Stephen; Kip Thorne, Igor Novikov, Timothy Ferris, Alan Lightman (2002). The Future of Spacetime. W. W. Norton. p.150. ISBN0-393-02022-3. [24] Gott, J. Richard (2002). Time Travel in Einstein's Universe. p.33-130 [25] Jarrell, Mark. "The Special Theory of Relativity" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20060913173236/ http:/ / www. physics. uc. edu/ ~jarrell/ COURSES/ ELECTRODYNAMICS/ Chap11/ chap11. pdf) (PDF). pp.711. Archived from the original (http:/ / www. physics. uc. edu/
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~jarrell/ COURSES/ ELECTRODYNAMICS/ Chap11/ chap11. pdf) on 2006-09-13. . Retrieved 2006-10-27. [26] "Sharp Blue: Relativity, FTL and causality Richard Baker" (http:/ / www. theculture. org/ rich/ sharpblue/ archives/ 000089. html). Theculture.org. . Retrieved 2010-05-25. [27] Chase, Scott I.. "Tachyons entry from Usenet Physics FAQ" (http:/ / math. ucr. edu/ home/ baez/ physics/ ParticleAndNuclear/ tachyons. html). . Retrieved 2006-10-27. [28] "New Analysis Deals Critical Blow to Faster-than-Light Results" by Natalie Wolchover (http:/ / www. livescience. com/ 17154-analysis-deals-critical-blow-faster-light-results. html) [29] Paul Rincon (October 28, 2011). "Faster-than-light neutrino experiment to be run again" (http:/ / www. bbc. co. uk/ news/ science-environment-15471118). BBC. . Retrieved October 28, 2011. [30] Eugenie Samuel Reich (November 18, 2011). "Neutrino experiment replicates faster-than-light finding" (http:/ / www. nature. com/ news/ neutrino-experiment-replicates-faster-than-light-finding-1. 9393). Nature News. . Retrieved November 18, 2011. [31] Visser, Matt (1996). Lorentzian Wormholes. Springer-Verlag. p.100. ISBN1-56396-653-0. [32] Thorne, Kip S. (1994). Black Holes and Time Warps. W. W. Norton. p.502. ISBN0-393-31276-3. [33] Thorne, Kip S. (1994). Black Holes and Time Warps. W. W. Norton. p.504. ISBN0-393-31276-3. [34] Visser, Matt (1996). Lorentzian Wormholes. Springer-Verlag. p.101. ISBN1-56396-653-0. [35] Cramer, John G.. "NASA Goes FTL Part 1: Wormhole Physics" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20060627211046/ http:/ / www. npl. washington. edu/ av/ altvw69. html). Archived from the original (http:/ / www. npl. washington. edu/ av/ altvw69. html) on 2006-06-27. . Retrieved 2006-12-02. [36] Visser, Matt; Sayan Kar, Naresh Dadhich (2003). "Traversable wormholes with arbitrarily small energy condition violations". Physical Review Letters 90 (20): 201102.1201102.4. arXiv:gr-qc/0301003. Bibcode2003PhRvL..90t1102V. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.201102. [37] Visser, Matt (1993). "From wormhole to time machine: Comments on Hawking's Chronology Protection Conjecture". Physical Review D 47 (2): 554565. arXiv:hep-th/9202090. Bibcode1993PhRvD..47..554V. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.47.554. [38] Visser, Matt (1997). "Traversable wormholes: the Roman ring". Physical Review D 55 (8): 52125214. arXiv:gr-qc/9702043. Bibcode1997PhRvD..55.5212V. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.55.5212. [39] van Stockum, Willem Jacob (1936). "The Gravitational Field of a Distribution of Particles Rotating about an Axis of Symmetry" (http:/ / www-lorentz. leidenuniv. nl/ history/ stockum/ Proc_R_Soc_Edinb_57_135_1937. jpg). Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. . [40] Lanczos, Kornel (1924, republished in 1997). "On a Stationary Cosmology in the Sense of Einsteins Theory of Gravitation". General Relativity and Gravitation (Springland Netherlands) 29 (3): 363399. doi:10.1023/A:1010277120072. [41] Earman, John (1995). Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks: Singularities and Acausalities in Relativistic Spacetimes. Oxford University Press. p.21. ISBN0-19-509591-X. [42] Tipler, Frank J (1974). "Rotating Cylinders and the Possibility of Global Causality Violation". Physical Review D 9 (8): 2203. Bibcode1974PhRvD...9.2203T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.9.2203. [43] Earman, John (1995). Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks: Singularities and Acausalities in Relativistic Spacetimes. Oxford University Press. p.169. ISBN0-19-509591-X. [44] Hawking, Stephen; Kip Thorne, Igor Novikov, Timothy Ferris, Alan Lightman (2002). The Future of Spacetime. W. W. Norton. p.96. ISBN0-393-02022-3. [45] Hawking, Stephen (1992). "Chronology protection conjecture". Physical Review D 46 (2): 603611. Bibcode1992PhRvD..46..603H. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.46.603. [46] Wright, Laura (November 6, 2003). "Score Another Win for Albert Einstein" (http:/ / discovermagazine. com/ 2003/ nov/ score-another-win-for-einstein1106). Discover. . [47] Anderson, Mark (August 1824, 2007). "Light seems to defy its own speed limit" (http:/ / www. eurekalert. org/ pub_releases/ 2007-08/ ns-lst081607. php). New Scientist 195 (2617): p.10. . [48] The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (http:/ / www. ust. hk/ eng/ news/ press_20110719-893. html). Ust.hk. Retrieved on 2011-09-05. [49] It's official: Time machines won't work latimes.com (http:/ / latimesblogs. latimes. com/ technology/ 2011/ 07/ time-travel-impossible. html). Latimesblogs.latimes.com (2011-07-25). Retrieved on 2011-09-05. [50] Time travel is sci-fi fantasy: Scientists prove nothing can travel faster than the speed of light | Mail Online (http:/ / www. dailymail. co. uk/ sciencetech/ article-2018498/ Time-travel-sci-fi-fantasy-Scientists-prove-travel-faster-speed-light. html). Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved on 2011-09-05. [51] Franklin, Ben A. (March 11, 1982), "The night the planets were aligned with Baltimore lunacy" (http:/ / select. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract. html?res=F70E13FD395F0C728DDDAA0894DA484D81), New York Times. [52] "Museum of the Future" (http:/ / www. lehman. cuny. edu/ vpadvance/ artgallery/ gallery/ talkback/ issue3/ gallery/ muse9. html). Lehman.cuny.edu. . Retrieved 2010-05-25. [53] Jaume Garriga; Alexander Vilenkin (2001). "[gr-qc/0102010] Many worlds in one". Phys.Rev. D (Arxiv.org) 64 (4): 043511. arXiv:gr-qc/0102010. Bibcode2001PhRvD..64d3511G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.64.043511. [54] "Taking the Cosmic Shortcut ABC Science Online" (http:/ / www. abc. net. au/ science/ slab/ wormholes/ default. htm). Abc.net.au. 2002-02-21. . Retrieved 2010-05-25. [55] "Transcript of interview with Dr. Marc Rayman at "Space Place"" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20100603155626/ http:/ / spaceplace. nasa. gov/ en/ educators/ podcast/ transcripts/ 071129_time_travel. shtml). 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(http:/ / spaceplace. nasa. gov/ en/ educators/ podcast/ transcripts/ 071129_time_travel. shtml) on June 3, 2010. . Retrieved 2010-05-25. [56] http:/ / www. pbs. org/ wgbh/ nova/ time/ thinktime. html. [57] Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics, Fifth Edition, p.1258. [58] Roberts, Tom (October). "What is the experimental basis of Special Relativity?" (http:/ / math. ucr. edu/ home/ baez/ physics/ Relativity/ SR/ experiments. html#Tests_of_time_dilation). . Retrieved 4 December 2009. [59] "Scout Rocket Experiment" (http:/ / hyperphysics. phy-astr. gsu. edu/ hbase/ relativ/ gratim. html#c3). . Retrieved 4 December 2009. [60] "Hafele-Keating Experiment" (http:/ / hyperphysics. phy-astr. gsu. edu/ hbase/ relativ/ airtim. html#c3). . Retrieved 4 December 2009. [61] Pogge, Richard W. (27 April 2009). "GPS and Relativity" (http:/ / www. astronomy. ohio-state. edu/ ~pogge/ Ast162/ Unit5/ gps. html). . Retrieved 4 December 2009. [62] Vaidman, Lev. "Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics" (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ qm-manyworlds/ ). . Retrieved 2006-10-28. [63] Deutsch, David (1991). "Quantum mechanics near closed timelike curves". Physical Review D 44 (10): 31973217. Bibcode1991PhRvD..44.3197D. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.44.3197. [64] See also the discussion in "Quantum Mechanics to the Rescue?" (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ time-travel-phys/ #9) from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article "Time travel and Modern Physics" (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ time-travel-phys/ ). [65] Everett, Allen (2004). "Time travel paradoxes, path integrals, and the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics". Physical Review D 69 (124023). arXiv:gr-qc/0410035. Bibcode2004PhRvD..69l4023E. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.69.124023. [66] Greenberger, Daniel M; Karl Svozil (2005). Quantum Theory Looks at Time Travel. arXiv:quant-ph/0506027. Bibcode2005quant.ph..6027G. [67] Kettlewell, Julianna (2005-06-17). "New model 'permits time travel'" (http:/ / news. bbc. co. uk/ 2/ hi/ 4097258. stm). BBC News. . Retrieved 2010-05-25. [68] Goldstein, Sheldon. "Bohmian Mechanics" (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ qm-bohm/ ). . Retrieved 2006-10-30. [69] Nielsen, Michael; Chuang, Isaac (2000). Quantum Computation and Quantum Information. Cambridge. p.28. ISBN0-521-63235-8. [70] http:/ / tedsider. org/ [71] Keller, Simon; Michael Nelson (September 2001). "Presentists should believe in time-travel" (http:/ / people. bu. edu/ stk/ Papers/ Timetravel. pdf) (PDF). Australian Journal of Philosophy 79.3 (3): 333345. doi:10.1080/713931204. . [72] This view is contested by another contemporary advocate of presentism, Craig Bourne, in his recent book A Future for Presentism, although for substantially different (and more complex) reasons. [73] see this discussion (http:/ / www. sfu. ca/ ~swartz/ time_travel1. htm) between two philosophers, for example [74] Lewis, David (1976). "The paradoxes of time travel" (http:/ / www. csus. edu/ indiv/ m/ merlinos/ Paradoxes of Time Travel. pdf). American Philosophical Quarterly 13: 14552. arXiv:gr-qc/9603042. Bibcode1996gr.qc.....3042K. . [75] Grey, William (1999). "Troubles with Time Travel". Philosophy (Cambridge University Press) 74 (1): 5570. doi:10.1017/S0031819199001047. [76] Rickman, Gregg (2004). The Science Fiction Film Reader. Limelight Editions. ISBN0-87910-994-7. [77] Nahin, Paul J. (2001). Time machines: time travel in physics, metaphysics, and science fiction. Springer. ISBN0-387-98571-9. [78] Schneider, Susan (2009). Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN1-4051-4907-8. [79] Friedman, John; Michael Morris, Igor Novikov, Fernando Echeverria, Gunnar Klinkhammer, Kip Thorne, Ulvi Yurtsever (1990). "Cauchy problem in spacetimes with closed timelike curves" (http:/ / authors. library. caltech. edu/ 3737/ ). Physical Review D 42 (6): 1915. Bibcode1990PhRvD..42.1915F. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.42.1915. . [80] Sukys, Paul (1999). Lifting the scientific veil: science appreciation for the nonscientist. Ardsley House Publishers. pp.236237. ISBN0-8476-9600-6. [81] Kelley L. Ross, " Time Travel Paradoxes (http:/ / www. friesian. com/ paradox. htm)" [82] Gott, J. Richard (2001). Time Travel in Einstein's Universe. Houghton Mifflin. p.23. ISBN0-395-95563-7. [83] http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20040405144429/ http:/ / www. bttf. com/ film_faq. htm [84] Geroch, Robert (1978). General Relativity From A to B. The University of Chicago Press. p.124. ISBN0-226-28863-3. [85] Max Planck Institut fr Gravitationsphysik (2005-09-12). "Einstein Online: Actors on a changing stage" (http:/ / www. einstein-online. info/ en/ spotlights/ background_independence/ index. html). Einstein-online.info. . Retrieved 2010-05-25.
22
Time travel
23
Bibliography
Curley, Mallory (2005). Beatle Pete, Time Traveller. Randy Press. Davies, Paul (1996). About Time. Pocket Books. ISBN0-684-81822-1. Davies, Paul (2002). How to Build a Time Machine. Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN0-14-100534-3. Gale, Richard M (1968). The Philosophy of Time. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN0-333-00042-0. Gott, J. Richard (2002). Time Travel in Einstein's Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time. Boston: Mariner Books. ISBN0-618-25735-7. Gribbin, John (1985). In Search of Schrdinger's Cat. Corgi Adult. ISBN0-552-12555-5. Miller, Kristie (2005). "Time travel and the open future". Disputatio 1 (19): 223232. Nahin, Paul J. (2001). Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction. Springer-Verlag New York Inc.. ISBN0-387-98571-9. Nahin, Paul J. (1997). Time Travel: A writer's guide to the real science of plausible time travel. Writer's Digest Books. Cincinnati, Ohio. ISBN 0-89879-748-9 Nikolic, H (2006). "Causal paradoxes: a conflict between relativity and the arrow of time". Foundations of Physics Letters 19 (3): 259. arXiv:gr-qc/0403121. Bibcode2006FoPhL..19..259N. doi:10.1007/s10702-006-0516-5.
Pagels, Heinz (1985). Perfect Symmetry, the Search for the Beginning of Time. Simon & Schuster. ISBN0-671-46548-1. Pickover, Clifford (1999). Time: A Traveler's Guide. Oxford University Press Inc, USA. ISBN0-19-513096-0. Randles, Jenny (2005). Breaking the Time Barrier. Simon & Schuster Ltd. ISBN0-7434-9259-5. Shore, Graham M (2003). "Constructing Time Machines". Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, Theoretical 18 (23): 4169. arXiv:gr-qc/0210048. Bibcode2003IJMPA..18.4169S. doi:10.1142/S0217751X03015118. Toomey, David (2007). The New Time Travelers: A Journey to the Frontiers of Physics. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN978-0-393-06013-3.
External links
Black holes, Wormholes and Time Travel (http://www.vega.org.uk/video/programme/61), a Royal Society Lecture SF Chronophysics (http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/chrono.html), a discussion of Time Travel as it relates to science fiction On the Net: Time Travel (http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0407/onthenet2.shtml) by James Patrick Kelly How Time Travel Will Work (http://www.howstuffworks.com/time-travel.htm.htm) at HowStuffWorks Time Travel in Flatland? (http://www.theory.caltech.edu/people/patricia/lctoc.html) NOVA Online: Time Travel (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time) Professor Predicts Human Time Travel This Century (http://www.physorg.com/news63371210.html) Time Traveler Convention (http://web.mit.edu/adorai/timetraveler) at MIT Time Machines in Physics (http://www.math.siu.edu/Kocik/tm/tm-all-ch.htm) almost 200 citations from 1937 through 2001 Time Travel and Modern Physics (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time-travel-phys/) at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Time Travel (http://www.iep.utm.edu/t/timetrav.htm) at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Aparta Krystian: Conventional Models of Time and Their Extensions in Science Fiction (http://timetravel.net46. net/Aparta_Models_of_Time.pdf) Time travellers from the future 'could be here in weeks' (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/ large-hadron-collider/3324491/Time-travellers-from-the-future-could-be-here-in-weeks.html) Time machine on arxiv.org (http://xstructure.inr.ac.ru/x-bin/theme3.py?level=1&index1=-166308)
24
Physics
Multiverse
The multiverse (or meta-universe, metaverse) is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes (including the historical universe we consistently experience) that together comprise everything that exists and can exist: the entirety of space, time, matter, and energy as well as the physical laws and constants that describe them. The term was coined in 1895 by the American philosopher and psychologist William James.[1] The various universes within the multiverse are sometimes called parallel universes. The structure of the multiverse, the nature of each universe within it and the relationship between the various constituent universes, depend on the specific multiverse hypothesis considered. Multiverses have been hypothesized in cosmology, physics, astronomy, religion, philosophy, transpersonal psychology and fiction, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. In these contexts, parallel universes are also called "alternative universes", "quantum universes", "interpenetrating dimensions", "parallel dimensions", "parallel worlds", "alternative realities", "alternative timelines", and "dimensional planes," among others.
Level I: Beyond our cosmological horizon A generic prediction of chaotic inflation is an infinite ergodic universe, which, being infinite, must contain Hubble volumes realizing all initial conditions. Accordingly, an infinite universe will contain an infinite number of Hubble volumes, all having the same physical laws and physical constants. In regard to configurations such as the distribution of matter, almost all will differ from our Hubble volume. However, because there are infinitely many, far beyond the cosmological horizon, there will eventually be Hubble volumes with similar, and even identical, configurations. Tegmark estimates that an identical volume to ours should be about 1010115 meters away from us.[4][5] This estimate implies use of the cosmological principle, wherein one assumes our Hubble volume is not special or unique. By extension of the same reasoning, there would, in fact, be an infinite number of Hubble volumes identical to ours in the universe.
Multiverse Level II: Universes with different physical constants In the chaotic inflation theory, a variant of the cosmic inflation theory, the multiverse as a whole is stretching and will continue doing so forever, but some regions of space stop stretching and form distinct bubbles, like gas pockets in a loaf of rising bread. Such bubbles are embryonic level I multiverses. Linde and Vanchurin calculated the number of these universes to be on the scale of 101010,000,000.[6] Different bubbles may experience different spontaneous symmetry breaking resulting in different properties such as different physical constants.[4] This level also includes John Archibald Wheeler's oscillatory universe theory and Lee Smolin's fecund universes theory. Level III: Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics Hugh Everett's many-worlds interpretation (MWI) is one of several mainstream interpretations of quantum mechanics. In brief, one aspect of quantum mechanics is that certain observations cannot be predicted absolutely. Instead, there is a range of possible observations, each with a different probability. According to the MWI, each of these possible observations corresponds to a different universe. Suppose a die is thrown that contains six sides and that the numeric result of the throw corresponds to a quantum mechanics observable. All six possible ways the die can fall correspond to six different universes. (More correctly, in MWI there is only a single universe but after the "split" into "many worlds" these cannot in general interact.)[7] Tegmark argues that a level III multiverse does not contain more possibilities in the Hubble volume than a level I-II multiverse. In effect, all the different "worlds" created by "splits" in a level III multiverse with the same physical constants can be found in some Hubble volume in a level I multiverse. Tegmark writes that "The only difference between Level I and Level III is where your doppelgngers reside. In Level I they live elsewhere in good old three-dimensional space. In Level III they live on another quantum branch in infinite-dimensional Hilbert space." Similarly, all level II bubble universes with different physical constants can in effect be found as "worlds" created by "splits" at the moment of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a level III multiverse.[4] Related to the many-worlds idea are Richard Feynman's multiple histories interpretation and H. Dieter Zeh's many-minds interpretation. Level IV: Ultimate Ensemble The Ultimate Ensemble is the hypothesis of Tegmark himself. This level considers equally real all universes that can be described by different mathematical structures. Tegmark writes that "abstract mathematics is so general that any Theory Of Everything (TOE) that is definable in purely formal terms (independent of vague human terminology) is also a mathematical structure. For instance, a TOE involving a set of different types of entities (denoted by words, say) and relations between them (denoted by additional words) is nothing but what mathematicians call a set-theoretical model, and one can generally find a formal system that it is a model of." He argues this "implies that any conceivable parallel universe theory can be described at Level IV" and "subsumes all other ensembles, therefore brings closure to the hierarchy of multiverses, and there cannot be say a Level V."[8] Jrgen Schmidhuber, however, says the "set of mathematical structures" is not even well-defined, and admits only universe representations describable by constructive mathematics, that is, computer programs. He explicitly includes universe representations describable by non-halting programs whose output bits converge after finite time, although the convergence time itself may not be predictable by a halting program, due to Kurt Gdel's limitations.[9][10][11] He also explicitly discusses the more restricted ensemble of quickly computable universes.[12]
"Bubble universes": every disk is a bubble universe (Universe 1 to Universe 6 are different bubbles; they have physical constants that are different from our universe); our universe is just one of the bubbles.
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Multiverse
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Cyclic theories
In several theories there is a series of infinite, self-sustaining cycles (for example: an eternity of Big Bang-Big crunches).
M-theory
A multiverse of a somewhat different kind has been envisaged within the multi-dimensional extension of string theory known as M-theory, also known as Membrane Theory.[13] In M-theory our universe and others are created by collisions between p-branes in a space with 11 and 26 dimensions (the number of dimensions depends on the chirality of the observer);[14][15] each universe takes the form of a D-brane.[14][15] Objects in each universe are essentially confined to the D-brane of their universe, but may be able to interact with other universes via gravity, a force which is not restricted to D-branes.[16] This is unlike the universes in the "quantum multiverse", but both concepts can operate at the same time.
Anthropic principle
The concept of other universes has been proposed to explain how our Universe appears to be fine-tuned for conscious life as we experience it. If there were a large (possibly infinite) number of universes, each with possibly different physical laws (or different fundamental physical constants), some of these universes, even if very few, would have the combination of laws and fundamental parameters that are suitable for the development of matter, astronomical structures, elemental diversity, stars, and planets that can exist long enough for life to emerge and evolve. The weak anthropic principle could then be applied to conclude that we (as conscious beings) would only exist in one those few universes that happened to be finely tuned, permitting the existence of life with developed consciousness. Thus, while the probability might be extremely small that any particular universe would have the requisite conditions for life (as we understand life) to emerge and evolve, this does not require intelligent design per the teleological argument as the only explanation for the conditions in the Universe that promote our existence in it.
Criticism
Non-scientific claims In his book, A Brief History of the Multiverse, author and cosmologist, Paul Davies, offers a variety of arguments that multiverse theories are non-scientific :[17] For a start, how is the existence of the other universes to be tested? To be sure, all cosmologists accept that there are some regions of the universe that lie beyond the reach of our telescopes, but somewhere on the slippery slope between that and the idea that there are an infinite number of universes, credibility reaches a limit. As one slips down that slope, more and more must be accepted on faith, and less and less is open to scientific verification. Extreme multiverse explanations are therefore reminiscent of theological discussions. Indeed, invoking an infinity of unseen universes to explain the unusual features of the one we do see is just as ad hoc as invoking an unseen Creator. The multiverse theory may be dressed up in scientific language, but in essence it requires the same leap of faith. Paul Davies, A Brief History of the Multiverse Taking cosmic inflation as a popular case in point, George Ellis provides a balanced criticism of not only the science, but as he suggests, the scientific philosophy, by which multiverse theories are generally substantiated. He, like most cosmologists, accepts Tegmark's level I domains, even though they lie far beyond the cosmological horizon. Likewise, the multiverse of cosmic inflation is said to exist very far away. It would be so far away, however, that it's very unlikely any evidence of an early interaction will be found. He argues that for many theorists, the lack of empirical testability or falsifiability is not a major concern. Many physicists who talk about the multiverse, especially advocates of the string landscape, do not care much about parallel universes per se. For them, objections
Multiverse to the multiverse as a concept are unimportant. Their theories live or die based on internal consistency and, one hopes, eventual laboratory testing. Although he believes there's little hope that will ever be possible, he grants that the theories on which the speculation is based, are not without scientific merit. He concludes that multiverse theory is a productive research program:[18] As skeptical as I am, I think the contemplation of the multiverse is an excellent opportunity to reflect on the nature of science and on the ultimate nature of existence: why we are here In looking at this concept, we need an open mind, though not too open. It is a delicate path to tread. Parallel universes may or may not exist; the case is unproved. We are going to have to live with that uncertainty. Nothing is wrong with scientifically based philosophical speculation, which is what multiverse proposals are. But we should name it for what it is. George Ellis, Scientific American, Does the Multiverse Really Exist? Occam's razor Critics argue that to postulate a practically infinite number of unobservable universes just to explain our own seems contrary to Occam's razor.[19] Max Tegmark answers: "A skeptic worries about all the information necessary to specify all those unseen worlds. But an entire ensemble is often much simpler than one of its members. This principle can be stated more formally using the notion of algorithmic information content. The algorithmic information content in a number is, roughly speaking, the length of the shortest computer program that will produce that number as output. For example, consider the set of all integers. Which is simpler, the whole set or just one number? Naively, you might think that a single number is simpler, but the entire set can be generated by quite a trivial computer program, whereas a single number can be hugely long. Therefore, the whole set is actually simpler. Similarly, the set of all solutions to Einstein's field equations is simpler than a specific solution. The former is described by a few equations, whereas the latter requires the specification of vast amounts of initial data on some hypersurface. The lesson is that complexity increases when we restrict our attention to one particular element in an ensemble, thereby losing the symmetry and simplicity that were inherent in the totality of all the elements taken together. In this sense, the higher-level multiverses are simpler. Going from our universe to the Level I multiverse eliminates the need to specify initial conditions, upgrading to Level II eliminates the need to specify physical constants, and the Level IV multiverse eliminates the need to specify anything at all." He continues: "A common feature of all four multiverse levels is that the simplest and arguably most elegant theory involves parallel universes by default. To deny the existence of those universes, one needs to complicate the theory by adding experimentally unsupported processes and ad hoc postulates: finite space, wave function collapse and ontological asymmetry. Our judgment therefore comes down to which we find more wasteful and inelegant: many worlds or many words. Perhaps we will gradually get used to the weird ways of our cosmos and find its strangeness to be part of its charm."[4]
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Multiverse
28
Trans-world identity
A metaphysical issue that crops up in multiverse schema that posit infinite identical copies of any given universe is that of the notion that there can be identical objects in different possible worlds. According to the counterpart theory of David Lewis, the objects should be regarded as similar rather than identical.[21][22]
Fictional realism
The view that because fictions exist, fictional characters exist as well. There are fictional entities, in the same sense in which, setting aside philosophical disputes, there are people, Mondays, numbers and planets.[23][24]
References
Notes
[1] James, William, The Will to Believe, 1895; and earlier in 1895, as cited in OED's new 2003 entry for "multiverse": "1895 W. JAMES in Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 6 10. Visible nature is all plasticity and indifference, a multiverse, as one might call it, and not a universe." [2] Tegmark, Max (May 2003). "Parallel Universes". Scientific American. [3] Tegmark, Max (January 23 2003) (PDF). Parallel Universes (http:/ / space. mit. edu/ home/ tegmark/ multiverse. pdf). . Retrieved 2006-02-07. [4] "Parallel universes. Not just a staple of science fiction, other universes are a direct implication of cosmological observations.", Tegmark M., Sci Am. 2003 May;288(5):40-51. [5] Max Tegmark (2003). "Parallel Universes". In "Science and Ultimate Reality: from Quantum to Cosmos", honoring John Wheeler's 90th birthday. J. D. Barrow, P.C.W. Davies, & C.L. Harper eds. Cambridge University Press (2003). arXiv:astro-ph/0302131. Bibcode2003astro.ph..2131T. [6] Zyga, Lisa "Physicists Calculate Number of Parallel Universes" (http:/ / www. physorg. com/ news174921612. html), PhysOrg, 16 October 2009. [7] Tegmark, Max, The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Many Worlds or Many Words? (http:/ / www. arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 9709032/ ), 1998. Deutsch, David, David Deutsch's Many Worlds (http:/ / www. qubit. org/ people/ david/ Articles/ Frontiers. html), Frontiers, 1998. [8] Tegmark, Max (January 23 2003) (PDF). Parallel Universes (http:/ / www. wintersteel. com/ files/ ShanaArticles/ multiverse. pdf). . Retrieved 2006-02-07. (PDF). [9] J. Schmidhuber (1997): A Computer Scientist's View of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 201-208, Springer: IDSIA - Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (http:/ / www. idsia. ch/ ~juergen/ everything/ ) [10] J. Schmidhuber (2000): Algorithmic Theories of Everything arXiv.org e-Print archive (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 0011122) [11] J. Schmidhuber (2002): Hierarchies of generalized Kolmogorov complexities and nonenumerable universal measures computable in the limit. International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science 13(4):587-612 IDSIA - Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (http:/ / www. idsia. ch/ ~juergen/ kolmogorov. html) [12] J. Schmidhuber (2002): The Speed Prior: A New Simplicity Measure Yielding Near-Optimal Computable Predictions. Proc. 15th Annual Conference on Computational Learning Theory (COLT 2002), Sydney, Australia, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, pp. 216-228. Springer: IDSIA - Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (http:/ / www. idsia. ch/ ~juergen/ speedprior. html) [13] Steven Weinberg(2005)" Living in the Multiverse (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ hep-th/ 0511037v1)" [14] Richard J Szabo, An introduction to string theory and D-brane dynamics (2004) [15] Maurizio Gasperini, Elements of String Cosmology (2007) [16] Paul Halpern, The Great Beyond, 2005 [17] Davies, Paul (12 April 2003). "A Brief History of the Multiverse" (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2003/ 04/ 12/ opinion/ a-brief-history-of-the-multiverse. html?pagewanted=all). New York Times. . Retrieved 16 August 2011. [18] George Ellis (2011). "Does the Multiverse Really Exist?" (http:/ / www. scientificamerican. com/ article. cfm?id=does-the-multiverse-really-exist). Scientific American 305 (2): 3843. . Retrieved 16 August 2011.
Multiverse
[19] Trinh, Xuan Thuan (2006). Staune, Jean. ed. Science & the Search for Meaning: Perspectives from International Scientists. West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation. p.186. ISBN1-59947-102-7. [20] Lewis, David (1986). On the Plurality of Worlds. Basil Blackwell. ISBN0-631-22426-2. [21] Deutsch, Harry, "Relative Identity", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer '02), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ archives/ sum2002/ entries/ identity-relative/ ) [22] Paul B. Kantor "The Interpretation of Cultures and Possible Worlds", 1 October 2002 (http:/ / www. scils. rutgers. edu/ ~kantor/ 601/ Ex_1Overview. html) [23] IngentaConnect Home (http:/ / www. ingentaconnect. com/ content/ bpl/ phiq/ 2009/ 00000059/ 00000234/ art00009) [24] The Australian National University (http:/ / consciousness. anu. edu. au/ thomasson/ Fictional Entities. doc)
29
Bibliography
Bernard Carr, ed. (2007) Universe or Multiverse? Cambridge Univ. Press. Deutsch, David (45841 1985). Splash. ed. Quantum theory, the Church-Turing principle and the universal quantum computer (Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 400 ed.). pp.97117. Ellis, George F.R.; U. Kirchner, William R. Stoeger (2004). "Multiverses and physical cosmology". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 347 (3): 921936. arXiv:astro-ph/0305292. Bibcode2004MNRAS.347..921E. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07261.x. Surya-Siddhanta: A Text Book of Hindu Astronomy by Ebenezer Burgess, ed. Phanindralal Gangooly (1989/1997) with a 45-page commentary by P. C. Sengupta (1935).
External links
Aurlien Barrau, " Physics in the Multiverse. (http://lpsc.in2p3.fr/ams/aurelien/aurelien/CCDecMULTIV. pdf)" --------, " Multiple Universes? (http://www.laviedesidees.fr/Des-univers-multiples.html)" (in French). Review of Carr (2007). Davies, Paul (2004). "Multiverse Cosmological Models". Mod.Phys.Lett. A 19: 727744. arXiv:astro-ph/0403047. Bibcode2003MPLA...18.2895M. doi:10.1142/S0217732303012325. Max Tegmark (2003) " Parallel Universes. Not just a staple of science fiction, other universes are a direct implication of cosmological observations. (http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/PDF/multiverse_sciam.pdf)" David Deutsch (2001) " The Structure of the Multiverse. (http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/0104033)" BBC Horizon -Parallel Universes. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/parallelunitrans.shtml) Michael Price's Everett FAQ. (http://www.hedweb.com/manworld.htm) Jrgen Schmidhuber, " The ensemble of universes describable by constructive mathematics. (http://www.idsia. ch/~juergen/computeruniverse.html)" Interview with Tufts cosmologist Alex Vilenkin (http://thoughtcast.org/casts/ the-end-of-our-universe-among-other-timely-topics) on his new book, "Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes" on the podcast and public radio interview program ThoughtCast. (http://www.thoughtcast. org) Joseph Pine II about Multiverse (http://www.upstream.nl/comments.php?id=751_0_1_0_C), Presentation at Mobile Monday Amsterdam, 2008 Multiverse - Radio-discussion on [[BBC Four (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008z744)] with Melvyn Bragg] Multiverse theory suggested by microwave background (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ science-environment-14372387), BBC news website, 2011/08/03
Many-worlds interpretation
30
Many-worlds interpretation
The many-worlds interpretation is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction, but denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an actual "world" (or "universe"). It is also referred to as MWI, the relative state formulation, the Everett interpretation, the theory of the universal wavefunction, many-universes interpretation, or just many-worlds.
The quantum-mechanical "Schrdinger's cat" paradox according to the many-worlds interpretation. In this interpretation every event is a branch point; the cat is both alive and dead, even before the box is opened, but the "alive" and "dead" cats are in different branches of the universe, both of which are equally real, but which cannot interact with [1] each other.
The original relative state formulation is due to Hugh Everett in 1957.[2][3] Later, this formulation was popularized and renamed many-worlds by Bryce Seligman DeWitt in the 1960s and 1970s.[1][4][5][6] The decoherence approaches to interpreting quantum theory have been further explored and developed,[7][8][9] becoming quite popular. MWI is one of many multiverse hypotheses in physics and philosophy. It is currently considered a mainstream interpretation along with the other decoherence interpretations and the Copenhagen interpretation. Prior to many-worlds, reality had always been viewed as a single unfolding history. Many-worlds, however, views reality as a many-branched tree, wherein every possible quantum outcome is realised.[10] Many-worlds claims to reconcile the observation of non-deterministic events, such as the random radioactive decay, with the fully deterministic equations of quantum physics. In many-worlds, the subjective appearance of wavefunction collapse is explained by the mechanism of quantum decoherence, which resolves all of the correlation paradoxes of quantum theory, such as the EPR paradox[11][12] and Schrdinger's cat,[1] since every possible outcome of every event defines or exists in its own "history" or "world". In lay terms, there is a very largeperhaps infinite[13]number of universes, and everything that could possibly have happened in our past, but did not, has occurred in the past of some other universe or universes.
Outline
Although several versions of many-worlds have been proposed since Hugh Everett's original work,[3] they all contain one key idea: the equations of physics that model the time evolution of systems without embedded observers are sufficient for modelling systems which do contain observers; in particular there is no observation-triggered wave function collapse which the Copenhagen interpretation proposes. Provided the theory is linear with respect to the wavefunction, the exact form of the quantum dynamics modelled, be it the non-relativistic Schrdinger equation, relativistic quantum field theory or some form of quantum gravity or string theory, does not alter the validity of MWI since MWI is a metatheory applicable to all linear quantum theories, and there is no experimental evidence for any non-linearity of the wavefunction in physics.[14][15] MWI's main conclusion is that the universe (or multiverse in this context) is composed of a quantum superposition of very many, possibly even non-denumerably infinitely[13] many, increasingly divergent, non-communicating parallel universes or quantum worlds.[6] The idea of MWI originated in Everett's Princeton Ph.D. thesis "The Theory of the Universal Wavefunction",[6] developed under his thesis advisor John Archibald Wheeler, a shorter summary of which was published in 1957
Many-worlds interpretation entitled "Relative State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics" (Wheeler contributed the title "relative state";[16] Everett originally called his approach the "Correlation Interpretation", where "correlation" refers to quantum entanglement). The phrase "many-worlds" is due to Bryce DeWitt,[6] who was responsible for the wider popularisation of Everett's theory, which had been largely ignored for the first decade after publication. DeWitt's phrase "many-worlds" has become so much more popular than Everett's "Universal Wavefunction" or Everett-Wheeler's "Relative State Formulation" that many forget that this is only a difference of terminology; the content of both of Everett's papers and DeWitt's popular article is the same. The many-worlds interpretation shares many similarities with later, other "post-Everett" interpretations of quantum mechanics which also use decoherence to explain the process of measurement or wavefunction collapse. MWI treats the other histories or worlds as real since it regards the universal wavefunction as the "basic physical entity"[17] or "the fundamental entity, obeying at all times a deterministic wave equation".[18] The other decoherent interpretations, such as consistent histories, the Existential Interpretation etc., either regard the extra quantum worlds as metaphorical in some sense, or are agnostic about their reality; it is sometimes hard to distinguish between the different varieties. MWI is distinguished by two qualities: it assumes realism,[17][18] which it assigns to the wavefunction, and it has the minimal formal structure possible, rejecting any hidden variables, quantum potential, any form of a collapse postulate (i.e., Copenhagenism) or mental postulates (such as the many-minds interpretation makes). Decoherent interpretations of many-worlds using einselection to explain how a small number of classical pointer states can emerge from the enormous Hilbert space of superpositions have been proposed by Wojciech H. Zurek. "Under scrutiny of the environment, only pointer states remain unchanged. Other states decohere into mixtures of stable pointer states that can persist, and, in this sense, exist: They are einselected."[19] These ideas complement MWI and bring the interpretation in line with our perception of reality. Many-worlds is often referred to as a theory, rather than just an interpretation, by those who propose that many-worlds can make testable predictions (such as David Deutsch) or is falsifiable (such as Everett) or by those who propose that all the other, non-MW interpretations, are inconsistent, illogical or unscientific in their handling of measurements; Hugh Everett argued that his formulation was a metatheory, since it made statements about other interpretations of quantum theory; that it was the "only completely coherent approach to explaining both the contents of quantum mechanics and the appearance of the world."[20] Deutsch is dismissive that many-worlds is an "interpretation", saying that calling it an interpretation "is like talking about dinosaurs as an interpretation of the fossil record."[21]
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Many-worlds interpretation other, i.e., the state of the observer and the observed are correlated after the observation is made. This led Everett to derive from the unitary, deterministic dynamics alone (i.e., without assuming wavefunction collapse) the notion of a relativity of states. Everett noticed that the unitary, deterministic dynamics alone decreed that after an observation is made each element of the quantum superposition of the combined subject-object wavefunction contains two "relative states": a "collapsed" object state and an associated observer who has observed the same collapsed outcome; what the observer sees and the state of the object have become correlated by the act of measurement or observation. The subsequent evolution of each pair of relative subject-object states proceeds with complete indifference as to the presence or absence of the other elements, as if wavefunction collapse has occurred, which has the consequence that later observations are always consistent with the earlier observations. Thus the appearance of the object's wavefunction's collapse has emerged from the unitary, deterministic theory itself. (This answered Einstein's early criticism of quantum theory, that the theory should define what is observed, not for the observables to define the theory).[22] Since the wavefunction appears to have collapsed then, Everett reasoned, there was no need to actually assume that it had collapsed. And so, invoking Occam's razor, he removed the postulate of wavefunction collapse from the theory.
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Probability
A consequence of removing wavefunction collapse from the quantum formalism is that the Born rule requires derivation, since many-worlds claims to derive its interpretation from the formalism. Attempts have been made, by many-world advocates and others, over the years to derive the Born rule, rather than just conventionally assume it, so as to reproduce all the required statistical behaviour associated with quantum mechanics. There is no consensus on whether this has been successful.[23][24][25]
Deutsch et al.
An information-theoretic derivation of the Born rule from Everettarian assumptions, was produced by David Deutsch (1999)[30] and refined by Wallace (20022009)[31][32][33][34] and Saunders (2004).[35][36] Deutsch's derivation is a two-stage proof: first he shows that the number of orthonormal Everett-worlds after a branching is proportional to the conventional probability density. Then he uses game theory to show that these are all equally likely to be observed. The last step in particular has been criticised for circularity.[37][38] Other reviews have been positive, although the status of these arguments remains highly controversial; some theoretical physicists have taken them as supporting the case for parallel universes.[39][40] In the New Scientist article, reviewing their presentation at a September 2007 conference,[41][42] Andy Albrecht, a physicist at the University of California at Davis, is quoted as saying "This work will go down as one of the most important developments in the history of science."[39] Wojciech H. Zurek (2005)[43] has produced a derivation of the Born rule, where decoherence has replaced Deutsch's informatic assumptions.[44] Lutz Polley (2000) has produced Born rule derivations where the informatic assumptions
Many-worlds interpretation are replaced by symmetry arguments.[45][46] The Born rule and the collapse of the wave function have been obtained in the framework of the relative-state formulation of quantum mechanics by Armando V.D.B. Assis. He has proved that the Born rule and the collapse of the wave function follow from a game-theoretical strategy, namely the Nash equilibrium within a von Neumann zero-sum game between nature and observer.[47]
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where
represents the observer having detected the object system in the i-th state. Before the
measurement has started the observer states are identical; after the measurement is complete the observer states are orthonormal.[3][6] Thus a measurement defines the branching process: the branching is as well- or ill- defined as the measurement is; the branching is as complete as the measurement is complete - which is to say that the delta function above represents an idealised measurement. Although true "for all practical purposes" in reality the measurement, and hence the branching, is never fully complete, since delta functions are unphysical,[53] Since the role of the observer and measurement per se plays no special role in MWI (measurements are handled as all other interactions are) there is no need for a precise definition of what an observer or a measurement is just as in Newtonian physics no precise definition of either an observer or a measurement was required or expected. In all circumstances the universal wavefunction is still available to give a complete description of reality.
Many-worlds interpretation Also, it is a common misconception to think that branches are completely separate. In Everett's formulation, they may in principle quantum interfere (i.e., "merge" instead of "splitting") with each other in the future,[54] although this requires all "memory" of the earlier branching event to be lost, so no observer ever sees two branches of reality.[55][56] MWI states that there is no special role nor need for precise definition of measurement in MWI, yet Everett uses the word "measurement" repeatedly throughout its exposition. MWI response: "measurements" are treated as a subclass of interactions, which induce subject-object correlations in the combined wavefunction. There is nothing special about measurements (such as the ability to trigger a wave function collapse), that cannot be dealt with by the usual unitary time development process.[2] This is why there is no precise definition of measurement in Everett's formulation, although some other formulations emphasise that measurements must be effectively irreversible or create classical information. The splitting of worlds forward in time, but not backwards in time (i.e., merging worlds), is time asymmetric and incompatible with the time symmetric nature of Schrdinger's equation, or CPT invariance in general.[57] MWI response: The splitting is time asymmetric; this observed temporal asymmetry is due to the boundary conditions imposed by the Big Bang[58] There is circularity in Everett's measurement theory. Under the assumptions made by Everett, there are no 'good observations' as defined by him, and since his analysis of the observational process depends on the latter, it is void of any meaning. The concept of a 'good observation' is the projection postulate in disguise and Everett's analysis simply derives this postulate by having assumed it, without any discussion.[59] MWI response: Everett's treatment of observations / measurements covers both idealised good measurements and the more general bad or approximate cases.[60] Thus it is legitimate to analyse probability in terms of measurement; no circularity is present. Talk of probability in Everett presumes the existence of a preferred basis to identify measurement outcomes for the probabilities to range over. But the existence of a preferred basis can only be established by the process of decoherence, which is itself probabilistic[37] or arbitrary.[61] MWI response: Everett analysed branching using what we now call the "measurement basis". It is fundamental theorem of quantum theory that nothing measurable or empirical is changed by adopting a different basis. Everett was therefore free to choose whatever basis he liked. The measurement basis was simply the simplest basis in which to analyse the measurement process.[62][63] We cannot be sure that the universe is a quantum multiverse until we have a theory of everything and, in particular, a successful theory of quantum gravity.[64] If the final theory of everything is non-linear with respect to wavefunctions then many-worlds would be invalid.[1][3][4][5][6] MWI response: All accepted quantum theories of fundamental physics are linear with respect to the wavefunction. While quantum gravity or string theory may be non-linear in this respect there is no evidence to indicate this at the moment.[14][15] Conservation of energy is grossly violated if at every instant near-infinite amounts of new matter are generated to create the new universes. MWI response: There are two responses to this objection. First, the law of conservation of energy says that energy is conserved within each universe. Hence, even if "new matter" were being generated to create new universes, this would not violate conservation of energy. Second, conservation of energy is not violated since the energy of each branch has to be weighted by its probability, according to the standard formula for the conservation of energy in quantum theory. This results in the total energy of the multiverse being conserved.[65]
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Many-worlds interpretation Occam's Razor rules against a plethora of unobservable universes Occam would prefer just one universe; i.e., any non-MWI. MWI response: Occam's razor actually is a constraint on the complexity of physical theory, not on the number of universes. MWI is a simpler theory since it has fewer postulates.[52] Occams's razor is often cited by MWI adherents as an advantage of MWI. Unphysical universes: If a state is a superposition of two states weighted by coefficients a and b, then if and , i.e., , i.e.,
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probability b to be instantiated on an equal footing with the much more probable one with probability a? This seems to throw away the information in the probability amplitudes. Such a theory makes little sense. MWI response: The magnitude of the coefficients provides the weighting that makes the branches or universes "unequal", as Everett and others have shown, leading the emergence of the conventional probabilistic rules.[1][3][4][5][6][66] Violation of the principle of locality, which contradicts special relativity: MWI splitting is instant and total: this may conflict with relativity, since an alien in the Andromeda galaxy can't know I collapse an electron over here before she collapses hers there: the relativity of simultaneity says we can't say which electron collapsed first so which one splits off another universe first? This leads to a hopeless muddle with everyone splitting differently. Note: EPR is not a get-out here, as the alien's and my electrons need never have been part of the same quantum, i.e., entangled. MWI response: the splitting can be regarded as causal, local and relativistic, spreading at, or below, the speed of light (e.g., we are not split by Schrdinger's cat until we look in the box).[67] For spacelike separated splitting you can't say which occurred first but this is true of all spacelike separated events, simultaneity is not defined for them. Splitting is no exception; many-worlds is a local theory.[49]
Brief overview
In Everett's formulation, a measuring apparatus M and an object system S form a composite system, each of which prior to measurement exists in well-defined (but time-dependent) states. Measurement is regarded as causing M and S to interact. After S interacts with M, it is no longer possible to describe either system by an independent state. According to Everett, the only meaningful Schematic representation of pair of "smallest possible" quantum mechanical systems prior descriptions of each system are relative to interaction: Measured system S and measurement apparatus M. Systems such as S are states: for example the relative state of referred to as 1-qubit systems. S given the state of M or the relative state of M given the state of S. In DeWitt's formulation, the state of S after a sequence of measurements is given by a quantum superposition of states, each one corresponding to an alternative measurement history of S.
Many-worlds interpretation
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For example, consider the smallest possible truly quantum system S, as shown in the illustration. This describes for instance, the spin-state of an electron. Considering a specific axis (say the z-axis) the north pole represents spin "up" and the south pole, spin "down". The superposition states of the system are described by (the surface of) a sphere called the Bloch sphere. To perform a measurement on S, it is made to interact with another similar system M. After the interaction, the combined Schematic illustration of splitting as a result of a repeated measurement. system is described by a state that ranges over a six-dimensional space (the reason for the number six is explained in the article on the Bloch sphere). This six-dimensional object can also be regarded as a quantum superposition of two "alternative histories" of the original system S, one in which "up" was observed and the other in which "down" was observed. Each subsequent binary measurement (that is interaction with a system M) causes a similar split in the history tree. Thus after three measurements, the system can be regarded as a quantum superposition of 8= 2 2 2 copies of the original system S. The accepted terminology is somewhat misleading because it is incorrect to regard the universe as splitting at certain times; at any given instant there is one state in one universe.
Relative state
The goal of the relative-state formalism, as originally proposed by Everett in his 1957 doctoral dissertation, was to interpret the effect of external observation entirely within the mathematical framework developed by Paul Dirac, von Neumann and others, discarding altogether the ad-hoc mechanism of wave function collapse. Since Everett's original work, there have appeared a number of similar formalisms in the literature. One such idea is discussed in the next section. The relative-state interpretation makes two assumptions. The first is that the wavefunction is not simply a description of the object's state, but that it actually is entirely equivalent to the object, a claim it has in common with some other interpretations. The second is that observation or measurement has no special role, unlike in the Copenhagen interpretation which considers the wavefunction collapse as a special kind of event which occurs as a result of observation. The many-worlds interpretation is DeWitt's popularisation of Everett's work, who had referred to the combined observer-object system as being split by an observation, each split corresponding to the different or multiple possible outcomes of an observation. These splits generate a possible tree as shown in the graphic below. Subsequently DeWitt introduced the term "world" to describe a complete measurement history of an observer, which corresponds roughly to a single branch of that tree. Note that "splitting" in this sense, is hardly new or even quantum mechanical. The idea of a space of complete alternative histories had already been used in the theory of probability since the mid 1930s for instance to model Brownian motion.
Many-worlds interpretation
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Under the many-worlds interpretation, the Schrdinger equation, or relativistic analog, holds all the time everywhere. An observation or measurement of an object by an observer is modeled by applying the wave equation to the entire system comprising the observer and the object. One consequence is that every observation can be thought of as causing the combined observer-object's wavefunction to change into a quantum superposition of two or more non-interacting branches, or split into many "worlds". Since many observation-like events have happened, and are constantly happening, there are an enormous and growing number of simultaneously existing states. If a system is composed of two or more subsystems, the system's state will be a superposition of products of the subsystems' states. Once the subsystems interact, their states are no longer independent. Each product of subsystem states in the overall superposition evolves over time independently of other products. The subsystems states have become correlated or entangled and it is no longer possible to consider them independent of one another. In Everett's terminology each subsystem state was now correlated with its relative state, since each subsystem must now be considered relative to the other subsystems with which it has interacted.
Partial trace as relative state. Light blue rectangle on upper left denotes system in pure state. Trellis shaded rectangle in upper right denotes a (possibly) mixed state. Mixed state from observation is partial trace of a linear superposition of states as shown in lower right-hand corner.
Many-worlds interpretation which is able to place a macroscopic object in a coherent superposition, another task for which it is uncertain whether it will ever be possible. Many other controversial ideas have been put forward though, such as a recent claim that cosmological observations could test the theory,[70] and another claim by Rainer Plaga (1997), published in Foundations of Physics, that communication might be possible between worlds.[71] As of 2010, there are no feasible experiments to test the differences between MWI and other theories.
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Copenhagen interpretation
In the Copenhagen interpretation, the mathematics of quantum mechanics allows one to predict probabilities for the occurrence of various events. In the many-worlds interpretation, all these events occur simultaneously. What meaning should be given to these probability calculations? And why do we observe, in our history, that the events with a higher computed probability seem to have occurred more often? One answer to these questions is to say that there is a probability measure on the space of all possible universes, where a possible universe is a complete path in the tree of branching universes. This is indeed what the calculations seem to give. Then we should expect to find ourselves in a universe with a relatively high probability rather than a relatively low probability: even though all outcomes of an experiment occur, they do not occur in an equal way. As an interpretation which is consistent with the equations , it is hard to find tests of MWI that distinguish it from other mainstream interpretations.
Many-minds
The many-worlds interpretation should not be confused with the similar many-minds interpretation which defines the split on the level of the observers' minds. The many-worlds interpretation leads to a deterministic view of nature in which there is no special role for the human mind.[71]
Reception
There is a wide range of claims that are considered "many-worlds" interpretations. It was often claimed by those who do not believe in MWI[73] that Everett himself was not entirely clear[74] as to what he believed; however MWI adherents (such as DeWitt, Tegmark, Deutsch and others) believe they fully understand Everett's meaning as implying the literal existence of the other worlds. Additionally, recent biographical sources make it clear that Everett believed in the literal reality of the other quantum worlds.[21] Everett's son reported that Hugh Everett "never wavered in his belief over his many-worlds theory".[75] Also Everett was reported to believe "his many-worlds theory guaranteed him immortality".[76] Advocates of MWI often cite a poll of 72 "leading cosmologists and other quantum field theorists"[77] conducted by the American political scientist David Raub in 1995 showing 58% agreement with "Yes, I think MWI is true".[78] The poll is controversial: for example, Victor J. Stenger remarks that Murray Gell-Mann's published work explicitly rejects the existence of simultaneous parallel universes. Collaborating with James Hartle, Gell-Mann is working toward the development a more palatable post-Everett quantum mechanics. Stenger thinks it's fair to say that most physicists dismiss the many-world interpretation as too extreme, while noting it has merit in finding a place for the observer inside the system being analyzed and doing away with the troublesome notion of wave function
Many-worlds interpretation collapse.[79] Max Tegmark also reports the result of a (in his words) 'highly unscientific' poll taken at a 1997 quantum mechanics workshop.[80] According to Tegmark, "The many worlds interpretation (MWI) scored second, comfortably ahead of the consistent histories and Bohminterpretations." Such polls have been taken at other conferences, for example, in response to Sean Carroll's observation, As crazy as it sounds, most working physicists buy into the many-worlds theory[81] Michael Nielsen counters: at a quantum computing conference at Cambridge in 1998, a many-worlder surveyed the audience of approximately 200 people Many-worlds did just fine, garnering support on a level comparable to, but somewhat below, Copenhagen and decoherence. However, Nielsen notes that it seemed most attendees found it to be a waste of time: Asher Peres got a huge and sustained round of applause when he got up at the end of the polling and asked And who here believes the laws of physics are decided by a democratic vote?[82] A 2005 poll of fewer than 40 students and researchers taken after a course on the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics at the Institute for Quantum Computing University of Waterloo found Many Worlds (and decoherence) to be the least favored.[83] One of MWI's strongest advocates is David Deutsch.[84] According to Deutsch, the single photon interference pattern observed in the double slit experiment can be explained by interference of photons in multiple universes. Viewed in this way, the single photon interference experiment is indistinguishable from the multiple photon interference experiment. In a more practical vein, in one of the earliest papers on quantum computing,[85] he suggested that parallelism that results from the validity of MWI could lead to "a method by which certain probabilistic tasks can be performed faster by a universal quantum computer than by any classical restriction of it". Deutsch has also proposed that when reversible computers become conscious that MWI will be testable (at least against "naive" Copenhagenism) via the reversible observation of spin.[55] According to David Deutsch probably less than ten percent of the physicists are talking parallel universes language.[86] Asher Peres was an outspoken critic of MWI, for example a section in his 1993 textbook had the title Everett's interpretation and other bizarre theories. In fact, Peres not only questioned whether MWI is really an "interpretation", but rather, if any interpretations of quantum mechanics are needed at all. Indeed, an interpretation can be regarded as a purely formal transformation, which adds nothing to the rules of the quantum mechanics. Peres seems to suggest that positing the existence of an infinite number of non-communicating parallel universes is highly suspect per those who interpret it as a violation of Occam's Razor, i.e., that it does not minimize the number of hypothesized entities. However, precisely the opposite conclusion is drawn, simply by applying Occam's Razor to the set of assumptions. It's understood the number of elementary particles are not a gross violation of Occam's Razor, one counts the types, not the tokens. Max Tegmark remarks that the alternative to many-worlds is "many words", an allusion to the complexity of von Neumann's collapse postulate. MWI is considered by some to be unfalsifiable and hence unscientific because the multiple parallel universes are non-communicating, in the sense that no information can be passed between them. Others[55] claim MWI is directly testable. Everett regarded MWI as falsifiable since any test that falsifies conventional quantum theory would also falsify MWI.[20] According to Martin Gardner, the "other" worlds of MWI have two different interpretations: real or unreal, and claims that Stephen Hawking and Steve Weinberg both favour the unreal interpretation.[87] Gardner also claims that the nonreal interpretation is favoured by the majority of physicists, whereas the "realist" view is only supported by MWI experts such as David Deutsch and Bryce DeWitt. Hawking has said that "according to Feynman's idea", all the other histories are as "equally real" as our own,[88] and Martin Gardner reports Hawking saying that MWI is "trivially true", which is an academic way of saying "obviously true".[89] In a 1983 interview Hawking also said he regarded the MWI as "self-evidently correct" but was dismissive towards questions about the interpretation of quantum mechanics, saying "when I hear of Schrdinger's cat, I reach for my gun". In the same interview he also said, "But, look: All that one does, really, is to calculate conditional probabilitiesin other words, the probability of A happening, given B. I think that that's all the many worlds interpretation is. Some people overlay it with a lot of
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Many-worlds interpretation mysticism about the wave function splitting into different parts. But all that you're calculating is conditional probabilities."[90] Elsewhere Hawking contrasted his attitude towards the "reality" of physical theories with that of his colleague Roger Penrose, saying "He's a Platonist and I'm a positivist. He's worried that Schrdinger's cat is in a quantum state, where it is half alive and half dead. He feels that can't correspond to reality. But that doesn't bother me. I don't demand that a theory correspond to reality because I don't know what it is. Reality is not a quality you can test with litmus paper. All I'm concerned with is that the theory should predict the results of measurements. Quantum theory does this very successfully."[91] For his own part, Penrose agrees with Hawking that QM applied to the universe implies MW, although he considers the current lack of a successful theory of quantum gravity negates the claimed universality of conventional QM.[64]
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Speculative implications
Speculative physics deals with questions which are also discussed in science fiction.
Weak coupling
Another speculation is that the separate worlds remain weakly coupled (e.g., by gravity) permitting "communication between parallel universes". A possible test of this using quantum-optical equipment is described in a 1997 Foundations of Physics article by Rainer Plaga.[71] It involves an isolated ion in an ion trap, a quantum measurement that would yield two parallel worlds (their difference just being in the detection of a single photon), and the excitation of the ion from only one of these worlds. If the excited ion can be detected from the other parallel universe, then this would constitute direct evidence in support of the many-worlds interpretation and would automatically exclude the orthodox, "logical", and "many-histories" interpretations. The reason the ion is isolated is to make it not participate immediately in the decoherence which insulates the parallel world branches, therefore allowing it to act as a gateway between the two worlds, and if the measure apparatus could perform the measurements quickly enough before the gateway ion is decoupled then the test would succeed (with electronic computers the necessary time window between the two worlds would be in a time scale of milliseconds or nanoseconds, and if the measurements are taken by humans then a few seconds would still be enough). R. Plaga shows that macroscopic decoherence timescales are a possibility. The proposed test is based on technical equipment described in a 1993 Physical Review article by Itano et al.[92] and R. Plaga says that this level of technology is enough to realize the proposed inter-world communication experiment. The necessary technology for precision measurements of single ions already exists since the 1970s, and the ion recommended for excitation is 199Hg+. The excitation methodology is described by Itano et al. and the time needed for it is given by the Rabbi flopping formula[93] Such a test as described by R. Plaga would mean that energy transfer is possible between parallel worlds. This does not violate the fundamental principles of physics because these require energy conservation only for the whole universe and not for the single parallel branches.[71] Neither the excitation of the single ion (which is a degree of freedom of the proposed system) leads to decoherence, something which is proven by Welcher Weg detectors which can excite atoms without momentum transfer (which causes the loss of coherence).[94] The proposed test would allow for low-bandwidth inter-world communication, the limiting factors of bandwidth and time being dependent on the technology of the equipment. Because of the time needed to determine the state of the partially decohered isolated excited ion based on Itano et al.'s methodology, the ion would decohere by the time its
Many-worlds interpretation state is determined during the experiment, so Plaga's proposal would pass just enough information between the two worlds to confirm their parallel existence and nothing more. The author contemplates that with increased bandwidth, one could even transfer television imagery across the parallel worlds.[71] For example, Itano et al.'s methodology could be improved (by lowering the time needed for state determination of the excited ion) if a more efficient process were found for the detection of fluorescence radiation using 194nm photons.[71] A 1991 article by J.Polchinski also supports the view that inter-world communication is a theoretical possibility.[95] Other authors in a 1994 preprint article also contemplated similar ideas.[96] The reason inter-world communication seems like a possibility is because decoherence which separates the parallel worlds is never fully complete,[97][98] therefore weak influences from one parallel world to another can still pass between them,[97][99] and these should be measurable with advanced technology. Deutsch proposed such an experiment in a 1985 International Journal of Theoretical Physics article,[100] but the technology it requires involves human-level artificial intelligence,[71] still not implemented as of 2012.
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Time travel
The many-worlds interpretation could be one possible way to resolve the paradoxes [84] that one would expect to arise if time travel turns out to be permitted by physics (permitting closed timelike curves and thus violating causality). Entering the past would itself be a quantum event causing branching, and therefore the timeline accessed by the time traveller simply would be another timeline of many. In that sense, it would make the Novikov self-consistency principle unnecessary.
Many-worlds interpretation
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A map from Robert Sobel's novel For Want of a Nail, an artistic illustration of how small events in this example the branching or point of divergence from our timeline's history is in October 1777 can profoundly alter the course of history. According to the many-worlds interpretation every event, even microscopic, is a [1] branch point; all possible alternative histories actually exist.
Notes
[1] Bryce Seligman DeWitt, Quantum Mechanics and Reality: Could the solution to the dilemma of indeterminism be a universe in which all possible outcomes of an experiment actually occur?, Physics Today, 23(9) pp 30-40 (September 1970) "every quantum transition taking place on every star, in every galaxy, in every remote corner of the universe is splitting our local world on earth into myriads of copies of itself." See also Physics Today, letters followup, 24(4), (April 1971), pp 38-44 [2] Hugh Everett Theory of the Universal Wavefunction (http:/ / www. pbs. org/ wgbh/ nova/ manyworlds/ pdf/ dissertation. pdf), Thesis, Princeton University, (1956, 1973), pp 1-140 [3] Everett, Hugh (1957). "Relative State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics" (http:/ / www. univer. omsk. su/ omsk/ Sci/ Everett/ paper1957. html). Reviews of Modern Physics 29: 454462. Bibcode1957RvMP...29..454E. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.29.454. . [4] Cecile M. DeWitt, John A. Wheeler eds, The Everett-Wheeler Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Battelle Rencontres: 1967 Lectures in Mathematics and Physics (1968) [5] Bryce Seligman DeWitt, The Many-Universes Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Proceedings of the International School of Physics "Enrico Fermi" Course IL: Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Academic Press (1972) [6] Bryce Seligman DeWitt, R. Neill Graham, eds, The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton Series in Physics, Princeton University Press (1973), ISBN 0-691-08131-X Contains Everett's thesis: The Theory of the Universal Wavefunction, pp 3-140. [7] H. Dieter Zeh, On the Interpretation of Measurement in Quantum Theory, Foundation of Physics, vol. 1, pp. 69-76, (1970). [8] Wojciech Hubert Zurek, Decoherence and the transition from quantum to classical, Physics Today, vol. 44, issue 10, pp. 36-44, (1991). [9] Wojciech Hubert Zurek, Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical, Reviews of Modern Physics, 75, pp 715-775, (2003) [10] David Deutsch argues that a great deal of fiction is close to a fact somewhere in the so called multiverse, Beginning of Infinity, p. 294 [11] Bryce Seligman DeWitt, R. Neill Graham, eds, The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton Series in Physics, Princeton University Press (1973), ISBN 0-691-08131-X Contains Everett's thesis: The Theory of the Universal Wavefunction, where the claim to resolves all paradoxes is made on pg 118, 149. [12] Hugh Everett, Relative State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics (http:/ / www. univer. omsk. su/ omsk/ Sci/ Everett/ paper1957. html), Reviews of Modern Physics vol 29, (July 1957) pp 454-462. The claim to resolve EPR is made on page 462 [13] Osnaghi, Stefano; Freitas, Fabio; Olival Freire, Jr (2009). "The Origin of the Everettian Heresy" (http:/ / stefano. osnaghi. free. fr/ Everett. pdf) (PDF). Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40: 97123. doi:10.1016/j.shpsb.2008.10.002. . [14] Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory: The Search for the Fundamental Laws of Nature (1993), ISBN 0-09-922391-0, pg 68-69
Many-worlds interpretation
[15] Steven Weinberg Testing Quantum Mechanics, Annals of Physics Vol 194 #2 (1989), pg 336-386 [16] John Archibald Wheeler, Geons, Black Holes & Quantum Foam, ISBN 0-393-31991-1. pp 268-270 [17] Everett 1957, section 3, 2nd paragraph, 1st sentence [18] Everett [1956]1973, "Theory of the Universal Wavefunction", chapter 6 (e) [19] Zurek, Wojciech (March 2009). Quantum Darwinism. 5. Nature Physics. arXiv:0903.5082. Bibcode2009NatPh...5..181Z. doi:10.1038/nphys1202. [20] Everett (http:/ / space. mit. edu/ home/ tegmark/ everett/ ) [21] Peter Byrne, The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III: Multiple Universes, Mutual Assured Destruction, and the Meltdown of a Nuclear Family (http:/ / www. amazon. co. uk/ dp/ 0199552274), ISBN 978-0-19-955227-6 [22] "Whether you can observe a thing or not depends on the theory which you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed." Albert Einstein to Werner Heisenberg, objecting to placing observables at the heart of the new quantum mechanics, during Heisenberg's 1926 lecture at Berlin; related by Heisenberg in 1968, quoted by Abdus Salam, Unification of Fundamental Forces, Cambridge University Press (1990) ISBN 0-521-37140-6, pp 98-101 [23] N.P. Landsman, "The conclusion seems to be that no generally accepted derivation of the Born rule has been given to date, but this does not imply that such a derivation is impossible in principle." (http:/ / www. math. ru. nl/ ~landsman/ Born. pdf), in Compendium of Quantum Physics (eds.) F.Weinert, K. Hentschel, D.Greenberger and B. Falkenburg (Springer, 2008), ISBN 3-540-70622-4 [24] Adrian Kent (May 5, 2009), One world versus many: the inadequacy of Everettian accounts of evolution, probability, and scientific confirmation (http:/ / arxiv. org/ pdf/ 0905. 0624v1) [25] Kent, Adrian (1990). "Against Many-Worlds Interpretations". Int.J.Mod.Phys A5: 1745. arXiv:gr-qc/9703089. Bibcode1990IJMPA...5.1745K. doi:10.1142/S0217751X90000805. [26] Gleason, A. M. (1957). "Measures on the closed subspaces of a Hilbert space". Journal of Mathematics and Mechanics 6: 885893. doi:10.1512/iumj.1957.6.56050. MR0096113. [27] James Hartle, Quantum Mechanics of Individual Systems, American Journal of Physics, 1968, vol 36 (#8), pp. 704-712 [28] E. Farhi, J. Goldstone & S. Gutmann. How probability arises in quantum mechanics., Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 192, 368-382 (1989). [29] Pitowsky, I. (2005). "Quantum mechanics as a theory of probability". Eprint arXiv:quant-ph/0510095: 10095. arXiv:quant-ph/0510095. Bibcode2005quant.ph.10095P. [30] Deutsch, D. (1999). Quantum Theory of Probability and Decisions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A455, 31293137. (http:/ / www. arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 9906015). [31] David Wallace: Quantum Probability and Decision Theory, Revisited (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 0211104) [32] David Wallace. Everettian Rationality: defending Deutschs approach to probability in the Everett interpretation. Stud. Hist. Phil. Mod. Phys. 34 (2003), 415-438. [33] David Wallace (2003), Quantum Probability from Subjective Likelihood: improving on Deutsch's proof of the probability rule (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 0312157) [34] David Wallace, 2009, A formal proof of the Born rule from decision-theoretic assumptions (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ 0906. 2718) [35] Simon Saunders: Derivation of the Born rule from operational assumptions. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A460, 1771-1788 (2004). [36] Simon Saunders, 2004: What is Probability? (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 0412194) [37] David J Baker, Measurement Outcomes and Probability in Everettian Quantum Mechanics (http:/ / philsci-archive. pitt. edu/ archive/ 00002717/ 01/ OutcomeProbEverett. pdf), Studies In History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies In History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Volume 38, Issue 1, March 2007, Pages 153-169 [38] H. Barnum, C. M. Caves, J. Finkelstein, C. A. Fuchs, R. Schack: Quantum Probability from Decision Theory? (http:/ / lanl. arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 9907024) Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A456, 1175-1182 (2000). [39] Merali, Zeeya (2007-09-21). "Parallel universes make quantum sense" (http:/ / space. newscientist. com/ article/ mg19526223. 700-parallel-universes-make-quantum-sense. html). New Scientist (2622). . Retrieved 2007-10-20 (Summary only). [40] Breitbart.com, Parallel universes exist - study, Sept 23 2007 (http:/ / www. breitbart. com/ article. php?id=paUniverse_sun14_parallel_universes& show_article=1& cat=0) [41] Perimeter Institute, Seminar overview, Probability in the Everett interpretation: state of play, David Wallace - Oxford University, 21 Sept 2007 (http:/ / www. perimeterinstitute. ca/ index. php?option=com_content& task=view& id=50& Itemid=83& lecture_id=6167) [42] Perimeter Institute, Many worlds at 50 conference, September 21-24, 2007 (http:/ / www. perimeterinstitute. ca/ manyworlds/ ) [43] Wojciech H. Zurek: Probabilities from entanglement, Borns rule from envariance (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 0405161v2), Phys. Rev. A71, 052105 (2005). [44] M. Schlosshauer & A. Fine: On Zurek's derivation of the Born rule. (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 0312058v3) Found. Phys. 35, 197-213 (2005). [45] Lutz Polley, Position eigenstates and the statistical axiom of quantum mechanics (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 0102113v2), contribution to conference Foundations of Probability and Physics, Vaxjo, Nov 27 - Dec 1, 2000 [46] Lutz Polley, Quantum-mechanical probability from the symmetries of two-state systems (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 9906124v3) [47] Armando V.D.B. Assis (2011). "Assis, Armando V.D.B. On the nature of and the emergence of the Born rule. Annalen der Physik, 2011." (http:/ / onlinelibrary. wiley. com/ doi/ 10. 1002/ andp. 201100062/ abstract). Annalen der Physik (Berlin) 523: 883897. Bibcode2011AnP...523..883A. doi:10.1002/andp.201100062. . [48] Everett FAQ "Is many-worlds a local theory?" (http:/ / www. hedweb. com/ manworld. htm#local)
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Many-worlds interpretation
[49] Mark A. Rubin, Locality in the Everett Interpretation of Heisenberg-Picture Quantum Mechanics, Foundations of Physics Letters, 14, (2001) , pp.301322, arXiv:quant-ph/0103079 [50] Paul C.W. Davies, Other Worlds, chapters 8 & 9 The Anthropic Principle & Is the Universe an accident?, (1980) ISBN 0-460-04400-1 [51] Paul C.W. Davies, The Accidental Universe, (1982) ISBN 0-521-28692-1 [52] Everett FAQ "Does many-worlds violate Ockham's Razor?" (http:/ / www. hedweb. com/ manworld. htm#ockham's) [53] Penrose, R. The Road to Reality, 21.11 [54] Tegmark, Max The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Many Worlds or Many Words? (http:/ / www. arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 9709032/ ), 1998. To quote: "What Everett does NOT postulate: At certain magic instances, the world undergoes some sort of metaphysical 'split' into two branches that subsequently never interact. This is not only a misrepresentation of the MWI, but also inconsistent with the Everett postulate, since the subsequent time evolution could in principle make the two terms...interfere. According to the MWI, there is, was and always will be only one wavefunction, and only decoherence calculations, not postulates, can tell us when it is a good approximation to treat two terms as non-interacting." [55] Paul C.W. Davies, J.R. Brown, The Ghost in the Atom (1986) ISBN 0-521-31316-3, pp. 34-38: "The Many-Universes Interpretation", pp83-105 for David Deutsch's test of MWI and reversible quantum memories [56] Christoph Simon, 2009, Conscious observers clarify many worlds (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ 0908. 0322v1) [57] Joseph Gerver, The past as backward movies of the future, Physics Today, letters followup, 24(4), (April 1971), pp 46-7 [58] Bryce Seligman DeWitt, Physics Today,letters followup, 24(4), (April 1971), pp 43 [59] Arnold Neumaier's comments on the Everett FAQ, 1999 & 2003 (http:/ / www. mat. univie. ac. at/ ~neum/ manyworlds. txt) [60] Everett [1956]1973, "Theory of the Universal Wavefunction", chapterV, section4 "Approximate Measurements", pp.100103 (e) [61] Henry Stapp, The basis problem in many-world theories, Canadian J. Phys. 80,10431052 (2002) (http:/ / www-physics. lbl. gov/ ~stapp/ bp. PDF) [62] Harvey R Brown and David Wallace, Solving the measurement problem: de Broglie-Bohm loses out to Everett, Foundations of Physics 35 (2005), pp. 517-540. (http:/ / philsci-archive. pitt. edu/ archive/ 00001659/ 01/ Cushing. pdf) [63] Mark A Rubin (2005), There Is No Basis Ambiguity in Everett Quantum Mechanics (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ quant-ph/ 0310186v2), Foundations of Physics Letters, Volume 17, Number 4 / August, 2004, pp 323-341 [64] Penrose, Roger (August 1991). "Roger Penrose Looks Beyond the Classic-Quantum Dichotomy" (http:/ / www. sciencewatch. com/ interviews/ roger_penrose2. htm). Sciencewatch. . Retrieved 2007-10-21. [65] Everett FAQ "Does many-worlds violate conservation of energy?" (http:/ / www. hedweb. com/ manworld. htm#conservation) [66] Everett FAQ "How do probabilities emerge within many-worlds?" (http:/ / www. hedweb. com/ manworld. htm#probabilities) [67] Everett FAQ "When does Schrodinger's cat split?" (http:/ / www. hedweb. com/ manworld. htm#splitsh) [68] Vaidman, Lev. "Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics" (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ qm-manyworlds/ ). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. . [69] Deutsch, D., (1986) Three experimental implications of the Everett interpretation, in R. Penrose and C.J. Isham (eds.), Quantum Concepts of Space and Time, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, pp. 204-214. [70] Page, D., (2000) Can Quantum Cosmology Give Observational Consequences of Many-Worlds Quantum Theory? (http:/ / xxx. lanl. gov/ abs/ gr-qc/ 0001001) [71] Plaga, R. (1997). "' Proposal for an experimental test of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (http:/ / xxx. lanl. gov/ abs/ quant-ph/ 9510007)'". Foundations of Physics 27: 559577. arXiv:quant-ph/9510007. Bibcode1997FoPh...27..559P. doi:10.1007/BF02550677. [72] Page (2000). "Can Quantum Cosmology Give Observational Consequences of Many-Worlds Quantum Theory?". arXiv:gr-qc/0001001[gr-qc]. doi:10.1063/1.1301589. [73] Jeffrey A. Barrett, The Quantum Mechanics of Minds and Worlds, Oxford University Press, 1999. According to Barrett (loc. cit. Chapter 6) "There are many many-worlds interpretations." [74] Barrett, Jeffrey A. (2010). "Everett's Relative-State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics" (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ archives/ fall2010/ entries/ qm-everett/ ). In Zalta, Edward N.. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. . Again, according to Barrett "It is... unclear precisely how this was supposed to work." [75] Aldhous, Peter (2007-11-24). "Parallel lives can never touch" (http:/ / www. newscientist. com/ article/ mg19626311. 800-interview-parallel-lives-can-never-touch. html). New Scientist (2631). . Retrieved 2007-11-21. [76] Eugene Shikhovtsev's Biography of Everett, in particular see "Keith Lynch remembers 1979-1980" (http:/ / space. mit. edu/ home/ tegmark/ everett/ everett. html#e23) [77] Elvridge., Jim (2008-01-02). The Universe - Solved!. pp.3536. ISBN978-1-4243-3626-5. OCLC247614399. "58% believed that the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI) was true, including Stephen Hawking and Nobel Laureates Murray Gell-Mann and Richard Feynman" [78] Bruce., Alexandra. "How does reality work?". Beyond the bleep : the definitive unauthorized guide to What the bleep do we know!?. p.33. ISBN978-1-932857-22-1. "[the poll was] published in the French periodical Sciences et Avenir in January 1998" [79] Stenger, V.J. (1995). The Unconscious Quantum: Metaphysics in Modern Physics and Cosmology (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=1ZbvAAAAMAAJ). Prometheus Books. p.176. ISBN978-1-57392-022-3. LCCNlc95032599. . "Gell-Man and collaborator James Hartle, along with a score of others, have been working to develop a more palatable interpretation of quantum mechanics that is free of the problems that plague all the interpretations we have considered so far. This new interpretation is called, in its various incarnations, post-Everett quantum mechanics, alternate histories, consistent histories, or decoherent histories. I will not be overly concerned with the
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detailed differences between these characterizations and will use the terms more or less interchangeably." [80] Max Tegmark on many-worlds (contains MWI poll) (http:/ / space. mit. edu/ home/ tegmark/ quantum. html) [81] Caroll, Sean (1 April 2004). "Preposterous Universe" (http:/ / preposterousuniverse. blogspot. com/ 2004_04_01_preposterousuniverse_archive. html#108087902367974365). Archived from the original (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20040908014703/ http:/ / preposterousuniverse. blogspot. com/ 2004_04_01_preposterousuniverse_archive. html#108087902367974365) on 8 September 2004. . [82] Nielsen, Michael (3 April 2004). "Michael Nielsen: The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics" (http:/ / www. qinfo. org/ people/ nielsen/ blog/ archive/ 000060. html). Archived from the original (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20040520222807/ http:/ / www. qinfo. org/ people/ nielsen/ blog/ archive/ 000060. html) on 20 May 2004. . [83] Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics class survey (http:/ / www. iqc. ca/ ~qipcourse/ interpret/ survey. html) [84] David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes And Its Implications, Penguin Books (1998), ISBN 0-14-027541-X [85] David Deutsch, Quantum theory, the Church-Turing principle and the universal quantum computer, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 400, (1985), pp. 97117 [86] http:/ / 193. 189. 74. 53/ ~qubitor/ people/ david/ structure/ Documents/ By%20Other%20People/ PhilosophyNow. html [87] A response to Bryce DeWitt (http:/ / findarticles. com/ p/ articles/ mi_m2843/ is_3_26/ ai_85932634), Martin Gardner, May 2002 [88] Award winning 1995 Channel 4 documentary "Reality on the rocks: Beyond our Ken" (http:/ / www. windfallfilms. com/ html/ awards. htm) where, in response to Ken Campbell's question "all these trillions of Universes of the Multiverse, are they as real as this one seems to be to me?" Hawking states "Yes.... According to Feynman's idea, every possible history (of Ken) is equally real" (http:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=S3aadgf0GH8& feature=related) [89] Gardner, Martin (2003). Are universes thicker than blackberries? (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=z9jH9mYiO5IC& pg=PA10& lpg=PA10). W.W. Norton. p.10. ISBN978-0-393-05742-3. . [90] Ferris, Timothy (1997). The Whole Shebang. Simon & Schuster. pp. 345 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=qjYbQ7EBAKwC& lpg=PP1& pg=PA345#v=onepage& q& f=false). ISBN978-0-684-81020-1. [91] Hawking, Stephen; Roger Penrose (1996). The Nature of Space and Time. Princeton University Press. pp. 121 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=LstaQTXP65cC& lpg=PP1& pg=PA121#v=onepage& q& f=false). ISBN978-0-691-03791-2. [92] W.M.Itano et al., Phys.Rev. A47,3354 (1993). [93] M.SargentIII,M.O.Scully and W.E.Lamb, Laser physics (Addison-Wesley, Reading, 1974), p.27. [94] M.O.Scully and H.Walther, Phys.Rev. A39,5229 (1989). [95] J.Polchinski, Phys.Rev.Lett. 66,397 (1991). [96] M.Gell-Mann and J.B.Hartle, Equivalent Sets of Histories and Multiple Quasiclassical Domains, preprint University of California at Santa Barbara UCSBTH-94-09 (1994). [97] H.D.Zeh, Found.Phys. 3,109 (1973). [98] H.D.Zeh, Phys.Lett.A 172,189 (1993). [99] A.Albrecht, Phys.Rev. D48,3768 (1993). [100] D.Deutsch, Int.J.theor.Phys. 24,1 (1985).
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Further reading
Jeffrey A. Barrett, The Quantum Mechanics of Minds and Worlds, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999. Peter Byrne, The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III: Multiple Universes, Mutual Assured Destruction, and the Meltdown of a Nuclear Family, Oxford University Press, 2010. Jeffrey A. Barrett and Peter Byrne, eds., "The Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Collected Works 1955-1980 with Commentary", Princeton University Press, 2012. Julian Brown, Minds, Machines, and the Multiverse, Simon & Schuster, 2000, ISBN 0-684-81481-1 Paul C.W. Davies, Other Worlds, (1980) ISBN 0-460-04400-1 James P. Hogan, The Proteus Operation (science fiction involving the many-worlds interpretation, time travel and World War 2 history), Baen, Reissue edition (August 1, 1996) ISBN 0-671-87757-7 Adrian Kent, One world versus many: the inadequacy of Everettian accounts of evolution, probability, and scientific confirmation (http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.0624) * Asher Peres, Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods, Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1993. Andrei Linde and Vitaly Vanchurin, How Many Universes are in the Multiverse? (http://arxiv.org/abs/0910. 1589v1) Stefano Osnaghi, Fabio Freitas, Olival Freire Jr, The Origin of the Everettian Heresy (http://stefano.osnaghi. free.fr/Everett.pdf), Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40(2009)97123. A study of the painful three-way relationship between Hugh Everett, John A Wheeler and Niels Bohr and how this affected the
Many-worlds interpretation early development of the many-worlds theory. Mark A. Rubin, Locality in the Everett Interpretation of Heisenberg-Picture Quantum Mechanics, Foundations of Physics Letters, 14, (2001), pp.301322, arXiv:quant-ph/0103079 David Wallace, Harvey R. Brown, Solving the measurement problem: de Broglie-Bohm loses out to Everett, Foundations of Physics, arXiv:quant-ph/0403094 David Wallace, Worlds in the Everett Interpretation, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 33, (2002), pp.637661, arXiv:quant-ph/0103092 John A. Wheeler and Wojciech Hubert Zurek (eds), Quantum Theory and Measurement, Princeton University Press, (1983), ISBN 0-691-08316-9
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External links
Everett's Relative-State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-everett/) Jeffrey A. Barrett's article on Everett's formulation of quantum mechanics in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-manyworlds/) - Lev Vaidman's article on the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Hugh Everett III Manuscript Archive (UC Irvine) (http://ucispace.lib.uci.edu/handle/10575/1060) - Jeffrey A. Barrett, Peter Byrne, and James O. Weatherall (eds.). Michael C Price's Everett FAQ (http://www.hedweb.com/manworld.htm) -- a clear FAQ-style presentation of the theory. The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (http://frombob.to/many.html) - a description for the lay reader with links. Against Many-Worlds Interpretations by Adrian Kent (http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9703089) Many-Worlds is a "lost cause" (http://www.mth.kcl.ac.uk/~streater/lostcauses.html#XII) according to R. F. Streater The many worlds of quantum mechanics (http://www.johnsankey.ca/qm.html) John Sankey Max Tegmark's web page (http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/quantum.html) Henry Stapp's critique of MWI, focusing on the basis problem (http://www-physics.lbl.gov/~stapp/bp.PDF) Canadian J. Phys. 80,10431052 (2002). Everett hit count on arxiv.org (http://xstructure.inr.ac.ru/x-bin/theme2.py?arxiv=quant-ph&level=1& index1=5693) Many Worlds 50th anniversary conference at Oxford (http://users.ox.ac.uk/~everett/abstracts.htm) "Many Worlds at 50" conference (http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Many_Worlds_at_50/ Many_Worlds_at_50/) at Perimeter Institute Scientific American report on the Many Worlds 50th anniversary conference at Oxford (http://www. scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=many-worlds-in-oxford) Highfield, Roger (September 21, 2007). Parallel universe proof boosts time travel hopes (http://web.archive. org/web/20071020024203/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/09/21/ sciuni121.xml). The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main. jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/09/21/sciuni121.xml) on 2007-10-20. Retrieved 2007-10-26. HowStuffWorks article (http://science.howstuffworks.com/quantum-suicide2.htm) Physicists Calculate Number of Parallel Universes (http://www.physorg.com/news174921612.html) Physorg.com October 16, 2009. TED-Education video (http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDEducation?feature=watch) - How many universes are there? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1bWKZFP2Tc&feature=relmfu).
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Novikov self-consistency principle actually found that there was more than one self-consistent solution, with slightly different angles for the glancing blow in each case. Later analysis by Thorne and Robert Forward showed that for certain initial trajectories of the billiard ball, there could actually be an infinite number of self-consistent solutions.[5] Echeverria, Klinkhammer and Thorne published a paper discussing these results in 1991;[6] in addition, they reported that they had tried to see if they could find any initial conditions for the billiard ball for which there were no self-consistent extensions, but were unable to do so. Thus it is plausible that there exist self-consistent extensions for every possible initial trajectory, although this has not been proven.[7] This only applies to initial conditions which are outside of the chronology-violating region of spacetime,[8] which is bounded by a Cauchy horizon.[9] This could mean that the Novikov self-consistency principle does not actually place any constraints on systems outside of the region of spacetime where time travel is possible, only inside it. Even if self-consistent extensions can be found for arbitrary initial conditions outside the Cauchy Horizon, the finding that there can be multiple distinct self-consistent extensions for the same initial conditionindeed, Echeverria et al. found an infinite number of consistent extensions for every initial trajectory they analyzed[7]can be seen as problematic, since classically there seems to be no way to decide which extension the laws of physics will choose. To get around this difficulty, Thorne and Klinkhammer analyzed the billiard ball scenario using quantum mechanics,[10] performing a quantum-mechanical sum over histories (path integral) using only the consistent extensions, and found that this resulted in a well-defined probability for each consistent extension. The authors of Cauchy problem in spacetimes with closed timelike curves write: The simplest way to impose the principle of self-consistency in quantum mechanics (in a classical space-time) is by a sum-over-histories formulation in which one includes all those, and only those, histories that are self-consistent. It turns out that,14 at least formally (modulo such issues as the convergence of the sum), for every choice of the billiard ball's initial, nonrelativistic wave function before the Cauchy horizon, such a sum over histories produces unique, self-consistent probabilities for the outcomes of all sets of subsequent measurements. ... We suspect, more generally, that for any quantum system in a classical wormhole spacetime with a stable Cauchy horizon, the sum over all self-consistent histories will give unique, self-consistent probabilities for the outcomes of all sets of measurements that one might choose to make.
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Pre-Novikov examples
Claims, arguments, or philosophical principles logically equivalent to the Novikov self-consistency principle have been published before Novikov's own publication. This makes the principle an example of Stigler's law of eponymy. Something resembling the idea can be found in Greek mythology, in the story of Cassandra. Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo but also cursed such that no one would believe her predictions. This left her unable to avert any of the disastrous events she foresaw. The metaphor has been adopted in modern times into the notion of a "Cassandra Complex". H. P. Lovecraft discussed this idea of time travel in a 1930 letter to Clark Ashton Smith, where he wrote:[15] Your idea for a time-voyaging machine is idealfor in spite of Wells, no really satisfactory thing of this sort has ever been written. The weakness of most tales with this theme is they do not provide for the recording, in history, of those inexplicable events in the past which were caused by the backward time-voyagings of persons of the present and future. It must be remembered that if a man of 1930 travels back to B.C. 400, the strange phenomenon of his appearance actually occurred in B.C. 400, and must have excited notice wherever it took place. Of course, the way to get around this is to have the voyager conceal himself when he reaches the past, conscious of what an abnormality he must seem. Or rather, he ought simply to conceal his identityhiding the evidences of his "futurity" and mingling with the ancients as best he can on their own plane. It would be excellent to have him know to some extent of his past appearance before making the voyage. Let him, for example, encounter some private document of the past in which a record of the advent of a mysterious strangerunmistakably himselfis made. This might be the provocation for his voyagethat is, the conscious provocation. In "Via the Time Accelerator" by F. J. Bridge (a pseudonym of Francis J. Brueckel[16]), from the January 1931 issue of Amazing Stories, a time traveler in 1930 wonders if he should travel to the future, and then he sees himself returning from the future, which reassures him about the success of his voyage. Later, in a situation where he finds himself in danger, he tells himself "I would escape ... It was so decreed. Had I not, with my own eyes, seen myself appear out of the fourth dimension back there in the Twentieth Century, and glide down to my landing-field? Surely, then, I was destined to return to my own age safe and sound." The time traveler eventually arrives in a ruined city in A.D. 1,001,930, where he is met by an old man who claims to be the Last Man still alive, and who says he knew the time traveler was coming because he read in an ancient history book that he himself (the Last Man) had arrived from the future in A.D. 502,101 in the same time machine the time traveler was using. When the time traveler goes to sleep, the Last Man does indeed take the time machine back to A.D. 502,101, leaving the time traveler stranded. The time traveler then wanders around the ruined city until he finds a museum, where preserved in a glass case is his time machine, which had been put there after it had appeared in A.D. 502,101. The time traveler adds some oil to its engine, and uses it to travel back to 1930, arriving there just as he had seen himself do.[17] Robert A. Heinlein's By His Bootstraps (1941) features a plot in which a man interacts with different older versions of himself that travel by way of a "Time Gate", with all the interactions revisited later in the story from the perspective of the now-older man, everything being tied together in a completely self-consistent way. Heinlein later revisited a similar theme in his 1958 story All You Zombies, in which the main character's interactions with sex-changed versions of himself/herself at various points in his/her life result in a bizarre version of the ontological paradox in which the character becomes his/her own mother and father. In Chris Marker's film La jete (1962) the protagonist remembers, when he was a child, seeing a man killed at an airport jetty. He later travels back in time and is killed at the same airport jetty, and realizes that, as a child, he had seen his future self being killed. In Harry Harrison's The Technicolor Time Machine (1967), main characters go back in time to shoot a movie about founding a Viking colony in North America, only to discover to their surprise that the colony they founded turned out to be written into the history as the original Viking colony in North Americaand some of them are
Novikov self-consistency principle even featured in Norse sagas. In Michael Moorcock's Behold the Man (1969), a time traveler goes back to 28 A.D. in hopes of meeting Jesus, only to end up playing the role of Jesus himself, just as described in the Bible. Science fiction author Larry Niven called this idea the "law of conservation of history" in an essay titled "The Theory and Practice of Time Travel," which was published in his book "All the Myriad Ways" in 1971.
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Fictional usage
The movie 12 Monkeys appears to obey Novikov's principle. All attempts by the main character James Cole (played by Bruce Willis) to change the past prove unsuccessful, and in the end his death is witnessed by his own childhood self in exactly the way he had remembered earlier in the movie. Additionally, the scientists in charge of the time travel mission have no interest in attempting to avert the release of the deadly virus which killed most of the human population, and are instead only trying to obtain a pure strain of the original virus, in hopes that it will help them to cure the disease in their own time. Something close to this principle is used in season 5 of the TV series Lost. The show's version is often referred to by characters and fans as "Whatever Happened, Happened" (also the title of an episode). It is supported by various implications in-show, chief of which is the fact that, in travelling to the past to prevent the 'future' crashing of their plane, the survivors actually set in motion the chain of events that ultimately caused it. However, the episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes" suggests that minor changes are possible, unlike the totally fixed timeline postulated by Novikov's principle: in this episode Desmond's consciousness time travels back to a point in his past, where he ends up in a bar, where he remembers (from his previous experience of this time) a man named Jimmy Lennon entering and attacking the bartender; in his attempt to warn the bartender, he himself gets attacked instead. Additionally, when Desmond meets a mysterious woman with apparent knowledge of the future (later revealed as Eloise Hawking), she points out a man with red shoes, who moments later is killed by falling scaffolding; when Desmond asks why she didn't try to save the man, she says that "it wouldn't matter. Had I warned him about the scaffolding, tomorrow he'd be hit by a taxi. If I warned him about the taxi, he'd fall in the shower and break his neck. The universe, unfortunately, has a way of course correcting. That man was supposed to die." Again, this suggests that although major events (like the man's death) are unchangeable, minor ones (like the precise cause of his death) can be changed, in violation of Novikov's principle. The first-season 2002 TV series Twilight Zone episode "Cradle of Darkness" featured a woman who traveled from the modern day back in time to kill the infant Adolf Hitler to prevent his future atrocities. The woman, posing as the family nurse, disposes of the Hitlers' baby and replaces him with a beggar woman's child so as not to arouse suspicion. This replacement infant is the child who then grows up to become the infamous Adolf Hitler. Each episode of the Irwin Allen series The Time Tunnel (less the few set in the future) depicted the time-traveling duo arriving at the scene of an historic tragedy, days or hours before the event, and invariably failing in their attempts to prevent it. This was also true in the 1976 revival pilot, and the similar 198283 series, Voyagers!. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Time's Arrow", a 500-year old copy of the android Data's head is unearthed in an excavation near San Francisco on Earth. In the sequence of events that ensues upon investigation, Data is sent back in time to 19th century San Francisco. Later in this time frame, the shock of another temporal event causes his head to be split from his body and remain in the 19th century, while the rest of his body travels forward to the original point in time, when it is re-attached to the 500 year old head. Thus Data remains, as does the causality of time. However, the series does not consistently obey the Novikov principle in episodes featuring time travel, as episodes like Time Squared and Yesterday's Enterprise show history being changed as a result of time travel. The video game series Legacy of Kain uses the same principle, although one can possibly break away from the timeline during a temporal distortion, that is, whenever two identical bodies meet in time and space.
Novikov self-consistency principle While predating Novikov's thesis, the film Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann presents a similar predestination paradox, wherein the title character becomes his own great-great-grandfather thus causing his own existence and time-travel. The same film, however, contains an ontological paradox in that Swann's heirloom necklace which his great-great-grandmother took from his great-great-grandfather (i.e., himself) is never created and is perpetually in the time-loop. The events of the first Terminator film appear to respect the self-consistency principle. In the film, a sentient computer called Skynet attempts to exterminate the human race, but faces difficulty in dealing with a human resistance effort led by a man called John Connor. In a last-ditch attempt to win the war, Skynet sends a cybernetic assassin called a Terminator back through time to murder Connor's mother Sarah before he is born, thereby preventing Connor's existence and the success of his future rebellion. Connor sends a soldier named Kyle Reese back to the same time to protect Sarah. Rather than altering history, these time travellers end up creating the timeline as it was meant to be. While on the run from the Terminator, Kyle and Sarah have sex and conceive the child who will become John Connor. Likewise, the Terminator is destroyed in a factory and its remains are claimed by Cyberdyne Systems, the factory's owner. This company uses the Terminator's remains as the basis for a research project that will ultimately result in the creation of the malevolent computer Skynet. (It should be noted, however, that only the first film respects this principle. In the sequels, the main characters are able to significantly alter the timeline. Also, even in the first film Skynet's plan would not really make sense unless it believed that history could be changed, and when Sarah Connor asks Kyle Reese if he's saying the Terminator is from the future, he responds 'One possible future. From your point of view. I don't know tech stuff.') In Roswell That Ends Well, episode 19 of season 3 of the series Futurama, the protagonist Fry returns to the past and accidentally kills his young grandfather in an attempt to protect him from harm. Fry visits his young grandmother whom he'd been introduced to earlier as his grandfather's fiancee, and convincing himself that she can't actually be his grandmother as he is still alive, allows himself to be seduced by her. The explanation at the end of the show is that Fry has become his own grandfather. By the laws of genetic relatedness, one might find a paradox here, in that Fry being his own grandfather means his father is both 50% related to him (since he is Fry's father) and 62.5% related to him (since Fry's father is also his son and the son of Fry's grandmother, who's by virtue of being Fry's grandmother, is 25% related to Fry). However, these laws are probabilistic and Fry being his own grandfather is not necessarily a violation of Novikov's principle. This is illustrated on this episode's page on InfoSphere [18]. The reason is that while Fry may have obtained 50% of his SNPs from his father, his grandmother might have been similar enough to him (his grandfather) that his father is 62.5% related to him. Regardless, it's clear that Fry's just very inbred. In The Final Countdown, the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, based at Pearl Harbor, is sent back in time from 1980 to December 6, 1941. Aboard is a civilian consultant from one of the companies which contributed to the design of the ship. One of the ship's officers, a historian, is lost and presumed dead while transporting a rescued senator and his secretary to a small island for safety in advance of the coming battle; according to history, the pair and his chief of staff were believed to have been killed by the Japanese. The senator dies trying to escape the island. Just as the ship's complement prepare to go into battle the next morning to stop the Japanese attack, the ship returns to 1980 their minor involvement having had no net effect on history. Back in port, the consultant meets his reclusive boss who helped design the ship he and his wife are the pilot and the senator's secretary who assumed false names during the war. Throughout the plot of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, two unexplained events that greatly affect the plot are later seen to be caused by the protagonists using a time-turner, a small hourglass allowing its user to travel back in time. Hermione Granger uses the time-turner to go back in time and do a different lesson than the current Hermione is doing and thus appears to be in multiple places at once. In the same book, Harry Potter saved himself from a Dementor attack, realizing at the last moment that his savior was not his father as he had initially thought, but was in fact, himself.
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Novikov self-consistency principle Novikov is alluded to by name in the comic Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja. One of the characters is Colonel Vavara Novikova (Russian surnames having masculine and feminine forms), who accompanies the protagonist and antagonist back in time to their birth so that they can be delivered to the orphanage where their story begins. In the book (and later the film) The Time Traveler's Wife, the main character's mother is killed in a car crash while he is young. He escapes injury by time travelling out of the car. Although he frequently revisits the scene and time of the accident throughout his life, he can never alter the outcome as to do so would remove his desire to be there. In Season 4 episode 2 of the TV series Eureka The Novikov Self Consistency Principle is explicitly mentioned to justify the many similarities between the "alternative timeline" experienced by the protagonists and their "original timeline". In the brief discussion the character Dr. Henry Deacon (Joe Morton), using the analogy of ripples in a pond, explains that the further one travels from the point where the timeline is changed the less noticeable are the effects of that change. This is not however an accurate depiction of the principle, since the principle actually forbids any changes to the timeline. In The Time Machine (2002), the protagonist invented a time machine in order to go back and save his sweetheart, only to find that he couldn't do it, as that would remove his reason to invent the time machine. Again, this is not exactly the principle, as he changes the method of her death.
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References
[1] Friedman, John; Michael Morris, Igor Novikov, Fernando Echeverria, Gunnar Klinkhammer, Kip Thorne, Ulvi Yurtsever (1990). "Cauchy problem in spacetimes with closed timelike curves" (http:/ / authors. library. caltech. edu/ 3737/ ). Physical Review D 42 (6): 1915. Bibcode1990PhRvD..42.1915F. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.42.1915. . [2] Thorne, Kip; Michael Morris, Ulvi Yurtsever (1988). "Wormholes, Time Machines, and the Weak Energy Condition". Physical Review Letters 61 (13): 1446. Bibcode1988PhRvL..61.1446M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.1446. PMID10038800. [3] Thorne, Kip S. (1994). Black Holes and Time Warps. W. W. Norton. pp.509. ISBN0-393-31276-3. [4] Thorne, Kip S. (1994). Black Holes and Time Warps. W. W. Norton. pp.510511. ISBN0-393-31276-3. [5] Thorne, Kip S. (1994). Black Holes and Time Warps. W. W. Norton. pp.511513. ISBN0-393-31276-3. [6] Echeverria, Fernando; Gunnar Klinkhammer, Kip Thorne (1991). "Billiard balls in wormhole spacetimes with closed timelike curves: Classical theory" (http:/ / authors. library. caltech. edu/ 6469/ ). Physical Review D 44 (4): 1077. Bibcode1991PhRvD..44.1077E. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.44.1077. . [7] Earman, John (1995). Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks: Singularities and Acausalities in Relativistic Spacetimes. Oxford University Press. pp.184. ISBN0-19-509591-X. [8] Earman, John (1995). Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks: Singularities and Acausalities in Relativistic Spacetimes. Oxford University Press. pp.187. ISBN0-19-509591-X. [9] Nahin, Paul J. (1999). Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction. American Institute of Physics. pp.508. ISBN0-387-98571-9. [10] Thorne, Kip S. (1994). Black Holes and Time Warps. W. W. Norton. pp.514515. ISBN0-393-31276-3. [11] Hans Moravec (1991). "Time Travel and Computing" (http:/ / www. frc. ri. cmu. edu/ users/ hpm/ project. archive/ general. articles/ 1991/ TempComp. html). . Retrieved 2008-07-28. [12] Deutsch, David (1991). "Quantum mechanics near closed timelike lines" (http:/ / www. hpc. unm. edu/ ~alsing/ Courses/ RQI/ articles/ deutsch_prd44_p3197_Y91_qm_closed_timelike_curves. pdf). Physical Review D 44 (10): 31973217. Bibcode1991PhRvD..44.3197D. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.44.3197. . [13] "The Limits of Quantum Computers" (http:/ / www. scottaaronson. com/ writings/ limitsqc-draft. pdf). Scientific American: 6869. March 2008. . [14] Aaronson, Scott; John Watrous (2009). "Closed Timelike Curves Make Quantum and Classical Computing Equivalent" (http:/ / www. scottaaronson. com/ papers/ ctc. pdf). Proceedings of the Royal Society A 465 (2102): 631647. Bibcode2009RSPSA.465..631A. doi:10.1098/rspa.2008.0350. . [15] Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters, edited by S. T. Joshi (2000), p. 328. [16] Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years by Everett F. Bleiler and Richard Bleiler (1998), p. 36 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=PbMdeizaCNcC& lpg=PP1& pg=PA36#v=onepage& q& f=false) [17] The plot of this story is outlined on p. 206 of Paul J. Nahin's Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction (1993), which also discusses many other early time travel stories, along with discussions of time travel paradoxes. [18] http:/ / theinfosphere. org/ Roswell_that_Ends_Well
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External links
Notion of the Past & Can We Change It? (http://www.iap.fr/eas/EAS18/time18/ontime.html) speech by Novikov From wormhole to time machine: Comments on Hawking's Chronology Protection Conjecture (http://arxiv.org/ abs/hep-th/9202090), which also addresses the Novikov self-consistency principle Einstein Physics prevent paradoxical time travel (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4097258.stm) Time Travel and Modern Physics (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time-travel-phys/)
Wormhole
In physics, a wormhole is a hypothetical topological feature of spacetime that would be, fundamentally, a "shortcut" through spacetime. For a simple visual explanation of a wormhole, consider spacetime visualized as a two-dimensional (2D) surface. If this surface is folded along a third dimension, it allows one to picture a wormhole "bridge". (Please note, though, that this is merely a visualization displayed to convey an essentially unvisualisable structure existing in 4 or more dimensions. The parts of the wormhole could be higher-dimensional analogues for the parts of the curved 2D surface; for example, instead of mouths which are circular holes in a 2D plane, a real wormhole's mouths could be spheres in 3D space.) A wormhole is, in theory, much like a tunnel with two ends each in separate points in spacetime.
There is no observational evidence for wormholes, but on a theoretical level there are valid solutions to the equations of the theory of general relativity which contain wormholes. Because of its robust theoretical strength, a wormhole is also known as one of the great physics metaphors for teaching general relativity. The first type of wormhole solution discovered was the Schwarzschild wormhole which would be present in the Schwarzschild metric describing an eternal black hole, but it was found that this type of wormhole would collapse too quickly for anything to cross from one end to the other. Wormholes which could actually be crossed, known as traversable wormholes, would only be possible if exotic matter with negative energy density could be used to stabilize them. (Many physicists such as Stephen Hawking,[1] Kip Thorne,[2] and others[3][4][5] believe that the Casimir effect is evidence that negative energy densities are possible in nature.) Physicists have not found any natural process which would be predicted to form a wormhole naturally in the context of general relativity, although the quantum foam hypothesis is sometimes used to suggest that tiny wormholes might appear and disappear spontaneously at the Planck scale,[6][7] and stable versions of such wormholes have been suggested as dark matter candidates.[8][9] It has also been proposed that if a tiny wormhole held open by a negative-mass cosmic string had appeared around the time of the Big Bang, it could have been inflated to macroscopic size by cosmic inflation.[10] The American theoretical physicist John Archibald Wheeler coined the term wormhole in 1957; however, in 1921, the German mathematician Hermann Weyl already had proposed the wormhole theory, in connection with mass analysis of electromagnetic field energy.[11] This analysis forces one to consider situations...where there is a net flux of lines of force, through what topologists would call "a handle" of the multiply-connected space, and what physicists might perhaps be excused for more vividly terming a "wormhole". John Wheeler in Annals of Physics
Wormhole
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Definition
The basic notion of an intra-universe wormhole is that it is a compact region of spacetime whose boundary is topologically trivial but whose interior is not simply connected. Formalizing this idea leads to definitions such as the following, taken from Matt Visser's Lorentzian Wormholes. If a Minkowski spacetime contains a compact region , and if the topology of is of the form ~ R x , where is a three-manifold of the nontrivial topology, whose boundary has topology of the form ~ S2, and if, furthermore, the hypersurfaces are all spacelike, then the region contains a quasipermanent intra-universe wormhole. Characterizing inter-universe wormholes is more difficult. For example, one can imagine a 'baby' universe connected to its 'parent' by a narrow 'umbilicus'. One might like to regard the umbilicus as the throat of a wormhole, but the spacetime is simply connected. For this reason wormholes have been defined geometrically, as opposed to topologically, as regions of spacetime that constrain the incremental deformation of closed surfaces. For example, in Enrico Rodrigos The Physics of Stargates a wormhole is defined informally as a region of spacetime containing a "world tube" (the time evolution of a closed surface) that cannot be continuously deformed (shrunk) to a world line [(the time evolution of a point)].
Schwarzschild wormholes
Lorentzian wormholes known as Schwarzschild wormholes or Einstein-Rosen bridges are connections between areas of space that can be modeled as vacuum solutions to the Einstein field equations, and which are now understood to be intrinsic parts of the maximally extended version of the Schwarzschild metric describing an eternal black hole with no charge and no rotation. Here, "maximally extended" refers to the idea that the spacetime should not have any "edges": for any possible trajectory of a free-falling particle (following a geodesic) in the spacetime, it should be possible to continue this path arbitrarily far into the particle's future or past, unless the trajectory hits a An artist's impression of a wormhole from an observer's perspective, crossing the event horizon gravitational singularity like the one at the center of the black hole's of a Schwarzschild wormhole which bridges two interior. In order to satisfy this requirement, it turns out that in addition different universes. The observer originates from to the black hole interior region which particles enter when they fall the right, and another universe becomes visible in through the event horizon from the outside, there must be a separate the center of the wormholes shadow once the horizon is crossed, the observer seeing light that white hole interior region which allows us to extrapolate the has fallen into the black hole interior region from trajectories of particles which an outside observer sees rising up away the other universe; however, this other universe is from the event horizon. And just as there are two separate interior unreachable in the case of a Schwarzschild regions of the maximally extended spacetime, there are also two wormhole, as the bridge always collapses before the observer has time to cross it, and everything separate exterior regions, sometimes called two different "universes", that has fallen through the event horizon of either with the second universe allowing us to extrapolate some possible universe is inevitably crushed in the singularity. particle trajectories in the two interior regions. This means that the interior black hole region can contain a mix of particles that fell in from either universe (and thus an observer who fell in from one universe might be able to see light that fell in from the other one), and likewise particles from the interior white hole region can escape into either universe. All four regions can be seen in a spacetime diagram which uses KruskalSzekeres coordinates. In this spacetime, it is possible to come up with coordinate systems such that if you pick a hypersurface of constant time (a set of points that all have the same time coordinate, such that every point on the surface has a space-like separation, giving what is called a 'space-like surface') and draw an "embedding diagram" depicting the curvature of
Wormhole space at that time, the embedding diagram will look like a tube connecting the two exterior regions, known as an "EinsteinRosen bridge". Note that the Schwarzschild metric describes an idealized black hole that exists eternally from the perspective of external observers; a more realistic black hole that forms at some particular time from a collapsing star would require a different metric. When the infalling stellar matter is added to a diagram of a black hole's history, it removes the part of the diagram corresponding to the white hole interior region, along with the part of the diagram corresponding to the other universe.[12] The EinsteinRosen bridge was discovered by Albert Einstein and his colleague Nathan Rosen, who first published the result in 1935. However, in 1962 John A. Wheeler and Robert W. Fuller published a paper showing that this type of wormhole is unstable, and that it will pinch off too quickly for light (or any particle moving slower than light) that falls in from one exterior region to make it to the other exterior region. Before the stability problems of Schwarzschild wormholes were apparent, it was proposed that quasars were white holes forming the ends of wormholes of this type. While Schwarzschild wormholes are not traversable, their existence inspired Kip Thorne to imagine traversable wormholes created by holding the 'throat' of a Schwarzschild wormhole open with exotic matter (material that has negative mass/energy).
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Traversable wormholes
Lorentzian traversable wormholes would allow travel from one part of the universe to another part of that same universe very quickly or would allow travel from one universe to another. The possibility of traversable wormholes in general relativity was first demonstrated by Kip Thorne and his graduate student Mike Morris in a 1988 paper. For this reason, the type of traversable wormhole they proposed, held open by a spherical shell of exotic matter, is referred to as a Morris-Thorne wormhole. Later, other types of traversable wormholes were discovered as allowable solutions to the equations of general relativity, Image of a traversable wormhole which connects including a variety analyzed in a 1989 paper by Matt Visser, in which a the place in front of the physical institutes of path through the wormhole can be made where the traversing path does Tbingen University with the sand dunes near not pass through a region of exotic matter. However, in the pure Boulogne sur Mer in the north of France. The image is calculated with 4D raytracing in a GaussBonnet gravity (a modification to general relativity involving Morris-Thorne wormhole metric, but the extra spatial dimensions which is sometimes studied in the context of gravitational effects on the wavelength of light [13] brane cosmology) exotic matter is not needed in order for wormholes have not been simulated. to existthey can exist even with no matter.[14] A type held open by negative mass cosmic strings was put forth by Visser in collaboration with Cramer et al.,[10] in which it was proposed that such wormholes could have been naturally created in the early universe. Wormholes connect two points in spacetime, which means that they would in principle allow travel in time, as well as in space. In 1988, Morris, Thorne and Yurtsever worked out explicitly how to convert a wormhole traversing space into one traversing time.[2] However, according to general relativity it would not be possible to use a wormhole to travel back to a time earlier than when the wormhole was first converted into a time machine by accelerating one of its two mouths.[15]
Wormhole
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Faster-than-light travel
The impossibility of faster-than-light relative speed only applies locally. Wormholes allow superluminal (faster-than-light) travel by ensuring that the speed of light is not exceeded locally at any time. While traveling through a wormhole, subluminal (slower-than-light) speeds are used. If two points are connected by a wormhole, the time taken to traverse it would be less than the time it would take a light beam to make the journey if it took a path through the space outside the wormhole. However, a light beam traveling through the wormhole would always beat the traveler. As an analogy, running around to the opposite side of a mountain at maximum speed may take longer than walking through a tunnel crossing it.
Time travel
The theory of general relativity predicts that if traversable wormholes exist, they could allow time travel.[2] This would be accomplished by accelerating one end of the wormhole to a high velocity relative to the other, and then sometime later bringing it back; relativistic time dilation would result in the accelerated wormhole mouth aging less than the stationary one as seen by an external observer, similar to what is seen in the twin paradox. However, time connects differently through the wormhole than outside it, so that synchronized clocks at each mouth will remain synchronized to someone traveling through the wormhole itself, no matter how the mouths move around.[20] This means that anything which entered the accelerated wormhole mouth would exit the stationary one at a point in time prior to its entry. For example, consider two clocks at both mouths both showing the date as 2000. After being taken on a trip at relativistic velocities, the accelerated mouth is brought back to the same region as the stationary mouth with the accelerated mouth's clock reading 2005 while the stationary mouth's clock read 2010. A traveler who entered the accelerated mouth at this moment would exit the stationary mouth when its clock also read 2005, in the same region but now five years in the past. Such a configuration of wormholes would allow for a particle's world line to form a closed loop in spacetime, known as a closed timelike curve. It is thought that it may not be possible to convert a wormhole into a time machine in this manner; the predictions are made in the context of general relativity, but general relativity does not include quantum effects. Some analyses using the semiclassical approach to incorporating quantum effects into general relativity indicate that a feedback loop of virtual particles would circulate through the wormhole with ever-increasing intensity, destroying it before any information could be passed through it, in keeping with the chronology protection conjecture. This has been called into question by the suggestion that radiation would disperse after traveling through the wormhole, therefore preventing infinite accumulation. The debate on this matter is described by Kip S. Thorne in the book Black Holes and Time Warps, and a more technical discussion can be found in The quantum physics of chronology protection by Matt Visser.[21] There is also the Roman ring, which is a configuration of more than one wormhole. This ring seems to allow a closed time loop with stable wormholes when analyzed using semiclassical gravity, although without a full theory of quantum gravity it is uncertain whether the semiclassical approach is reliable in this case.
Wormhole
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Inter-Universe travel
A possible resolution to the paradoxes resulting from wormhole-enabled time travel rests on the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics. In 1991 David Deutsch showed that quantum theory is fully consistent (in the sense that the so-called density matrix can be made free of discontinuities) in spacetimes with closed timelike curves.[22] However, later it was shown that such model of closed time like curve can have internal inconsistencies as it will lead to strange phenomena like distinguishing non orthogonal quantum states and distinguishing proper and improper mixture.[23][24] Accordingly, the destructive positive feedback loop of virtual particles circulating through a wormhole time machine, a result indicated by semi-classical calculations, is averted. A particle returning from the future does not return to its universe of origination but to a parallel universe. This suggests that a wormhole time machine with an exceedingly short time jump is a theoretical bridge between contemporaneous parallel universes.[25] Because a wormhole time-machine introduces a type of nonlinearity into quantum theory, this sort of communication between parallel universes is consistent with Joseph Polchinskis discovery of an Everett phone in Steven Weinbergs formulation of nonlinear quantum mechanics.[26]
Metrics
Theories of wormhole metrics describe the spacetime geometry of a wormhole and serve as theoretical models for time travel. An example of a (traversable) wormhole metric is the following:
One type of non-traversable wormhole metric is the Schwarzschild solution (see the first diagram):
In fiction
Wormholes are a common element in science fiction as they allow interstellar (and sometimes interuniversal) travel within human timescales.
Notes
[1] "Space and Time Warps" (http:/ / www. hawking. org. uk/ index. php/ lectures/ 63). Hawking.org.uk. . Retrieved 2010-11-11. [2] Morris, Michael; Thorne, Kip; Yurtsever, Ulvi (1988). "Wormholes, Time Machines, and the Weak Energy Condition". Physical Review Letters 61 (13): 14461449. Bibcode1988PhRvL..61.1446M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.1446. PMID10038800. [3] Sopova; Ford (2002). "The Energy Density in the Casimir Effect". Physical Review D 66 (4): 045026. arXiv:quant-ph/0204125. Bibcode2002PhRvD..66d5026S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.66.045026. [4] Ford; Roman (1995). "Averaged Energy Conditions and Quantum Inequalities". Physical Review D 51 (8): 42774286. arXiv:gr-qc/9410043. Bibcode1995PhRvD..51.4277F. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.51.4277. [5] Olum (1998). "Superluminal travel requires negative energies". Physical Review Letters 81 (17): 35673570. arXiv:gr-qc/9805003. Bibcode1998PhRvL..81.3567O. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.3567. [6] Thorne, Kip S. (1994). Black Holes and Time Warps. W. W. Norton. pp.494496. ISBN0-393-31276-3. [7] Ian H., Redmount; Wai-Mo Suen (1994). "Quantum Dynamics of Lorentzian Spacetime Foam". Physical Review D 49 (10): 5199. arXiv:gr-qc/9309017. Bibcode1994PhRvD..49.5199R. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.49.5199. [8] Kirillov, A.A.; E.P. Savelova (21 February 2008). "Dark Matter from a gas of wormholes". Physics Letters B 660 (3): 93. arXiv:0707.1081. Bibcode2008PhLB..660...93K. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2007.12.034. [9] Rodrigo, Enrico (30 November 2009). "Denouement of a Wormhole-Brane Encounter". International Journal of Modern Physics D 18 (12): 1809. arXiv:0908.2651. Bibcode2009IJMPD..18.1809R. doi:10.1142/S0218271809015333. [10] John G. Cramer, Robert L. Forward, Michael S. Morris, Matt Visser, Gregory Benford, and Geoffrey A. Landis (1995). "Natural Wormholes as Gravitational Lenses". Physical Review D 51 (6): 31173120. arXiv:astro-ph/9409051. Bibcode1995PhRvD..51.3117C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.51.3117. [11] Coleman, Korte, Hermann Weyl's Raum - Zeit - Materie and a General Introduction to His Scientific Work, p. 199 [12] "Collapse to a Black Hole" (http:/ / casa. colorado. edu/ ~ajsh/ collapse. html#kruskal). Casa.colorado.edu. 2010-10-03. . Retrieved 2010-11-11.This is a tertiary source that clearly includes information from other sources but does not name them.
Wormhole
[13] Other computer-rendered images and animations of traversable wormholes can be seen on this page (http:/ / www. spacetimetravel. org/ wurmlochflug/ wurmlochflug. html) by the creator of the image in the article, and this page (http:/ / www. vis. uni-stuttgart. de/ ~muelleta/ MTvis/ ) has additional renderings. [14] Elias Gravanis; Steven Willison (2007). "`Mass without mass' from thin shells in Gauss-Bonnet gravity". Phys.Rev.D75:084025,2007 75 (8). arXiv:gr-qc/0701152. Bibcode2007PhRvD..75h4025G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.75.084025. [15] Thorne, Kip S. (1994). Black Holes and Time Warps. W. W. Norton. p.504. ISBN0-393-31276-3. [16] Fewster, Christopher J.; Ken D. Olum, Michael J. Pfenning (10 January 2007). "Averaged null energy condition in spacetimes with boundaries". Physical Review D 75 (2): 025007. arXiv:gr-qc/0609007. Bibcode2007PhRvD..75b5007F. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.75.025007. [17] Visser, Matt (15 October 1996). "Gravitational vacuum polarization. II. Energy conditions in the Boulware vacuum". Physical Review D 54 (8): 5116. arXiv:gr-qc/9604008. Bibcode1996PhRvD..54.5116V. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.54.5116. [18] Graham, Noah; Ken D. Olum (4 September 2007). "Achronal averaged null energy condition". Physical Review D 76 (6): 064001. arXiv:0705.3193. Bibcode2007PhRvD..76f4001G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.76.064001. [19] Urban, Douglas; Ken D. Olum (1 June 2010). "Spacetime averaged null energy condition". Physical Review D 81 (6): 124004. arXiv:1002.4689. Bibcode2010PhRvD..81l4004U. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.81.124004. [20] Thorne, Kip S. (1994). Black Holes and Time Warps. W. W. Norton. p.502. ISBN0-393-31276-3. [21] The quantum physics of chronology protection (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ gr-qc/ 0204022) [22] Deutsch, David (1991). "Quantum Mechanics Near Closed Timelike Lines". Physical Review D 44 (10): 3197. Bibcode1991PhRvD..44.3197D. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.44.3197. [23] Brun et.al (2009). "Localized Closed Timelike Curves Can Perfectly Distinguish Quantum States". Physics Review Letters 102 (21): 210402. Bibcode2009PhRvL..102.210402. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.210402. [24] Pati, Chakrabarty, Agrawal (2011). "Purification of mixed states with closed timelike curve is not possible". Physical Review A 84 (6): 062325. Bibcode2011PhRvA..84f2325P. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.84.062325. [25] Rodrigo, Enrico (2010). The Physics of Stargates. Eridanus Press. p.281. ISBN0-9841500-0-5. [26] Polchinski, Joseph (1991). "Weinbergs Nonlinear quantum Mechanics and the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox". Physical Review Letters 66 (4): 397. Bibcode1991PhRvL..66..397P. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.66.397.
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References
DeBenedictis, Andrew and Das, A. (2001). "On a General Class of Wormhole Geometries". Classical and Quantum Gravity 18 (7): 11871204. arXiv:gr-qc/0009072. Bibcode2001CQGra..18.1187D. doi:10.1088/0264-9381/18/7/304. Dzhunushaliev, Vladimir (2002). "Strings in the Einstein's paradigm of matter". Classical and Quantum Gravity 19 (19): 48174824. arXiv:gr-qc/0205055. Bibcode2002CQGra..19.4817D. doi:10.1088/0264-9381/19/19/302. Einstein, Albert and Rosen, Nathan (1935). "The Particle Problem in the General Theory of Relativity". Physical Review 48: 73. Bibcode1935PhRv...48...73E. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.48.73. Fuller, Robert W. and Wheeler, John A. (1962). "Causality and Multiply-Connected Space-Time". Physical Review 128: 919. Bibcode1962PhRv..128..919F. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.128.919. Garattini, Remo (2004). "How Spacetime Foam modifies the brick wall". Modern Physics Letters A 19 (36): 26732682. arXiv:gr-qc/0409015. Bibcode2004gr.qc.....9015G. doi:10.1142/S0217732304015658. Gonzlez-Daz, Pedro F. (1998). "Quantum time machine". Physical Review D 58 (12): 124011. arXiv:gr-qc/9712033. Bibcode1998PhRvD..58l4011G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.58.124011. Gonzlez-Daz, Pedro F. (1996). "Ringholes and closed timelike curves". Physical Review D 54 (10): 61226131. arXiv:gr-qc/9608059. Bibcode1996PhRvD..54.6122G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.54.6122. Khatsymosky, Vladimir M. (1997). "Towards possibility of self-maintained vacuum traversable wormhole". Physics Letters B 399 (34): 215222. arXiv:gr-qc/9612013. Bibcode1997PhLB..399..215K. doi:10.1016/S0370-2693(97)00290-6. Krasnikov, Serguei (2006). "Counter example to a quantum inequality". Gravity and Cosmology 46: 195. arXiv:gr-qc/0409007. Bibcode2006GrCo...12..195K. Krasnikov, Serguei (2003). "The quantum inequalities do not forbid spacetime shortcuts". Physical Review D 67 (10): 104013. arXiv:gr-qc/0207057. Bibcode2003PhRvD..67j4013K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.67.104013. Li, Li-Xin (2001). "Two Open Universes Connected by a Wormhole: Exact Solutions". Journal of Geometrical Physics 40 (2): 154160. arXiv:hep-th/0102143. Bibcode2001JGP....40..154L. doi:10.1016/S0393-0440(01)00028-6.
Wormhole Morris, Michael S., Thorne, Kip S., and Yurtsever, Ulvi (1988). "Wormholes, Time Machines, and the Weak Energy Condition". Physical Review Letters 61 (13): 1446. Bibcode1988PhRvL..61.1446M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.1446. PMID10038800. Morris, Michael S. and Thorne, Kip S. (1988). "Wormholes in spacetime and their use for interstellar travel: A tool for teaching general relativity". American Journal of Physics 56 (5): 395412. Bibcode1988AmJPh..56..395M. doi:10.1119/1.15620. Nandi, Kamal K. and Zhang, Yuan-Zhong (2006). "A Quantum Constraint for the Physical Viability of Classical Traversable Lorentzian Wormholes". Journal of Nonlinear Phenomena in Complex Systems 9: 6167. arXiv:gr-qc/0409053. Bibcode2004gr.qc.....9053N. Ori, Amos (2005). "A new time-machine model with compact vacuum core". Physical Review Letters 95 (2). arXiv:gr-qc/0503077. Bibcode2005PhRvL..95b1101O. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.021101. Poplawski, Nikodem J. (2010). "Radial motion into an Einstein-Rosen bridge". Physics Letters B 687: 110. Bibcode2010PhLB..687..110P. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.03.029. Roman, Thomas, A. (2004). "Some Thoughts on Energy Conditions and Wormholes". arXiv:gr-qc/0409090[gr-qc]. Teo, Edward (1998). "Rotating traversable wormholes". Physical Review D 58 (2). arXiv:gr-qc/9803098. Bibcode1998PhRvD..58b4014T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.58.024014. Visser, Matt (2002). "The quantum physics of chronology protection by Matt Visser". arXiv:gr-qc/0204022[gr-qc]. An excellent and more concise review. Visser, Matt (1989). "Traversable wormholes: Some simple examples". Physical Review D 39 (10): 31823184. Bibcode1989PhRvD..39.3182V. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.39.3182.
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External links
White Holes and Wormholes (http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/schww.html)
External links
What exactly is a 'wormhole'? (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=follow-up-what-exactly-is) answered by Richard F. Holman, William A. Hiscock and Matt Visser. Why wormholes? (http://www.mcs.vuw.ac.nz/~visser/general.shtml#why-wormholes) by Matt Visser. Wormholes in General Relativity (http://www.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~suchii/wormholes.html) by Soshichi Uchii. White holes and Wormholes (http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/schww.html) provides a very good description of Schwarzschild wormholes with graphics and animations, by Andrew J. S. Hamilton. Questions and Answers about Wormholes (http://www.webfilesuci.org/WormholeFAQ.html) a comprehensive wormhole FAQ by Enrico Rodrigo. Large Hadron Collider (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/ the-big-question-is-time-travel-possible-and-is-there-any-chance-that-it-will-ever-take-place-779761.html) Theory on how the collider could create a small wormhole, possibly allowing time travel into the past. animation that simulates traversing a wormhole (http://www.spacetimetravel.org/wurmlochflug/ wurmlochflug.html) renderings and animations of a Morris-Thorne wormhole (http://www.vis.uni-stuttgart.de/~muelleta/MTvis/) N.A.S.A's current theory on wormhole creation (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/ ideachev.html)
Faster-than-light
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Faster-than-light
Faster-than-light (also superluminal or FTL) communications and travel refer to the propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light. Under the special theory of relativity, a particle (that has rest mass) with subluminal velocity needs infinite energy to accelerate to the speed of light, although special relativity does not forbid the existence of particles that travel faster than light at all times (tachyons). On the other hand, what some physicists refer to as "apparent" or "effective" FTL[1][2][3][4] depends on the hypothesis that unusually distorted regions of spacetime might permit matter to reach distant locations in less time than light could in normal or undistorted spacetime. Although according to current theories matter is still required to travel subluminally with respect to the locally distorted spacetime region, apparent FTL is not excluded by general relativity. Examples of FTL proposals are changing the "frequency" of mass to a higher state by applying high-frequency waves of energy, the Alcubierre drive, and the traversable wormhole, although the physical plausibility of some of these solutions is uncertain.
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Closing speeds
The rate at which two objects in motion in a single frame of reference get closer together is called the mutual or closing speed. This may approach twice the speed of light, as in the case of two particles travelling at close to the speed of light in opposite directions with respect to the reference frame. Imagine two fast-moving particles approaching each other from opposite sides of a particle accelerator of the collider type. The closing speed would be the rate at which the distance between the two particles is decreasing. From the point of view of an observer standing at rest relative to the accelerator, this rate will be slightly less than twice the speed of light. Special relativity does not prohibit this. It tells us that it is wrong to use Galilean relativity to compute the velocity of one of the particles, as would be measured by an observer traveling alongside the other particle. That is, special relativity gives the right formula for computing such relative velocity. It is instructive to compute the relative velocity of particles moving at v and -v in accelerator frame, which corresponds to the closing speed of 2v > c. Expressing the speeds in units of c, = v/c:
Proper speeds
If a spaceship travels to a planet one light-year (as measured in the Earth's rest frame) away from Earth at high speed, the time taken to reach that planet could be less than one year as measured by the traveller's clock (although it will always be more than one year as measured by a clock on Earth). The value obtained by dividing the distance traveled, as determined in the Earth's frame, by the time taken, measured by the traveller's clock, is known as a proper speed or a proper velocity. There is no limit on the value of a proper speed as a proper speed does not represent a speed measured in a single inertial frame. A light signal that left the Earth at the same time as the traveller would always get to the destination before the traveller.
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Universal expansion
The expansion of the universe causes distant galaxies to recede from us faster than the speed of light, if comoving distance and cosmological time are used to calculate the speeds of these galaxies. However, in general relativity, velocity is a local notion, so velocity calculated using comoving coordinates does not have any simple relation to velocity calculated locally[17] (see comoving distance for a discussion of different notions of 'velocity' in cosmology). Rules that apply to relative velocities in special relativity, such as the rule that relative velocities cannot increase past the speed of light, do not apply to relative velocities in comoving coordinates, which are often described in terms of the "expansion of space" between galaxies. This expansion rate is thought to have been at its peak during the inflationary epoch thought to have occurred in a tiny fraction of the second after the Big Bang (models suggest the period would have been from around 1036 seconds after the Big Bang to around 1033 seconds), when the universe may have rapidly expanded by a factor of around 1020 to 1030.[18]
Faster-than-light There are many galaxies visible in telescopes with red shift numbers of 1.4 or higher. All of these are currently traveling away from us at speeds greater than the speed of light. Because the Hubble parameter is decreasing with time, there can actually be cases where a galaxy that is receding from us faster than light does manage to emit a signal which reaches us eventually.[19][20] However, because the expansion of the universe is accelerating, it is projected that most galaxies will eventually cross a type of cosmological event horizon where any light they emit past that point will never be able to reach us at any time in the infinite future,[21] because the light never reaches a point where its "peculiar velocity" towards us exceeds the expansion velocity away from us (these two notions of velocity are also discussed in Comoving distance#Uses of the proper distance). The current distance to this cosmological event horizon is about 16 billion light-years, meaning that a signal from an event happening at present would eventually be able to reach us in the future if the event was less than 16 billion light-years away, but the signal would never reach us if the event was more than 16 billion light-years away.[20]
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Astronomical observations
Apparent superluminal motion is observed in many radio galaxies, blazars, quasars and recently also in microquasars. The effect was predicted before it was observed by Martin Rees and can be explained as an optical illusion caused by the object partly moving in the direction of the observer,[22] when the speed calculations assume it does not. The phenomenon does not contradict the theory of special relativity. Interestingly, corrected calculations show these objects have velocities close to the speed of light (relative to our reference frame). They are the first examples of large amounts of mass moving at close to the speed of light.[23] Earth-bound laboratories have only been able to accelerate small numbers of elementary particles to such speeds.
Quantum mechanics
Certain phenomena in quantum mechanics, such as quantum entanglement, appear to transmit information faster than light. According to the no-communication theorem these phenomena do not allow true communication; they only let two observers in different locations see the same event simultaneously, without any way of controlling what either sees. Wavefunction collapse can be viewed as an epiphenomenon of quantum decoherence, which in turn is nothing more than an effect of the underlying local time evolution of the wavefunction of a system and all of its environment. Since the underlying behaviour doesn't violate local causality or allow FTL it follows that neither does the additional effect of wavefunction collapse, whether real or apparent. The uncertainty principle implies that individual photons may travel for short distances at speeds somewhat faster (or slower) than c, even in a vacuum; this possibility must be taken into account when enumerating Feynman diagrams for a particle interaction.[24] It has since been proven that not even a single photon may travel faster than "c".[25] In quantum mechanics, virtual particles may travel faster than light, and this phenomenon is related to the fact that static field effects (which are mediated by virtual particles in quantum terms) may travel faster than light (see section on static fields above). However, macroscopically these fluctuations average out, so that photons do travel in straight lines over long (i.e., non-quantum) distances, and they do travel at the speed of light on average. Therefore, this does not imply the possibility of superluminal information transmission. There have been various reports in the popular press of experiments on faster-than-light transmission in opticsmost often in the context of a kind of quantum tunnelling phenomenon. Usually, such reports deal with a phase velocity or group velocity faster than the vacuum velocity of light. However, as stated above, a superluminal phase velocity cannot be used for faster-than-light transmission of information. There has sometimes been confusion concerning the latter point. Additionally a channel that permits such propagation cannot be laid out faster than the speed of light. Quantum teleportation transmits quantum information at whatever speed is used to transmit the same amount of classical information, likely the speed of light. This quantum information may theoretically be used in ways that classical information can not, such as in quantum computations involving quantum information only available to the
Faster-than-light recipient. Hartman effect The Hartman effect is the tunnelling effect through a barrier where the tunnelling time tends to a constant for large barriers.[26] This was first described by Thomas Hartman in 1962.[27] This could, for instance, be the gap between two prisms. When the prisms are in contact, the light passes straight through, but when there is a gap, the light is refracted. There is a nonzero probability that the photon will tunnel across the gap rather than follow the refracted path. For large gaps between the prisms the tunnelling time approaches a constant and thus the photons appear to have crossed with a superluminal speed.[28] However, an analysis by Herbert G. Winful from the University of Michigan suggests that the Hartman effect cannot actually be used to violate relativity by transmitting signals faster than c, because the tunnelling time "should not be linked to a velocity since evanescent waves do not propagate".[29] The evanescent waves in the Hartman effect are due to virtual particles and a non-propagating static field, as mentioned in the sections above for gravity and electromagnetism. Casimir effect In physics, the Casimir effect or Casimir-Polder force is a physical force exerted between separate objects due to resonance of vacuum energy in the intervening space between the objects. This is sometimes described in terms of virtual particles interacting with the objects, due to the mathematical form of one possible way of calculating the strength of the effect. Because the strength of the force falls off rapidly with distance, it is only measurable when the distance between the objects is extremely small. Because the effect is due to virtual particles mediating a static field effect, it is subject to the comments about static fields discussed above. EPR Paradox The EPR paradox refers to a famous thought experiment of Einstein, Podolski and Rosen that was realized experimentally for the first time by Alain Aspect in 1981 and 1982 in the Aspect experiment. In this experiment, the measurement of the state of one of the quantum systems of an entangled pair apparently instantaneously forces the other system (which may be distant) to be measured in the complementary state. However, no information can be transmitted this way; the answer to whether or not the measurement actually affects the other quantum system comes down to which interpretation of quantum mechanics one subscribes to. An experiment performed in 1997 by Nicolas Gisin at the University of Geneva has demonstrated non-local quantum correlations between particles separated by over 10 kilometers.[30] But as noted earlier, the non-local correlations seen in entanglement cannot actually be used to transmit classical information faster than light, so that relativistic causality is preserved; see no-communication theorem for further information. A 2008 quantum physics experiment also performed by Nicolas Gisin and his colleagues in Geneva, Switzerland has determined that in any hypothetical non-local hidden-variables theory the speed of the quantum non-local connection (what Einstein called spooky action at a distance) is at least 10,000 times the speed of light.[31] Delayed choice quantum eraser Delayed choice quantum eraser (an experiment of Marlan Scully) is a version of the EPR paradox in which the observation or not of interference after the passage of a photon through a double slit experiment depends on the conditions of observation of a second photon entangled with the first. The characteristic of this experiment is that the observation of the second photon can take place at a later time than the observation of the first photon,[32] which may give the impression that the measurement of the later photons "retroactively" determines whether the earlier photons show interference or not, although the interference pattern can only be seen by correlating the measurements of both members of every pair and so it can't be observed until both photons have been measured, ensuring that an experimenter watching only the photons going through the slit does not obtain information about the other photons in
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Justifications
Faster light (Casimir vacuum and quantum tunnelling)
Raymond Y. Chiao was first to measure the quantum tunnelling time, which was found to be between 1.5 to 1.7 times the speed of light. Einstein's equations of special relativity postulate that the speed of light in a vacuum is invariant in inertial frames. That is, it will be the same from any frame of reference moving at a constant speed. The equations do not specify any particular value for the speed of the light, which is an experimentally determined quantity for a fixed unit of length. Since 1983, the SI unit of length (the meter) has been defined using the speed of light. The experimental determination has been made in vacuum. However, the vacuum we know is not the only possible vacuum which can exist. The vacuum has energy associated with it, unsurprisingly called the vacuum energy. This vacuum energy can perhaps be changed in certain cases.[37] When vacuum energy is lowered, light itself has been predicted to go faster than the standard value c. This is known as the Scharnhorst effect. Such a vacuum can be produced by bringing two perfectly smooth metal plates together at near atomic diameter spacing. It is called a Casimir vacuum. Calculations imply that light will go faster in such a vacuum by a minuscule amount: a photon traveling between two plates that are 1 micrometer apart would increase the photon's speed by only about one part in 1036.[38] Accordingly there has as yet been no experimental verification of the prediction. A recent analysis[39] argued that the Scharnhorst effect cannot be used to send information backwards in time with a single set of plates
Faster-than-light since the plates' rest frame would define a "preferred frame" for FTL signalling. However, with multiple pairs of plates in motion relative to one another the authors noted that they had no arguments that could "guarantee the total absence of causality violations", and invoked Hawking's speculative chronology protection conjecture which suggests that feedback loops of virtual particles would create "uncontrollable singularities in the renormalized quantum stress-energy" on the boundary of any potential time machine, and thus would require a theory of quantum gravity to fully analyze. Other authors argue that Scharnhorst's original analysis which seemed to show the possibility of faster-than-c signals involved approximations which may be incorrect, so that it is not clear whether this effect could actually increase signal speed at all.[40] The physicists Gnter Nimtz and Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Cologne, claim to have violated relativity experimentally by transmitting photons faster than the speed of light.[28] They say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photonsrelatively low energy packets of lighttravelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft (unknown operator: u'strong'm) apart. Their experiment involved an optical phenomenon known as "evanescent modes", and they claim that since evanescent modes have an imaginary wave number, they represent a "mathematical analogy" to quantum tunnelling.[28] Nimtz has also claimed that "evanescent modes are not fully describable by the Maxwell equations and quantum mechanics have to be taken into consideration."[41] Other scientists such as Herbert G. Winful and Robert Helling have argued that in fact there is nothing quantum-mechanical about Nimtz's experiments, and that the results can be fully predicted by the equations of classical electromagnetism (Maxwell's equations).[42][43] Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of." However, other physicists say that this phenomenon does not allow information to be transmitted faster than light. Aephraim Steinberg, a quantum optics expert at the University of Toronto, Canada, uses the analogy of a train traveling from Chicago to New York, but dropping off train cars at each station along the way, so that the center of the ever shrinking main train moves forward at each stop; in this way, the speed of the center of the train exceeds the speed of any of the individual cars.[44] Herbert G. Winful argues that the train analogy is a variant of the "reshaping argument" for superluminal tunneling velocities, but he goes on to say that this argument is not actually supported by experiment or simulations, which actually show that the transmitted pulse has the same length and shape as the incident pulse.[42] Instead, Winful argues that the group delay in tunneling is not actually the transit time for the pulse (whose spatial length must be greater than the barrier length in order for its spectrum to be narrow enough to allow tunneling), but is instead the lifetime of the energy stored in a standing wave which forms inside the barrier. Since the stored energy in the barrier is less than the energy stored in a barrier-free region of the same length due to destructive interference, the group delay for the energy to escape the barrier region is shorter than it would be in free space, which according to Winful is the explanation for apparently superluminal tunneling.[45][46] A number of authors have published papers disputing Nimtz's claim that Einstein causality is violated by his experiments, and there are many other papers in the literature discussing why quantum tunneling is not thought to violate causality.[47] It was later claimed by the Keller group in Switzerland that particle tunneling does indeed occur in zero real time. Their tests involved tunneling electrons, where the group argued a relativistic prediction for tunneling time should be 500-600 attoseconds (an attosecond is one quintillionth (1018) of a second). All that could be measured was 24 attoseconds, which is the limit of the test accuracy.[48] Again, though, other physicists believe that tunneling experiments in which particles appear to spend anomalously short times inside the barrier are in fact fully compatible with relativity, although there is disagreement about whether the explanation involves reshaping of the wave packet or other effects.[45][46][49]
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Give up causality
Another approach is to accept special relativity, but to posit that mechanisms allowed by general relativity (e.g., wormholes) will allow traveling between two points without going through the intervening space. While this gets around the infinite acceleration problem, it still would lead to closed timelike curves (i.e., time travel) and causality violations. Causality is not required by special or general relativity, but is nonetheless generally considered a basic property of the universe that cannot be sensibly dispensed with. Because of this, most physicists expect that quantum gravity effects will preclude this option. An alternative is to conjecture that, while time travel is possible, it never leads to paradoxes; this is the Novikov self-consistency principle.
Space-time distortion
Although the theory of special relativity forbids objects to have a relative velocity greater than light speed, and general relativity reduces to special relativity in a local sense (in small regions of spacetime where curvature is negligible), general relativity does allow the space between distant objects to expand in such a way that they have a "recession velocity" which exceeds the speed of light, and it is thought that galaxies which are at a distance of more than about 14 billion light-years from us today have a recession velocity which is faster than light.[50] Miguel Alcubierre theorized [51] that it would be possible to create an Alcubierre drive, in which a ship would be enclosed in a "warp bubble" where the space at the front of the bubble is rapidly contracting and the space at the back is rapidly expanding, with the result that the bubble can reach a distant destination much faster than a light beam moving outside the bubble, but without objects inside the bubble locally traveling faster than light. However, several objections raised against the Alcubierre drive appear to rule out the possibility of actually using it in any practical fashion. Another possibility predicted by general relativity is the traversable wormhole, which could create a shortcut between arbitrarily distant points in space. As with the Alcubierre drive, travelers moving through the wormhole would not locally move faster than light which travels through the wormhole alongside them, but they would be able to reach their destination (and return to their starting location) faster than light traveling outside the wormhole. Dr. Gerald Cleaver, associate professor of physics at Baylor University, and Richard Obousy, a Baylor graduate student, theorize that by manipulating the extra spatial dimensions of string theory around a spaceship with an extremely large amount of energy, it would create a "bubble" that could cause the ship to travel faster than the speed of light. To create this bubble, the physicists believe manipulating the 10th spatial dimension would alter the dark energy in three large spatial dimensions: height, width and length. Cleaver said positive dark energy is currently responsible for speeding up the expansion rate of our universe as time moves on.[52]
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Heim theory
In 1977, a paper on Heim theory theorized that it may be possible to travel faster than light by using magnetic fields to enter a higher-dimensional space.[53]
MiHsC/Quantised inertia
A new theory has been proposed that Modifies inertia by assuming it is due to Unruh radiation subject to a Hubble scale Casimir effect (MiHsC, or quantised inertia). MiHsC predicts a minimum possible acceleration[54] even at light speed, implying that this speed can be exceeded.
Faster-than-light velocities the behavior of the particle-like modes becomes distinct from the relativistic one - they can reach the speed of light limit at finite energy; also the faster-than-light propagation is possible without requiring moving objects to have imaginary mass.[67][68]
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Tachyons
In special relativity, it is impossible to accelerate an object to the speed of light, or for a massive object to move at the speed of light. However, it might be possible for an object to exist which always moves faster than light. The hypothetical elementary particles with this property are called tachyonic particles. Attempts to quantize them failed to produce faster-than-light particles, and instead illustrated that their presence leads to an instability.[78][79] Various theorists have suggested that the neutrino might have a tachyonic nature,[80][81][82][83][84] while others have disputed the possibility.[85]
General relativity
General relativity was developed after special relativity to include concepts like gravity. It maintains the principle that no object can accelerate to the speed of light in the reference frame of any coincident observer. However, it permits distortions in spacetime that allow an object to move faster than light from the point of view of a distant observer. One such distortion is the Alcubierre drive, which can be thought of as producing a ripple in spacetime that carries an object along with it. Another possible system is the wormhole, which connects two distant locations as though by a shortcut. Both distortions would need to create a very strong curvature in a highly localized region of space-time and their gravity fields would be immense. To counteract the unstable nature, and prevent the distortions from collapsing under their own 'weight', one would need to introduce hypothetical exotic matter or negative energy. General relativity also agrees that any technique for faster-than-light travel could also be used for time travel. This raises problems with causality. Many physicists believe that the above phenomena are in fact impossible, and that future theories of gravity will prohibit them. One theory states that stable wormholes are possible, but that any attempt to use a network of wormholes to violate causality would result in their decay. In string theory, Eric G. Gimon and Petr Hoava have argued[86] that in a supersymmetric five-dimensional Gdel universe, quantum corrections to general relativity effectively cut off regions of spacetime with causality-violating closed timelike
Faster-than-light curves. In particular, in the quantum theory a smeared supertube is present that cuts the spacetime in such a way that, although in the full spacetime a closed timelike curve passed through every point, no complete curves exist on the interior region bounded by the tube.
71
Notes
[1] Gonzalez-Diaz, P. F. (2000). "Warp drive space-time" (http:/ / omnis. if. ufrj. br/ ~mbr/ warp/ etc/ PRD62_44005. pdf). Physical Review D 62 (4): 044005. arXiv:gr-qc/9907026. Bibcode2000PhRvD..62d4005G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.62.044005. . [2] Loup, F.; Waite, D.; Halerewicz, E. Jr. (2001). "Reduced total energy requirements for a modified Alcubierre warp drive spacetime". arXiv:gr-qc/0107097[gr-qc]. [3] Visser, M.; Bassett, B.; Liberati, S. (2000). "Superluminal censorship". Nuclear Physics B: Proceedings Supplement 88: 267270. arXiv:gr-qc/9810026. Bibcode2000NuPhS..88..267V. doi:10.1016/S0920-5632(00)00782-9. [4] Visser, M.; Bassett, B.; Liberati, S. (1999). "Perturbative superluminal censorship and the null energy condition". AIP Conference Proceedings 493: 301305. arXiv:gr-qc/9908023. doi:10.1063/1.1301601. ISBN1-56396-905-X. [5] See Salters Horners Advanced Physics A2 Student Book, Oxford etc. (Heinemann) 2001, pp. 302 and 303 [6] see http:/ / www. oarval. org/ furthest. htm [7] Gibbs, Philip (1997). Is Faster-Than-Light Travel or Communication Possible? (http:/ / math. ucr. edu/ home/ baez/ physics/ Relativity/ SpeedOfLight/ FTL. html). University of California, Riverside. . Retrieved 20 August 2008 [8] Wertheim, M. (20 June 2007). "The Shadow Goes" (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2007/ 06/ 20/ opinion/ 20wertheim. html?_r=1& scp=1& sq='the shadow goes'& st=cse& oref=slogin). New York Times. [9] Salmon, Wesley C. (2006). Four Decades of Scientific Explanation (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=FHqOXCd06e8C). University of Pittsburgh Pre. p.107. ISBN0-8229-5926-7. ., Extract of page 107 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=FHqOXCd06e8C& pg=PA107) [10] Steane, Andrew (2012). The Wonderful World of Relativity: A Precise Guide for the General Reader (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=4m14K1PpJwMC). Oxford University Press. p.180. ISBN0-19-969461-3. ., Extract of page 180 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=4m14K1PpJwMC& pg=PA180) [11] Special Theory of Relativity (http:/ / library. thinkquest. org/ C0116043/ specialtheorytext. htm) [12] Hecht, Eugene (1987). Optics (2nd ed.). Addison Wesley. p.62. ISBN0-201-11609-X. [13] Sommerfeld, Arnold (1907). "An Objection Against the Theory of Relativity and its Removal". Physikalische Zeitschrift 8 (23): 841842.
Faster-than-light
[14] "MathPages - Phase, Group, and Signal Velocity" (http:/ / www. mathpages. com/ home/ kmath210/ kmath210. htm). . Retrieved 2007-04-30. [15] Brillouin, Lon; Wave Propagation and Group Velocity, Academic Press, 1960 [16] Withayachumnankul, W.; et al.; "A systemized view of superluminal wave propagation," (http:/ / www. eleceng. adelaide. edu. au/ personal/ dabbott/ publications/ PIE_withayachumnankul2010. pdf) Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 98, No. 10, pp. 1775-1786, 2010 [17] "Cosmology Tutorial - Part 2" (http:/ / www. astro. ucla. edu/ ~wright/ cosmo_02. htm#MD). Astro.ucla.edu. 2009-06-12. . Retrieved 2011-09-26. [18] "Inflationary Period from HyperPhysics" (http:/ / hyperphysics. phy-astr. gsu. edu/ hbase/ astro/ planck. html#c5). Hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu. . Retrieved 2011-09-26. [19] Is the universe expanding faster than the speed of light? (http:/ / curious. astro. cornell. edu/ question. php?number=575) (see the last two paragraphs) [20] Lineweaver, Charles; Davis, Tamara M. (2005). "Misconceptions about the Big Bang" (http:/ / space. mit. edu/ ~kcooksey/ teaching/ AY5/ MisconceptionsabouttheBigBang_ScientificAmerican. pdf). Scientific American. . Retrieved 2008-11-06. [21] Loeb, Abraham (2002). "The Long-Term Future of Extragalactic Astronomy". Physical Review D 65 (4). arXiv:astro-ph /0107568. Bibcode2002PhRvD..65d7301L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.65.047301. [22] Rees, Martin J. (1966). "Appearance of relativistically expanding radio sources". Nature 211 (5048): 468. Bibcode1966Natur.211..468R. doi:10.1038/211468a0. [23] Blandford, Roger D.; McKee, C. F.; Rees, Martin J. (1977). "Super-luminal expansion in extragalactic radio sources". Nature 267 (5608): 211. Bibcode1977Natur.267..211B. doi:10.1038/267211a0. [24] Feynman. "Chapter 3". QED. p.89. ISBN981-256-914-6. [25] Zhang, Shanchao. "Single photons obey the speed limits" (http:/ / physics. aps. org/ synopsis-for/ 10. 1103/ PhysRevLett. 106. 243602). Physics. American Physical Society. . Retrieved 25 July 2011. [26] Martinez, J. C.; and Polatdemir, E.; "Origin of the Hartman effect", Physics Letters A, Vol. 351, Iss. 1-2, 20 February 2006, pp. 31-36 [27] Hartman, Thomas E.; "Tunneling of a wave packet", Journal of Applied Physics 33, 3427 (1962) [28] Nimtz, Gnter; Stahlhofen, Alfons (2007). "Macroscopic violation of special relativity". arXiv:0708.0681[quant-ph]. [29] Winful, Herbert G.; "Tunneling time, the Hartman effect, and superluminality: A proposed resolution of an old paradox" (http:/ / sitemaker. umich. edu/ herbert. winful/ files/ physics_reports_review_article__2006_. pdf), Physics Reports, Vol. 436, Iss. 1-2, December 2006, pp. 1-69 [30] "History" (http:/ / www. quantumphil. org/ history. htm). Quantumphil.org. . Retrieved 2011-09-26. [31] Salart; Baas; Branciard; Gisin; Zbinden (2008). "Testing spooky action at a distance". Nature 454 (7206): 861864. arXiv:0808.3316. Bibcode2008Natur.454..861S. doi:10.1038/nature07121. PMID18704081. [32] "Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser" (http:/ / www. bottomlayer. com/ bottom/ kim-scully/ kim-scully-web. htm). Bottomlayer.com. 2002-09-04. . Retrieved 2011-09-26. [33] Einstein, Albert, Relativity:the special and the general theory, Methuen & Co, 1927, pp. 25-27 [34] Gott, J. Richard (2002). Time Travel in Einstein's Universe. pp. pp. 8283. [35] Petkov, Vesselin; Relativity and the Nature of Spacetime, p. 219 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=AzfFo6A94WEC& lpg=PR1& pg=PA219#v=onepage& q& f=false) [36] Raine, Derek J.; Thomas, Edwin George; and Thomas, E. G.; An Introduction to the Science of Cosmology, p. 94 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=RK8qDGKSTPwC& lpg=PR1& pg=PA94#v=onepage& q& f=false) [37] "What is the 'zero-point energy' (or 'vacuum energy') in quantum physics? Is it really possible that we could harness this energy?" (http:/ / www. scientificamerican. com/ article. cfm?id=follow-up-what-is-the-zer). Scientific American. 1997-08-18. . Retrieved 2009-05-27. [38] Scharnhorst, Klaus (1990-05-12). "Secret of the vacuum: Speedier light" (http:/ / www. nat. vu. nl/ ~scharnh/ m16scine. htm). . Retrieved 2009-05-27. [39] Visser, Matt; Liberati, Stefano; and Sonego, Sebastiano (2001-07-27). "Faster-than-c signals, special relativity, and causality". Annals of Physics 298 (2002) 167-185 298: 167185. arXiv:gr-qc/0107091. Bibcode2002AnPhy.298..167L. doi:10.1006/aphy.2002.6233. [40] Fearn, Heidi (2007). "Can Light Signals Travel Faster than c in Nontrivial Vacuua in Flat space-time? Relativistic Causality II". LaserPhys.17:695-699,2007 17 (5): 695699. arXiv:0706.0553. Bibcode2007LaPhy..17..695F. doi:10.1134/S1054660X07050155. [41] Nimtz, Gnter; Superluminal Tunneling Devices (http:/ / cdsweb. cern. ch/ record/ 547324/ files/ 0204043. pdf?version=1), 2001 [42] Winful, Herbert G. (2007-09-18). "Comment on "Macroscopic violation of special relativity" by Nimtz and Stahlhofen". arXiv:0709.2736[quant-ph]. [43] Helling, Robert C. (http:/ / www. atdotde. de/ ); "Faster than light or not" (http:/ / atdotde. blogspot. com/ 2005/ 09/ faster-than-light-or-not. html) (blog) [44] Anderson, Mark (1824 August 2007). "Light seems to defy its own speed limit" (http:/ / www. eurekalert. org/ pub_releases/ 2007-08/ ns-lst081607. php). New Scientist 195 (2617): p.10. [45] Winful, Herbert G. (December 2006). "Tunneling time, the Hartman effect, and superluminality: A proposed resolution of an old paradox" (http:/ / sitemaker. umich. edu/ herbert. winful/ files/ physics_reports_review_article__2006_. pdf). Physics Reports 436 (12): 169. Bibcode2006PhR...436....1W. doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2006.09.002. . [46] For a summary of Herbert G. Winful's explanation for apparently superluminal tunneling time which does not involve reshaping, see http:/ / spie. org/ x18001. xml?ArticleID=x18001
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[47] A number of papers are listed at Literature on Faster-than-light tunneling experiments (http:/ / www. aei. mpg. de/ ~mpoessel/ Physik/ FTL/ tunnelingftl. html) [48] Eckle, P.; et al., "Attosecond Ionization and Tunneling Delay Time Measurements in Helium", Science, 322 (2008) 1525 [49] Sokolovski, D. (8 February 2004). "Why does relativity allow quantum tunneling to 'take no time'?" (http:/ / rspa. royalsocietypublishing. org/ content/ 460/ 2042/ 499. full. pdf). Proceedings of the Royal Society A 460 (2042): 499506. Bibcode2004RSPSA.460..499S. doi:10.1098/rspa.2003.1222. . [50] Lineweaver, Charles H.; and Davis, Tamara M. (March 2005). "Misconceptions about the Big Bang" (http:/ / www. sciam. com/ article. cfm?id=misconceptions-about-the-2005-03). Scientific American. . [51] http:/ / www. iop. org/ EJ/ abstract/ 0264-9381/ 11/ 5/ 001 [52] Traveling Faster Than the Speed of Light: A New Idea That Could Make It Happen (http:/ / newswise. com/ articles/ view/ 543391/ ) Newswise, retrieved on 24 August 2008. [53] Heim, Burkhard (1977). "Vorschlag eines Weges einer einheitlichen Beschreibung der Elementarteilchen [Recommendation of a Way to a Unified Description of Elementary Particles]". Zeitschrift fr Naturforschung 32a: 233243. Bibcode1977ZNatA..32..233H. [54] McCulloch, M. E. (2010). "Minimum accelerations from quantised inertia". EPL 90 (2): 29001. arXiv:1004.3303. Bibcode2010EL.....9029001M. doi:10.1209/0295-5075/90/29001. [55] Colladay, Don; Kosteleck, V. Alan (1997). "CPT violation and the standard model". Physical Review D 55 (11): 6760. arXiv:hep-ph/9703464. Bibcode1997PhRvD..55.6760C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.55.6760. [56] Colladay, Don; Kosteleck, V. Alan (1998). "Lorentz-violating extension of the standard model". Physical Review D 58 (11). arXiv:hep-ph/9809521. Bibcode1998PhRvD..58k6002C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.58.116002. [57] Kosteleck, V. Alan (2004). "Gravity, Lorentz violation, and the standard model". Physical Review D 69 (10). arXiv:hep-th/0312310. Bibcode2004PhRvD..69j5009K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.69.105009. [58] Gonzalez-Mestres, Luis (2009). "AUGER-HiRes results and models of Lorentz symmetry violation". Nuclear Physics B: Proceedings Supplements 190: 191197. arXiv:0902.0994. Bibcode2009NuPhS.190..191G. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2009.03.088. [59] Kosteleck, V. Alan; Russell, Neil (2011). "Data tables for Lorentz and CPT violation". Review of Modern Physics 83: 11. arXiv:0801.0287. Bibcode2011RvMP...83...11K. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.83.11. [60] Kosteleck, V. Alan; and Samuel, S.; Spontaneous Breaking of Lorentz Symmetry in String Theory, Physical Review D 39, 683 (1989) [61] "PhysicsWeb - Breaking Lorentz symmetry" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20040405031103/ http:/ / physicsweb. org/ article/ world/ 17/ 3/ 7). Web.archive.org. 2004-04-05. . Retrieved 2011-09-26. [62] Mavromatos, Nick E.; Testing models for quantum gravity, CERN Courier, http:/ / cerncourier. com/ cws/ article/ cern/ 28696 (August 2002) [63] Overbye, Dennis; Interpreting the Cosmic Rays (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2002/ 12/ 31/ science/ interpreting-the-cosmic-rays. html?n=Top/ News/ Science/ Topics/ Space), The New York Times, 31 December 2002 [64] Volovik, G. E. (2003). "The Universe in a helium droplet". International Series of Monographs on Physics 117: 1507. [65] Zloshchastiev, Konstantin G. (2009). "Spontaneous symmetry breaking and mass generation as built-in phenomena in logarithmic nonlinear quantum theory". Acta Physica Polonica B 42 (2): 261292. arXiv:0912.4139. doi:10.5506/APhysPolB.42.261. [66] Avdeenkov, Alexander V.; Zloshchastiev, Konstantin G. (2011). "Quantum Bose liquids with logarithmic nonlinearity: Self-sustainability and emergence of spatial extent". Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics 44 (19): 195303. arXiv:1108.0847. Bibcode2011JPhB...44s5303A. doi:10.1088/0953-4075/44/19/195303. [67] Zloshchastiev, Konstantin G.; Chakrabarti, Sandip K.; Zhuk, Alexander I.; Bisnovatyi-Kogan, Gennady S. (2010). Logarithmic nonlinearity in theories of quantum gravity: Origin of time and observational consequences. AIP Conference Proceedings. pp. 112. arXiv:0906.4282. Bibcode2010AIPC.1206..112Z. doi:10.1063/1.3292518. [68] Zloshchastiev, Konstantin G. (2011). "Vacuum Cherenkov effect in logarithmic nonlinear quantum theory". Physics Letters A 375 (24): 2305. arXiv:1003.0657. Bibcode2011PhLA..375.2305Z. doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2011.05.012. [69] Adamson, P.; Andreopoulos, C.; Arms, K.; Armstrong, R.; Auty, D.; Avvakumov, S.; Ayres, D.; Baller, B. et al. (2007). "Measurement of neutrino velocity with the MINOS detectors and NuMI neutrino beam". Physical Review D 76 (7). arXiv:0706.0437. Bibcode2007PhRvD..76g2005A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.76.072005. [70] Overbye, Dennis (22 September 2011). "Tiny neutrinos may have broken cosmic speed limit" (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2011/ 09/ 23/ science/ 23speed. html). New York Times. . "That group found, although with less precision, that the neutrino speeds were consistent with the speed of light." [71] Adam; Agafonova; Aleksandrov; Altinok; Alvarez Sanchez; Aoki; Ariga; Ariga et al. (2011). "Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam". arXiv:1109.4897[hep-ex]. [72] Cho, Adrian; Neutrinos Travel Faster Than Light, According to One Experiment (http:/ / news. sciencemag. org/ sciencenow/ 2011/ 09/ neutrinos-travel-faster-than-lig. html), Science NOW, 22 September 2011 [73] Overbye, Dennis (18 November 2011). "Scientists Report Second Sighting of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos" (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2011/ 11/ 19/ science/ space/ neutrino-finding-is-confirmed-in-second-experiment-opera-scientists-say. html). New York Times. . Retrieved 2011-11-18. [74] Adam, T.; et al.; (OPERA Collaboration) (17 November 2011). " Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam (http:/ / arxiv. org/ ftp/ arxiv/ papers/ 1109/ 1109. 4897. pdf)". arXiv:1109.4897v2[hep-ex]. [75] Faster than light (http:/ / www. science-niblets. org/ physics/ faster-than-light. html) Science Niblets, 27 September 2011
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[76] http:/ / www. reuters. com/ article/ 2011/ 11/ 20/ us-science-neutrinos-idUSTRE7AJ0ZX20111120 Reuters: Study rejects "faster than light" particle finding [77] ICARUS collaboration (March 15, 2012), Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the ICARUS detector at the CNGS beam, arXiv:1203.3433 [78] Randall, Lisa; Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions, p. 286: "People initially thought of tachyons as particles travelling faster than the speed of light...But we now know that a tachyon indicates an instability in a theory that contains it. Regrettably for science fiction fans, tachyons are not real physical particles that appear in nature." [79] Gates, S. James. Superstring Theory: The DNA of Reality. [80] Chodos, A.; Hauser, A. I.; and Kosteleck, V. Alan; The Neutrino As A Tachyon, Physics Letters B 150, 431 (1985) [81] Chodos, Alan; Kosteleck, V. Alan; IUHET 280 (1994). "Nuclear Null Tests for Spacelike Neutrinos". Physics Letters B 336 (34): 295302. arXiv:hep-ph/9409404. Bibcode1994PhLB..336..295C. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(94)90535-5. [82] Chodos, Alan; Kosteleck, V. Alan; Potting, R.; and Gates, E.; Null experiments for neutrino masses, Modern Physics Letters A7, 467 (1992) [83] List of articles on the tachyonic neutrino idea (may be incomplete) (http:/ / inspirebeta. net/ search?ln=en& p=refersto:recid:15887). InSPIRE database. http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ hep-ph/ 0208239] [84] Chang, Taso; Parity Violation and Neutrino Mass, Nuclear Science and Techniques, Vol. 13, No. 3 (2002) 129 [85] Hughes, R. J.; and Stephenson, G. J., Jr.; Against tachyonic neutrinos, Physics Letters B 244, 95-100 (1990) [86] Gimon, Eric G.; Hoava, Petr (2004). "Over-rotating black holes, Gdel holography and the hypertube". arXiv:hep-th/0405019[hep-th]. [87] Magueijo, Joo; Albrecht, Andreas (1999). "A time varying speed of light as a solution to cosmological puzzles". Physical Review D 59 (4). arXiv:astro-ph/9811018. Bibcode1999PhRvD..59d3516A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.59.043516. [88] "SI base units" (http:/ / physics. nist. gov/ cuu/ Units/ units. html). . [89] "constants" (http:/ / math. ucr. edu/ home/ baez/ constants. html). .
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References
Falla, D. F.; Floyd, M. J. (2002). "Superluminal motion in astronomy". European Journal of Physics 23: 6981. Bibcode2002EJPh...23...69F. doi:10.1088/0143-0807/23/1/310. Kaku, Michio (2008). "Faster than Light". Physics of the Impossible. Allen Lane. pp.197215. ISBN978-0-7139-9992-1. Nimtz, Gnter (2008). Zero Time Space. Wiley-VCH. ISBN978-3-527-40735-4. Cramer, J. G. (2009). "Faster-than-Light Implications of Quantum Entanglement and Nonlocality". In Millis, M. G.; et al.. Frontiers of Propulsion Science. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. pp.509529. ISBN1-56347-956-7.
External links
Scientific links
Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam (http://iysn.org/2011/10/ 19/measurement-of-the-neutrino-velocity-with-the-opera-detector-in-the-cngs-beam/) Encyclopedia of laser physics and technology on "superluminal transmission" (http://www.rp-photonics.com/ superluminal_transmission.html), with more details on phase and group velocity, and on causality July 22, 1997, The New York Times Company: Signal Travels Farther and Faster Than Light (http://dustbunny. physics.indiana.edu/~dzierba/HonorsF97/Week1/NYTJuly22.html) Markus Pssel: Faster-than-light (FTL) speeds in tunneling experiments: an annotated bibliography (http://www. aei-potsdam.mpg.de/~mpoessel/Physik/FTL/tunnelingftl.html) Alcubierre, Miguel; The Warp Drive: Hyper-Fast Travel Within General Relativity, Classical and Quantum Gravity 11 (1994), L73L77 (http://www.yellowknife.com/warp/) A systemized view of superluminal wave propagation (http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/ publications/PIE_withayachumnankul2010.pdf) Relativity and FTL Travel FAQ (http://www.physicsguy.com/ftl/index.html) Usenet Physics FAQ: is FTL travel or communication Possible? (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ Relativity/SpeedOfLight/FTL.html)
Faster-than-light Superluminal (http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Superluminal.html) Relativity, FTL and causality (http://www.theculture.org/rich/sharpblue/archives/000089.html) Superluminal velocity (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006PrGeo..21...38Y) fusing with Einstein special relativity Stimulated Generation of Superluminal Light Pulses via Four-Wave Mixing (http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/ v108/i17/e173902)
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Origin
In a 1992 paper, Hawking uses the metaphorical device of a "Chronology Protection Agency" as a personification of the aspects of physics which make time travel impossible at macroscopic scales, thus apparently preventing time paradoxes. He says: It seems that there is a Chronology Protection Agency which prevents the appearance of closed timelike curves and so makes the universe safe for historians. The idea of the Chronology Protection Agency appears to be drawn playfully from the Time Patrol or Time Police concept present in works of science fiction such as Isaac Asimov's novel The End of Eternity.
Quantum corrections
Many attempts to generate scenarios for closed timelike curves have been suggested, and the theory of general relativity does allow them in certain circumstances (for example, it would allow for a time machine constructed from a wormhole see Wormholes and time travel). But attempts to incorporate quantum effects into general relativity using semiclassical gravity seem to make it plausible that vacuum fluctuations would drive the energy density on the boundary of the time machine (the Cauchy horizon of the region where closed timelike curves become possible) to infinity, destroying the time machine at the instant it was created or at least preventing anyone outside it from entering it. The question then arises: is this apparent censorship of closed timelike curves a global constraint of physics, in the same way as a conservation law, or is it a series of accidental coincidences? A definite theoretical decision on the status of the chronology protection conjecture would require a full theory of quantum gravity as opposed to the semiclassical arguments that have been mainly used to support it (there are also some arguments from string theory which seem to support chronology protection, but string theory is not yet a complete theory of quantum gravity). Experimental observation of closed timelike curves would of course
Chronology protection conjecture demonstrate this conjecture to be false, but short of that, if physicists had a theory of quantum gravity whose predictions had been well-confirmed in other areas, this would give them a significant degree of confidence in the theory's predictions about the possibility or impossibility of time travel. Other proposals which allow for backwards time travel but prevent time paradoxes, such as the Novikov self-consistency principle which would ensure the timeline stays consistent, or the idea that a time traveler is taken to a parallel universe while his original timeline remains intact, do not qualify as "chronology protection".
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References
Hawking, S.W., (1992) The chronology protection conjecture. Phys. Rev. D46, 603-611. Matt Visser, "The quantum physics of chronology protection" [2] in The Future of Theoretical Physics and Cosmology: Celebrating Stephen Hawking's 60th Birthday by G. W. Gibbons (Editor), E. P. S. Shellard (Editor), S. J. Rankin (Editor) Li-Xin Li, "Must Time Machine Be Unstable against Vacuum Fluctuations?" [3], Class.Quant.Grav. 13 (1996) 2563-2568.
External links
http://www.hawking.org.uk/index.php/lectures/63 http://plus.maths.org/content/time-travel-allowed Kip Thorne discusses time travel in general relativity, and the basis in quantum physics for the chronology protection conjecture
References
[1] http:/ / dx. doi. org/ 10. 1007/ s10701-008-9254-9 [2] http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ gr-qc/ 0204022 [3] http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ gr-qc/ 9703024
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Philosophy
Philosophy of space and time
Philosophy of space and time is the branch of philosophy concerned with the issues surrounding the ontology, epistemology, and character of space and time. While such ideas have been central to philosophy from its inception, the philosophy of space and time was both an inspiration for and a central aspect of early analytic philosophy. The subject focuses on a number of basic issues, includingbut not limited towhether or not time and space exist independently of the mind, whether they exist independently of one another, what accounts for time's apparently unidirectional flow, whether times other than the present moment exist, and questions about the nature of identity (particularly the nature of identity over time).
Philosophy of space and time " The temporal series of past events cannot be an actual infinite." Both arguments were adopted by later Christian philosophers and theologians, and the second argument in particular became more famous after it was adopted by Immanuel Kant in his thesis of the first antinomy concerning time.[6] In the early 11th century, the Muslim physicist, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen or Alhazen), discussed space perception and its epistemological implications in his Book of Optics (1021). His experimental proof of the intromission model of vision led to changes in the way the visual perception of space was understood, contrary to the previous emission theory of vision supported by Euclid and Ptolemy. In "tying the visual perception of space to prior bodily experience, Alhacen unequivocally rejected the intuitiveness of spatial perception and, therefore, the autonomy of vision. Without tangible notions of distance and size for correlation, sight can tell us next to nothing about such things."[7]
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Philosophy of space and time of the water will become concave. If the bucket is stopped, the water will continue to spin, and while the spin continues the surface will remain concave. The concave surface is apparently not the result of the interaction of the bucket and the water, since the water is flat when the bucket first starts to spin, becomes concave as the water starts to spin, and remains concave as the bucket stops. In this response, Clarke argues for the necessity of the existence of absolute space to account for phenomena like rotation and acceleration that cannot be accounted for on a purely relationalist account. Clarke argues that since the curvature of the water occurs in the rotating bucket as well as in the stationary bucket containing spinning water, it can only be explained by stating that the water is rotating in relation to the presence of some third thingabsolute space. Leibniz describes a space that exists only as a relation between objects, and which has no existence apart from the existence of those objects. Motion exists only as a relation between those objects. Newtonian space provided the absolute frame of reference within which objects can have motion. In Newtons system the frame of reference exists independently of the objects which are contained in it. These objects can be described as moving in relation to space itself. For many centuries, the evidence of a concave water surface held authority.
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Mach
Another important figure in this debate is 19th century physicist, Ernst Mach. While he did not deny the existence of phenomena like that seen in the bucket argument, he still denied the absolutist conclusion by offering a different answer as to what the bucket was rotating in relation to: the fixed stars. Mach suggested that thought experiments like the bucket argument are problematic. If we were to imagine a universe that only contains a bucket, on Newtons account, this bucket could be set to spin relative to absolute space, and the water it contained would form the characteristic concave surface. But, in the absence of anything else in the universe it would be difficult to confirm that the bucket was indeed spinning. It seems equally possible that the surface of the water in the bucket would remain flat. Mach argued that, in effect, the water experiment in an otherwise empty universe would remain flat. But if another object was introduced into this universe, perhaps a distant star, there is now something relative to which the bucket could be seen as rotating. The water inside the bucket could possibly have a slight curve. To account for the curve that we observe, an increase in the number of objects in the universe also increases the curvature in the water. Mach argued that the momentum of an object, whether angular or linear, exists as a result of the sum of the effects of other objects in the universe (Mach's Principle).
Einstein
Albert Einstein proposed that relativistics are based on the principle of relativity. This theory holds that the rules of physics must be the same for all observers, regardless of the frame of reference that is used, and that light propagates at the same speed in all reference frames. This theory was motivated by Maxwells equations. These equations show that electromagnetic waves propagate in a vacuum at the speed of light. However, Maxwell's equations give no indication of what this speed is relative to. Prior to Einstein, it was thought that this speed was relative to a fixed medium, called the luminiferous ether. In contrast, the theory of special relativity postulates that light propagates at the speed of light in all inertial frames, and examines the implications of this postulate. All attempts to measure any speed relative to this ether failed, which can be seen as a confirmation of Einstein's postulate that light propagates at the same speed in all reference frames. Special relativity is a formalization of the principle of relativity which does not contain a privileged inertial frame of reference such as the luminiferous ether or absolute space, from which Einstein inferred that no such frame exists. Einstein generalized relativity to frames of reference that were non-inertial. He achieved this by positing the Equivalence Principle, which states that the force felt by an observer in a given gravitational field and that felt by an observer in an accelerating frame of reference are indistinguishable. This led to the conclusion that the mass of an
Philosophy of space and time object warps the geometry of the space-time surrounding it, as described in Einsteins field equations. In classical physics, an inertial reference frame is one in which an object that experiences no forces does not accelerate. In general relativity, an inertial frame of reference is one that is following a geodesic of space-time. An object that moves against a geodesic experiences a force. An object in free fall does not experience a force, because it is following a geodesic. An object standing on the earth, however, will experience a force, as it is being held against the geodesic by the surface of the planet. In light of this, the bucket of water rotating in empty space will experience a force because it rotates with respect to the geodesic. The water will become concave, not because it is rotating with respect to the distant stars, but because it is rotating with respect to the geodesic. Einstein partially advocates Machs principle in that distant stars explain inertia because they provide the gravitational field against which acceleration and inertia occur. But contrary to Leibniz account, this warped space-time is as integral a part of an object as are its other defining characteristics such as volume and mass. If one holds, contrary to idealist beliefs, that objects exist independently of the mind, it seems that Relativistics commits them to also hold that space and temporality have exactly the same type of independent existence.
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Conventionalism
The position of conventionalism states that there is no fact of the matter as to the geometry of space and time, but that it is decided by convention. The first proponent of such a view, Henri Poincar, reacting to the creation of the new non-euclidean geometry, argued that which geometry applied to a space was decided by convention, since different geometries will describe a set of objects equally well, based on considerations from his sphere-world. This view was developed and updated to include considerations from relativistic physics by Hans Reichenbach. Reichenbach's conventionalism, applying to space and time, focuses around the idea of coordinative definition. Coordinative definition has two major features. The first has to do with coordinating units of length with certain physical objects. This is motivated by the fact that we can never directly apprehend length. Instead we must choose some physical object, say the Standard Metre at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (International Bureau of Weights and Measures), or the wavelength of cadmium to stand in as our unit of length. The second feature deals with separated objects. Although we can, presumably, directly test the equality of length of two measuring rods when they are next to one another, we can not find out as much for two rods distant from one another. Even supposing that two rods, whenever brought near to one another are seen to be equal in length, we are not justified in stating that they are always equal in length. This impossibility undermines our ability to decide the equality of length of two distant objects. Sameness of length, to the contrary, must be set by definition. Such a use of coordinative definition is in effect, on Reichenbach's conventionalism, in the General Theory of Relativity where light is assumed, i.e. not discovered, to mark out equal distances in equal times. After this setting of coordinative definition, however, the geometry of spacetime is set. As in the absolutism/relationalism debate, contemporary philosophy is still in disagreement as to the correctness of the conventionalist doctrine. While conventionalism still holds many proponents, cutting criticisms concerning the coherence of Reichenbach's doctrine of coordinative definition have led many to see the conventionalist view as untenable.
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Historical frameworks
A further application of the modern mathematical methods, in league with the idea of invariance and covariance groups, is to try to interpret historical views of space and time in modern, mathematical language. In these translations, a theory of space and time is seen as a manifold paired with vector spaces, the more vector spaces the more facts there are about objects in that theory. The historical development of spacetime theories is generally seen to start from a position where many facts about objects are incorporated in that theory, and as history progresses, more and more structure is removed. For example, Aristotle's theory of space and time holds that not only is there such a thing as absolute position, but that there are special places in space, such as a center to the universe, a sphere of fire, etc. Newtonian spacetime has absolute position, but not special positions. Galilean spacetime has absolute acceleration, but not absolute position or velocity. And so on.
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Holes
With the general theory of relativity, the traditional debate between absolutism and relationalism has been shifted to whether or not spacetime is a substance, since the general theory of relativity largely rules out the existence of, e.g., absolute positions. One powerful argument against spacetime substantivalism, offered by John Earman is known as the "hole argument". This is a technical mathematical argument but can be paraphrased as follows: Define a function d as the identity function over all elements over the manifold M, excepting a small neighbourhood H belonging to M. Over H d comes to differ from identity by a smooth function. With use of this function d we can construct two mathematical models, where the second is generated by applying d to proper elements of the first, such that the two models are identical prior to the time t=0, where t is a time function created by a foliation of spacetime, but differ after t=0. These considerations show that, since substantivalism allows the construction of holes, that the universe must, on that view, be indeterministic. Which, Earman argues, is a case against substantivalism, as the case between determinism or indeterminism should be a question of physics, not of our commitment to substantivalism.
Philosophy of space and time The application of these ideas of form and functional capacity only dictates temporal direction in relation to complex scenarios involving specific, non-metaphysical agency which is not merely dependent on human perception of time. However, this last observation in itself is not sufficient to invalidate the implications of the example for the progressive nature of time in general.
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Philosophy of space and time arguments against the A-series and tries to construct the A-series out of the B-series, for example, by temporal indexicals.
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Dualities
Quantum field theory models have shown that it is possible for theories in two different spacetime backgrounds, like AdS/CFT or T-duality, to be equivalent.
Notes
[1] Dagobert Runes, Dictionary of Philosophy, p. 318 [2] Atuq Eusebio Manga Qespi, Instituto de lingstica y Cultura Amerindia de la Universidad de Valencia. Pacha: un concepto andino de espacio y tiempo (http:/ / revistas. ucm. es/ ghi/ 05566533/ articulos/ REAA9494110155A. PDF). Revsta espaola de Antropologa Americana, 24, p. 155-189. Edit. Complutense, Madrid. 1994 [3] Stephen Hart, Peruvian Cultural Studies:Work in Progress (http:/ / www. ucl. ac. uk/ spanish-latinamerican/ Resources/ Peru_cult) [4] Paul Richard Steele, Catherine J. Allen, Handbook of Inca mythology, p. 86, (ISBN 1-57607-354-8) [5] St. Augustine, Confessions, Book 11. http:/ / ccat. sas. upenn. edu/ jod/ augustine/ Pusey/ book11 (Accessed 5/26/07). [6] Craig, William Lane (June 1979), "Whitrow and Popper on the Impossibility of an Infinite Past", The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 30 (2): 165170 [1656], doi:10.1093/bjps/30.2.165 [7] Smith, A. Mark (2005), "The Alhacenian Account Of Spatial Perception And Its Epistemological Implications", Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press) 15 (02): 21940, doi:10.1017/S0957423905000184 [8] Borchert, D.M. (2006) Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd Ed. Vol. 9. MI: Cengage Learning. P. 468.
Zade, Allan (2011) Z-Theory and Its Applications. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4520-1893-5
Philosophy of space and time Albert, David (2000) Time and Chance. Harvard Univ. Press. Dainton, Barry (2010) Time and Space, Second Edition. McGill-Queens University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-3747-7 Earman, John (1989) World Enough and Space-Time. MIT Press. Friedman, Michael (1983) Foundations of Space-Time Theories. Princeton Univ. Press. Grunbaum, Adolf (1974) Philosophical Problems of Space and Time, 2nd ed. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol XII. D. Reidel Publishing Horwich, Paul (1987) Asymmetries in Time. MIT Press. Lucas, John Randolph, 1973. A Treatise on Time and Space. London: Methuen. Mellor, D.H. (1998) Real Time II. Routledge. Hans Reichenbach (1958) The Philosophy of Space and Time. Dover Hans Reichenbach (1991) The Direction of Time. University of California Press. Rochelle, Gerald (1998) Behind Time. Ashgate. Lawrence Sklar (1976) Space, Time, and Spacetime. University of California Press. Turetzky, Philip (1998) Time. Routledge. Bas Van Fraassen, 1970. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Space and Time. Random House. Gal-Or, Benjamin "Cosmology, Physics and Philosophy". Springer-Verlag, New York, 1981, 1983, 1987 ISBN 0-387-90581-2
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External links
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: " Time (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/)" by Ned Markosian; " Being and Becoming in Modern Physics (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-bebecome/)" by Steven Savitt; " Absolute and Relational Theories of Space and Motion (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ spacetime-theories/)" by Nick Huggett and Carl Hoefer. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: " Time (http://www.iep.utm.edu/t/time.htm)" by Bradley Dowden. Brown, C.L., 2006, " What is Space?" (http://www.unrestrictedphilosophy.com) A largely Wittgensteinian, approach towards a dissolution of the question: "What is space?" Rea, M. C., " Four Dimensionalism (http://www.nd.edu/~mrea/papers/Four Dimensionalism.pdf)" in The Oxford Handbook for Metaphysics. Oxford Univ. Press. Describes presentism and four-dimensionalism. CEITT - Time and Temporality Research Center. " Time and Temporality (http://ceitt.com/index-en.html)". http://www.exactspent.com/philosophy_of_space_and_time.htm and related subjects " Gods and the Universe in Buddhist Perspective (http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh180-p.html), Essays on Buddhist Cosmology" by Francis Story.
Eternalism
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Eternalism
Eternalism is a philosophical approach to the ontological nature of time, which takes the view that all points in time are equally "real", as opposed to the presentist idea that only the present is real.[1] Modern advocates often take inspiration from the way time is modeled as a dimension in the theory of relativity, giving time a similar ontology to that of space (although the basic idea dates back at least to McTaggart's B-Theory of time, first published in The Unreality of Time in 1908, only three years after the first paper on relativity). This would mean that time is just another dimension, that future events are "already there", and that there is no objective flow of time. It is sometimes referred to as the "block time" or "block universe" theory due to its description of space-time as an unchanging four-dimensional "block",[2] as opposed to the view of the world as a three-dimensional space modulated by the passage of time.
Simultaneity
Special relativity has shown that the concept of simultaneity is not universal: observers in different frames of reference can have different perceptions of whether a given pair of events happened at the same time or at different times, with there being no physical basis for preferring one frame's judgments over another's (though in a case where one event A happens in the past light cone of another event B, all frames will agree that A happened in the past of B). So, in special relativity there can be no physical basis for picking out a unique set of events that are all happening simultaneously in "the present".
Rate of flow
The concept of "time passing" can be considered to be internally inconsistent, by asking "how much time goes by in an hour?" However, the question could be no different from "how much space is contained in a meter?" all measurements being equally arbitrary.
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McTaggart's argument
In The Unreality of Time, J. M. E. McTaggart divided time into an A-series and a B-series, with the A-series describing events in absolute tensed terms (past, present, and future) and the B-series describing events in terms of untensed temporal relations (before and after). He went on to argue that the A-series was logically incoherent and should be discarded, and that the B-series was insufficient for a proper understanding of time. He endorsed the C-series instead, which is a fixed, changeless (and therefore timeless), non-directional ordering of events. While McTaggart concluded that time is unreal, various philosophers and physicists have held that the remaining B-series is all that is needed for a complete theory of time, sometimes referred to as the B-Theory of time.
Philosophical objections
Philosophers such as John Lucas argue that "The Block universe gives a deeply inadequate view of time. It fails to account for the passage of time, the pre-eminence of the present, the directedness of time and the difference between the future and the past"[3] The comment summarizes the main objections. In more detail, they are:
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Relation to physics
Eternalism takes its inspiration from physics, especially the Rietdijk-Putnam argument, in which the relativity of simultaneity is used to show that each point in the universe can have a different set of events that are in its present moment. According to Presentism this is impossible because there is only one present moment that is instantaneous and encompasses the entire universe. Some philosophers also appeal to a specific theory which is "timeless" in a more radical sense than the rest of physics, the theory of quantum gravity. This theory is used, for instance, in Julian Barbour's theory of timelessness.[4] On the other hand, George Ellis argues that time is absent in cosmological theories because of the details they leave out.[5]
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In fiction
Eternalism is a major theme in Kurt Vonneguts novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. The Tralfamadorians, an alien species in the novel, have a four-dimensional sight and can therefore see all points in time simultaneously. They explain that since all moments exist simultaneously, everyone is always alive. The hero, Billy Pilgrim, lives his life out of sequence, which, among other things, means that his point of death occurs at a random point in his life rather than at the end of it. Eternalism also appears in the comic book series Watchmen by Alan Moore. In one chapter, Dr. Manhattan explains how he perceives time. Since past, present, and future events all occur at the "same time" for him, he speaks about them all in the present tense. For example, he says "Forty years ago, cogs rain on Brooklyn" referring to an event in his youth when his father throws old watch parts out a window. His last line of the series is "Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends."
External links
Biswas; Shaw; Modak (1999). "Time in Quantum Gravity". Int.J.Mod.Phys. D10 (2001) 595-606 10 (4): 595. arXiv:gr-qc/9906010. doi:10.1142/S0218271801001384. Davies, Paul (September 2002). "That Mysterious Flow". Scientific American 287 (3): 4045. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0902-40. Dorato,Mauro - Kant, Godel and Relativity (http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/638/) Markosian, Ned (2002). "Time: 8. The 3D/4D Controversy" (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/#3D4Con). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 2006-12-20. Nikolic, Hrvoje. "Block time: Why many physicists still don't accept it?" (http://fqxi.org/data/ essay-contest-files/Nikolic_FQXi_time.pdf). Petkov, Vesselin (2005). "Is There an Alternative to the Block Universe View?" (http://Philsci-Archive.Pitt. EDU/archive/00002408/) (PDF). PhilSci Archive. Retrieved 2006-12-20. Duda, J (2009). "Four-dimensional understanding of quantum mechanics". arXiv:0910.2724/.
Determinism
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Determinism
Determinism is a philosophy stating that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. Different versions of this theory depend upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and events, asserting that these hold without exception. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have sprung from diverse motives and considerations, some of which overlap. They can be understood in relation to their historical significance and alternative theories. Some forms of determinism can be tested empirically with ideas stemming from physics and the philosophy of physics. The opposite of determinism is some kind of indeterminism (otherwise called nondeterminism). Determinism is often contrasted with free will. Determinism is often taken to mean simply causal determinism: an idea known in physics as cause-and-effect. It is the concept that events within a given paradigm are bound by causality in such a way that any state (of an object or event) is completely determined by prior states. This can be distinguished from other varieties of determinism mentioned below. Other debates often concern the scope of determined systems, with some maintaining that the entire universe (or multiverse) is a single determinate system and others identifying other more limited determinate systems. Within numerous historical debates, many varieties and philosophical positions on the subject of determinism exist. This includes debates concerning human action and free will, where opinions might be sorted as compatibilistic and incompatibilistic. Determinism should not be confused with self-determination of human actions by reasons, motives, and desires. Determinism rarely requires that perfect prediction be practically possible - only prediction in theory.
Varieties
Below are some of the more common viewpoints meant by, or confused with "Determinism". Causal (or Nomological) determinism[1] and related Predeterminism propose that there is an unbroken chain of prior occurrences stretching back to the origin of the universe. The relation between events may not be specified, nor the origin of that universe. Causal determinists believe that there is nothing uncaused or self-caused. Quantum mechanics poses a serious challenge to this view (see 'Arguments' section below). Causal determinism is sometimes illustrated by the thought experiment of Laplace's demon. Historical determinism (a sort of path dependence) can also be synonymous with causal determinism. Necessitarianism is very related to the causal determinism described above. It is a metaphysical principle that denies all mere possibility; there is exactly one way for the world to be. Leucippus claimed there were no uncaused events, and that everything occurs for a reason and by necessity.[2]
Many philosophical theories of determinism frame themselves with the idea that reality follows a sort of predetermined path
Fatalism is normally distinguished from "determinism".[3] Fatalism is the idea that everything is fated to happen, so that humans have no control over their future. Notice that fate has arbitrary power. Fate also need not follow any causal or otherwise deterministic laws.[1] Types of Fatalism include Theological determinism and the idea of predestination, where there is a God who determines all that humans will do. This may be accomplished either by knowing their actions in advance, via some form of omniscience[4] or by decreeing their actions in advance.[5] Logical determinism or Determinateness is the notion that all propositions, whether about the past, present, or future, are either true or false. Note that one can support Causal Determinism without necessarily supporting Logical Determinism and vice versa (depending on one's views on the nature of time, but also randomness). The problem of free will is especially salient now with Logical Determinism: how can choices be free, given that propositions about the future already have a truth value in the present (i.e. it is already determined as either true or false)? This is
Determinism referred to as the problem of future contingents. Often synonymous with Logical Determinism are the ideas behind Spatio-temporal Determinism or Eternalism: the view of special relativity. J. J. C. Smart, a proponent of this view, uses the term "tenselessness" to describe the simultaneous existence of past, present, and future. In physics, the "block universe" of Hermann Minkowski and Albert Einstein assumes that time is a fourth dimension (like the three spatial dimensions). In other words, all the other parts of time are real, like the city blocks up and down a street, although the order in which they appear depends on the driver (see RietdijkPutnam argument). Adequate determinism is the idea that quantum indeterminacy can be ignored fact that, even without a full for most macroscopic events. This is because of quantum decoherence. Random understanding of microscopic physics, we can predict the distribution of 1000 quantum events "average out" in the limit of large numbers of particles (where coin tosses the laws of quantum mechanics asymptotically approach the laws of classical mechanics).[6] Stephen Hawking explains a similar idea: he says that the microscopic world of quantum mechanics is one of determined probabilities. That is, quantum effects rarely alter the predictions of classical mechanics, which are quite accurate (albeit still not perfectly certain) at larger scales.[7] Something as large as an animal cell, then, would be "adequately determined" (even in light of quantum indeterminacy).
Adequate determinism focuses on the
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Behaviorism is the idea that all behavior can be traced to specific causeseither environmental or reflexive. This Nurture-focused determinism was developed by John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. Cultural determinism or social determinism is the nurture-focused theory that it is the culture in which we are raised that determines who we are.
Environmental determinism is also known as climatic or geographical determinism. It holds the view that the physical environment, rather than social conditions, determines culture. Supporters often also support Behavioral determinism. Key proponents of this notion have included Ellen Churchill Semple, Ellsworth Huntington, Thomas Griffith Taylor and possibly Jared Diamond, although his status as an environmental determinist is debated.[9]
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Factor priority
Other 'deterministic' theories actually seek only to highlight the importance of a particular factor in predicting the future. These theories often use the factor as a sort of guide or constraint on the future. They need not suppose that complete knowledge of that one factor would allow us to make perfect predictions. Psychological determinism can mean that humans must act according to reason, but it can also be synonymous with some sort of Psychological egoism. The latter is the view that humans will always act according to their perceived best interest. Linguistic determinism claims that our language determines (at least limits) the things we can think and say and thus know. The SapirWhorf hypothesis argues that individuals experience the world based on the grammatical structures they habitually use. Economic determinism is the theory which attributes primacy to the economic structure over politics in the development of human history. It is associated with the dialectical materialism of Karl Marx.
A technological determinist might suggest that technology, like the mobile phone, is the greatest factor shaping human civilization.
Technological determinism is a reductionist theory that presumes that a society's technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values. Media determinism, a subset of technological determinism, is a philosophical and sociological position which posits the power of the media to impact society. Two leading media determinists are the Canadian scholars Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan.
Metaphysical Libertarianism (free will, and no determinism) a position not to be confused with the more commonly cited Political Libertarianism. Hard Determinism (Determinism, and no free will). Hard Indeterminism (No Determinism, and no free will either). Thus, although many Determinists are Compatibilists, calling someone a 'Determinist' is often done to denote the 'Hard Determinist' position. The Standard argument against free will, according to philosopher J. J. C. Smart focuses on the implications of Determinism for 'free will'.[10] He suggests that, if determinism is true, all our actions are predicted and we are not free; if determinism is false, our actions are random and still we do not seem free.
Determinism In his book, The Moral Landscape, author and neuroscientist Sam Harris mentions some ways that determinism and modern scientific understanding might challenge the idea of a contra-causal free will. He offers one thought experiment where a mad scientist represents determinism. In Harris' example, the mad scientist uses a machine to control all the desires, and thus all the behaviour, of a particular human. Harris believes that it is no longer as tempting, in this case, to say the victim has "free will". Harris says nothing changes if the machine controls desires at random - the victim still seems to lack free will. Harris then argues that we are also the victims of such unpredictable desires (but due to the unconscious machinations of our brain, rather than those of a mad scientist). This implicitly assumes a philosophy of materialism, which could be disputed along with Harris's hard determinism. Based on this introspection, he writes "This discloses the real mystery of free will: if our experience is compatible with its utter absence, how can we say that we see any evidence for it in the first place?"[11] adding that "Whether they are predictable or not, we do not cause our causes."[12] That is, he believes there is compelling evidence of absence of free will. Research has found that reducing a person's belief in free will can make them less helpful and more aggressive.[13] This could occur because the individual's sense of Self-efficacy suffers.
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Determinism
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History
Some of the main philosophers who have dealt with this issue are Marcus Aurelius, Omar Khayym, Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, David Hume, Baron d'Holbach (Paul Heinrich Dietrich), Pierre-Simon Laplace, Arthur Schopenhauer, William James, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and, more recently, John Searle, Ted Honderich, and Daniel Dennett. Mecca Chiesa notes that the probabilistic or selectionistic determinism of B.F. Skinner comprised a wholly separate conception of determinism that was not mechanistic at all. Mechanistic determinism assumes that every event has an unbroken chain of prior occurrences, but a selectionistic or probabilistic model does not.[17][18]
Eastern tradition
The idea that the entire universe is a deterministic system has been articulated in both Eastern and non-Eastern religion, philosophy, and literature. In I Ching and Philosophical Taoism, the ebb and flow of favorable and unfavorable conditions suggests the path of least resistance is effortless (see wu wei). In the philosophical schools of India, the concept of precise and continual effect of laws of Karma on the existence of all sentient beings is analogous to western deterministic concept. Karma is the concept of "action" or "deed" in Indian religions. It is understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called sasra) originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist philosophies. Karma is considered predetermined and deterministic in the universe, with the exception of a human, who through free will can influence the future. See Karma in Hinduism.
Western tradition
The notion of determinism was introduced into the West through the adoption of the Abrahamic religions. The Christian concept of predestination led to the first Western debates over determinism, an issue that is known in theology as the paradox of free will. The Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides said of the determinstic implications of an omniscient god:[19] "Does God know or does He not know that a certain individual will be good or bad? If thou sayest 'He knows', then it necessarily follows that [that] man is compelled to act as God knew beforehand he would act, otherwise God's knowledge would be imperfect."[20] Determinism in the West is often associated with Newtonian physics, which depicts the physical matter of the universe as operating according to a set of fixed, knowable laws. The "billiard ball" hypothesis, a product of Newtonian physics, argues that once the initial conditions of the universe have been established, the rest of the history of the universe follows inevitably. If it were actually possible to have complete knowledge of physical matter and all of the laws governing that matter at any one time, then it would be theoretically possible to compute the time and place of every event that will ever occur (Laplace's demon). In this sense, the basic particles of the universe operate in the same fashion as the rolling balls on a billiard table, moving and striking each other in predictable ways to produce predictable results. Whether or not it is all-encompassing in so doing, Newtonian mechanics deals only with caused events, e.g.: If an object begins in a known position and is hit dead on by an object with some known velocity, then it will be pushed straight toward another predictable point. If it goes somewhere else, the Newtonians argue, one must question one's measurements of the original position of the object, the exact direction of the striking object, gravitational or other fields that were inadvertently ignored, etc. Then, they maintain, repeated experiments and improvements in accuracy will always bring one's observations closer to the theoretically predicted results. When dealing with situations on an ordinary human scale, Newtonian physics has been so enormously successful that it has no competition. But it fails spectacularly as velocities become some substantial fraction of the speed of light and when interactions at the atomic scale are studied. Before the discovery of quantum effects and other challenges to Newtonian physics, "uncertainty"
Determinism was always a term that applied to the accuracy of human knowledge about causes and effects, and not to the causes and effects themselves. Newtonian mechanics as well as any following physical theories are results of observations and experiments, and so they describe "how it all works" within a tolerance. However, old western scientists believed if there are any logical connections found between an observed cause and effect, there must be also some absolute natural laws behind. Belief in perfect natural laws driving everything, instead of just describing what we should expect, led to searching for a set of universal simple laws that rule the world. This movement significantly encouraged deterministic views in western philosophy.[21]
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Modern perspectives
Cause and effect
Since the early twentieth century when astronomer Edwin Hubble first hypothesized that redshift shows the universe is expanding, prevailing scientific opinion has been that the current state of the universe is the result of a process described by the Big Bang. Many theists and deists claim that it therefore has a finite age, pointing out that something cannot come from nothing (the definition of nothing, however, is problematic at the most arcane level of physics). The big bang does not describe from where the compressed universe came; instead it leaves the question open. Different astrophysicists hold different views about precisely how the universe originated (Cosmogony). The philosophical argument here would be that the big bang triggered every single action, and possibly mental thought, through the system of cause and effect.
Generative processes
Although it was once thought by scientists that any indeterminism in quantum mechanics occurred at too small a scale to influence biological or neurological systems, there is evidence that nervous systems are indeterministic. It is unclear what implications this has for free will given various possible reactions to the standard problem in the first place.[22] Certainly not all biologists grant determinism: Christof Koch argues against it, and in favour of libertarian free will, by making arguments based on Generative processes (emergence).[23] Other proponents of emergentist or generative philosophy, cognitive sciences and evolutionary psychology, argue that determinism is true.[24][25][26][27] They suggest instead that an illusion of free will is experienced due to the generation of infinite behaviour from the interaction of finite-deterministic set of rules and parameters. Thus the unpredictability of the emerging behaviour from deterministic processes leads to a perception of free will, even though free will as an ontological entity does not exist.[24][25][26][27] Certain experiments looking at the Neuroscience of free will can be said to support this possibility. As an illustration, the strategy board-games chess and Go have rigorous rules in which no information (such as cards' face-values) is hidden from either player and no random events (such as dice-rolling) happen within the game. Yet, chess and especially Go with its extremely simple deterministic rules, can still have an extremely large number of unpredictable moves. By this analogy, it is suggested, the experience of free will emerges from the interaction of finite rules and deterministic In Conway's Game of Life, the parameters that generate nearly infinite and practically unpredictable behaviour. In interaction of just 4 simple rules theory, if all these events were accounted for, and there were a known way to creates patterns that seem evaluate these events, the seemingly unpredictable behaviour would become somehow "alive". [24][25][26][27] predictable. Another hands-on example of generative processes is John Horton Conway's playable Game of Life.[28] Nassim Taleb is wary of such models, and coined the term "Ludic fallacy".
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Mathematical models
Many mathematical models of physical systems are deterministic. This is true of most models involving differential equations (notably, those measuring rate of change over time). Mathematical models that are not deterministic because they involve randomness are called stochastic. Because of sensitive dependence on initial conditions, some deterministic models may appear to behave non-deterministically; in such cases, a deterministic interpretation of the model may not be useful due to numerical instability and a finite amount of precision in measurement. Such considerations can motivate the consideration of a stochastic model even though the underlying system is governed by deterministic equations.[29][30][31]
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This is where statistical mechanics come into play, and where physicists begin to require rather unintuitive mental models: A particle's path simply cannot be exactly specified in its full quantum description. "Path" is a classical, practical attribute in our every day life, but one which quantum particles do not meaningfully possess. The probabilities discovered in quantum mechanics do nevertheless arise from measurement (of the perceived path of the particle). As Stephen Hawking explains, the result is not traditional determinism, but rather determined probabilities.[35] In some cases, a quantum particle may indeed trace an exact path, and the probability of finding the particles in that path is one. In fact, as far as prediction goes, the quantum development is at least as predictable as the classical motion, but the key is that it describes wave functions that cannot be easily expressed in ordinary language. As far as the thesis of determinism is concerned, these probabilities, at least, are quite determined. These findings from quantum mechanics have found many applications, and allow us to build transistors and lasers. Put another way: personal computers, Blu-ray players and the internet all work because humankind discovered the determined probabilities of the quantum world.[] None of that should be taken to imply that other aspects of quantum mechanics are not still up for debate. On the topic of predictable probabilities, the double-slit experiments are a popular example. Photons are fired one-by-one through a double-slit apparatus at a distant screen. Curiously, they do not arrive at any single point, nor even the two points lined up with the slits (the way you might expect of bullets fired by a fixed gun at a Although it is not possible to distant target). Instead, the light arrives in varying concentrations at widely predict the trajectory of any one separated points, and the distribution of its collisions with the target can be particle, they all obey determined calculated reliably. In that sense the behavior of light in this apparatus is probabilities which do permit deterministic, but there is no way to predict where in the resulting interference some prediction. pattern any individual photon will make its contribution (although, there may be ways to use weak measurement to acquire more information without violating the Uncertainty principle). Some (including Albert Einstein) argue that our inability to predict any more than probabilities is simply due to ignorance.[36] The idea is that, beyond the conditions and laws we can observe or deduce, there are also hidden factors or "hidden variables" that determine absolutely in which order photons reach the detector screen. They argue that the course of the universe is absolutely determined, but that humans are screened from knowledge of the determinative factors. So, they say, it only appears that things proceed in a merely probabilistically determinative way. In actuality, they proceed in an absolutely deterministic way. These matters continue to be subject to some dispute. A critical finding was that quantum mechanics can make statistical predictions which would be violated if local hidden variables really existed. There have been a number of experiments to verify such predictions, and so far they do not appear to be violated. This would suggest there are no hidden variables, although many physicists believe better experiments are needed to conclusively settle the issue (see also Bell test experiments). Furthermore, it is possible to augment quantum mechanics with non-local hidden variables to achieve a deterministic theory that is in agreement with experiment. An example is the Bohm interpretation of quantum mechanics. This debate is relevant because it is easy to imagine specific situations in which the arrival of an electron at a screen at a certain point and time would trigger one event, whereas its arrival at another point would trigger an entirely different event (e.g. see Schrdinger's cat - a thought experiment used as part of a deeper debate). Thus, the world of quantum physics casts reasonable doubt on the traditional determinism that is so intuitive in classical, Newtonian physics. At the small scales, our reality does not seem to be absolutely determined. Yet this was precisely the subject of the famous BohrEinstein debates between Einstein and Niels Bohr. There is still no
Determinism consensus. In the meantime, humans continue to benefit from the fact that reality obeys determined probabilities at the quantum scale. Such adequate determinism (see Varieties, above) is the reason that Stephen Hawking calls Libertarian free will "just an illusion".[35] Compatibilistic free will (which is deterministic) may be the only kind of "free will" that can exist. However, Daniel Dennett, in his book Elbow Room, says that this means we have the only kind of free will "worth wanting". For even more discussion, see Free will. Other matters of quantum determinism All uranium found on earth is thought to have been synthesized during a supernova explosion that occurred roughly 5 billion years ago. Even before the laws of quantum mechanics were developed to their present level, the radioactivity of such elements has posed a challenge to determinism due to its unpredictability. One gram of uranium-238, a commonly occurring radioactive substance, contains some 2.5 x 1021 atoms. Each of these atoms are identical and indistinguishable according to all tests known to modern science. Yet about 12600 times a second, one of the atoms in that gram will Chaotic radioactivity is the next decay, giving off an alpha particle. The challenge for determinism is to explanatory challenge for physicists explain why and when decay occurs, since it does not seem to depend on supporting determinism external stimulus. Indeed, no extant theory of physics makes testable predictions of exactly when any given atom will decay. At best scientists can discover determined probabilities in the form of the element's half life. The time dependent Schrdinger equation gives the first time derivative of the quantum state. That is, it explicitly and uniquely predicts the development of the wave function with time.
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So if the wave function itself is reality (rather than probability of classical coordinates), quantum mechanics can be said to be deterministic. Since we have no practical way of knowing the exact magnitudes, and especially the phases, in a full quantum mechanical description of the causes of an observable event, this turns out to be philosophically similar to the "hidden variable" doctrine. According to some, quantum mechanics is more strongly ordered than Classical Mechanics, because while Classical Mechanics is chaotic (appears random, specifically due to minor details - perhaps at a smaller scale), quantum mechanics is not. For example, the classical problem of three bodies under a force such as gravity is not integrable, while the quantum mechanical three body problem is tractable and integrable, using the Faddeev Equations. This does not mean that quantum mechanics describes the world as more deterministic, unless one already considers the wave function to be the true reality. Even so, this does not get rid of the probabilities, because we can't do anything without using classical descriptions, but it assigns the probabilities to the classical approximation, rather than to the quantum reality. Asserting that quantum mechanics is deterministic by treating the wave function itself as reality implies a single wave function for the entire universe, starting at the origin of the universe. Such a "wave function of everything" would carry the probabilities of not just the world we know, but every other possible world that could have evolved. For example, large voids in the distributions of galaxies are believed by many cosmologists to have originated in quantum fluctuations during the big bang. (See cosmic inflation and primordial fluctuations.) If so, the "wave function of everything" would carry the possibility that the region where our Milky Way galaxy is located could have been a void and the Earth never existed at all. (See large-scale structure of the cosmos.)
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Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ incompatibilism-arguments/ Leucippus, Fragment 569 - from Fr. 2 Actius I, 25, 4 SEP, Causal Determinism (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ determinism-causal/ ) Fischer, John Martin (1989) God, Foreknowledge and Freedom. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 1-55786-857-3 Watt, Montgomery (1948) Free-Will and Predestination in Early Islam. London:Luzac & Co. The Information Philosopher website (http:/ / www. informationphilosopher. com/ freedom/ adequate_determinism. html), "Adequate Determinism", from the site: "We are happy to agree with scientists and philosophers who feel that quantum effects are for the most part negligible in the macroscopic world. We particularly agree that they are negligible when considering the causally determined will and the causally determined actions set in motion by decisions of that will." [7] Grand Design (2010), page 32: "the molecular basis of biology shows that biological processes are governed by the laws of physics and chemistry and therefore are as determined as the orbits of the planets.", and page 72: "Quantum physics might seem to undermine the idea that nature is governed by laws, but that is not the case. Instead it leads us to accept a new form of determinism: Given the state of a system at some time, the laws of nature determine the probabilities of various futures and pasts rather than determining the future and past with certainty." (emphasis in original, discussing a Many worlds interpretation) [8] de Melo-Martn I (2005). "Firing up the nature/nurture controversy: bioethics and genetic determinism". J Med Ethics 31 (9): 52630. doi:10.1136/jme.2004.008417. PMC1734214. PMID16131554. [9] Andrew, Sluyter. "Neo-Environmental Determinism, Intellectual Damage Control, and Nature/Society Science". Antipode 4 (35). [10] J. J. C. Smart, "Free-Will, Praise and Blame,"Mind, July 1961, p.293-4. [11] Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape (2010), pg.216, note102 [12] Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape (2010), pg.217, note109 [13] Baumeister RF, Masicampo EJ, Dewall CN. (2009). Prosocial benefits of feeling free: disbelief in free will increases aggression and reduces helpfulness. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 35(2):260-8. PMID 19141628 doi:10.1177/0146167208327217 [14] By 'soul' in the context of (1) is meant an autonomous immaterial agent that has the power to control the body but not to be controlled by the body (this theory of determinism thus conceives of conscious agents in dualistic terms). Therefore the soul stands to the activities of the individual agent's body as does the creator of the universe to the universe. The creator of the universe put in motion a deterministic system of material entities that would, if left to themselves, carry out the chain of events determined by ordinary causation. But the creator also provided for souls that could exert a causal force analogous to the primordial causal force and alter outcomes in the physical universe via the acts of their bodies. Thus, it emerges that no events in the physical universe are uncaused. Some are caused entirely by the original creative act and the way it plays itself out through time, and some are caused by the acts of created souls. But those created souls were not created by means of physical processes involving ordinary causation. They are another order of being entirely, gifted with the power to modify the original creation. However, determinism is not necessarily limited to matter; it can encompass energy as well. The question of how these immaterial entities can act upon material entities is deeply involved in what is generally known as the mind-body problem. It is a significant problem which philosophers have not reached agreement about [15] Free Will (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ freewill/ ) [16] van Inwagen, Peter (2009). The Powers of Rational Beings: Freedom of the Will. Oxford. [17] Chiesa, Mecca (2004) Radical Behaviorism: The Philosophy & The Science. [18] Ringen, J. D. (1993). Adaptation, teleology, and selection by consequences. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 60,315. (http:/ / www. pubmedcentral. nih. gov/ articlerender. fcgi?artid=1322142) [19] Though Moses Maimonides was not arguing against the existence of God, but rather for the incompatibility between the full exercise by God of his omniscience and genuine human free will, his argument is considered by some as affected by Modal Fallacy. See, in particular, the article by Prof. Norman Swartz for Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Foreknowledge and Free Will (http:/ / www. iep. utm. edu/ f/ foreknow. htm) and specifically Section 6: The Modal Fallacy (http:/ / www. iep. utm. edu/ f/ foreknow. htm#section6) [20] The Eight Chapters of Maimonides on Ethics (Semonah Perakhim), edited, annotated, and translated with an Introduction by Joseph I. Gorfinkle, pp. 99100. (New York: AMS Press), 1966. [21] Swartz, Norman (2003) The Concept of Physical Law / Chapter 10: Free Will and Determinism ( http:/ / www. sfu. ca/ philosophy/ physical-law/ ) [22] Lewis, E.R.; MacGregor, R.J. (2006). "On Indeterminism, Chaos, and Small Number Particle Systems in the Brain" (http:/ / www. eecs. berkeley. edu/ ~lewis/ LewisMacGregor. pdf). Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 5 (2): 223247. doi:10.1142/S0219635206001112. . [23] Koch, Christof (September 2009). "Free Will, Physics, Biology and the Brain". In Murphy, Nancy; Ellis, George; O'Connor, Timothy. Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will. New York, USA: Springer. ISBN978-3-642-03204-2. [24] Kenrick, D. T., Li, N. P., & Butner, J. (2003) "Dynamical evolutionary psychology: Individual decision rules and emergent social norms," Psychological Review 110: 328. [25] Nowak A., Vallacher R.R., Tesser A., Borkowski W., (2000) "Society of Self: The emergence of collective properties in self-structure," Psychological Review 107. [26] Epstein J.M. and Axtell R. (1996) Growing Artificial Societies - Social Science from the Bottom. Cambridge MA, MIT Press. [27] Epstein J.M. (1999) Agent Based Models and Generative Social Science. Complexity, IV (5) [28] John Conway's Game of Life (http:/ / www. bitstorm. org/ gameoflife/ )
Determinism
[29] Werndl, Charlotte (2009). Are Deterministic Descriptions and Indeterministic Descriptions Observationally Equivalent? (http:/ / dx. doi. org/ 10. 1016/ j. shpsb. 2009. 06. 004). Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40, 232-242. [30] Werndl, Charlotte (2009). Deterministic Versus Indeterministic Descriptions: Not That Different After All? (http:/ / philsci-archive. pitt. edu/ archive/ 00004775/ ). In: A. Hieke and H. Leitgeb (eds), Reduction, Abstraction, Analysis, Proceedings of the 31st International Ludwig Wittgenstein-Symposium. Ontos, 63-78. [31] J. Glimm, D. Sharp, Stochastic Differential Equations: Selected Applications in Continuum Physics, in: R.A. Carmona, B. Rozovskii (ed.) Stochastic Partial Differential Equations: Six Perspectives, American Mathematical Society (October 1998) (ISBN 0-8218-0806-0). [32] "Struggling with quantum logic: Q&A with Aaron O'Connell (http:/ / blog. ted. com/ 2011/ 06/ 02/ struggling-with-quantum-logic-qa-with-aaron-oconnell/ ?utm_content=awesm-bookmarklet& utm_medium=on. ted. com-static& utm_source=facebook. com) [33] Scientific American, "What is Quantum Mechanics Good For?" (http:/ / www. scientificamerican. com/ article. cfm?id=everyday-quantum-physics) [34] Mone, Gregory (October 2004). "Cult Science Dressing Up Mysticism as Quantum Physics" (http:/ / www. popsci. com/ scitech/ article/ 2004-10/ cult-science). Popular Science. . Retrieved 2008-02-17. [35] Grand Design (2010), page 32: "the molecular basis of biology shows that biological processes are governed by the laws of physics and chemistry and therefore are as determined as the orbits of the planets...so it seems that we are no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion", and page 72: "Quantum physics might seem to undermine the idea that nature is governed by laws, but that is not the case. Instead it leads us to accept a new form of determinism: Given the state of a system at some time, the laws of nature determine the probabilities of various futures and pasts rather than determining the future and past with certainty." (discussing a Many worlds interpretation) [36] Albert Einstein insisted that, "I am convinced God does not play dice" in a private letter to Max Born, 4 December 1926, Albert Einstein Archives (http:/ / www. alberteinstein. info/ db/ ViewDetails. do?DocumentID=38009) reel 8, item 180
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External links
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Causal Determinism (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ determinism-causal/) Determinism in History (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv2-02) from the Dictionary of the History of Ideas Philosopher Ted Honderich's Determinism web resource (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/dfwIntroIndex.htm) Determinism on Information Philosopher (http://www.informationphilosopher.com/freedom/determinism. html) An Introduction to Free Will and Determinism (http://www.galilean-library.org/int13.html) by Paul Newall, aimed at beginners. The Society of Natural Science (http://www.determinism.com) Determinism and Free Will in Judaism (http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?AID=3017)
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Free will
Free will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long been debated in philosophy. Historically, the constraint of dominant concern has been the metaphysical constraint of determinism. The two main positions within that debate are metaphysical libertarianism, the claim that determinism is false and thus that free will exists (or is at least possible); and hard determinism, the claim that determinism is true and thus that free will does not exist. Both of these positions, which agree that causal determination is the relevant factor in the question of free will, are classed as incompatibilist. Positions that deny that determinism is relevant are classified as compatibilist, and offer various alternative explanations of what constraints are relevant, such as physical constraints (e.g. chains or imprisonment), social constraints (e.g. threat of punishment or censure), or psychological constraints (e.g. compulsions or phobias). In fact, compatibilists will often assert that determinism is not just compatible with free will, but actually necessary for it.
A domino's movement is determined completely by laws of physics. Incompatibilists say that this is a threat to free will, but compatibilists argue that, even if we are similar to dominoes, we can have a form of free will.
The principle of free will has religious, ethical, and scientific implications. For example, in the religious realm, free will implies that individual will and choices can coexist with an omnipotent divinity. In ethics, it may hold implications for whether individuals can be held morally accountable for their actions. In science, neuroscientific findings regarding free will may suggest different ways of predicting human behavior.
A simplified taxonomy of the most important philosophical positions regarding free will.
In Western philosophy
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Incompatibilism
Incompatibilism is the position that free will and determinism are logically incompatible, and that the major question regarding whether or not people have free will is thus whether or not their actions are determined. "Hard determinists", such as Martin Luther and d'Holbach, are those incompatibilists who accept determinism and reject free will. "Metaphysical libertarians", such as Thomas Reid, Peter van Inwagen, and Robert Kane, are those incompatibilists who accept free will and deny determinism, holding the view that some form of indeterminism is true.[1] Another view is that of hard incompatibilists, which state that free will is incompatible with both determinism and indeterminism. This view is defended by Derk Pereboom.[2]
Traditional arguments for incompatibilism are based on an "intuition pump": if a person is like other mechanical things that are determined in their behavior such as a wind-up toy, a billiard ball, a puppet, or a robot, then people must not have free will.[1][3] This argument has been rejected by compatibilists such as Daniel Dennett on the grounds that, even if humans have something in common with these things, it remains possible and plausible that we are different from such objects in important ways.[4] Another argument for incompatibilism is that of the "causal chain." Incompatibilism is key to the idealist theory of free will. Most incompatibilists reject the idea that freedom of action consists simply in "voluntary" behavior. They insist, rather, that free will means that man must be the "ultimate" or "originating" cause of his actions. He must be causa sui, in the traditional phrase. To be responsible for one's choices is to be the first cause of those choices, where first cause means that there is no antecedent cause of that cause. The argument, then, is that if man has free will, then man is the ultimate cause of his actions. If determinism is true, then all of man's choices are caused by events and facts outside his control. So, if everything man does is caused by events and facts outside his control, then he cannot be the ultimate cause of his actions. Therefore, he cannot have free will.[5][6][7] This argument has also been challenged by various compatibilist philosophers.[8][9] A third argument for incompatibilism was formulated by Carl Ginet in the 1960s and has received much attention in the modern literature. The simplified argument runs along these lines: if determinism is true, then we have no control over the events of the past that determined our present state and no control over the laws of nature. Since we can have no control over these matters, we also can have no control over the consequences of them. Since our present choices and acts, under determinism, are the necessary consequences of the past and the laws of nature, then we have no control over them and, hence, no free will. This is called the consequence argument.[10][11] Peter van Inwagen remarks that C.D. Broad had a version of the consequence argument as early as the 1930s.[12] The difficulty of this argument for compatibilists lies in the fact that it entails the impossibility that one could have chosen other than one has. For example, if Jane is a compatibilist and she has just sat down on the sofa, then she is committed to the claim that she could have remained standing, if she had so desired. But it follows from the consequence argument that, if Jane had remained standing, she would have either generated a contradiction, violated the laws of nature or changed the past. Hence, compatibilists are committed to the existence of "incredible abilities", according to Ginet and van Inwagen. One response to this argument is that it equivocates on the notions of abilities and necessities, or that the free will evoked to make any given choice is really an illusion and the choice had been made all along, oblivious to its "decider".[11] David Lewis suggests that compatibilists are only committed to the ability to do something otherwise if different circumstances had actually obtained in the past.[13]
Free will Hard determinism Determinism is a broad term with a variety of meanings. Corresponding to each of these different meanings, there arises a different problem of free will.[14] Hard determinism is a view on free will which holds that some form of determinism is true, and that it is incompatible with free will, and therefore that free will does not exist. Forms of determinism can include: Causal determinism states that future events are necessitated by past and present events combined with the laws of nature. Such determinism is sometimes illustrated by the thought experiment of Laplace's demon. Imagine an entity that knows all facts about the past and the present, and knows all natural laws that govern the universe. If the laws of nature were determinate, then such an entity would be able to use this knowledge to foresee the future, down to the smallest detail.[15] Logical determinism is the notion that all propositions, whether about the past, present or future, are either true or false. The problem of free will, in this context, is the problem of how choices can be free, given that what one does in the future is already determined as true or false in the present.[14] Theological determinism is the idea that God determines all that humans will do, either by knowing their actions in advance, via some form of omniscience[16] or by decreeing their actions in advance.[17] The problem of free will, in this context, is the problem of how our actions can be free if there is a being who has determined them for us in advance. Biological determinism is the idea that all behaviors, beliefs, and desires are fixed by our genetic endowment and our biochemical makeup, the latter of which is affected by both genes and environment. Other forms of determinism include: cultural determinism and psychological determinism.[14] Combinations and syntheses of determinist theses, e.g. bio-environmental determinism, are even more common.
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Free will Metaphysical libertarianism Metaphysical libertarianism is one philosophical position of incompatibilism. Libertarianism holds onto a concept of free will that implies the individual may be able to take more than one possible course of action under a set of circumstances. Accounts of libertarianism subdivide into non-physical theories and physical or naturalistic theories. Non-physical theories hold that the events in the brain that lead to the performance of actions do not have an entirely physical explanation, which requires that the world is not closed under physics. Such interactionist dualists believe that some non-physical mind, will, or soul overrides physical causality. Explanations of libertarianism that do not involve dispensing with [18] physicalism require physical Various definitions of free will that have been proposed, for both Compatibilism, and [19] [2] Incompatibilism (Hard Determinism, Hard Incompatibilism, Libertarianism indeterminism, such as probabilistic [20] [21] Traditional, and Libertarianism Volition ). Red circles represent mental states; subatomic particle behavior theory blue circles represent physical states; arrows describe causal interaction. unknown to many of the early writers on free will. Physical determinism, under the assumption of physicalism, implies there is only one possible future and is therefore not compatible with libertarian free will. Some libertarian explanations involve invoking panpsychism, the theory that a quality of mind is associated with all particles, and pervades the entire universe, in both animate and inanimate entities. Other approaches do not require free will to be a fundamental constituent of the universe; ordinary randomness is appealed to as supplying the "elbow room" believed to be necessary by libertarians. Free volition is regarded as a particular kind of complex, high-level process with an element of indeterminism. An example of this kind of approach has been developed by Robert Kane,[21] where he hypothesises that, In each case, the indeterminism is functioning as a hindrance or obstacle to her realizing one of her purposesa hindrance or obstacle in the form of resistance within her will which has to be overcome by effort. Although at the time C. S. Lewis wrote Miracles,[22] Quantum Mechanics (and physical indeterminism) was only in the initial stages of acceptance, he stated the logical possibility that if the physical world was proved to be indeterministic this would provide an entry (interaction) point into the traditionally viewed closed system, where a scientifically described physically probable/improbable event could be philosophically described as an action of a non-physical entity on physical reality.
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Free will Two-stage models In 1884 William James described a two-stage model of free will: in the first stage the mind develops random alternative possibilities for action, and in the second an adequately determined will selects one option. A number of other thinkers have since refined this idea, including Henri Poincar, Arthur Holly Compton, Karl Popper, Henry Margenau, Robert Kane, Alfred Mele, and Martin Heisenberg. Each of these models tries to reconcile libertarian free will with the existence of irreducible chance (today in the form of quantum indeterminacy), which threatens to make an agent's decision random, thus denying the control needed for responsibility. If a single event is caused by chance, then logically indeterminism would be "true." For centuries, philosophers have said this would undermine the very possibility of certain knowledge. Some go to the extreme of saying that real chance would make the whole state of the world totally independent of any earlier states. The Stoic Chrysippus said that a single uncaused cause could destroy the universe (cosmos), "Everything that happens is followed by something else which depends on it by causal necessity. Likewise, everything that happens is preceded by something with which it is causally connected. For nothing exists or has come into being in the cosmos without a cause. The universe will be disrupted and disintegrate into pieces and cease to be a unity functioning as a single system, if any uncaused movement is introduced into it." James said most philosophers have an "antipathy to chance."[23] His contemporary John Fiske described the absurd decisions that would be made if chance were real, "If volitions arise without cause, it necessarily follows that we cannot infer from them the character of the antecedent states of feeling. .. . The mother may strangle her first-born child, the miser may cast his long-treasured gold into the sea, the sculptor may break in pieces his lately-finished statue, in the presence of no other feelings than those which before led them to cherish, to hoard, and to create."[24] In modern times, J. J. C. Smart has described the problem of admitting indeterminism, "Indeterminism does not confer freedom on us: I would feel that my freedom was impaired if I thought that a quantum mechanical trigger in my brain might cause me to leap into the garden and eat a slug."[25] The challenge for two-stage models is to admit some indeterminism but not permit it to produce random actions, as determinists fear. And of course a model must limit determinism but not eliminate it as some libertarians think necessary. Two-stage models limit the contribution of random chance to the generation of alternative possibilities for action. But note that, in recent years, compatibilist analytic philosophers following Harry Frankfurt have denied the existence of alternative possibilities. They develop "Frankfurt-type examples" (thought experiments) in which they argue an agent is free even though no alternative possibilities exist, or the agent is prevented at the last moment by neuroscientific demons from "doing otherwise."[26] Hard incompatibilism John Locke denied that the phrase "free will" made any sense (compare with theological noncognitivism, a similar stance on the existence of God). He also took the view that the truth of determinism was irrelevant. He believed that the defining feature of voluntary behavior was that individuals have the ability to postpone a decision long enough to reflect or deliberate upon the consequences of a choice: "...the will in truth, signifies nothing but a power, or ability, to prefer or choose".[27]
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Free will The contemporary philosopher Galen Strawson agrees with Locke that the truth or falsity of determinism is irrelevant to the problem.[28] He argues that the notion of free will leads to an infinite regress and is therefore senseless. According to Strawson, if one is responsible for what one does in a given situation, then one must be responsible for the way one is in certain mental respects. But it is impossible for one to be responsible for the way one is in any respect. This is because to be responsible in some situation "S", one must have been responsible for the way one was at "S1". To be responsible for the way one was at "S1", one must have been responsible for the way one was at "S2", and so on. At some point in the chain, there must have been an act of origination of a new causal chain. But this is impossible. Man cannot create himself or his mental states ex nihilo. This argument entails that free will itself is absurd, but not that it is incompatible with determinism. Strawson calls his own view "pessimism" but it can be classified as hard incompatibilism.[28]
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Compatibilism
Compatibilists maintain that determinism is compatible with free will. It may, however, be more accurate to say that compatibilists define "free will" in a way that allows it to co-exist with determinism (in the same way that incompatibilists define "free will" such that it cannot). Compatibilists believe freedom can be present or absent in a situation for reasons that have nothing to do with metaphysics. For instance, courts of law make judgments about whether individuals are acting under their own free will under certain circumstances without bringing in metaphysics. Similarly, political liberty is a non-metaphysical concept. Likewise, compatibilists define free will as freedom to act according to one's determined motives without hindrance from other individuals. In contrast, the incompatibilist positions are concerned Thomas Hobbes was a classical compatibilist. with a sort of "metaphysically free will," which compatibilists claim has never been coherently defined. Compatibilists argue that determinism does not matter; what matters is that individuals' wills are the result of their own desires and are not overridden by some external force.[18][29] To be a compatibilist, one need not endorse any particular conception of free will, but only deny that determinism is at odds with free will.[30] Free will as lack of physical restraint Most "classical compatibilists", such as Thomas Hobbes, claim that a person is acting on the person's own will only when it is the desire of that person to do the act, and also for the person to be able to choose otherwise, if the person had decided to. Hobbes sometimes attributes such compatibilist freedom to each individual and not to some abstract notion of will, asserting, for example, that "no liberty can be inferred to the will, desire, or inclination, but the liberty of the man; which consisteth in this, that he finds no stop, in doing what he has the will, desire, or inclination to do."[29] In articulating this crucial proviso, David Hume writes, "this hypothetical liberty is universally allowed to belong to every one who is not a prisoner and in chains".[18] Free will as a psychological state "Modern compatibilists", such as Harry Frankfurt and Daniel Dennett, argue that there are cases where a coerced agent's choices are still free because such coercion coincides with the agent's personal intentions and desires.[4][31] Frankfurt, in particular, argues for a version of compatibilism called the "hierarchical mesh". The idea is that an individual can have conflicting desires at a first-order level and also have a desire about the various first-order desires (a second-order desire) to the effect that one of the desires prevails over the others. A person's will is to be identified with their effective first-order desire, i.e., the one that they act on. So, for example, there are "wanton
Free will addicts", "unwilling addicts" and "willing addicts." All three groups may have the conflicting first-order desires to want to take the drug to which they are addicted and to not want to take it. The first group, "wanton addicts", have no second-order desire not to take the drug. The second group, "unwilling addicts", have a second-order desire not to take the drug, while the third group, "willing addicts", have a second-order desire to take it. According to Frankfurt, the members of the first group are to be considered devoid of will and therefore no longer persons. The members of the second group freely desire not to take the drug, but their will is overcome by the addiction. Finally, the members of the third group willingly take the drug to which they are addicted. Frankfurt's theory can ramify to any number of levels. Critics of the theory point out that there is no certainty that conflicts will not arise even at the higher-order levels of desire and preference.[32] Others argue that Frankfurt offers no adequate explanation of how the various levels in the hierarchy mesh together.[33] Free will as unpredictability In Elbow Room, Dennett presents an argument for a compatibilist theory of free will, which he further elaborated in the book Freedom Evolves.[34] The basic reasoning is that, if one excludes God, an infinitely powerful demon, and other such possibilities, then because of chaos and epistemic limits on the precision of our knowledge of the current state of the world, the future is ill-defined for all finite beings. The only well-defined things are "expectations". The ability to do "otherwise" only makes sense when dealing with these expectations, and not with some unknown and unknowable future. According to Dennett, because individuals have the ability to act differently from what anyone expects, free will can exist.[34] Incompatibilists claim the problem with this idea is that we may be mere "automata responding in predictable ways to stimuli in our environment". Therefore, all of our actions are controlled by forces outside ourselves, or by random chance.[35] More sophisticated analyses of compatibilist free will have been offered, as have other critiques.[30] In the philosophy of decision theory, a fundamental question is: From the standpoint of statistical outcomes, to what extent do the choices of a conscious being have the ability to influence the future? Newcomb's paradox and other philosophical problems pose questions about free will and predictable outcomes of choices.
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Other views
Some philosophers' views are difficult to categorize as either compatibilist or incompatibilist, hard determinist or libertarian. For example, Ted Honderich holds the view that "determinism is true, compatibilism and incompatibilism are both false" and the real problem lies elsewhere. Honderich maintains that determinism is true because quantum phenomena are not events or things that can be located in space and time, but are abstract entities. Further, even if they were micro-level events, they do not seem to have any relevance to how the world is at the macroscopic level. He maintains that incompatibilism is false because, even if determinism is true, incompatibilists have not provided, and cannot provide, an adequate account of origination. He rejects compatibilism because it, like incompatibilism, assumes a single, fundamental notion of freedom. There are really two notions of freedom: voluntary action and origination. Both notions are required to explain freedom of will and responsibility. Both determinism and indeterminism are threats to such freedom. To abandon these notions of freedom would be to abandon moral responsibility. On the one side, we have our intuitions; on the other, the scientific facts. The "new" problem is how to resolve this conflict.[36]
Free will Free will as an illusion David Hume discussed the possibility that the entire debate about free will is nothing more than a merely "verbal" issue. He suggested that it might be accounted for by "a false sensation or seeming experience" (a velleity), which is associated with many of our actions when we perform them. On reflection, we realize that they were necessary and determined all along.[37] Arthur Schopenhauer put the puzzle of free will and moral responsibility in these terms: Everyone believes himself a priori to be perfectly free, even in his individual actions, and thinks that at every moment he can commence another manner of life. ... But a posteriori, through experience, he finds to his astonishment that he is not free, but subjected to necessity, that in spite of all his resolutions and reflections he does not change his conduct, and that from the beginning of his life to the end of it, he must carry out the very character which he himself condemns...[38] In his On the Freedom of the Will, Schopenhauer stated, "You can do what you will, but in any given moment of your life you can will only one definite thing and absolutely nothing other than that one thing."[39]
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Rudolf Steiner, who collaborated in a complete edition of Arthur Schopenhauer's work,[40] wrote The Philosophy of Freedom, which focuses on the problem of free will. Steiner (18611925) initially divides this into the two aspects of freedom: freedom of thought and freedom of action. He argues that inner freedom is achieved when we bridge the gap between our sensory impressions, which reflect the outer appearance of the world, and our thoughts, which give us access to the inner nature of the world. Acknowledging the many influences on our choice, he points to the impact of our becoming aware of just these determinants. Outer freedom is attained by permeating our deeds with moral imagination. Steiner aims to show that these two aspects of inner and outer freedom are integral to one another, and that true freedom is only achieved when they are united.[41] Free will as a pragmatically useful concept William James' views were ambivalent. While he believed in free will on "ethical grounds," he did not believe that there was evidence for it on scientific grounds, nor did his own introspections support it.[42] Moreover, he did not accept incompatibilism as formulated below; he did not believe that the indeterminism of human actions was a prerequisite of moral responsibility. In his work Pragmatism, he wrote that "instinct and utility between them can safely be trusted to carry on the social business of punishment and praise" regardless of metaphysical theories.[43] He did believe that indeterminism is important as a "doctrine of relief"it allows for the view that, although the world may be in many respects a bad place, it may, through individuals' actions, become a better one. Determinism, he argued, undermines meliorismthe idea that progress is a real concept leading to improvement in the world.[43]
Much of Arthur Schopenhauer's writing is focused on the notion of will and its relation to freedom.
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In science
Physics
Early scientific thought often portrayed the universe as deterministic for example in the thought of Democritus or the Crvkans and some thinkers claimed that the simple process of gathering sufficient information would allow them to predict future events with perfect accuracy. Modern science, on the other hand, is a mixture of deterministic and stochastic theories.[44] Quantum mechanics predicts events only in terms of probabilities, casting doubt on whether the universe is deterministic at all. Current physical theories cannot resolve the question of whether determinism is true of the world, being very far from a potential Theory of Everything, and open to many different interpretations.[45][46] Assuming that an indeterministic interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct, one may still object that such indeterminism is for all practical purposes confined to microscopic phenomena.[48] This is not always the case: many macroscopic phenomena are based on quantum effects. For instance, some hardware random number generators work by amplifying quantum effects into practically usable signals. A more significant question is whether the indeterminism of quantum mechanics allows for the traditional idea of free will (based on a perception of free will). If a person's action is the result of complete quantum randomness, however, this in itself would mean that such traditional free will does not exist (because the action was not controllable by the physical being who claims to possess the free will).[49]
Quantum mechanics defines probabilities to predict the behavior of particles, "rather than determining the future and past with certainty". Because the human brain is composed of particles, and their behavior is governed by the laws of nature, Stephen Hawking says that free will is "just an [47] illusion".
Under the assumption of physicalism it has been argued that the laws of quantum mechanics provide a complete probabilistic account of the motion of particles, regardless of whether or not free will exists.[50] Physicist Stephen Hawking describes such ideas in his 2010 book The Grand Design. According to Hawking, these findings from quantum mechanics suggest that humans are sorts of complicated biological machines; although our behavior is impossible to predict perfectly in practice, "free will is just an illusion."[47] In other words, Hawking thinks that only compatibilistic (deterministic) free will is possible based on the data. Erwin Schrdinger, a nobel laureate in physics and one of the founders of quantum mechanics, came to a different conclusion than Hawking. Near the end of his 1944 essay titled What Is Life? he says that there is "incontrovertible direct experience" that humans have free will. He also states that the human body is wholly or at least partially determined, leading him to conclude that "...'I' -am the person, if any, who controls the 'motion of the atoms' according to the Laws of Nature." He explains this position on free will by appealing to a notion of self that is emergent from the entire collection of atoms in his body, and other convictions about conscious experience. However, he also qualifies the conclusion as "necessarily subjective" in its "philosophical implications." Contrasting the views of Hawking and Schrdinger, it is clear that even among eminent physicists there is not unanimity regarding free will.
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Genetics
Like physicists, biologists have frequently addressed questions related to free will. One of the most heated debates in biology is that of "nature versus nurture", concerning the relative importance of genetics and biology as compared to culture and environment in human behavior.[51] The view of many researchers is that many human behaviors can be explained in terms of humans' brains, genes, and evolutionary histories.[52][53][54] This point of view raises the fear that such attribution makes it impossible to hold others responsible for their actions. Steven Pinker's view is that fear of determinism in the context of "genetics" and "evolution" is a mistake, that it is "a confusion of explanation with exculpation". Responsibility doesn't require behavior to be uncaused, as long as behavior responds to praise and blame.[55] Moreover, it is not certain that environmental determination is any less threatening to free will than genetic determination.[56]
Neuroscience
It has become possible to study the living brain, and researchers can now watch the brain's decision-making process at work. A seminal experiment in this field was conducted by Benjamin Libet in the 1980s, in which he asked each subject to choose a random moment to flick her wrist while he measured the associated activity in her brain; in particular, the build-up of electrical signal called the readiness potential (after German Bereitschaftspotential). Although it was well known that the readiness potential caused and preceded the physical action, Libet asked whether it could be recorded before the conscious intention to move. To determine when subjects felt the intention to move, he asked them to watch the second hand of a clock. After making a movement, the volunteer reported the time on the clock when they first felt the conscious intention to move; this became known as Libet's W time.[57] Libet found that the unconscious brain activity of the readiness potential leading up to subjects' movements began approximately half a second before the subject was aware of a conscious intention to move.[57][58] More studies have since been conducted, including some that try to: support Libet's original findings suggest that the cancelling or "veto" of an action may first arise subconsciously as well explain the underlying brain structures involved suggest models that explain the relationship between conscious intention and action
Free will recordable on the scalp several hundred milliseconds before the overt appearance of a spontaneous willed movement. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging with specialized multivariate analyses to study the temporal dimension in the activation of the cortical network associated with voluntary movement in human subjects, an anterior-to-posterior sequential activation process beginning in the supplementary motor area on the medial surface of the frontal lobe and progressing to the primary motor cortex and then to parietal cortex has been observed.[61] The sense of agency thus appears to normally emerge in conjunction with this orderly sequential network activation incorporating premotor association cortices together with primary motor cortex. In particular, the supplementary motor complex on the medial surface of the frontal lobe appears to activate prior to primary motor cortex presumably in associated with a preparatory pre-movement process. In a recent study using functional magnetic resonance imaging, alien movements were characterized by a relatively isolated activation of the primary motor cortex contralateral to the alien hand, while voluntary movements of the same body part included the concomitant activation of motor association cortex associated with the premotor process.[62] The clinical definition requires "feeling that one limb is foreign or has a will of its own, together with observable involuntary motor activity" (emphasis in original).[63] This syndrome is often a result of damage to the corpus callosum, either when it is severed to treat intractable epilepsy or due to a stroke. The standard neurological explanation is that the felt will reported by the speaking left hemisphere does not correspond with the actions performed by the non-speaking right hemisphere, thus suggesting that the two hemispheres may have independent senses of will.[64][65] Similarly, one of the most important ("first rank") diagnostic symptoms of schizophrenia is the delusion of being controlled by an external force.[66] People with schizophrenia will sometimes report that, although they are acting in the world, they did not initiate, or will, the particular actions they performed. This is sometimes likened to being a robot controlled by someone else. Although the neural mechanisms of schizophrenia are not yet clear, one influential hypothesis is that there is a breakdown in brain systems that compare motor commands with the feedback received from the body (known as proprioception), leading to attendant hallucinations and delusions of control.[67]
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Free will therefore have to say that any complex being has free will -- not as a fundamental feature, but as an effective theory, an admission of our inability do the calculations that would enable us to predict its actions. (p. 178)"
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Experimental psychology
Experimental psychology's contributions to the free will debate have come primarily through social psychologist Daniel Wegner's work on conscious will. In his book, The Illusion of Conscious Will[73] Wegner summarizes what he believes is empirical evidence supporting the view that human perception of conscious control is an illusion. Wegner summarizes some empirical evidence that may suggest that the perception of conscious control is open to modification (or even manipulation). Wegner observes that one event is inferred to have caused a second event when two requirements are met: 1. The first event immediately precedes the second event, and 2. The first event is consistent with having caused the second event. For example, if a person hears an explosion and sees a tree fall down that person is likely to infer that the explosion caused the tree to fall over. However, if the explosion occurs after the tree falls down (i.e., the first requirement is not met), or rather than an explosion, the person hears the ring of a telephone (i.e., the second requirement is not met), then that person is not likely to infer that either noise caused the tree to fall down. Wegner has applied this principle to the inferences people make about their own conscious will. People typically experience a thought that is consistent with a behavior, and then they observe themselves performing this behavior. As a result, people infer that their thoughts must have caused the observed behavior. However, Wegner has been able to manipulate people's thoughts and behaviors so as to conform to or violate the two requirements for causal inference.[73][74] Through such work, Wegner has been able to show that people will often experience conscious will over behaviors that they have in fact not caused, and conversely, that people can be led to experience a lack of will over behaviors that they did cause. For instance, priming subjects with information about an effect increases the probability that a person falsely believes to be the cause of it.[75] The implication for such work is that the perception of conscious will (which he says might be more accurately labelled as 'the emotion of authorship') is not tethered to the execution of actual behaviors, but is inferred from various cues through an intricate mental process, authorship processing. Although many interpret this work as a blow against the argument for free will, both psychologists[76][77] and philosophers[78][79] have criticized Wegner's theories. Emily Pronin has argued that the subjective experience of free will is supported by the introspection illusion. This is the tendency for people to trust the reliability of their own introspections while distrusting the introspections of other people. The theory implies that people will more readily attribute free will to themselves rather than others. This prediction has been confirmed by three of Pronin and Kugler's experiments. When college students were asked about personal decisions in their own and their roommate's lives, they regarded their own choices as less predictable. Staff at a restaurant described their co-workers' lives as more determined (having fewer future possibilities) than their own lives. When weighing up the influence of different factors on behavior, students gave desires and intentions the strongest weight for their own behavior, but rated personality traits as most predictive of other people.[80] Psychologists have shown that reducing a person's belief in free will makes them less helpful and more aggressive.[81] This may occur because the subject loses a sense of Self-efficacy.
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In Eastern philosophy
In Hindu philosophy
The six orthodox (astika) schools of thought in Hindu philosophy do not agree with each other entirely on the question of free will. For the Samkhya, for instance, matter is without any freedom, and soul lacks any ability to control the unfolding of matter. The only real freedom (kaivalya) consists in realizing the ultimate separateness of matter and self.[82] For the Yoga school, only Ishvara is truly free, and its freedom is also distinct from all feelings, thoughts, actions, or wills, and is thus not at all a freedom of will. The metaphysics of the Nyaya and Vaisheshika schools strongly suggest a belief in determinism, but do not seem to make explicit claims about determinism or free will.[83] A quotation from Swami Vivekananda, a Vedantist, offers a good example of the worry about free will in the Hindu tradition. Therefore we see at once that there cannot be any such thing as free-will; the very words are a contradiction, because will is what we know, and everything that we know is within our universe, and everything within our universe is moulded by conditions of time, space and causality. ... To acquire freedom we have to get beyond the limitations of this universe; it cannot be found here.[84] However, the preceding quote has often been misinterpreted as Vivekananda implying that everything is predetermined. What Vivekananda actually meant by lack of free will was that the will was not "free" because it was heavily influenced by the law of cause and effect"The will is not free, it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect, but there is something behind the will which is free."[84] Vivekananda never said things were absolutely determined and placed emphasis on the power of conscious choice to alter one's past karma: "It is the coward and the fool who says this is his fate. But it is the strong man who stands up and says I will make my own fate."[84]
In Buddhist philosophy
Buddhism accepts both freedom and determinism (or something similar to it), but rejects the idea of an agent, and thus the idea that freedom is a free will belonging to an agent.[85] According to the Buddha, "There is free action, there is retribution, but I see no agent that passes out from one set of momentary elements into another one, except the [connection] of those elements."[85] Buddhists believe in neither absolute free will, nor determinism. It preaches a middle doctrine, named pratitya-samutpada in Sanskrit, which is often translated as "inter-dependent arising". It is part of the theory of karma in Buddhism. The concept of karma in Buddhism is different from the notion of karma in Hinduism. In Buddhism, the idea of karma is much less deterministic. The Buddhist notion of karma is primarily focused on the cause and effect of moral actions in this life, while in Hinduism the concept of karma is more often connected with determining one's destiny in future lives. In Buddhism it is taught that the idea of absolute freedom of choice (i.e. that any human being could be completely free to make any choice) is unwise, because it denies the reality of one's physical needs and circumstances. Equally incorrect is the idea that humans have no choice in life or that their lives are pre-determined. To deny freedom would be to deny the efforts of Buddhists to make moral progress (through our capacity to freely choose compassionate action). Pubbekatahetuvada, the belief that all happiness and suffering arise from previous actions, is considered a wrong view according to Buddhist doctrines. Because Buddhists also reject agenthood, the traditional compatibilist strategies are closed to them as well. Instead, the Buddhist philosophical strategy is to examine the metaphysics of causality. Ancient India had many heated arguments about the nature of causality with Jains, Nyayists, Samkhyists, Crvkans, and Buddhists all taking slightly different lines. In many ways, the Buddhist position is closer to a theory of "conditionality" than a theory of "causality", especially as it is expounded by Nagarjuna in the Mlamadhyamakakrik.[85]
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In other theology
Further information: Free will in theology The theological doctrine of divine foreknowledge is often alleged to be in conflict with free will, particularly in Reformed circles. For if God knows exactly what will happen, right down to every choice one makes, the status of choices as free is called into question. If God had timelessly true knowledge about one's choices, this would seem to constrain one's freedom.[86] This problem is related to the Aristotelian problem of the sea battle: tomorrow there will or will not be a sea battle. If there will be one, then it seems that it was true yesterday that there would be one. Then it would be necessary that the sea battle will occur. If there won't be one, then by similar reasoning, it is necessary that it won't occur.[87] This means that the future, whatever it is, is completely fixed by past truthstrue propositions about the future. However, some philosophers follow William of Ockham in holding that necessity and possibility are defined with respect to a given point in time and a given matrix of empirical circumstances, and so something that is merely possible from the perspective of one observer may be necessary from the perspective of an omniscient.[88] Some philosophers follow Philo of Alexandria, a philosopher known for his homocentrism, in holding that free will is a feature of a human's soul, and thus that non-human animals lack free will.[89] Some views in Jewish philosophy stress that free will is a product of the intrinsic human soul, using the word neshama (from the Hebrew root n.sh.m. or . ..meaning "breath"), but the ability to make a free choice is through Yechida (from Hebrew word "yachid", ,singular), the part of the soul that is united with God, the only being that is not hindered by or dependent on cause and effect (thus, freedom of will does not belong to the realm of the physical reality, and inability of natural philosophy to account for it is expected). While there are other views of free will in Judaism, most share the same basic Kabbalah principles. In Islam the theological issue is not usually how to reconcile free will with God's foreknowledge, but with God's jabr, or divine commanding power. al-Ash'ari developed an "acquisition" or "dual-agency" form of compatibilism, in which human free will and divine jabr were both asserted, and which became a cornerstone of the dominant Ash'ari position.[90] In Shia Islam, Ash'aris understanding of a higher balance toward predestination is challenged by most theologians.[91] Free will, according to Islamic doctrine is the main factor for man's accountability in his/her actions throughout life. All actions taken by man's free will are said to be counted on the Day of Judgement because they are his/her own and not God's. The philosopher Sren Kierkegaard claimed that divine omnipotence cannot be separated from divine goodness.[92] As a truly omnipotent and good being, God could create beings with true freedom over God. Furthermore, God would voluntarily do so because "the greatest good ... which can be done for a being, greater than anything else that one can do for it, is to be truly free."[93] Alvin Plantinga's "free will defense" is a contemporary expansion of this theme, adding how God, free will, and evil are consistent.[94]
Free will Shaun Nichols have proposed that incompatibilism may or may not be intuitive, and that it is dependent to some large degree upon the circumstances; whether or not the crime incites an emotional response for example if it involves harming another human being.[97] They found that belief in free will is a cultural universal, and that the majority of participants said that (a) our universe is indeterministic and (b) moral responsibility is not compatible with determinism.[98] Studies have been conducted indicating that peoples' belief in free will appears to be inconsistent. Emily Pronin and Matthew Kugler have found that people believe they have more free will than others.[99] Studies have also been conducting indicating there exists a correlation between one's likelihood of accepting a deterministic model of mind, and their personality type. For example, Adam Feltz and Edward Cokely have found that people of an extrovert personality type are more likely to dissociate belief in determinism from belief in moral responsibility.[100] Roy Baumeister and colleagues reviewed literature on the psychological effects of a belief (or disbelief) in free will. The first part of their analysis (which is all that we are concerned with here) was not meant to discover which types of free will actually exist. The researchers instead sought to identify what other people believe, how many people believed it, and the effects of those beliefs. Baumeister found that most people tend to believe in a sort of "naive compatibilistic free will".[101][102] The researchers also found that people consider acts more "free" when they involve a person opposing external forces, planning, or making random actions.[103] Notably, the last behaviour, "random" actions, may not be possible; when participants attempt to perform tasks in a random manner (such as generating random numbers), their behaviour betrays many patterns.[104][105]
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Baumeister and colleagues found that provoking disbelief in free will seems to cause various negative effects. The authors concluded, in their paper, that it is belief in determinism that causes those negative effects.[101] This may not be a very justified conclusion, however.[106] First of all, free will can at least refer to either libertarian (indeterministic) free will or compatibilistic (deterministic) free will. Having participants read articles that simply "disprove free will" is unlikely to increase their understanding of determinism, or the compatibilistic free will that it still permits.[106] In other words, "provoking disbelief in free will" probably causes a belief in fatalism. As discussed earlier in this article, compatibilistic free will is illustrated by statements like "my choices have causes, and an effect so I affect my future", whereas fatalism is more like "my choices have causes, but no effect I am powerless". Fatalism, then, may be what threatens people's sense of self-efficacy. Lay people should not confuse fatalism with determinism, and yet even professional philosophers occasionally confuse the two. It is thus likely that the negative consequences below can be accounted for by participants developing a belief in fatalism when experiments attack belief in "free will".[106] To test the effects of belief in determinism, future studies would need to provide articles that do not simply "attack free will", but instead focus on explaining determinism and compatibilism. Some studies have been conducted indicating that people react strongly to the way in which mental determinism is described, when reconciling it with moral responsibility. Eddy Nahmias has noted that when peoples actions are framed with respect to their beliefs and desires (rather than their neurological underpinnings) they are more likely to dissociate determinism from moral responsibility.[107]
Free will Various social behavioural traits have been correlated with the belief in deterministic models of mind, some of which involved the experimental subjection of individuals to libertarian and deterministic perspectives. After researchers provoked volunteers to disbelieve in free will, participants lied, cheated, and stole more. Kathleen Vohs has found that those whose belief in free will had been eroded were more likely to cheat.[108] In a study conducted by Roy Baumeister, after participants read an article disproving free will, they were more likely to lie about their performance on a test where they would be rewarded with cash.[109] Provoking a rejection of free will has also been associated with increased aggression and less helpful behaviour[110][111] as well as mindless conformity.[112] Disbelief in free will can even cause people to feel less guilt about transgressions against others.[113] Baumeister and colleagues also note that volunteers disbelieving in free will are less capable of counterfactual thinking.[101][114] This is worrying because counterfactual thinking ("If I had done something different...") is an important part of learning from one's choices, including those that harmed others.[115] Again, this cannot be taken to mean that belief in determinism is to blame; these are the results we would expect from increasing people's belief in fatalism.[106] Along similar lines, Tyler Stillman has found that belief in free will predicts better job performance.[116]
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References
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Hawking, Stephen, and Mlodinow, Leonard, The Grand Design, New York, Bantam Books, 2010.
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Further reading
Bischof, Michael H. (2004). Kann ein Konzept der Willensfreiheit auf das Prinzip der alternativen Mglichkeiten verzichten? Harry G. Frankfurts Kritik am Prinzip der alternativen Mglichkeiten (PAP). In: Zeitschrift fr philosophische Forschung (ZphF), Heft 4. Dennett, Daniel C. (2003). Freedom Evolves. New York: Viking Press ISBN 0-670-03186-0 Epstein J.M. (1999). Agent Based Models and Generative Social Science. Complexity, IV (5). Gazzaniga, M. & Steven, M.S. (2004) Free Will in the 21st Century: A Discussion of Neuroscience and Law, in Garland, B. (ed.) Neuroscience and the Law: Brain, Mind and the Scales of Justice, New York: Dana Press, ISBN 1-932594-04-3, pp5170. Goodenough, O.R. (2004). "Responsibility and punishment". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 359 (1451): 18051809. doi:10.1098/rstb.2004.1548. Harnad, Stevan (2009) The Explanatory Gap (http://www.google.com/search?q=harnad+"explanatory+gap"+ site:http://philpapers.org/&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images) PhilPapers (http://philpapers. org/) Harnad, Stevan (2001). "No Easy Way Out" (http://cogprints.org/1624/). The Sciences 41 (2): 3642. Harnad, Stevan (1982). "Consciousness: An Afterthought" (http://cogprints.org/1570/). Cognition and Brain Theory 5: 2947. Hofstadter, Douglas. (2007) I Am A Strange Loop. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-03078-1 Kane, Robert (1998). The Significance of Free Will. New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-512656-4 Lawhead, William F. (2005). The Philosophical Journey: An Interactive Approach. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages ISBN 0-07-296355-7. Libet, Benjamin; Anthony Freeman; and Keith Sutherland, eds. (1999). The Volitional Brain: Towards a Neuroscience of Free Will. Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic. Collected essays by scientists and philosophers. Morris, Tom Philosophy for Dummies. IDG Books ISBN 0-7645-5153-1. Muhm, Myriam (2004). Abolito il libero arbitrio Colloquio con Wolf Singer. L'Espresso 19.08.2004 larchivio.org (http://www.larchivio.org/xoom/myriam-singer.htm) Nowak A., Vallacher R.R., Tesser A., Borkowski W. (2000). Society of Self: The emergence of collective properties in self-structure. Psychological Review. 107 Schopenhauer, Arthur (1839). On the Freedom of the Will., Oxford: Basil Blackwell ISBN 0-631-14552-4. Van Inwagen, Peter (1986). An Essay on Free Will. New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-824924-1. Velmans, Max (2003) How Could Conscious Experiences Affect Brains? Exeter: Imprint Academic ISBN 0-907845-39-8. Wegner, D. (2002). The Illusion of Conscious Will. Cambridge: Bradford Books Williams, Clifford (1980). Free Will and Determinism: A Dialogue. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co. John Baer, James C. Kaufman, Roy F. Baumeister (2008). Are We Free? Psychology and Free Will. Oxford University Press, New York ISBN 0-19-518963-9 Horst, Steven (2011), Laws, Mind, and Free Will. (http://www.themontrealreview.com/2009/ Freedom-and-the-laws-of-nature.php) (MIT Press) ISBN 0-262-01525-0
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External links
Free Will and Determinism (http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Philosophy/Metaphysics/ Free_Will_and_Determinism/) at the Open Directory Project Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries: "Free Will" (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/) "Incompatibilism" (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/incompatibilism-theories/) "Divine Foreknowledge and Free Will" (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/free-will-foreknowledge/) Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy "Foreknowledge and Free Will" (http://www.iep.utm.edu/foreknow/) by Norman Swartz. "Free Will" (http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/V014) by Galen Strawson in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy "Free Will" (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm) in Catholic Encyclopedia The Determinism and Freedom Philosophy Website (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/dfwIntroIndex.htm) edited by Ted Honderich "Freedom and the Laws of Nature" (http://www.themontrealreview.com/2009/ Freedom-and-the-laws-of-nature.php) by Steven Horst (The Montral Review) The Skeptics Dictionary on 'free will' (http://www.skepdic.com/freewill.html)
Jonathan Edwards's Freedom of the Will, slightly modified for easier reading (http://www.earlymoderntexts. com/f_edwards.html)
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Fiction
Time travel in fiction
Time travel is a common theme in science fiction and is depicted in a variety of media. It simply means either going forward in time or backward, to experience the future, or the past.
Literature
Time travel can form the central theme of a book, or it can be simply a plot device. Time travel in fiction can ignore the possible effects of the time traveler's actions, as in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, or it can use one resolution or another of the Grandfather paradox.
Time travel in fiction daughter grown up.[4] In the science fiction anthology Far Boundaries (1951), the editor August Derleth identifies the short story Missing One's Coach: An Anachronism, written for the Dublin University Magazine by an anonymous author in 1838, as a very early time travel story. In this story, the narrator is waiting under a tree to be picked up by a coach which will take him out of Newcastle, when he suddenly finds himself transported back over a thousand years, where he encounters the Venerable Bede in a monastery, and gives him somewhat ironic explanations of the developments of the coming centuries. It is never entirely clear whether these events actually occurred or were merely a dream. In 1843, the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol depicts Ebeneezer Scrooge being transported back and forth in time to points in his own lifetime by a series of ghosts to visit Christmases Past, Present and Future. The book Paris avant les hommes (Paris before Men) by the French botanist and geologist Pierre Boiterd, published posthumously in 1861, in which the main character is transported to various prehistoric settings by the magic of a "lame demon", and is able to actively interact with prehistoric life. The short story The Clock That Went Backward [6], written by editor Edward Page Mitchell appeared in the New York Sun in 1881, another early example of time travel in fiction. Looking Backward (1888) by Edward Bellamy and News from Nowhere (1890) by William Morris, which feature a protagonist who wakes up in a socialist utopian future.
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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) by Mark Twain. Tourmalin's Time Cheques (1891) by Thomas Anstey Guthrie (written under the pseudonym F. Anstey) was the first story to play with the paradoxes that time travel could cause. Golf in the Year 2000 (1892) by J. McCullough tells the story of an Englishman who fell asleep in 1892 and awakens in the year 2000. The focus of the book is how the game of golf would have changed by then, but many social and technological themes are also discussed along the way, including a device similar to television and women's equality.
Time travel in fiction The time travel motif also has an ideological function because it literally provides the necessary distancing effect that science fiction needs to be able to metaphorically address the most pressing issues and themes that concern people in the present. If the modern world is one where the individuals feel alienated and powerless in the face of bureaucratic structures and corporate monopolies, then time travel suggests that Everyman and Everybody is important to shaping history, to making a real and quantifiable difference to the way the world turns out. Sean Redmond,Liquid Metal: the science fiction film reader (2004)[9]
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References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Encyclopedia for Epics of Ancient India - Revati (http:/ / www. mythfolklore. net/ india/ encyclopedia/ revati. htm) Lord Balarama | Sri Mayapur (http:/ / mayapur. com/ node/ 1160/ ) "Choni HaMe'agel" (http:/ / www. jewishsearch. com/ article_395. html). Jewish search. . Retrieved November 6, 2009. Yorke, Christopher (February 2006), "Malchronia: Cryonics and Bionics as Primitive Weapons in the War on Time" (http:/ / jetpress. org/ volume15/ yorke-rowe. html), Journal of Evolution and Technology 15 (1): 7385, , retrieved 2009-08-29 Rosenberg, Donna (1997), Folklore, myths, and legends: a world perspective, McGraw-Hill, p.421, ISBN0-8442-5780-X http:/ / www. horrormasters. com/ Text/ a2221. pdf http:/ / dharma6. com http:/ / www. timekeepersbook. com Redmond, Sean (editor). Liquid Metal: the Science Fiction Film Reader. London: Wallflower Press, 2004.
External links
timelinks - the big list of time travel video, time travel movies, & time travel TV (http://www.aetherco.com/ timelinks/timevideo-thebiglist.html) - over 700 movies and television programs featuring time travel SciFan: Time Travel - Time Control - Time Warp (http://www.scifan.com/themes/themes. asp?TH_themeid=4&Items=) - list of over 2400 books featuring time travel Aparta Krystian. Conventional Models of Time and Their Extensions in Science Fiction (http://www.timetravel. 110mb.com) A master's thesis exploring conceptual blending in time travel. Andy's Anachronisms (http://www.timetravelreviews.com) - Exploring the themes of Time Travel and Alternate Universes in Literature and Entertainment Ultimate Time Travel (http://www.UltimateTimeTravel.com) - Reviewing books, movies and computer games that deal with concept of Time Travel Time Travel Movies (http://www.toptenz.net/top-ten-time-travel-movies.php) - Reviews and clips of the some more influential movies involving time travel.
Parallel universe
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Parallel universe
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality. While the terms "parallel universe" and "alternative reality" are generally synonymous and can be used interchangeably in most cases, there is sometimes an additional connotation implied with the term "alternative reality" that implies that the reality is a variant of our own. The term "parallel universe" is more general, without any connotations implying a relationship, or lack of relationship, with our own universe. A universe where the very laws of nature are different for example, one in which there are no relativistic limitations and the speed of light can be exceeded would in general count as a parallel universe but not an alternative reality. The correct quantum mechanical definition of parallel universes is "universes that are separated from each other by a single quantum event."
Introduction
Fantasy has long borrowed the idea of "another world" from myth, legend and religion. Heaven, Hell, Olympus, and Valhalla are all alternative universes different from the familiar material realm. Modern fantasy often presents the concept as a series of planes of existence where the laws of nature differ, allowing magical phenomena of some sort on some planes. This concept was also found in ancient Hindu mythology, in texts such as the Puranas, which expressed an infinite number of universes, each with its own gods.[1] Similarly in Persian literature, "The Adventures of Bulukiya", a tale in the One Thousand and One Nights, describes the protagonist Bulukiya learning of alternative worlds/universes that are similar to but still distinct from his own.[2] In other cases, in both fantasy and science fiction, a parallel universe is a single other material reality, and its co-existence with ours is a rationale to bring a protagonist from the author's reality into the fantasy's reality, such as in The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis or even the beyond-the-reflection travel in the two main works of Lewis Carroll. Or this single other reality can invade our own, as when Margaret Cavendish's English heroine sends submarines and "birdmen" armed with "fire stones" back through the portal from The Blazing World to Earth and wreaks havoc on England's enemies. In dark fantasy or horror the parallel world is often a hiding place for unpleasant things, and often the protagonist is forced to confront effects of this other world leaking into his own, as in most of the work of H. P. Lovecraft and the Doom computer game series, or Warhammer/40K miniature and computer games. In such stories, the nature of this other reality is often left mysterious, known only by its effect on our own world. The concept also arises outside the framework of quantum mechanics, as is found in Jorge Luis Borges short story El jardn de senderos que se bifurcan ("The Garden of Forking Paths"), published in 1941 before the many-worlds interpretation had been invented. In the story, a Sinologist discovers a manuscript by a Chinese writer where the same tale is recounted in several ways, often contradictory, and then explains to his visitor (the writer's grandson) that his relative conceived time as a "garden of forking paths", where things happen in parallel in infinitely branching ways. One of the first Sci-Fi examples is John Wyndham's Random Quest about a man who, on awaking after a laboratory accident, finds himself in a parallel universe where World War II never happened with consequences for his professional and personal life, giving him information he can use on return to his own universe. While this is a common treatment in Sci-Fi, it is by no means the only presentation of the idea, even in hard science fiction. Sometimes the parallel universe bears no historical relationship to any other world; instead, the laws of nature are simply different than those in our own, as in the novel Raft by Stephen Baxter, which posits a reality where the gravitational constant is much larger than in our universe. (Note, however, that Baxter explains later in Vacuum Diagrams that the protagonists in Raft are descended from people who came from the Xeelee Sequence universe.) One motif is that the way time flows in a parallel universe may be very different, so that a character returning to one might find the time passed very differently for those he left behind. This is found in folklore: King Herla visited
Parallel universe Fairy and returned three centuries later; although only some of his men crumbled to dust on dismounting, Herla and his men who did not dismount were trapped on horseback, this being one folkloric account of the origin of the Wild Hunt.[3] C. S. Lewis made use of this in the Chronicles of Narnia; indeed, a character points out to two skeptics that there is no need for the time between the worlds to match up, but it would be very odd for the girl who claims to have visited a parallel universe to have dreamed up such a different time flow.[4] The division between science fiction and fantasy becomes fuzzier than usual when dealing with stories that explicitly leave the universe we are familiar with, especially when our familiar universe is portrayed as a subset of a multiverse. Picking a genre becomes less a matter of setting, and more a matter of theme and emphasis; the parts of the story the author wishes to explain and how they are explained. Narnia is clearly a fantasy, and the TV series Sliders is clearly science fiction, but works like the World of Tiers series or Glory Road tend to occupy a much broader middle ground. Parallel universes are considered parallel because there is no way of reaching them. All other dimensions are not parallel, but more than likely most of them are. An Einstein Rosen bridge, or Wormhole, can take you to a different dimension. Note that the journey through space-time continuum could backwards age you, or wipe you from existence. More than likely, if you managed to get to the alternate dimension, then you would have no memory of how you got there. The dangers of time-space travel are still being investigated, and possibilities are growing. Typically, parallel universes fall into two classifications. The first may be more accurately called a "diverging universe" whereby two versions of Earth share a common history up to a point of divergence. At this point, the outcome of some even happens differently on the two Earths and the histories continue to become more different as time elapses since that point. (E.g. Parallels (Star Trek: The Next Generation). The second type is where despite certain, often large, difference between the two Earths history and/or culture, they maintain strong similarities. In such cases, it is common that every person in one universe will have a counterpart in the other universe with the same name, ancestry, appearance, and frequently occupation but often a very different personality. (e.g. Mirror, Mirror (Star Trek: The Original Series).
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Science fiction
While technically incorrect, and looked down upon by hard science-fiction fans and authors, the idea of another dimension has become synonymous with the term parallel universe. The usage is particularly common in movies, television and comic books and much less so in modern prose science fiction. The idea of a parallel world was first introduced in comic books with the publication of Flash #123 - "Flash of Two Worlds". In written science fiction, new dimensions more commonly and more accurately refer to additional coordinate axes, beyond the three spatial axes with which we are familiar. By proposing travel along these extra axes, which are not normally perceptible, the traveler can reach worlds that are otherwise unreachable and invisible. In 1884, Edwin A. Abbott wrote the seminal novel exploring this concept called Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. It describes a world of two dimensions inhabited by living squares, triangles, and circles, called Flatland, as well as Pointland (0 dimensions), Lineland (1 dimension), and Spaceland (three dimensions) and finally posits the possibilities of even greater dimensions. Isaac Asimov, in his foreword to the Signet Classics 1984 edition, described Flatland as "The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions." In 1895, The Time Machine by H. G. Wells used time as an additional dimension in this sense, taking the four-dimensional model of
Parallel universe classical physics and interpreting time as a space-like dimension in which humans could travel with the right equipment. Wells also used the concept of parallel universes as a consequence of time as the fourth dimension in stories like The Wonderful Visit and Men Like Gods, an idea proposed by the astronomer Simon Newcomb, who talked about both time and parallel universes; "Add a fourth dimension to space, and there is room for an indefinite number of universes, all alongside of each other, as there is for an indefinite number of sheets of paper when we pile them upon each other".[5] There are many examples where authors have explicitly created additional spatial dimensions for their characters to travel in, to reach parallel universes. In Doctor Who, the Doctor accidentally enters a parallel universe while attempting to repair the TARDIS console in Inferno. The parallel universe was similar to the real universe but with some different aspects. Douglas Adams, in the last book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, Mostly Harmless, uses the idea of probability as an extra axis in addition to the classical four dimensions of space and time similar to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics. Though, according to the novel, they're not really parallel universes at all but only a model to capture the continuity of space, time and probability. Robert A. Heinlein, in The Number of the Beast, postulated a six-dimensional universe. In addition to the three spatial dimensions, he invoked symmetry to add two new temporal dimensions, so there would be two sets of three. Like the fourth dimension of H. G. Wells "Time Traveller", these extra dimensions can be traveled by persons using the right equipment.
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Hyperspace
Perhaps the most common use of the concept of a parallel universe in science fiction is the concept of hyperspace. Used in science fiction, the concept of hyperspace often refers to a parallel universe that can be used as a faster-than-light shortcut for interstellar travel. Rationales for this form of hyperspace vary from work to work, but the two common elements are: 1. at least some (if not all) locations in the hyperspace universe map to locations in our universe, providing the "entry" and "exit" points for travellers. 2. the travel time between two points in the hyperspace universe is much shorter than the time to travel to the analogous points in our universe. This can be because of a different speed of light, different speed at which time passes, or the analogous points in the hyperspace universe are just much closer to each other. Sometimes "hyperspace" is used to refer to the concept of additional coordinate axes. In this model, the universe is thought to be "crumpled" in some higher spatial dimension and that traveling in this higher spatial dimension, a ship can move vast distances in the common spatial dimensions. An analogy is to crumple a newspaper into a ball and stick a needle straight through, the needle will make widely spaced holes in the two-dimensional surface of the paper. While this idea invokes a "new dimension", it is not an example of a parallel universe. It is a more scientifically plausible use of hyperspace. (See wormhole.) While use of hyperspace is common, it is mostly used as a plot device and thus of secondary importance. While a parallel universe may be invoked by the concept, the nature of the universe is not often explored. So, while stories involving hyperspace might be the most common use of the parallel universe concept in fiction, it is not the most common source of fiction about parallel universes.
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Parallel universe Paradox series, Lance Parkin explored a multiverse in which every universe in which Rome never fell goes to war with every universe in which the Nazis won WWII. The series was created by Lawrence Miles, whose earlier work Dead Romance featured the concept of an artificially created universe existing within another -specifically, within a bottle - and explored the consequences of inhabitants of the 'real' universe entering the Universe-in-a-Bottle. In the His Dark Materials trilogy, the universe the protagonist starts in is a Victorian counterpart to ours, although it takes place at the same time. It also appears that the Protestant Reformation never happened. In his short story, Rumfuddle, Jack Vance invents a doorway to an infinite number of universes at any given time, so that everyone on the planet can have their own private world. Some are inhabited by humans. On some, man doesn't exist. The trouble comes when some of the Rumfuddlers (a term given to an annual gathering to see who can best mess around with what should be) play pranks on parallel world, such as switching the infant Adolf Hitler with a baby from a Jewish couple, or putting together a football team made up of all of the great men in history.
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Counter-Earth
The concept of Counter-Earth is typically similar to that of parallel universes but is actually a distinct idea. A counter-earth is a planet that shares Earth's orbit but is on the opposite side of the Sun and therefore cannot be seen from Earth. There would be no necessity that such a planet would be like Earth in any way though typically in fiction, it is usually nearly identical to Earth. Since counter-earth is always within our own universe (and our own solar system), travel to it can be accomplished with ordinary space travel. See Counter-Earth for literary and film examples.
Convergent evolution
Convergent evolution is a biological concept whereby unrelated species acquire similar traits because they adapted to a similar environment and/or played similar roles in their ecosystems. In fiction, the concept is extended whereby similar planets will result in races with similar cultures and/or histories. Technically this is not a type of parallel universe since such planets can be reached via ordinary space travel, but the stories are similar in some respects. In "Bread and Circuses (Star Trek: The Original Series)", the enterprise encounters a planet called Magna Roma which has many physical resemblances to Earth such as its atmosphere, land to ocean ratio, and size. The landing party discovers that the planet is at roughly a late 20th-century level of technology but its society is similar to the Roman Empire. It was as if the Roman Empire had not fallen but had continued to that time. There is also a reference to the Roman god Jupiter. At the end of the episode, it is discovered that their own version Jesus, referred simply as "the son". In The Omega Glory (Star Trek), the crew visit a planet on which there is a conflict between two peoples called the Yangs and the Kohms. They discover that the Yangs are like Earth's Yankees (i.e. Americans) and the Kohms are like Earth's communists. The Yangs had a ritual speech that was word for word identical to the American Pledge of Allegiance but at some point in the past the Kohms had taken over. In Miri (Star Trek: The Original Series), the Enterprise crew encounter a planet (later called Onlies) that is physically identical to Earth. History on the two planets were apparently identical until the 20th centuries when scientists on Onlies had accidentally created a deadly virus that killed all the adults but extended the lives of the children.
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Fantasy
Stranger in a strange land
Fantasy authors often want to bring characters from the author's (and the reader's) reality into their created world. Before the mid-20th century, this was most often done by hiding fantastic worlds within hidden parts of the author's own universe. Peasants who seldom if ever traveled far from their villages could not conclusively say that it was impossible that an ogre or other fantastical beings could live an hour away, but increasing geographical knowledge meant that such locations had to be farther and farther off.[6] Characters in the author's world could board a ship and find themselves on a fantastic island, as Oz and its surroundings. Jonathan Swift does in Gulliver's Travels or in the 1949 novel Silverlock by John Myers Myers, or be sucked up into a tornado and land in Oz. These "lost world" stories can be seen as geographic equivalents of a "parallel universe", as the worlds portrayed are separate from our own, and hidden to everyone except those who take the difficult journey there. The geographic "lost world" can blur into a more explicit "parallel universe" when the fantasy realm overlaps a section of the "real" world, but is much larger inside than out, as in Robert Holdstock's novel Mythago Wood. Madeleine L'engle, "Wrinkle in Time" series: characters go from the present time to places in the universe. After the mid-20th century, perhaps influenced by ideas from science fiction, perhaps because exploration had made many places on the map too clear to write "Here there be dragons", many fantasy worlds became completely separate from the author's world.[6] A common trope is a portal or artifact that connects worlds together, prototypical examples being the wardrobe in C. S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, or the sigil in James Branch Cabell's The Cream of the Jest. In Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, Chihiro Ogino and her parents climb over a small stream into the spirit world. The main difference between this type of story and the "lost world" above, is that the fantasy realm can only be reached by certain people, or at certain times, or after following certain rituals, or with the proper artifact. In some cases, physical travel is not even possible, and the character in our reality travels in a dream or some other altered state of consciousness. Examples include the Dream Cycle stories by H. P. Lovecraft or the Thomas Covenant stories of Stephen R. Donaldson. Often, stories of this type have as a major theme the nature of reality itself, questioning if the dream-world can have the same "reality" as the waking world. Science fiction often employs this theme (usually without the dream-world being "another" universe) in the ideas of cyberspace and virtual reality.
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Parallel universe
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Fantasy multiverses
The idea of a multiverse is as fertile a subject for fantasy as it is for science fiction, allowing for epic settings and godlike protagonists. Among the most epic and far-ranging fantasy "multiverses" is that of Michael Moorcock. Like many authors after him, Moorcock was inspired by the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, saying: It was an idea in the air, as most of these are, and I would have come across a reference to it in New Scientist (one of my best friends was then editor) ... [or] physicist friends would have been talking about it. ... Sometimes what happens is that you are imagining these things in the context of fiction while the physicists and mathematicians are imagining them in terms of science. I suspect it is the romantic imagination working, as it often does, perfectly efficiently in both the arts and the sciences. Unlike many science-fiction interpretations, Moorcock's Eternal Champion stories go far beyond alternate history to include mythic and sword and sorcery settings as well as some worlds more similar to our own. However, the Eternal Champion himself is incarnate in all of them. Roger Zelazny used a mythic cosmology in his Chronicles of Amber series. His protagonist is a member of the royal family of Amber, whose members represent a godlike pantheon ruling over a prototypical universe that represents Order. All other universes are increasingly distorted "shadows" of it, ending finally at the other extreme, Chaos, which is the complete negation of the prototype. Travel between these "shadow" universes is only possible by beings descended from the blood of this pantheon. Those "of the blood" can walk through Shadow, imagining any possible reality and then walk to it, making their environment more similar to their desire as they go. It is argued between the characters whether these "shadows" even exist before they're imagined by a member of the royal family of Amber, or if the "shadows'" existence can be seen as an act of godlike creation. In the World of Tiers novels by Philip Jos Farmer, the idea of godlike protagonists is even more explicit. The background of the stories is a multiverse where godlike beings have created a number of pocket universes that represent their own desires. Our own world is part of this series, but interestingly our own universe is revealed to be much smaller than it appears, ending at the edge of the solar system. The term 'polycosmos' was coined as an alternative to 'multiverse' by the author and editor Paul le Page Barnett, best known by the pseudonym John Grant, and is built from Greek rather than Latin morphemes. It is used by Barnett to describe a concept binding together a number of his works, its nature meaning that "all characters, real or fictional [...] have to co-exist in all possible real, created or dreamt worlds; [...] they're playing hugely different roles in their various manifestations, and the relationships between them can vary quite dramatically, but the essence of them remains the same."[7] There are multiverses also in the Warcraft universe, The Chronicles of Narnia, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci, Howl's Moving Castle and Deep Secret books and standalone book A Sudden Wild Magic.
Parallel universe Sprague de Camp's Solomon's Stone, taking place on an astral plane, is populated by the daydreams of mundane people, and in Rebecca Lickiss's Eccentric Circles, an elf is grateful to Tolkien for transforming elves from dainty little creatures. These stories often place the author, or authors in general, in the same position as Zelazny's characters in Amber. Questioning, in a literal fashion, if writing is an act of creating a new world, or an act of discovery of a pre-existing world. Occasionally, this approach becomes self-referential, treating the literary universe of the work itself as explicitly parallel to the universe where the work was created. Stephen King's seven-volume Dark Tower series hinges upon the existence of multiple parallel worlds, many of which are King's own literary creations. Ultimately the characters become aware that they are only "real" in King's literary universe (this can be debated as an example of breaking the fourth wall), and even travel to a world twice in which (again, within the novel) they meet Stephen King and alter events in the real Stephen King's world outside of the books. An early instance of this was in works by Gardner Fox for DC Comics in the 1960s, in which characters from the Golden Age (which was supposed to be a series of comic books within the DC Comics universe) would cross over into the main DC Comics universe. One comic book did provide an explanation for a fictional universe existing as a parallel universe. The parallel world does "exist" and it resonates into the "real world." Some people in the "real world" pick up on this resonance, gaining information about the parallel world which they then use to write stories.
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Elfland
Elfland, or Faerie, the otherworldly home not only of elves and fairies but goblins, trolls, and other folkloric creatures, has an ambiguous appearance in folklore. On one hand, the land often appears to be contiguous with 'ordinary' land. Thomas the Rhymer might, on being taken by the Queen of Faerie, be taken on a road like one leading to Heaven or Hell. This is not exclusive to English or French folklore. In Norse mythology, Elfland (Alfheim) was also the name of what today is the Swedish province of Bohusln. In the sagas, it said that the people of this petty kingdom were more beautiful than other people, as they were related to the elves, showing that not only the territory was associated with elves, but also the race of its people. While sometimes folklore seems to show fairy intrusion into human lands "Tam Lin" does not show any otherworldly aspects about the land in which the confrontation takes place at other times the otherworldly aspects are clear. Most frequently, time can flow differently for those trapped by the fairy dance than in the lands they come from; although, in an additional complication, it may only be an appearance, as many returning from Faerie, such as Oisn, have found that time "catches up" with them as soon as they have contact with ordinary lands. Fantasy writers have taken up the ambiguity. Some writers depict the land of the elves as a full-blown parallel universe, with portals the only entry as in Josepha Sherman's Prince of the Sidhe series or Esther Friesner's Elf Defense and others have depicted it as the next land over, possibly difficult to reach for magical reasons Hope Mirrlees's Lud-in-the-Mist, or Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter. In some cases, the boundary between Elfland and more ordinary lands is not fixed. Not only the inhabitants but Faerie itself can pour into more mundane regions. Terry Pratchett's Discworld series proposes that the world of the Elves is a "parasite" universe, that drifts between and latches onto others such as Discworld and our own world (referred to as "Roundworld" in the novels). In the young teenage book Mist by Kathryn James, the Elven world lies through a patch of mist in the woods. It was constructed when the Elven were thrown out of our world. Travel to and fro is possible by those in the know, but can have lethal consequences.
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Films
The most famous treatment of the alternative universe concept in film could be considered The Wizard of Oz, which portrays a parallel world, famously separating the magical realm of the Land of Oz from the mundane world by filming it in Technicolor while filming the scenes set in Kansas in sepia. A later example is the Frank Capra movie, It's a Wonderful Life where the main character George Bailey is shown by a guardian angel the city of Pottersville, which was George Bailey's hometown of Bedford Falls as it would have been if he had never existed. Another notable In Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life (1946), depiction of a parallel universe in movies is in Back to the Future Part George Bailey (center, played by James Stewart) is shown by his guardian angel how the world II by Robert Zemeckis, starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, would have been radically different for the worse showing an accidentally created alternative present and future. Like It's if Bailey had never existed. a Wonderful Life, The Big Time, and many other time travel stories using this concept, it is clear that these alternative presents/futures are mutually exclusive with the protagonists' own so, strictly speaking, the universes are not parallel in that they cannot co-exist, rather they oscillate between one or the other. Another common use of the theme is as a prison for villains or demons. The idea is used in the first two Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve where Kryptonian villains were sentenced to the Phantom Zone from where they eventually escaped. An almost exactly parallel use of the idea is presented in the campy cult film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, where the "8th dimension" is essentially a "phantom zone" used to imprison the villainous Red Lectroids. Uses in horror films include the 1986 film From Beyond (based on the H. P. Lovecraft story of the same name) where a scientific experiment induces the experimenters to perceive aliens from a parallel universe, with bad results. The 1987 John Carpenter film Prince of Darkness is based on the premise that the essence of a being described as Satan, trapped in a glass canister and found in an abandoned church in Los Angeles, is actually an alien being that is the 'son' of something even more evil and powerful, trapped in another universe. The protagonists accidentally free the creature, who then attempts to release his "father" by reaching in through a reflective glass, or mirror. Some films present parallel realities that are actually different contrasting versions of the narrative itself. Commonly this motif is presented as different points of view revolving around a central (but sometimes unknowable) "truth", the seminal example being Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. Conversely, often in film noir and crime dramas, the alternative narrative is a fiction created by a central character, intentionally as in The Usual Suspects or unintentionally as in Angel Heart. Less often, the alternative narratives are given equal weight in the story, making them truly alternative universes, such as in the German film Run Lola Run, the short-lived British West End musical Our House and the British film Sliding Doors. More recent films that have explicitly explored parallel universes are: the 2000 film The Family Man, the 2001 cult movie Donnie Darko, which deals with what it terms a "tangent universe" that erupts from our own universe; Super Mario Bros. (1993) has the eponymous heroes cross over into a parallel universe ruled by humanoids who evolved from dinosaurs; The One (2001) starring Jet Li, in which there is a complex system of realities in which Jet Li's character is a police officer in one universe and a serial killer in another, who travels to other universes to destroy versions of himself, so that he can take their energy; and FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions (2004), the main character runs away from a totalitarian nightmare, and he enters into a cyber-afterlife alternative reality. The most recent Star Trek film (2009) had a character create an alternate reality by traveling back in time, thereby rebooting the series' complicated continuity.
Parallel universe The film director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino has been known to create his own brand of reality for each of his movies and for his subjects. In his 2009 film Inglorious Basterds, he created his most effective story in showcasing this kind of creation. At the climax of this film his soldiers trap, surround, and then assassinate both Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and all of his entire High Command (the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) in a burning Paris, France movie theater in an alternate 1944, theoretically ending the war.
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Television
The idea of parallel universes have received treatment in a number of television series, usually as a single story or episode in a more general science fiction or fantasy storyline. One of the earliest television plots to feature parallel time was a 1970 storyline on soap opera Dark Shadows. Vampire Barnabas Collins found a room in Collinwood which served as a portal to parallel time, and he entered the room in order to escape from his current problems. A year later, the show again traveled to parallel time, the setting this time being 1841. A well known and often imitated example is the original Star Trek episode entitled "Mirror, Mirror". The episode introduced an alternative version of the Star Trek universe where the main characters were barbaric and cruel to the point of being evil. When the parallel universe concept is parodied, the allusion is often to this Star Trek episode. A previous episode for the Trek series first hinted at the potential of differing reality planes (and their occupants) -titled "The Alternative Factor". A mad scientist from "our" universe, named Lazarus B., hunts down the sane Lazarus A.; resident of an antimatter-comprised continuum. His counterpart, in a state of paranoia, claims the double threatens his and the very cosmos' existence. With help from Captain Kirk, A traps B along with him in a "anti"-universe, for eternity, thus bringing balance to both matter oriented realms. A similar plot was used in the Codename: Kids Next Door episode Operation: P.O.O.L.. Multiple episodes of Red Dwarf use the concept. In "Parallel Universe" the crew meet alternative versions of themselves: the analogues of Lister, Rimmer and Holly are female, while the Cat's alternate is a dog. "Dimension Jump" introduces a heroic alternate Rimmer, a version of whom reappears in "Stoke Me a Clipper". The next episode, "Ouroboros", makes contact with a timeline in which Kochanski, rather than Lister, was the sole survivor of the original disaster; this alternate Kochanski then joins the crew for the remaining episodes. Another example is "Spookyfish", an episode of South Park, in which the "evil" universe double of Cartman (who is pleasant and agreeable, unlike the home universe's obnoxious Cartman) sports a goatee, like the "mirror" version of Mr. Spock. Buffy the Vampire Slayer experienced a Parallel universe where she was a mental patient in Normal Again and not really "The Slayer" at all. In the end, she has to choose between a universe where her mother and father are together and alive (mother) or one with her friends and sister in it where she has to fight for her life daily. In another episode, Cordelia Chase inadvertently created a dystopian alternate reality in which Buffy had never moved from LA to Sunnydale. The animated series, Futurama, had an episode where the characters travel between "Universe 1" and "Universe A" via boxes containing each universe; and one of the major jokes is an extended argument between the two sets of characters over which set were the "evil" ones. Doctor Who often features parallel universes as the basis of a plotline. In the episode "Inferno", from Doctor Who the Doctor accidentally travels to a parallel universe where Great Britain is a republic under a fascist leader. In "Rise of the Cybermen", the TARDIS falls out of the Time-Space Continuum, and dies, with the Doctor and his companions inside it. The Doctor believes them to be in the Void, the infinite empty-space between the universes, where no time, space or energy exists. It turns out, however, they fell into another universe; a much more desirable option. In this universe, Britain is a lot more technically advanced, with blimps almost replacing cars. They find a way to revive the TARDIS and travel back to their own universe. According to the Doctor in "Doomsday", a new
Parallel universe parallel universe is created by every decision made. The OC had an episode where two main characters fell into a coma, and into an alternate/parallel universe. Friends had an episode in which the characters wonder how different their lives would be with different choices. Parallel universes/alternate futures are also featured in Heroes. The idea of a parallel universe and the concept of deja vu was a major plot line of the first season finale of Fringe, guest-starring Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek. The show has gone on to feature the parallel universe prominently. In the 2010 season of Lost, the result of characters traveling back in time to prevent the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 apparently creates a parallel reality in which the Flight never crashed, rather than resetting time itself in the characters' original timeline. The show continued to show two "sets" of the characters following different destinies, until it was revealed in the series finale that there was really only one reality created by the characters themselves to assist themselves in leaving behind the physical world and passing on to an afterlife after their respective deaths. The anime Turn A Gundam attempted to combine all the parallel Gundam universes (other incarnations of the series, with similar themes but differing stories and characters, that had played out at different times since the debut of the concept in the 1970s) of the metaseries in to one single reality. The anime and manga series Katekyo Hitman Reborn! by Akira Amano features this idea in its third main arc, known as Future arc. The anime Neon Genesis Evangelion features a parallel world in one of the final episodes. This parallel world is a sharp contrast to the harsh, dark "reality" of the show and presents a world where all the characters enjoy a much happier life. This parallel world would become the basis for the new Evangelion manga series Angelic Days. The anime Bakugan series in season 2 & 3 features another unverses where Dan and his team saves the day.They goes to another dimension or universe through a path way . Another universe has also other life forms and other types of technology. In another anime series, Digimon, there is parallel universe called "digital world". The show's child protagonists meet digital monsters, or digimon, from this world and becomes partners and friends. In the anime series Umineko no Naku Koro ni The rounds of the battle between Battler and Beatrice take place in different dimensions, in order to show all kinds of possibilities (much to Battler's dismay) also the character Bernkastel is known for her ability to travel into different worlds by the usage of "fragments". In the animated Disney series Darkwing Duck, the title character's archenemy, Negaduck, comes from a parallel dimension called the Negaverse (not to be confused with the similarly named dimension in the Sailor Moon series). In the Family Guy episode, "Road to the Multiverse", Brian and Stewie get a look at life in other universes that are at the same time and place as Quahog, but under different conditions. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Parallels", Lt. Worf traveled to several parallel universes when his shuttlecraft went through a time space fissure. The movie for Phineas and Ferb involves Phineas, Ferb, and Perry going to an alternate dimension of the Tri-state area. In the episode "Adventure time" had a gender swapped universe episode. In Season 03, episode 4 of "Community (TV series)" called "Remedial Chaos Theory", different realities are the center of the plot, even with a reference to Spock's goatee.
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As an ongoing subplot
Sometimes a television series will use parallel universes as an ongoing subplot. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Enterprise elaborated on the premise of the original series' "Mirror" universe and developed multi-episode story arcs based on the premise. Other examples are the science fiction series Stargate SG-1, the fantasy/horror series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural and the romance/fantasy Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Following the precedent set by Star Trek, these story arcs show alternative universes that have turned out "worse" than the "original" universe: in Stargate SG-1 the first two encountered parallel realities featured Earth being overwhelmed by an unstoppable Goa'uld onslaught; in Buffy, two episodes concern a timeline in which Buffy came to Sunnydale too late to stop the vampires from taking control; Lois & Clark repeatedly visits an alternative universe where Clark Kent's adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, died when he was ten years of age, and Lois Lane is also apparently dead. Clark eventually becomes Superman, with help from the "original" Lois Lane, but he is immediately revealed as Clark Kent and so has no life of his own. In addition to following Star Trek's lead, showing the "evil" variants of the main storyline gives the writers an opportunity to show what is at stake by portraying the worst that could happen and the consequences if the protagonists fail or the importance of a character's presence. The latter could also be seen as the point of the alternative reality portrayed in the movie It's a Wonderful Life.
Comic books
Parallel universes in modern comics have become particularly rich and complex, in large part due to the continual problem of continuity faced by the major two publishers, Marvel Comics and DC Comics. The two publishers have used the multiverse concept to fix problems arising from integrating characters from other publishers into their own canon, and from having major serial protagonists having continuous histories lasting, as in the case of Superman, over 70 years. Additionally, both publishers have used new alternative universes to re-imagine their own characters. (See Multiverse (DC Comics) and Multiverse (Marvel Comics)) Because of this, comic books in general are one of the few entertainment mediums where the concept of parallel universes are a major and ongoing theme. DC in particular periodically revisits the idea in major crossover
Parallel universe storylines, such as Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis, where Marvel has a series called What If... that's devoted to exploring alternative realities, which sometimes impact the "main" universe's continuity. DC's version of "What If..." is the Elseworlds imprint. Recently DC Comics series 52 heralded the return of the Multiverse. 52 was a mega-crossover event tied to Infinite Crisis which was the sequel to the 1980s Crisis on Infinite Earths. The aim was to yet again address many of the problems and confusions brought on by the Multiverse in the DCU. Now 52 Earths exist and including some Elseworld tales such as Kingdom Come, DC's imprint Wildstorm Comics and an Earth devoted to the Charlton Comics heroes of DC. Countdown and Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer and the upcoming Tales of the Multiverse stories expand upon this new Multiverse. Marvel has also had many large crossover events which depicted an alternative universe, many springing from events in the X-Men books, such as Days of Future Past, the seminal Age Of Apocalypse, and 2006's House Of M. In addition the Squadron Supreme is a DC inspired Marvel Universe that has been used several times, often crossing over into the mainstream Universe in the Avengers comic. Exiles is an offshoot of the X-Men franchsie that allows characters to hop from one alternative reality to another, leaving the original, main Marvel Universe intact. The Marvel UK line has long had multiverse stories including the Jaspers' Warp storyline of Captain Britain's first series (it was here that the designation Earth-616 was first applied to the mainstream Marvel Universe). Marvel Comics, as of 2000, launched their most popular parallel universe, the Ultimate Universe. It is a smaller subline to the mainstream titles and features Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four and the Ultimates (their "Avengers"). The line in many ways both inspired and was inspired by aspects of the new movie franchises in addition to creating younger versions of the modern heroes. The graphic novel Watchmen is set in an alternate history in 1985 where superheroes exist, the Vietnam War was won by the United States, and Richard Nixon is in his fifth term as President of the United States. The Soviet Union and the United States are still in a "Cold War" with a threat of a Nuclear War impending. In 1973 Tammy published The Clock and Cluny Jones, where a mysterious grandfather clock hurls bully Cluny Jones into a harsh alternate reality where she becomes the bullied. This story was reprinted in Misty annual 1985 as Grandfather's Clock. In 1978 Misty published The Sentinels. The Sentinels were two crumbling apartment blocks that connected the mainstream world with an alternate reality where Hitler conquered Britain in 1940. In 1981 Jinty published Worlds Apart. Six girls experience alternate worlds ruled by greed, sports-mania, vanity, crime, intellectualism, and fear. These are in fact their dream worlds becoming real after they are knocked out by a mysterious gas from a chemical tanker that crashed into their school. In 1977 Jinty also published Land of No Tears where a lame girl travels to a future world where people with things wrong with them are cruelly treated, and emotions are banned.
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Video games
In the 1999 role-playing game Outcast where a probe is sent to a parallel universe and is attacked by an "entity". Cutter Slade must escort a team of scientists across to the other world to retrieve and repair the damaged probe before the earth is consumed by a black hole. In the popular indie game "Minecraft" The player can access "The Nether", a fiery world of Zombie pigmen, and "The End" A dark place filled with Endermen. In the survival horror video game series Silent Hill, the town of Silent Hill fluctuates between the normal world, a foggy version of the town and a dark and dilapidated version of the town called the "Other World". In the 1993 adventure PC game Myst, the unnamed protagonist travels to multiple alternate worlds through the use of special books, which describe a world within and transport the user to that world when a window on the front page is touched.
Parallel universe In the 1996 adventure PC game 9: The Last Resort, after resolving several mind-blowing and unique puzzles, the player gets past "The Tiki Guards" and a door to "The Void" opens up - actually a room to another universe which houses the entirety of space. Both titles of the When They Cry visual novel series (Higurashi and Umineko for short) contain the concept of parallel worlds. These series both involve some kind of murder mystery occurring. As soon as the main character has 'lost', another parallel world, called a Fragment, is chosen to be observed. This continues until the entire mystery is solved. EarthBound features many areas of the game that can be considered alternate dimensions. The first is an illusion created by the Mani Mani Statue that transforms the metropolis of Fourside into a bizarre neon metropolis called Moonside, filled with unusual characters and enemies. The second is Magicant; the world of Ness's subconscious that is accessed after obtaining the Eight Melodies. Finally towards the end of the game the protagonists arrive at the Cave to the Past, where they travel back in time to the haunting past dimension of the cave to face Giygas. The unassuming Tanehineri Island in Mother 3 is transformed after the protagonists consume psychedelic mushrooms. The characters hallucinate, the island appears bright pink and enemies they encounter appear to them as people they know. In Yume Nikki (or "Dream Diary" in English), the protagonist Madotsuki explores the bizarre worlds of her subconscious mind when she goes to sleep. Only two areas of the world are accessible both while awake and asleep: Madotsuki's bedroom and balcony. Super Mario Bros. 2 features a "Magic Potion" item that when used, creates a doorway allowing the player to temporarily access "Subspace"; a mirrored silhouette version of the world where items can be found. After the completion of the Special World in Super Mario World, the overworld transforms from a green-colored springtime to a orange-colored autumnal setting. Many enemies encountered in the game are transformed into bizarre counterparts. Super Mario 64 features a world called "Tiny Huge Island" which has two variants: one scaled up, the other scaled down. The player can only access certain parts of the level to obtain certain stars depending on which variant they are in. The two variants can be switched between via portals in the world. Banjo-Kazooie features a world called "Click Clock Wood", which has spring, summer, autumn and winter variants. The environment develops between the seasons making some areas accessible or inaccessible, and actions taken in one season affect the outcome in others. The video game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past features a dark and twisted parallel version of Hyrule called the "Dark World". The video games The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages use a similar concept to that which is used in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. In those games, the player must switch between the parallel past and present worlds (Ages) and between spring, summer, autumn and winter (Seasons) to progress through the game. In the first half of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, areas of Hyrule are veiled by the Twilight Realm. These areas are dusky and brooding in appearance, Link cannot transform out of wolf form, characters only appear as spirits that cannot be communicated with, and enemies are twilight variations of their regular forms. Otherwise, the Twilight Realm is identical to regular Hyrule. Each Zone in Sonic CD has four variations: Past, Present, Bad Future and Good Future, each displaying some subtle and not-so subtle alterations. The story of Chrono Cross centers around travel between two alternate timelines, the original or "Home" universe and "Another World" which is a branch created by the actions of the heroes of the game's predecessor, Chrono Trigger.
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Parallel universe Chrono Trigger has time travel as a central aspect of its game-play. Many areas of the game are accessible in more than one time period, and actions taken in one time period change the outcome in others. In Super Paper Mario, the town "Flipside" (which acts as the game's central hub) has an alternate mirrored version called "Flopside". While Flipside appears pristine and the residents there are typically cheerful, Flopside appears somewhat dilapidated and is populated by surly characters. The video game series Legacy of Kain is played through several realms and timelines. The video game Sudeki is set in a realm of light and a parallel realm of darkness. The video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion features an alternative hellish world called "Oblivion", as well as a painting you can climb into and a quest where you enter a dream world. The video game The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask takes place in Termina, a parallel world to Hyrule. Almost all of the characters from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time reappear in the game. The video game The Darkness pivots around a world of darkness you travel to when you die, which is occupied by World War 1 soldiers. The video game Metroid Prime 2: Echoes involves a world, "Aether", having an alternate self in the, "Dark" realm, universe, or dimension. The protagonist, Samus, finds out that she just dropped in to a hopeless war for the Luminoth, the dominant species of Light Aether against the Ing, the dominant species of Dark Aether. She also finds her counterpart, Dark Samus or Metroid Prime's essence inside Samus's Phazon Suit. The video game Crash Twinsanity features Crash, Cortex, and Nina traveling to the "10th dimension," which could also be a parallel universe (suggested by the theme and how everything seems to be opposite). The video game Minecraft features an alternate dimension called "The Nether", that includes a 'hell' like theme. It also contains a second alternate dimension called "The End," home world of the Endermen, a type of monster that spawns rarely in the main world. The video game Persona 2: Eternal Punishment takes place in an alternate universe called "This Side" where in the events of Innocent Sin did not take place and the characters have never met in the past. The Fallout series take place in a different universe, such as like in 1969, instead of Apollo 11 that landed on the moon, it was a ship called Valiant 11. This universe diverged after World War II, which means, no advanced computers, no Cold War, no VHS, etc. The MMORPG "City of Heroes" features a Player vs Player (PvP) zone called Recluse's Victory. It is an alternate future in a constant state of flux as heroes and villains battle for the future of Earth.
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References
Notes
[1] Carl Sagan, Placido P D'Souza (1980s). Hindu cosmology's time-scale for the universe is in consonance with modern science. (http:/ / www. rediff. com/ news/ jan/ 29sagan. htm); Dick Teresi (2002). Lost Discoveries : The Ancient Roots of Modern Science - from the Babylonians to the Maya. [2] Irwin, Robert (2003). The Arabian Nights: A Companion. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. p.209. ISBN1-86064-983-1. [3] Briggs (1967) p.50-1 [4] Gareth Matthews, "Plato in Narnia" p 171 Gregory Bassham ed. and Jerry L. Walls, ed. The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy ISBN 0-8126-9588-7 [5] Stephen Baxter Speech (http:/ / erkelzaar. tsudao. com/ books/ Baxter2. htm) [6] C. S. Lewis, "On Science Fiction", Of Other Worlds, p68 ISBN 0-15-667897-7 [7] "John Grant" interviewed by Lou Anders (http:/ / www. infinityplus. co. uk/ nonfiction/ intjg. htm), accessed 24 October 2009 [8] Michael Moorcock, Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy p 88 ISBN 1-932265-07-4
Parallel universe
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Further reading
Clifford A. Pickover (August 2005). Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves: Sushi, Psychedelics, Parallel Universes, and the Quest for Transcendence (Discusses parallel universes in a variety of settings, from physics to psychedelic visions to Proust parallel worlds to Bonnet syndrome). Smart Publications. ISBN1-890572-17-9. Michio Kaku (2004). Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos. Doubleday. ISBN0-385-50986-3.
External links
Max Tegmark's Parallel Universes paper (http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/multiverse.pdf), University of Pennsylvania Comic book universes explained simply (http://princeofoz.blogspot.com/2010/07/ parallel-universes-in-comic-books.html)
Alternate history
Alternate history or alternative history[1] is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate history works may use tropes from any or all of these genres. It is sometimes abbreviated AH.[2] Another occasionally used term for the genre is "allohistory" (literally "other history").[3] Since the 1950s, this type of fiction has to a large extent merged with science fictional tropes involving cross-time travel between alternate histories or psychic awareness of the existence of "our" universe by the people in another; or ordinary voyaging uptime (into the past) or downtime (into the future) that results in history splitting into two or more time-lines. Cross-time, time-splitting and alternate history themes have become so closely interwoven that it is impossible to discuss them fully apart from one another. "Alternate History" looks at "what if" scenarios from some of history's most pivotal turning points and presents a completely different version, sometimes based on science and fact, but often based on conjecture. The exploration of how the world would look today if various changes occurred and what these alternate worlds would be like forms the basis of this vast subject matter. In French, Italian, Spanish and German, alternate history novels are called uchronie. This neologism is based on the prefix u- (as in the word utopia, a place that does not exist) and the Greek for time, chronos. An uchronie, then, is defined as a time that does not exist, a "non-time." This term apparently also inspired the name of the alternate history book list, uchronia.net.[4]
Definition
In writing an alternate history, the author makes the conscious choice to change something in our past. According to Steven H Silver, alternate history requires three things: 1) the story must have a point of divergence from the history of our world prior to the time at which the author is writing, 2) a change that would alter history as it is known, and 3) an examination of the ramifications of that change.[5] Several genres of fiction have been confused as alternate histories. Science fiction set in what was the future but is now the past, like Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey or Nineteen Eighty-Four , are not alternate history because the author has not made the conscious choice to change the past.[5] Secret history, works that document things that are not known to have happened historically but would not have changed history had they happened, is also not to be confused with alternate history.[5][6]
Alternate history Alternate history is related to but distinct from counterfactual historythe term used by some professional historians when using thoroughly researched and carefully reasoned speculations on "what might have happened if..." as a tool of academic historical research.[7]
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19th century
One of the earliest works of alternate history published in large quantities for the reception of a popular audience may be the French Louis Geoffroy's Histoire de la Monarchie universelle: Napolon et la conqute du monde (18121832) (History of the Universal Monarchy: Napoleon And The Conquest Of The World) (1836), which imagines Napoleon's First French Empire victorious in the French invasion of Russia in 1811 and in an invasion of England in 1814, later unifying the world under Bonaparte's rule.[9] In the English language, the first known complete alternate history is Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "P.'s Correspondence", published in 1845. It recounts the tale of a man who is considered "a madman" due to his perceiving a different 1845, a reality in which long-dead famous people are still alive such as the poets Burns, Byron, Shelley, and Keats, the actor Edmund Kean, the British politician George Canning and even Napoleon Bonaparte. The first novel-length alternate history in English would seem to be Castello Holford's Aristopia (1895). While not as nationalistic as Louis Geoffroy's Napolon et la conqute du monde, 18121823, Aristopia is another attempt to portray a utopian society. In Aristopia, the earliest settlers in Virginia discover a reef made of solid gold and are able to build a Utopian society in North America.
Alternate history which posts from the point of view of an alternate history is variously known as a "recursive alternate history", a "double-blind what-if" or an "alternate-alternate history".[12] American humorist author James Thurber parodied alternate history stories about the American Civil War in his 1930 story, "If Grant had been drinking at Appomattox", which he accompanied with this very brief introduction: Scribner's magazine is publishing a series of three articles: If Booth Had Missed Lincoln, If Lee Had Won the Battle of Gettysburg, and If Napoleon Had Escaped to America. This is the fourth Another example of alternate history from this period (and arguably the first to explicitly posit cross-time travel from one universe to another as anything more than a visionary experience) is H.G. Wells' Men Like Gods (1923) in which several Englishmen are transferred via an accidental encounter with a cross-time machine into an alternate universe featuring a seemingly pacifistic and utopian Britain. When the Englishmen, led by a satiric figure based on Winston Churchill, try to seize power, the utopians simply point a ray gun at them and send them on to someone else's universe. Wells describes a multiverse of alternative worlds, complete with the paratime travel machines that would later become popular with U.S. pulp writers, but since his hero experiences only a single alternate world this story is not very different from conventional alternate history.[13] The 1930s would see alternate history move into a new arena. The December 1933 issue of Astounding published Nat Schachner's "Ancestral Voices," quickly followed by Murray Leinster's "Sidewise in Time". While earlier alternate histories examined reasonably straightforward divergences, Leinster attempted something completely different. In his "world gone mad", pieces of Earth traded places with their analogs from different timelines. The story follows Professor Minott and his students from a fictitious Robinson College as they wander through analogues of worlds that followed a different history. A somewhat similar approach was taken by Robert A. Heinlein in his 1941 novelette Elsewhen. A professor trains his mind to move his body across timelines. He then hypnotizes his students so they can explore more of them. Eventually each settles in the reality most suitable for him or her. Some of the worlds they visit are mundane, some very odd, and others follow science fiction or fantasy conventions. World War II produced alternate history for propaganda: both British[14] and [15] American authors wrote works depicting Nazi invasions of their respective countries as cautionary tales. Time travel as a means of creating historical divergences The period around the second World War also saw the publication of the time travel novel Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp where an American academic travels to the Italy of the Ostrogoths at the time of the Byzantine invasion led by Belisarius. De Camp's work is concerned with the historical changes wrought by his time traveler, Martin Padway, thereby making the work an alternate history. Padway is depicted as making permanent changes and implicitly forming a new time branch. Time travel as the cause of a point of divergence (creating two histories where before there was one, or simply replacing the future that existed before the time traveling event) has continued to be a popular theme: in Bring the Jubilee, by Ward Moore, the protagonist, who lives in an alternate history in which the Confederate States of America won the Civil War, travels through time and brings about a Union victory in the Battle of Gettysburg. When a story's assumptions about the nature of time travel lead to the complete replacement of the visited time's future rather than just the creation of an additional time line, the device of a "time patrol" is often used, most notably
The world in 1964 in the novel Fatherland where the Germans won World War Two.
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Alternate history in Poul Anderson's "Time Patrol"racing uptime and downtime to preserve the "correct" history. In Delenda Est, the interference of time-travelling outlaws causes Carthage to win the Second Punic War and destroy Rome. A more recent example is Making History by Stephen Fry, in which a time machine is used to alter history so that Adolf Hitler was never born.
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Cross-time stories
H.G. Wells' "cross-time"/"many universes" variant (see above) was fully developed by De Camp in his 1940 short story "The Wheels of If" (Unknown Fantasy Fiction, October 1940), in which the hero is repeatedly shifted from one alternate history to another, each more remote from our own than the last. This subgenre was used early on for purposes far removed from quasi-academic examination of alternative outcomes to historical events. Fredric Brown employed it to satirize the science fiction pulps and their adolescent readersand fears of foreign invasionin the classic What Mad Universe (1949). In Clifford D. Simak's Ring Around the Sun (1953), the hero ends up in an alternate earth of thick forests in which humanity never developed but where a band of mutants is establishing a colony; the story line appears to frame the author's anxieties regarding McCarthyism and the Cold War. Also in the late 1940s and the 1950s, however, writers such as H. Beam Piper, Sam Merwin, Jr. and Andre Norton wrote thrillers set in a multiverse in which all alternate histories are co-existent and travel between them occurs via a technology involving portals and/or paratime capsules. These authors established the convention of a secret paratime trading empire that exploits and/or protects worlds lacking the paratime technology via a network of James Bond-style secret agents (Piper called them the "paratime police"). This concept provided a convenient framing for packing a smorgasbord of historical alternatives (and even of timeline "branches") into a single novel, either via the hero chasing or being chased by the villain(s) through multiple worlds or (less artfully) via discussions between the paratime cops and their superiors (or between paratime agents and new recruits) regarding the histories of such worlds. The paratime theme is sometimes used without the police; Poul Anderson dreamed up the Old Phoenix tavern as a nexus between alternate histories. A character from a modern American alternate history Operation Chaos can thus appear in the English Civil War setting of A Midsummer's Tempest. In this context, the distinction between an alternate history and a parallel universe with some points in common but no common history may not be feasible, as the writer may not provide enough information to distinguish. Paratime thrillers published in recent decades often cite the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (first formulated by Hugh Everett III in 1957) to account for the differing worlds. Some science fiction writers interpret the splitting of worlds to depend on human decision-making and free will, while others rely on the butterfly effect from chaos theory to amplify random differences at the atomic or subatomic level into a macroscopic divergence at some specific point in history; either way, science fiction writers usually have all changes flow from a particular historical point of divergence (often abbreviated 'POD' by fans of the genre). Prior to Everett, science-fiction writers drew on higher dimensions and the speculations of P. D. Ouspensky to explain their characters' cross-time journeys. While many justifications for alternate histories involve a multiverse, the "many world" theory would naturally involve many worlds, in fact a continually exploding array of universes. In quantum theory, new worlds would proliferate with every quantum event, and even if the writer uses human decisions, every decision that could be made differently would result in a different timeline. A writer's fictional multiverse may, in fact, preclude some decisions as humanly impossible, as when, in Night Watch, Terry Pratchett depicts a character informing Vimes that while anything that can happen, has happened, nevertheless there is no history whatsoever in which Vimes has ever murdered his wife. When the writer explicitly maintains that all possible decisions are made in all possible ways, one possible conclusion is that the characters were neither brave, nor clever, nor skilled, but simply lucky enough to
Alternate history happen on the universe in which they did not choose the cowardly route, take the stupid action, fumble the crucial activity, etc.; few writers focus on this idea, although it has been explored in stories such as Larry Niven's All the Myriad Ways, where the reality of all possible universes leads to an epidemic of suicide and crime because people conclude their choices have no moral import. In any case, even if it is true that every possible outcome occurs in some world, it can still be argued that traits such as bravery and intelligence might still affect the relative frequency of worlds in which better or worse outcomes occurred (even if the total number of worlds with each type of outcome is infinite, it is still possible to assign a different measure to different infinite sets). The physicist David Deutsch, a strong advocate of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, has argued along these lines, saying that "By making good choices, doing the right thing, we thicken the stack of universes in which versions of us live reasonable lives. When you succeed, all the copies of you who made the same decision succeed too. What you do for the better increases the portion of the multiverse where good things happen."[16] This view is perhaps somewhat too abstract to be explored directly in science fiction stories, but a few writers have tried, such as Greg Egan in his short story The Infinite Assassin, where an agent is trying to contain reality-scrambling "whirlpools" that form around users of a certain drug, and the agent is constantly trying to maximize the consistency of behavior among his alternate selves, attempting to compensate for events and thoughts he experiences but he guesses are of low measure relative to those experienced by most of his other selves. Many writersperhaps the majorityavoid the discussion entirely. In one novel of this type, H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, a Pennsylvania State Police officer, who knows how to make gunpowder, is transported from our world to an alternate universe where the recipe for gunpowder is a tightly held secret and saves a country that is about to be conquered by its neighbors. The paratime patrol members are warned against going into the timelines immediately surrounding it, where the country will be overrun, but the book never depicts the slaughter of the innocent thus entailed, remaining solely in the timeline where the country is saved. The cross-time theme was further developed in the 1960s by Keith Laumer in the first three volumes of his Imperium sequence, which would be completed in Zone Yellow (1990). Piper's politically more sophisticated variant was adopted and adapted by Michael Kurland and Jack Chalker in the 1980s; Chalker's G.O.D. Inc trilogy (198789), featuring paratime detectives Sam and Brandy Horowitz, marks the first attempt at merging the paratime thriller with the police procedural. Kurland's Perchance (1988), the first volume of the never-completed "Chronicles of Elsewhen", presents a multiverse of secretive cross-time societies that utilize a variety of means for cross-time travel, ranging from high-tech capsules to mutant powers. Harry Turtledove has launched the Crosstime Traffic series for teenagers featuring a variant of H. Beam Piper's paratime trading empire. The concept of a cross-time version of a world war, involving rival paratime empires, was developed in Fritz Leiber's Change War series, starting with the Hugo Award winning The Big Time (1958); followed by Richard C. Meredith's Timeliner trilogy in the 1970s, Michael McCollum's A Greater Infinity (1982) and John Barnes' Timeline Wars trilogy in the 1990s. Such "paratime" stories may include speculation that the laws of nature can vary from one universe to the next, providing a science fictional explanationor veneerfor what is normally fantasy. Aaron Allston's Doc Sidhe and Sidhe Devil take place between our world, the "grim world" and an alternate "fair world" where the Sidhe retreated to. Although technology is clearly present in both worlds, and the "fair world" parallels our history, about fifty years out of step, there is functional magic in the fair world. Even with such explanation, the more explicitly the alternate world resembles a normal fantasy world, the more likely the story is to be labeled fantasy, as in Poul Anderson's "House Rule" and "Loser's Night." In both science fiction and fantasy, whether a given parallel universe is an alternate history may not be clear. The writer might allude to a POD only to explain the existence and make no use of the concept, or may present the universe without explanation to its existence.
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Alternate history Since the late 1990s, Harry Turtledove has been the most prolific practitioner of alternate history and has been given the title "Master of Alternate History" by some.[17] His books include those of Timeline 191 (a.k.a. Southern Victory), in which Confederate States of America won the American Civil War, and the Worldwar series, in which aliens invaded Earth during World War II. Other stories by Turtledove include A Different Flesh, in which America was not colonized from Asia during the last ice age; In the Presence of Mine Enemies, in which the Nazis won World War II; and Ruled Britannia, in which the Spanish Armada succeeded in conquering Britain in the Elizabethan era, with William Shakespeare being given the task of writing the play that will motivate the Britons to rise up against their Spanish conquerors. He also co-authored a book with actor Richard Dreyfuss The Two Georges, in which the United Kingdom retained the American colonies, with George Washington and King George III making peace. He did a two-volume series in which the Japanese not only bombed Pearl Harbor but also invaded and occupied the Hawaiian Islands. Perhaps the most incessantly explored theme in popular alternate history focuses on worlds in which the Nazis won World War Two. In some versions, the Nazis and/or Axis Powers conquer the entire world; in others, they conquer most of the world but a "Fortress America" exists under siege; while in others, there is a Nazi/Japanese Cold War comparable to the US/Soviet equivalent in 'our' timeline. Fatherland (1992) by Robert Harris, is set in Europe following the Nazi victory. Several writers have posited points of departure for such a world but then have injected time splitters from the future or paratime travel for instance James P. Hogan's The Proteus Operation. Norman Spinrad wrote The Iron Dream in 1972, which is intended to be a science fiction novel written by Adolf Hitler after fleeing from Europe to North America in the 1920s. In Jo Walton's "Small Change" series, the United Kingdom made peace with Hitler before the involvement of the United States in World War II, and fascism slowly strangled the UK. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen have written a novel, 1945, in which the U.S. defeated Japan but not Germany in World War II, resulting in a Cold War with Germany rather than the Soviet Union. Gingrich and Forstchen neglected to write the promised sequel; instead, they wrote a trilogy about the American Civil War, starting with Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, in which the Confederates win a victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. Also from that general era, Martin Cruz Smith, in his first novel, posited an independent American Indian nation following the defeat of Custer in The Indians Won (1970).[18] Beginning with The Probability Broach in 1981, L. Neil Smith wrote several novels that postulated the disintegration of the U.S. Federal Government during the Whiskey Rebellion and the creation of a libertarian utopia. A recent time traveling splitter variant involves entire communities being shifted elsewhere to become the unwitting creators of new time branches. These communities are transported from the present (or the near-future) to the past or to another time-line via a natural disaster, the action of technologically advanced aliens, or a human experiment gone wrong. S. M. Stirling wrote the Island in the Sea of Time trilogy, in which Nantucket Island and all its modern inhabitants are transported to Bronze Age times to become the world's first superpower. In Eric Flint's 1632 series, a small town in West Virginia is transported to 17th century central Europe and drastically changes the course of the Thirty Years' War, which was then underway. John Birmingham's Axis of Time trilogy deals with the culture shock when a United Nations naval task force from 2021 finds itself back in 1942 helping the Allies against the Empire of Japan and the Germans (and doing almost as much harm as good in spite of its advanced weapons). Similarly, Robert Charles Wilson's Mysterium depicts a failed U.S. government experiment which transports a small American town into an alternative version of the U.S. run by believers in a form of Christianity known as Gnosticism, who are engaged in a bitter war with the "Spanish" in Mexico. (The chief scientist at the laboratory where the experiment occurred is described as a Gnostic, and references to Christian Gnosticism appear repeatedly in the book.)
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Alternate history release the goetic forces." This results in the suppression of ferromagnetism and the reemergence of magic and magical creatures. Alternate history shades off into other fantasy subgenres when the use of actual, though altered, history and geography decreases, although a culture may still be clearly the original source; Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds and its sequels take place in a fantasy world, albeit one clearly based on China, and with allusions to actual Chinese history, such as the Empress Wu. Richard Garfinkle's Celestial Matters incorporates ancient Chinese physics and Greek Aristotelian physics, using them as if factual. A fantasy version of the paratime police was developed by children's writer Diana Wynne Jones in her Chrestomanci quartet (19771988), with wizards taking the place of high tech secret agents. Among the novels in this series, Witch Week stands out for its vivid depiction of a history alternate to that of Chrestomanci's own world rather than our own (and yet with a specific POD that turned it away from the "normal" history of most worlds visited by the wizard). Terry Pratchett's works include several references to alternate histories of Discworld. Men At Arms observes that in millions of universes, Edward d'Eath became an obsessive recluse rather than the instigator of the plot that he is in the novel. In Jingo, Vimes accidentally picks up a pocket organizer that should have gone down another leg of the Trousers of Time, and so can hear the organizer reporting on the deaths that would have occurred had his decision gone otherwise. Indeed, Discworld contains an equivalent of the Time Patrol in its History Monks. Night Watch revolves around a repair of history after a time traveler's murder of an important figure in Vimes's past. Thief of Time presents them functioning as a full-scale Time Patrol, ensuring that history occurs at all.
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Films
Several films have been made that exploit the concepts of alternate history, most notably Kevin Brownlow's It Happened Here (1966), depicting a Nazi-occupied Britain. Other alternate history films include the HBO TV movie Fatherland (1994), set in the 1960s in a world where Germany won World War II, based on Robert Harris's novel of the same name. Although foretelling a world where Germany is poised to be defeated in World War II, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds offers a satirical revenge fantasy where a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler succeeds. Alternate histories in film are sometimes presented as mockumentaries to provide verisimilitude to fictional events, including C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004), a satirical look at the history of an America where the South won the Civil War. Other examples of cinematic alternate history are: 2009 Lost Memories (2002), a Korean film supposing that Hirobumi Ito was not assassinated by An Jung-geun in Harbin, China, in 1909; and Timequest (2002), in which a time traveler prevents the assassination of John F. Kennedy, resulting in an altered subsequent history.
Alternate history A few movies about alternative universes focus on individuals rather than historical events, for example, Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, and more recently the Back to the Future series of films, Blind Chance, Sliding Doors, Run Lola Run, Me Myself I, The Butterfly Effect, Groundhog Day, Frequency, Inglourious Basterds and Source Code.
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Television
Several TV series also exploit the concept of alternate history. The science fiction television show Sliders presented alternate histories under the science-inspired guise of quantum-navigating the multiverse. The vast majority of alternate Americas in most episodes are nasty dystopias, although sometimes this is not evident at first. In Lost, the characters time travel to 1977 past and attempt to create an alternate history. However, while the only intended ramifications were for Flight 815 to land in Los Angeles, instead, it is revealed that their actions were the cause of the crash, ultimately. Other non-alternate history television shows have explored the concept. Star Trek has used the theme several times. Examples include: TOS"The City on the Edge of Forever" (alternate World War II outcome); Animated Series"Yesteryear"; TNG"Yesterday's Enterprise", and Enterprise's "Storm Front" Also, the universe of "Mirror, Mirror", while in the original episode was just implied to be a parallel universe, was in later episodes (of DS9 and Enterprise) shown to have an alternate history. The British TV series Doctor Who had a few episodes that involved an alternate Earth where Pete Tyler, father of Rose Tyler, was alive, successful, and rich, unlike the Pete Tyler on the original Earth, who died when Rose was a baby and had been unsuccessful in business. The Tenth Doctor, Rose, and Mickey Smith visited the alternate Earth by accident in "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel". The second season finale "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday" also involved travel to the same alternate Earth, and the series four episode "Turn Left" showed an alternate history where the Tenth Doctor has been killed during the Racnoss attack. During the Third Doctor's tenure he visited an alternative Earth with a fascist-style British Government that has executed the Royal Family (and fascist counterparts of his friends/companions Liz Shaw, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Sergeant Benton) in Inferno, from which he is able to learn of a danger that also threatens his Earth. In the seventies SF children's series The Tomorrow People, "A Rift in Time" (1974) depicted an attempted historical change by time travellers from an alternate-universe Roman Empire that developed steam engines in the 1st century, never fell as a result, had a 1,500-year technological head-start over our own world and by its "20th century," controlled a galactic empire. The fourth season of the television series Fringe takes place in an alternate timeline in which Peter Bishop died shortly after the prime universe's Walter Bishop brought him to the prime universe. This resulted in a butterfly effect in which every main character's life was profoundly changed with the absence of Peter. In the Twilight Zone episode "The Parallel," an astronaut is transported to an alternate Earth where history plays out differently, but no-one believes him when he discovers this. On August 24, 2011, Spike TV aired a special titled Alternate History, a program speculating what would occur if Nazi Germany won World War II and conquered the United States. On October 13, 2011, the Community episode "Remedial Chaos Theory" includes seven alternate timelines in the lives of the show's seven main characters, dependent on which of the seven went to get the pizza delivered to the apartment. Various anime productions have also used the genre: Zipang (based on a manga of the same name), involves a modern Aegis class destroyer of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force being thrown back in time to the Battle of Midway in 1942. The presence of the ship and its crew, their advanced technology and knowledge of the future, change the course of World War II and create an alternate timeline.
Alternate history Konpeki no Kantai (lit. Deep Blue Fleet) depicts a hyper-advanced Japanese navy defeating the United States in World War II. Subsequently, Japan, Britain and the United States join forces to defeat Nazi Germany.
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Role-playing games
The dramatic possibilities of alternate history provide a diverse genre for exploration in role-playing games. Many games use an alternate historical background for their campaigns. In particular, the fourth edition of GURPS uses a setting containing multiple different alternate histories as its default campaign setting, with the supplement GURPS Infinite Worlds detailing a large number of alternate worlds included in the setting, many of them carryovers from the third-edition GURPS supplements GURPS Alternate Earths and GURPS Alternate Earths II.
Video games
For the same reasons that this genre is explored by role-playing games, alternate history is also an intriguing backdrop for the storylines of many video games. A famous example of an alternate history game is Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Released in 1996, the game presents a point of divergence in 1946 where Albert Einstein goes back in time to prevent World War II from ever taking place by erasing Adolf Hitler from time after he is released from Landsberg Prison in 1924. He is successful in his mission, but in the process allows Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union to become powerful enoughas a direct result of not having a strong rival dictator like Hitler to keep his power in checkto launch a massive campaign to conquer Europe, sparking an alternate (and ultimately costlier) version of the Second World War and, eventually, World War III not once but twice: one where the USSR invades the continental US in the 1970s, and a second where a small group of Soviet leaders, attempting to preempt their defeat, go back in time and eliminate Einstein but end up in a conflict with both the West and a third Japanese side. In the Civilization Series, the player guides a civilization from prehistory to the present day, creating radically altered versions of history on a long time-scale. Several scenarios recreate a particular period which becomes the "point of divergence" in an alternate history shaped by the player's actions. Popular examples in Sid Meier's Civilization IV include Desert War, set in the Mediterranean theater of World War II and featuring scripted events tied to possible outcomes of battles; Broken Star, set in a hypothetical Russian civil war in 2010; and Rhye's and Fall of Civilization, an 'Earth simulator' designed to mirror a history as closely as possible but incorporating unpredictable elements to provide realistic alternate settings. In some games such as the Metal Gear and Resident Evil series, events that were originally intended to represent the near future at the time the games were originally released later ended up becoming alternative histories in later entries in those franchises. For example, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990), set in 1997, depicted a near future that ended up becoming an alternative history in Metal Gear Solid (1998). Likewise, Resident Evil (1996) and Resident Evil 2 (1998), both set in 1998, depicted near-future events that had later become an alternative history by the time Resident Evil 4 (2005) was released. Crimson Skies is one example of an alternate history spawning multiple interpretations in multiple genres. The stories and games in Crimson Skies take place in an alternate 1930s United States, where the nation crumbled into many hostile states following the effects of the Great Depression, the Great War, and Prohibition. With the road and railway system destroyed, commerce took to the skies. Great cargo zeppelins escorted by fighter squadrons are the targets of many ruthless air pirates and enemy countries. This world has featured in a board game, a PC game, an Xbox game, a collectible miniature game and various promotional novels, comics and short stories. The game Freedom Fighters portrays a situation similar to that of the movie Red Dawn and Red Alert 2, though less comically than the latter. The point of divergence is during World War II, where the Soviet Union develops an atomic bomb first and uses it on Berlin. With the balance of power and influence tipped in Russia's favor, history diverges; brief summaries at the beginning of the game inform the player of the Communist bloc's complete takeover of Europe by 1953, a different ending to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the spread of Soviet influence into South America and Mexico. The plot of the game revolves around a Soviet invasion of the United States and the resistance
Alternate history fighting in New York City. Similarly, the 2007 video game World in Conflict is set in 1989, with the Soviet Union on the verge of collapse. The point of divergence is several months before the opening of the game, when Warsaw Pact forces staged a desperate invasion of Western Europe. As the game begins, a Soviet invasion force lands in Seattle, taking advantage of the fact that most of the US military is in Europe. The game is divided into three parts: the first focuses on the fighting retreat from Seattle towards Fort Teller in the Cascade Mountains; the second is a flashback to the recent fighting in Europe, which culminated in a Soviet attack on Manhattan; the third chronicles the fight to retake Seattle before a Chinese fleet arrives, which could force the US President to destroy the invaders with a nuclear strike. Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, released in February 2008, is an alternate history first person shooter where Winston Churchill died in 1931 from being hit by a taxi cab. Because of this, Great Britain lacks the charismatic leader needed to keep the country together and Nazi Germany successfully conquers Great Britain via Operation Sealion. Germany later conquers the rest of Europe and North Africa while mass-producing their wunderwaffe. The Axis launch a surprise invasion of an isolationist United States in 1953, which forces the country to surrender and submit to a puppet government. The game's main character is a member of a resistance force against the Germans. Another alternate history game involving Nazis is War Front: Turning Point in which Adolf Hitler died during the early days of World War II and thus, a much more effective leadership rose to power. Under the command of a new Fhrer (who is referred to as "Chancellor", and his real name is never revealed), Operation Sealion succeeds and the Nazis successfully conquer Britain, sparking a cold war between the Allied Powers and Germany. Another example of alternate history is the Resistance series of first-person shooter games. The point of divergence is in the years following World War I, where an isolationist Russian Empire - and later, Western Europe - is conquered by an alien race called the Chimera. The aliens later invade the United States. The Fallout Series of computer role-playing games is set in a divergent America, where history after World War II diverges from the real world to follow a retro-futuristic timeline. For example, fusion power was invented quite soon after the end of the war, but the transistor was either delayed or never was developed. The result was a future that has a 1950s 'World of Tomorrow' feel to it, with extremely high technology such as artificial intelligence implemented with thermionic valves and other technologies now considered obsolete. Iron Storm is a first person shooter set in 1964, where the Great War still continues and international corporations sell stocks as if "betting" on an outcome. Since profits are so great, they continually press for stalemate to keep the conflict in an ongoing cycle of minor advances and losses. "In the action adventure game inFamous, the main villain of the first game, Kessler, is the main character Cole's future self. He (Kessler) failed to save the world from the Beast (the main villain of the second game) and traveled back in time to insure his past self not to make his grave mistake.
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Comic books
Alternate history has also appeared in comic books. An early example is Captain Confederacy, which is set in a world where the Confederate States of America won its independence and has created a Captain America-type superhero for propaganda purposes. Influential comic writers have also used an alternate history as the background to their story. Alan Moore's 1986 comic series Watchmen is set in an alternate United States that not only has costumed adventurers as commonplace fixtures within American society, but also contains other alternate history elements including an American "victory" in the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon serving five terms as president. Warren Ellis's 2001 comic mini-series Ministry of Space features a British space program that had its foundation in the United Kingdom's recovery of scientists and technology at the German rocket installations in Peenemnde ahead of the US Army and the Soviets. There have also been alternative history webcomics like Roswell, Texas, which diverges when Davy Crockett survived the Alamo, leading to the expansion of Texas.
Alternate history Marvel and DC have their own titles where they can tell alternative stories based on their own characters (What If...? and Elseworlds, respectively). Most set the stories in different times or base them on different genres with some based on a divergence in their fictional history, such as the Age of Apocalypse, where Professor X being killed accidentally in the past led to Apocalypse taking over America. The time travelling Marvel Comics villain Kang the Conqueror has created alternate realities and different versions of himself due to his time travelling. However after stumbling into Limbo he succeeds in eliminating all the other versions of himself. Later his Future counterpart Immortus becomes an alternate version of himself. However, some are genuine alternate histories, with Batman: Holy Terror based on the premise that Oliver Cromwell lived for another decade. Some of the newer DC Multiverse alternate Earths could be legitimately described as alternate histories. On Earth-9, the emergence of metahumans led to a limited nuclear exchange ("the Cuban War") in 1962, leading to the destruction of Florida and Cuba, US intervention during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1967 and the survival of the USSR into the nineties (see Tangent Comics.). On Earth-10, Nazi Germany won the Second World War. On Earth-17, the United States and USSR fought a thermonuclear World War III in 1986, with some human survivors. On Earth-30, the Soviet Union won the Cold War due to the technological boost provided by Superman, whose vehicle landed in the Ukraine, instead of Kansas (see Superman: Red Son). In 2009, Bryan Talbot created Grandville, a graphic novel set in a world mostly populated by anthropomorphic animals, in which France won the Napoleonic Wars, invaded Britain and guillotined the British Royal Family. Grandville also features elements of steampunk. In 1978, "The Sentinels", one of the first serials in UK girls' comic Misty, featured an alternate world where Nazi Germany conquered Britain in 1940. The alternate world was connected with the mainstream world via two apartment blocks called "The Sentinels". People kept stumbling in from both sides, causing terror over unexplained disappearances and worse, mix-ups over parallel world doubles. This culminated in the Gestapo mistakenly arresting a man from the mainstream world and people from both worlds uniting for the rescue mission.
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Online
Fans of alternate history have made use of the internet from a very early point to showcase their own works and provide useful tools for those fans searching for anything alternate history, first in mailing lists and usenet groups, later in web databases and forums. The "Usenet Alternate History List" was first posted on April 11, 1991, to the usenet newsgroup rec.arts.sf-lovers. In May 1995, the dedicated newsgroup soc.history.what-if was created for showcasing and discussing alternate histories;[19] it expanded rapidly and at its peak in the early 2000s regularly had over 10,000 posts a month.[20] Its prominence declined with the general migration from unmoderated usenet to moderated web forums, most prominently AlternateHistory.com, today the self-described "largest gathering of alternate history fans on the internet".[21] In addition to these discussion forums, in 1997 after the creation of the world wide web, Uchronia: The Alternate History List was created as an online repository, now containing over 2900 alternate history novels, stories, essays and other printed material, in several different languages. Uchronia was selected as the Sci Fi Channel's "Sci Fi Site of the Week" twice.[22][23] Collaborative attempts by several amateur writers have led to notable accomplishments. The contributors at Ill Bethisad have made two constructed languages: Brithenig[24] and Wenedyk.
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References
[1] Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2007) notes the preferred usage of "Alternate History" as well as its primacy in coinage, "Alternate History" was coined in 1954 and "Alternative History" was first used in 1977, pp.45. [2] "AH" (http:/ / acronyms. thefreedictionary. com/ Alternate+ History+ (fiction+ genre)). The Free Dictionary. . Retrieved 2 January 2009. [3] Allohistory (http:/ / www. worldwidewords. org/ turnsofphrase/ tp-all1. htm) Michael Quinion, World Wide Words. 2002-05-04. [4] See "www.uchronia.net" (http:/ / www. uchronia. net/ intro. html) (Retrieved 2010-09-03). [5] Steven H Silver. "Uchronicle" (http:/ / www. helixsf. com/ uchronicle/ uchronicle0706. htm). Helix. . Retrieved 2009-05-26. [6] Evelyn C. Leeper (August 13, 2001). "Alternate History 101" (http:/ / www. webcitation. org/ 5kmXXAhDa). Archived from the original (http:/ / www. geocities. com/ Athens/ 4824/ ah101. htm) on 2009-10-25. . Retrieved 2009-05-26. Another copy of the foregoing may be found at 'http:/ / www. leepers. us/ evelyn/ ah101. htm' (retrieved 2010-09-03), and a different definition of "secret history" by the same writer may be found at 'http:/ / www. leepers. us/ evelyn/ reviews/ borges. htm' (retrieved 2010-09-03). [7] Martin Bunzl (June 2004). "Counterfactual History: A User's Guide" (http:/ / www. historycooperative. org/ journals/ ahr/ 109. 3/ bunzl. html). American Historical Review. . Retrieved 2009-06-02. [8] Ab Urbe Condita (http:/ / mcadams. posc. mu. edu/ txt/ ah/ Livy/ Livy09. html) Titus Livius, Book 9. [9] Dozois, Gardner; Stanley Schmidt (1998). Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History. New York: Del Rey. pp.15. ISBN0-345-42194-9. [10] Turtledove, Harry; Martin H. Greenberg (2001). The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century. New York: Del Rey. pp.15. ISBN978-0-345-43990-1. [11] "If: A Jacobite Fantasy" by Charles Petrie (http:/ / www. jacobite. ca/ essays/ if. htm) [12] Churchill...and War (http:/ / www. winstonchurchill. org/ i4a/ pages/ index. cfm?pageid=674). The Churchill Centre. [13] Men like Gods on Project Gutenberg (http:/ / gutenberg. net. au/ ebooks02/ 0200221. txt) [14] Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, The World Hitler Never Made, p39 ISBN 0-521-84706-0 [15] Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, The World Hitler Never Made, p97-99 ISBN 0-521-84706-0 [16] "Taming the Multiverse" (http:/ / www. kurzweilai. net/ articles/ art0268. html). 2001-06-14. [17] " Master of Alternate History (http:/ / www. publishersweekly. com/ article/ CA6548135. html)" by Melissa Mia Hall, Publishers Weekly, 4/7/2008. [18] Nicholas Wroe, Profile: Martin Cruz Smith (http:/ / www. guardian. co. uk/ books/ 2005/ mar/ 26/ featuresreviews. guardianreview15), The Guardian, 26 March 2005 [19] soc.history.what-if Frequently Asked Questions (http:/ / www. anthonymayer. net/ ah/ faq. html) [20] soc.history.what-if on Google Groups (http:/ / groups. google. com/ group/ soc. history. what-if/ about) [21] AlternateHistory.com (http:/ / www. alternatehistory. com/ ) [22] Berkwits, Jeff. "Sci-Fi Site of the Week: Uchronia: The Alternate History List" (http:/ / www. scifi. com/ sfw/ issue62/ site. html). SciFi.com. . Retrieved 20 November 2008. [23] McGowan, Matthew (2000-09-25). "Sci-Fi Site of the Week: Uchronia: The Alternate History List" (http:/ / www. scifi. com/ sfw/ issue179/ site. html). SciFi.com. . Retrieved 20 November 2008. [24] "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: bzt" (http:/ / www. sil. org/ iso639-3/ documentation. asp?id=bzt). SIL International. . Retrieved 6 January 2009.
Further reading
Chapman, Edgar L., and Carl B. Yoke (eds.). Classic and Iconoclastic Alternate History Science Fiction. Mellen, 2003 Collins, William Joseph. Paths Not Taken: The Development, Structure, and Aesthetics of the Alternative History. University of California at Davis 1990 Darius, Julian. 58 Varieties: Watchmen and Revisionism. In Minutes to Midnight: Twelve Essays on Watchmen (http://www.sequart.org/books/6/minutes-to-midnight-twelve-essays-on-watchmen/). Sequart Research & Literacy Organization, 2010. Focuses on Watchmen as alternate history. Robert Cowley (ed.), What If? Military historians imagine what might have been. Pan Books, 1999. Gevers, Nicholas. Mirrors of the Past: Versions of History in Science Fiction and Fantasy. University of Cape Town, 1997 Hellekson, Karen. The Alternate History: Refiguring Historical Time. Kent State University Press, 2001 Keen, Antony G. "Alternate Histories of the Roman Empire in Stephen Baxter, Robert Silverberg and Sophia McDougall." Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 102, Spring 2008. McKnight, Edgar Vernon, Jr. Alternative History: The Development of a Literary Genre. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1994
Alternate history Nedelkovh, Aleksandar B. British and American Science Fiction Novel 19501980 with the Theme of Alternative History (an Axiological Approach). 1994 (Serbian), 1999 (English) Rosenfeld, Gavriel David. The World Hitler Never Made. Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism. 2005 Rosenfeld, Gavriel David. "Why Do We Ask 'What If?' Reflections on the Function of Alternate History." History and Theory 41, Theme Issue 41 (December 2002), 90103
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External links
Interactive sites
AlternateHistory.com (http://www.alternatehistory.com/) largest alternate history forum on the Internet. Althistory Wikia (http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page) Alternate History Wikia, maintained by Wikia Groups-Beta.google.com (http://groups-beta.google.com/group/soc.history.what-if), Soc.history.what-if The usenet newsgroup on alternate history with over a decade of archives.
Non-interactive sites
Alternate History Weekly Update (http://alternatehistoryweeklyupdate.blogspot.com/): a blog featuring commentary on alternate history news. Changing The Times (http://www.changingthetimes.net/), is an Alternate History Electronic Magazine written and maintained by alternate historians. It contains a discussion board. "For Want of a Genre" (http://www.nebulaawards.com/index.php/guest_blogs/for_want_of_a_genre/), article by Christopher M. Cevasco. Histalt.com (http://www.histalt.com/) is author Richard J. (Rick) Sutcliffe's collection of Alternate History links. John Reilly's Alternative History (http://www.johnreilly.info/althis.htm) Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction (http://www.paradoxmag.com), frequently publishes alternate history stories. Point of Divergence (http://www.dalecozort.com/PODPage.html): Information about the APA Point of Divergence, which has been publishing since 1996. Shattered World: A Worse World War (http://theshatteredworld.blogspot.com/), a site based on an alternate historical scenario containing an active forum. The Sidewise Award for Alternate History (http://www.uchronia.net/sidewise) lists all the winners and nominees for the award since its inception and provides information for recommending works for consideration. This Day in Alternate History (http://thisdayinalternatehistory.blogspot.com/), dedicated to showing significant events in years past on this day that shaped history... just, not our history. Today in Alternate History (http://www.todayinah.co.uk/), a daily-updated blog, featuring "Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today" in several recurring timelines. Uchronia (http://www.uchronia.net/) has an introduction to the topic (http://www.uchronia.net/intro.html), and lists over 2000 works of alternate history.
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Time loop
A time loop or temporal loop is a common plot device in science fiction (especially in universes where time travel is commonplace) in which time runs normally for a set period (usually a day or a few hours) but then skips back like a broken record. When the time loop "resets", the memories of most characters are reset (i.e. they forget all that happened). The plot is advanced by having one or more central characters retain their memory or become aware of the loop through dj vu. One well-known example of this is in the 1993 film Groundhog Day, in which the main character is the only one aware of the time loop. Stories with time loops commonly center on correcting past mistakes or on getting a character to recognize some key truth; escape from the loop may then follow.
Television
The following series featured time loops as a main theme or at least fairly frequently: Day Break - A police officer relives the same day over and over, and has to figure out how to save himself and those close to him from a host of threats. Doctor Who makes frequent use of time travel. A number of episodes involve or make mention of a time loop (also referred to as a "chronic hysteresis"): "Image of the Fendahl", "Carnival of Monsters", "The Invasion of Time", "The Armageddon Factor", "The Claws of Axos", "Meglos" and "Father's Day" (a car is stuck in a time loop after history is changed as the universe seemingly tries to 'restore' history). In the episode "Blink" the Doctor knows exactly what clues to leave in the past in order to help a character in the present (Sally Sparrow) deal with an alien threat because she has carefully collected and preserved all the information and gives it to him after the fact. The Master's use of the term "time loop" in "The Claws of Axos" may be the first instance of its use to describe the phenomenon. Beyond the original TV series, the term also appears in the radio play "No More Lies", starring the Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann. In the spinoff series Torchwood, in the first episode of the second series, another time loop is mentioned, where main character Captain Jack Harkness and his partner John Hart were trapped in a two-week time loop for five years. A recent Doctor Who episode to feature a time loop is "The Big Bang", in which River Song is put into a time loop within the TARDIS to keep her alive, the TARDIS 'freezing' itself in the moment of its own destruction. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - The story is shown in chapters, each one a variation of the same time period. Each chapter unravels part of an overarching mystery. The chapters typically end with the death of some or all of the main characters. The conclusion of the story comes when the mystery is solved and death is prevented. The reason for these time loops becomes part of the mystery as characters begin to remember scenes from previous time loops.
Time loop The Lexx - Stanley Tweedle, Zev, Kai and 790 travel the span of two universes on a Manhattan-sized living insect ship, in an effort to discover a way to defeat a villain called "His Divine Shadow". Kai is the lone survivor (technically animated dead) of a humanoid species called the Brunen-G, which were eradicated two-thousand years in the past by His Shadow. This event was prophesied by a now deceased Brunen-G Seer to have happened before, and expected to happen again, in a time loop referred to as the "Future-Past". The Tatami Galaxy - An unnamed student relives the first two years of his college career repeatedly, choosing a different club to join at the beginning each time, unaware consciously of the time loop. One loop ends with two smaller jumps backwards, reliving the iteration's final hours a second and third time, before it fully resets. Tru Calling - A university graduate working in the city morgue is able to repeat the same day over again to prevent murders or other disasters. Twin Peaks - The small township of Twin Peaks is shocked by the murder of a High School girl Laura Palmer and disappearance of her classmate Ronette Pulaski. FBI agent Dale Cooper is sent to investigate and quickly finds himself being sucked into the joy and intrigue of a town where nothing is as it appears at the surface. The subplot introduced in Season 1 and elaborated on in Season 2 revolving around the supernatural world of the Black and White Lodge deals with human beings, most obviously Laura Palmer and Dale Cooper, being possessed by entities that are stuck in a temporal loop forced to reenact their roles. But all characters in the series may be viewed in this light as vessels forced to play different roles at different times. Time loops have been featured in individual episodes of many TV series, including:
TV Show Andromeda Episode "When Goes Around..." "Time Bomb" Comments It's also hinted that Trance Gemini has experienced the show's time-line several times.
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Angel
The characters do not experience events in a single loop; one character begins randomly jumping through time and experiences events multiple times, sometimes out of order
"Same Time Last Week" "5:55" The characters discover Pandora's Box, which ends the world whenever it is opened; due to the main character Vicki Nelson having been marked by a powerful demon, history is apparently 'reset' each time the box is opened to give the demon the chance to kill Vicki. One of a trio of geeks puts Buffy into a time loop when she's working at the Magic Box. She has to face the same customer over and over until she's able to satisfy her.
"Life Serial"
"Sakura's Never-Ending Day" ("Time and Again" in the Nelvana release) "Deja Vu All Over Again" "The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed" "Show Ghouls" A demon tries to repeat the same day over and over again until he can find a strategy to defeat the sisters. Breaking a time loop that others are stuck in is a major plot element, but the sisters and the audience only go through it once.
Charmed
Code Lyoko
Although the main characters have the ability to relive a day ("Return to the past" or "RTTP") and be the only ones who retain their memories, throughout the entire series these are the only two episodes in which the same day is repeated multiple times.
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"Run, Gary, Run" "I Do Over" The main character has to solve what is causing him to relive the same day repeatedly without the help of the geniuses in the town, and he finds that no matter what he changes throughout each repeated day, the end result is still the same. He then realizes that nothing simple he does will change anything, and that if he wants to stop reliving the same day, a drastic measure must be taken. The main character wishes that it was Christmas every day.
The main character wishes for a watch that allows him to reset a certain amount of time so that he can undo his mistakes. John Crichton's exposure to the energy of a black hole causes him to experience time jumps where he sees the future.
Farscape
"Back and Back and Back to the Future" "Gulag" "White Tulip" "The Late Philip J Fry"
Fry, Bender and Professor Farnsworth use a forwards time machine and after travelling through multiple times in the future, fast forward to the end of the universe where they witness a second big bang and discover that when the universe ends, another universe exactly the same as the old one is created.
Haven
"Audrey Parker's Day Off" "The Once and Future Thing: Time Warped" "'Twas the Night Before Mxymas" The villain, Chronos, is trapped in a time loop at the conclusion of the episode and his actions thus undone.
Justice League Unlimited Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Lost
"Flashes Before Your Eyes" "Be Kind, Rewind" The "Endless Eight" arc Episodes where the characters relive the same two weeks of summer vacation, as the one behind it attempts to pack as much into these two weeks as possible, but is not satisfied, and thus the loop repeats
Dj vu (skit, a.k.a. "It's the Mind"), episode 16. It's About Time Twilight Sparkle is visited by her future self, from a seemingly apocalyptic world due to her tattered jumpsuit and shocking appearance. Before she can convey an urgent warning, she is forced back to the future, and Twilight attempts to avert the apparent crisis, her paranoia leading to several injuries that match what her future self had possessed. After realizing there will be no disaster, she travels back in time to tell her past self not to bother worrying about an apocalypse, but being forced back into the present day before being able to mention not to worry, setting in motion a time loop.
"Playback" "'T.G.I.F" "The Day That Wouldn't End" "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo" "Toto Day"
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"Yesterday Again"
The Machine Empire traps Earth in a time loop; a recent brainwashing experience allows Tommy Oliver to be partly aware of the day repeating itself. The crew are exposed to a white hole- the opposite of a black hole- which spews time into the universe, causing them to repeat various events as well as experiencing time out of order.
7 Days
Run Frank Run! Frank Parker must save Talmadge. The clock is ticking, he's far away, traveling on foot, but thankfully, if at first he doesn't succeed (and indeed he doesn't), he gets to try, try again. Silver Surfer finds Adam Warlock trapped in a time loop where he defends his homeworld from the Kree. After leaving it they find that Warlock's true homeworld was destroyed long ago, so he returns to the time loop. Having indirectly caused the death of Lana Lang, Clark Kent turns back time to avert the events that led to her death (Although the new timeline results in Jonathan Kent dying instead)
Silver Surfer
Smallville
"Reckoning"
South Park
"Cancelled" "Go God Go XII" The time loop is inescapable only because the person remembering it is incapable of understanding the problem. The episodes "The Gamekeeper" and "Avatar" also feature time repeatedly "resetting" itself, but they both take place within virtual reality universes, whereas "Window of Opportunity" takes place in the real world and is the only instance of the term "time loop" being used in the series, Earth and sixteen other worlds within a certain distance of the original machine apparently repeating the same eight hours for over three months.
Stargate SG-1
"Window of Opportunity"
"Future Tense"
A localized time loop only loops for the main characters and those involved directly in the loop. The loop is caused by the destruction of the Enterprise, which in turn resets the loop. Once the ship's destruction is averted, the loop breaks, and the characters discover that quite some time has passed while they were trapped in the localized loop. The Enterprise is destroyed and Captain Jean-Luc Picard is sent back in time to the moments before the ship was destroyed, but Picard is able to break the loop that would have led to him becoming his future self. Captain Kathryn Janeway apparently experiences multiple timelines resulting in her death, but the 'loop' is revealed to be an illusion generated by a life-form trying to trick Janeway into 'accepting' her death Corinne Baxter has what she considers the worst day of her life and repeats it over and over until she looks at it optimistically.
"Time Squared"
"Coda"
"Thursday"
"International Dateline"
The time loop is caused by a lightning bolt that strikes while the boat passes the international dateline sending the S.S. Tipton back in a time loop that only Cody Martin Realizes, so he takes advantage to try and kiss Bailey Pickett, his crush. In the end, he doesn't manage to kiss her. The time loop is caused whenever Dean Winchester is killed. The time loop was created by a Trickster to teach Dean's brother Sam a lesson.
Supernatural
Totally Spies! The Twilight Zone The Twilight Zone (2002 TV series)
"Deja Cruise" "Shadow Play" "Rewind [1] " Jonah is given a gift of a personal tape recorder that rewinds time and allows the holder to create a 5 minute Time Loop.
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"Universal Remote" "First Kiss" Alex Russo wants her brother, Justin, to get his first kiss. During the kiss, something wrong happens, so Alex set the time back so Justin could do it right. A woman has to repeat the same day over and over, each ending with someone dead after a bank heist. She confronts Scully and Mulder on several occasions to try and stop the time loop, and Mulder gets the sense of Deja Vu.
"Monday"
Audio Drama
In one episode of The Shadow, "The Man Who Killed Time", the antagonist creates a time loop.
Music videos
"Redundant" (1997) by Green Day "Feel It" (1997) by Neneh Cherry "Looking For Love" (1998) by Karen Ramirez "Otherside" (1999) by Red Hot Chili Peppers "7 Days" (2000) from Born to Do It by Craig David "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" (2000) from All That You Can't Leave Behind by U2 The North American music video features the end of an American football game replayed repeatedly as a place kicker misses a field goal. The European music video shows Bono being thrown from a van repeated times. "Grounded" (2001) from Finelines by My Vitriol "Come Into My World" (2002) from "Fever" by Kylie Minogue "Ocean Avenue" (2004) from Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard "In My Arms" (2005) by Mylo "If I Surrender" (2007) by The Color Fred "Time After Time" (2008) by Elliot Minor
"Hey" (2009) by Mitchel Musso "The Island (Pendulum song)" (2010) by Pendulum (band) "Luv Delux" (2009) by Cinnamon Chasers
Film
12:01 PM and 12:01 - two films (a 1990 short and a 1993 full-length), based upon Richard A. Lupoff's short story of the same name. 1408 - A jaded writer is trapped in a hotel room that physically and psychologically torments him, unable to escape. Although the main storyline of the film is not a time loop, this device does appear as one of the many horrors inflicted by the room. At several points in the story, he thinks he has managed to leave the room, only to discover later he has been inside it all along. 50 First Dates - A girl repeats the same day in her mind over and over as the rest of the world keeps going. Bless the Child, a 2003 Hong Kong film Blind Chance - Krzystof Kieslowski's 1987 film following three different possibilities, all spouting from chance. Precursor to Tykwer's Run Lola Run. Christmas Do-Over - A shallow ad executive finds himself reliving Christmas day over and over. Christmas Every Day - A 13-year-old boy relives Christmas day again and again.
Time loop Donnie Darko - A 16-year-old boy is visited by a strange entity from the future who guides him into ending a time loop and thus preventing the destruction of our universe. gi ieri - A man relives a day again and again Groundhog Day - A jaded weather man relives the same day, Groundhog Day, over and over, while stuck in a small town due to the weather. Il Mare and its Hollywood remake, The Lake House - these two films share time-loop like features: Two characters exist in different time frames, and affect each other's lives. The ending of the film is a causality paradox, which if followed through would cause the timeloop to repeat. The Last Day of Summer - A boy relives his last day of summer after being repeatedly hit on the head. Limbo 2004 - An attorney finds himself stuck in Limbo, neither alive or dead. He is in a unique time loop that lasts 1 hour and does not move him back to the same place when time resets. Then he finds others who are stuck in the same loop as him. Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas - retells Christmas Every Day with Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Mirror for a Hero [2] - a 1987 Russian film. Besides Groundhog Day's idea of living a perfect day it has a bundle of time, person and society related ideas. Nirvana - time loop happens to a fictional person in a virtual reality game. Pokmon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior - Dialga traps Giratina in a time loop, preventing it from leaving the Reverse World. The time loop is broken when Giratina is brought out of the Reverse World via artificial means. Primer - Film deals with a time loop that is described as being like a cul-de-sac with an "A end" and a "B end". Source Code - A film in which the protagonist repeatedly lives out the last eight minutes of a victim of a terrorist bomb in order to try to ascertain who the bomber is and to prevent them from detonating a dirty bomb in central Chicago. Timecrimes (Originally Los Cronocrmenes), is a 2007 time loop film from Spain. Triangle (2009) - this film involves a young woman trapped in a loop. There are copies of people and items, seemingly allowing many variations on the loop happening at the same time. Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer - The day before Tomobiki High School's student fair is looped repeatedly.
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Literature
"Doubled and Redoubled", a short story by Malcolm Jameson that appeared in the February, 1941 issue of Unknown. Accidentally cursed by a witch, the protagonist repeats a "perfect" day, including a lucky bet, a promotion, a heroically foiled bank robbery, and a successful wedding proposal. This story was a precedent to Groundhog day and 12:01 PM.[3] "Escapement", a 1956 short story by J. G. Ballard. "12:01 PM", a 1973 short story by Richard A. Lupoff. The Dark Tower, a series of seven novels by Stephen King featuring many elements of time travel, including a time loop. In a story in The Decameron, a dead man (Guido degli Anastagi) is ordered to catch his dead recalcitrant beloved and tear her apart, every Friday. The Details of Nikita Vorontsov's Life by Arkady Strugatsky. "Genevieve Undead" by Jack Yeovil. While not a true time loop due to time still carrying on as normal outside the estate and the loop changing slightly with each playthrough it is still endless repetition for those who are caught in the curse. HELP! I'm Trapped In the First Day of School! by Todd Strasser. A boy keeps repeating his first day of school. A later book in the series features the same character being trapped in the first day of summer camp. I Am the Cheese. Technically not a true time loop novel, but the young main character, who is revealed to be insane, acts out the same week over and over.
Time loop In Lord Sunday, the last of the The Keys to the Kingdom, a series of seven young adult fantasy novels by Garth Nix, the main character's mother is stuck within a time-loop. "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts", a 1975 short story by Philip K. Dick. Lost in a Good Book, the second of the Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde. The title character travels back in time to save her husband from being eradicated and experiences a time loop before returning to her present-day 1985. (Time loops are also mentioned as a form of incarceration and punishment, confining the prisoner to a dull place such as a laundromat or in the line to checkout at a store over a span of a few minutes repeated for the duration of the sentence. Aornis Hades is incarcerated in an 8 minute loop in the checkout of a TJMaxx, Temporal J. Maximum security prison, never quite being allowed to checkout. Her enloopment could be lengthened as a reward or shortened as further punishment.) Mathematicians in Love, a novel by Rudy Rucker. The Neverending Story, a book by Michael Ende - a time loop is deliberately set in motion at one point to force Bastian's hand. The Plot to Save Socrates, a novel by Paul Levinson In The Rashness of Haruhi Suzumiya there is a chapter Endless Eight in which Haruhi Suzumiya creates a time loop because she never wants their vacation to end. Replay, a Ken Grimwood novel in which the main character suddenly shifts to much earlier in his life, then relives shorter and shorter periods. Tales from the Time Loop, a book by David Icke. "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French", short story by Stephen King. Time Trap and Back To The Time Trap by Keith Laumer. The Tunnel Under The World, a short story by Frederik Pohl. in which the citizens of a town are seen to relive the same day over and over, seemingly unaware that they are doing so. At one point however a chance event results in one man retaining his memory of the previous day, allowing him to observe that history seems to be repeating; the rest of the story is concerned with his attempts to solve the mystery, which is resolved in a bizarre ending. All You Need is Kill, a novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, featuring a soldier who relives an unwinnable battle endlessly, until he wins it. Several stories from the Ijon Tichy series by Stanisaw Lem. Before I Fall is a novel by Lauren Oliver, in which a teenage girl that dies in a car crash relives her last day seven times, unraveling the mystery of her death in the process.
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Comic books
Kid Gravity - Kid Gravity changes the clock to suit himself, but it causes a time loop. He ends up fixing it. As always, he gets in trouble for his wrongdoing. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - At the end of the fourth part of the manga, Kira Yoshikage gains a time looping power named Another One Bites the Dust. The originality of it is that Yoshikage doesn't manipulate the power by himself (he knows that time loops can occur, but he doesn't know how many times it has happened and what has happened before). Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja - At the end of the series, both John Doe the Nth Man and Alphie O'Meagan realise that they are trapped in a time loop because of Alphie's manipulation of the Time stream. Fred's Bed- In the 2011 Beano Annual story he sets his alarm clock backwards to have extra helpings of cake. The Bogies In a 2009 issue of The Dandy, Dr Goo spits out the tea that Snot Bothered had made him, which lands on the controls to send them going back in time. However, each time they spend too much time talking about what's just happened rather than stopping him to spit it out sending them in a loop. This goes on forever.
Time loop
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Video games
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger - The "multiple endings" are rather possibilities, after which time loops back again to the beginning. As an Observer, the only one aware of the looping is Rachel Alucard. Breakdown - In one section of the game the main character experiences an illusion that causes him to repeat the last few seconds of what just happened. Dragon Warrior VII - One town in this game is placed under a curse so that the same day is repeated, with only the heroes, not native to the town being cursed, knowing that there is a time loop. Ephemeral Fantasia - The game centers around a five-day time loop, about which only the hero is aware. Fate/hollow ataraxia - The main characters Shiro and Bazett are trapped in a four-day time loop. Final Fantasy - Garland, once loyal knight of the Kingdom Coneria (Cornelia), is sent back 2000 years into the past. There he became Chaos, the Master of Evil, and sent the Four Fiends of the Elements ahead 2000 years into the future, where they would send him back in time. Garland/Chaos theorized that in 2000 years the time loop would close and he would cease to exist, which he thought would make him immortal. Futurama - The central characters, Fry, Leela, and Bender travel back in time to stop an unfortunate sell by Mom and Professor Farnsworth. Only after the three are killed, does the Professor (of the past) still make the sale successful, thereby repeating the events of the game for the Fry, Leela, and Bender of the past (who remained unharmed and unaware of the events) to live out, creating an endless loop. GrimGrimoire - The main character is stuck in a time loop and has 5 days to try to stop a disaster. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Each chapter is a different iteration of the same month, with only one character being aware that she is living in a time loop, although some of the other characters begin to recall events from past time loops. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - The entire game is set around a three-day time loop, which the main character and protagonist, Link, can reset at any time he needs to. Little Busters! - The entire visual novel takes place within an artificial worldset at high schoolthat loops on itself every few months. The protagonists are unaware of the loop, but each time they return they are stronger and smarter, until finally hero and heroine fully regain their memories and are to ready to face the challenges of the real world. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - The player is given the "Dagger of Time", allowing them to continuously relive the previous ten seconds of game-play for a set amount of times, or until the player is satisfied with the way he or she played those ten seconds. The Prince is also sent back to the night before he stole the dagger, with the dagger of time in his possession, near the end of the game. Shadow of Memories aka Shadow of Destiny - The game begins with the death of the player, which the player then needs to prevent. Timesplitters: Future Perfect includes many scenarios where the player works with past and future versions of himself that he meets through time loops. Escape from Monkey Island (2000) - In one portion of the game, the player has to repeat the actions of the second Guybrush encountered earlier. If not performed identically (because at this point in time, the player is now the earlier second Guybrush), the player is returned to the start of the swamp. Wild Arms: The Vth Vanguard (2006) - One of the characters, Avril Vent Fleur is obligated to relieve a 12,000 year old time loop in order to save Filgaia, the planet where the game takes place. Although she is unaware of the loop at first, she gains back her memories near the end and decides to return to the past to prepare for the future events. Otherwise, breaking the loop will result in a time paradox. This is one instance where only the character's consciousness travels through time, not the body. Flower, Sun, and Rain - In this game, "searcher" Sumio Mondo is assigned the task of defusing a bomb on an airplane. When he tries to make it to the airport, he is blocked by outside forces, and the plane explodes. Upon waking in the morning, he discovers that he is back in the previous day, with the bomb still waiting on the airplane.
Time loop Xenosaga - One of the series villains, Wilhelm, makes use of Zarathustra to create what he calls an Eternal Recurrence to prevent the universe to collapse, effectively creating a time loop, which the heroes tries to prevent in the end of the third episode of the saga. WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 - In a portion of the "Vs. Undertaker" Road to WrestleMania story, the player has to win a 2-on-1 match against Mark Henry and Big Show. During the match, an evil laugh can be heard and a flash of light is shown, automatically restarting the match and restoring Henry and Show. The time loop ends when your character/wrestler has either Henry or Show on the outside, counting them out during the 10-count and winning the match.
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References
[1] http:/ / www. imdb. com/ title/ tt0734799/ [2] http:/ / www. imdb. com/ title/ tt0094371/ [3] Peter Stockwell. The poetics of science fiction. p.143. ISBN0-582-36993-2, 9780582369931.
Temporal paradox
Temporal paradox (also known as time paradox and time travel paradox) is a theoretical paradoxical situation that happens because of time travel. A time traveler goes to the past, and does something that would prevent him from time travel in the first place. If he does not go back in time, he does not do anything that would prevent his traveling to the past, so time travel would be possible for him. However, if he goes back in time and does something that would prevent the time travel, he will not go back in time. Thus each possibility seems to imply its own negation - a type of logical paradox. A typical example of this kind is the grandfather paradox, where a person goes back in time to kill their grandfather before he had any biological descendant. If they succeed, one of their parents would never exist and they themselves would never exist either. This would make it impossible for them to go back in time in the first place, making them unable to kill their grandfather, who would continue to produce offspring and restart the situation. But if they fail, their grandfather would be alive and produce offspring, one of whom would eventually conceive the time traveler and the whole scenario would start over.
Solution
Temporal paradox has been used to argue that time travel must be impossible, because it is capable of resulting in a paradox. Kip Thorne, however, said that none of the supposed paradoxes formulated in time travel stories can actually be formulated at a precise physical level: that is, any situation in a time travel story turns out to permit many consistent solutions.
Temporal paradox The animated television series Futurama shows a more lighthearted side of the paradox. In the episode "Roswell That Ends Well", the main character, Philip J. Fry, travels back in time with his friends to 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico. Remembering that his grandfather works at the base, and told that killing the man would nullify his own existence, Fry becomes obsessed with protecting him. Fry's efforts prove counterproductive: he locks the man in a shack to protect him, failing to realize that an atomic bomb is being tested on the grounds. When he does not disappear, he assumes that the man could not have been his grandfather and thus proceeds (unknowingly) to sleep with and (accidentally) impregnate a beautiful woman, who apparently is the younger version of his grandmother, thereby becoming his own grandfather. In the 1972 Doctor Who adventure Day of the Daleks, Sir Reginald Styles is targeted by guerrillas from the 22nd century, who believe he's behind the deaths of VIP delegates. Because of those deaths, the Daleks were able to take over Earth in their time. However, a fellow guerrilla who was left behind was to blame, which was the true cause of their timeline ensuing. In the game "Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time", Alister Azimuth tries to fix his mistake of causing the fall of the Lombaxes, but if he was successful in traveling to the past, time would rip itself apart and the universe would collapse on itself. In the Machinima series Red vs. Blue, Church is sent back in time via the combined energy of a bomb and a weather machine. He attempts to fix past events, as well as preventing the explosion, but his attempts are ultimately responsible for most of the events that took place beforehand in the series, including his own death. In the Japanese manga Doraemon, the future grandson (Sewashi) of the lead characterNobitacomes back in time to meet his grandfather in his primary school days intentionally to change the life he is in. Nobita questions the existence of his grandson that if he did marry Shizuka, the girl he likes (instead of the one he dislikes but conceived the father of his future grandson), what would happen to his grandson. His grandson, along with Doraemon, replies that there are multiple paths leading to the same future, and they will still exist even if Nobita married another girl. The plot never explicitly told of when the history was altered, but later events in the plot did show a future where Nobita married the girl he likes and lived a better, wealthier life and yet, future characters showed no signs of remembering the original history. However, when being asked of Doraemon's reason of being in the past, he replies that his role is to make sure Nobita marries the girl he likes, which mentally still reserves logic. In the television series Lost, Jack and Locke enter an underground research facility on the island in 2004, and watch an orientation film made by the mysterious DHARMA Initiative organisation in 1980. The film makes reference to an "incident" having occurred on the island at some point in the 1970s, necessitating the construction of the underground bunker, as a method of containing a limitless amount of electromagnetic energy, and preventing a global catastrophe. In the show's fifth season, some of the main characters begin moving erratically through time, before eventually becoming stuck in 1974. Three years later, these same characters unwittingly become the cause of the incident. In the game Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 when Raziel and Kain travel to Nosgoth's past, a paradox occurs when Kain saves Raziel by removing the Soul Reaver from Raziel's body. This ends the time loop that Raziel endures because the soul devouring entity within the Reaver was Raziel's own soul, which he could not consume. Raziel's fate was to be absorbed by the blade, and in not being absorbed Raziel now has free will and can not spin within the Wheel of Fate. History attempts to protects itself from the paradox by creating a new enemy for the vampire race, known as the Hildan, leading into to the events of Legacy of Kain Defiance.
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Temporal paradox This was also in a DC anthology, which included among other series, one comic with Superman. In the comic, Superman attempts to change many of the world's great events, including Lincoln's assassination. When he comes back to his own time, nothing had changed. However, he discovers a parallel version of the world with the altered history.
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Temporal paradox Philip K. Dick also explored timeline corruption paradoxes. In the story "Orpheus with Clay Feet", Slade, a character from the future, goes on a time travel vacation to the past where he can visit famous science fiction writer Jack Dowland and become his muse. Slade, however, fails to inspire Dowland as he had hoped, and Dowland never becomes the master he should have been. Timeline corruption is an important motif in Star Trek: Enterprise. Captain Archer and the Enterprise crew become embroiled in an ongoing Temporal Cold War with the Suliban Cabal, a race of hostile aliens from the future who deliberately manipulate the timeline for their own ends. One of the results was that Earth's early 20th-Century history was changed so that the Nazis controlled much of Europe and proceeded to invade North America. Of course, the humans had to find a way to stop the Suliban and restore the timeline. Similar events occur in other Star Trek series. In the videogame World of Warcraft, the Bronze Dragonflight (tasked with the safety of the timelines) frequently asks the heroes (players) to help them fight the Infinite Dragonflight, who would want to change important events of the past. Although this may vary depending on the point of the view of the player, most of the events are negative ones - Thrall's escape from his prison, leading to the formation of the new Horde, enemies of the Alliance; the opening of the Dark Portal, in which a corrupted Medivh opens up a link with the world of Draenor, starting the orcish invasions of Azeroth and ensuing wars; and the Culling of Stratholme, a defining moment in which Prince Arthas's fall to madness leads to the rise of the undead Scourge and his eventual merge with the Lich King - but they insist that the outcome of preventing such events would be "much worse". The videogame series Command & Conquer contains a miniseries called Red Alert, whose three games depict what "happened" when Albert Einstein traveled back in time to prevent Hitler from rising to power. This resulted in the Nazi regime never coming to power, allowing the Soviet Union to become a formidable threat to the Allied Nations; instead of just tension during the Cold War, the Soviets launched a full-scale invasion against the United States. Later in the series, the Soviets steal the time-travelling technology for themselves to kill Einstein, preventing his technology from helping the Allies; however, this leads to Japan's Empire of the Rising Sun emerging as a new superpower. In the videogame The Journeyman Project, a Temporal Distortion Wave threatens to alter the present. The player is tasked with retrieving a CD-ROM disk that has the correct timeline stored on it. Upon returning to the present from the far distant past, it is revealed that the timeline has indeed been corrupted by four key events in the recent past. This idea of avoiding corrupted timelines is seen throughout the Journeyman Project Trilogy. Although, it is only a story element in the later games as opposed to a major gameplay moment.
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Self-Healing hypothesis
This theory states that time would heal itself from the paradox. A person is about to alter an event in the present by traveling back to the past and altering the events that cause the events in the present day to happen. Then there will be another set of events that will cause the present-day events to happen, and so there will be reason for him to travel back in time, and thus the paradox would never happen. An example of this can be seen in the film The Time Machine, where the main character creates a time machine to save his dead fianc, but upon doing so, she is killed another way. When traveling to the future, he finally finds out that if she did not die he would never create the time machine. Thus it is impossible to save her. Even though this does not create a physical paradox, it creates a mental one in which the time traveler, who still builds the time machine for the same reason, remembers a different cause for that reason. Another example is the TV series Doraemon, where in one episode the main character travels back in time to save someone from being hit by a car. Doraemon then states that 'if history is altered, it will always repeat itself to make up for the event that did not occur'. However he also states that 'the event might happen on another person, or be a
Temporal paradox completely different event altogether', raising the question how did the time traveler know about what was supposed to happen in the first place? This theory also happens in the TV series Lost when Desmond Hume, who can see into the future, sees Charlie Pace die when struck by lightning. Desmond saves him by building a big metal pole to absorb the shock instead. When Charlie doesn't die this way, Desmond sees him dying by trying to save Claire from drowning, trying to get Claire a bird, and while getting shot with an arrow from a trap in the jungle- all from which he is saved. Eventually Charlie accepts his fate and drowns in the DHARMA Initiative facility "the Looking Glass".
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Destruction resolution
This theory states that any paradox would cause the destruction of a universe, or at least the part of the time & space affected by the paradox. In this hypothesis, if a person travels back to kill his grandfather before one of his parents is conceived, then it will cause himself to disappear. History would erase all traces of the person's existence, and the death of the grandfather would be caused by another reason. Thus, the paradox would never occur from the historical viewpoint. A variation of this example occurs in the Season 3 finale of FRINGE when Peter Bishop uses the Doomsday machine. When he tells both Walter and Walternate he punched holes in both universes in the past and created a bridge between universes in order to repair the damage, Peter disappears because his actions caused the younger versions of himself in both of the new timelines to die in 1985.
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Grandfather paradox
The grandfather paradox is a proposed paradox of time travel first described (in this exact form) by the science fiction writer Ren Barjavel in his 1943 book Le Voyageur Imprudent (Future Times Three).[1] The paradox is this: suppose a man traveled back in time and killed his biological grandfather before the latter met the traveler's grandmother. As a result, one of the traveler's parents (and by extension the traveler himself) would never have been conceived. This would imply that he could not have travelled back in time after all, which means the grandfather would still be alive, and the traveller would have been conceived allowing him to travel back in time and kill his grandfather. Thus each possibility seems to imply its own negation, a type of logical paradox. Despite the name, the grandfather paradox does not exclusively regard the impossibility of one's own birth. Rather, it regards any action that makes impossible the ability to travel back in time in the first place. The paradox's namesake example is merely the most commonly thought of when one considers the whole range of possible actions. Another example would be using scientific knowledge to invent a time machine, then going back in time and (whether through murder or otherwise) impeding a scientist's work that would eventually lead to the very information that you used to invent the time machine. An equivalent paradox is known (in philosophy) as autoinfanticide, going back in time and killing oneself as a baby.[2] The grandfather paradox has been used to argue that backwards time travel must be impossible. However, a number of hypotheses have been postulated to avoid the paradox, such as the idea that the past is unchangeable, so the grandfather must have already survived the attempted killing (as stated earlier); or the time traveller creates an alternate time line in which the traveller never was born.
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Scientific theories
Novikov self-consistency principle
The Novikov self-consistency principle and Kip S. Thorne expresses one view on how backwards time travel could be possible without a danger of paradoxes. According to this hypothesis, the only possible time lines are those entirely self-consistentso anything a time traveler does in the past must have been part of history all along, and the time traveler can never do anything to prevent the trip back in time from happening, since this would represent an inconsistency. Nicholas J. J. Smith argues, for example, that if some time traveler killed the child who lived in his old address, this would ipso facto necessitate that the child was not the time traveler's younger self (and not anyone's younger self.)
Parallel universes
There could be "an ensemble of parallel universes" such that when the traveller kills the grandfather, the act took place in (or resulted in the creation of) a parallel universe where the traveler's counterpart never exists as a result. However, his prior existence in the original universe is unaltered. Succinctly, this explanation states that: if time travel is possible, then multiple versions of the future exist in parallel universes. This theory would also apply if a person went back in time to shoot himself, because in the past he would be dead as in the future he would be alive and well. Examples of parallel universes postulated in physics are: In quantum mechanics, the many-worlds interpretation suggests that every seemingly random quantum event with a non-zero probability actually occurs in all possible ways in different "worlds", so that history is constantly branching into different alternatives. The physicist David Deutsch has argued that if backwards time travel is possible, it should result in the traveler ending up in a different branch of history than the one he departed from.[3] See also quantum suicide and immortality. M-theory is put forward as a hypothetical master theory that unifies the six superstring theories, although at present it is largely incomplete. One possible consequence of ideas drawn from M-theory is that multiple universes in the form of 3-dimensional membranes known as branes could exist side-by-side in a fourth large spatial dimension (which is distinct from the concept of time as a fourth dimension) - see Brane cosmology. However, there is currently no argument from physics that there would be one brane for each physically possible version of history as in the many-worlds interpretation, nor is there any argument that time travel would take one to a different brane.
Nonexistence theory
According to this theory, if one were to do something in the past that would cause their nonexistence, upon returning to the future, they would find themselves in a world where the effects of (and chain reactions thereof) their actions are not present, as the person never existed. Through this theory, they would still exist, though. A famous example of this theory is It's A Wonderful Life.
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Destruction resolution
Some science fiction stories suggest that any paradox would destroy the universe, or at least the parts of space and time affected by the paradox. The plots of such stories tend to revolve around preventing paradoxes, such as the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. A less destructive alternative of this theory suggests the death of the time traveller whether the history is altered or not; an example would be in the first part of the Back to the Future trilogy, where the lead character's alteration of history results in a risk of his own disappearance, and he has to fix the alteration to preserve his own existence. In this theory, killing one's grandfather would result in the disappearance of oneself, history would erase all traces of the person's existence, and the death of the grandfather would be caused by another means (say, another existing person firing the gun); thus, the paradox would never occur from a historical viewpoint.
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Other considerations
Consideration of the grandfather paradox has led some to the idea that time travel is by its very nature paradoxical and therefore logically impossible, on the same order as round squares. For example, the philosopher Bradley Dowden made this sort of argument in the textbook Logical Reasoning, where he wrote:
Nobody has ever built a time machine that could take a person back to an earlier time. Nobody should be seriously trying to build one, either, because a good argument exists for why the machine can never be built. The argument goes like this: suppose you did have a time machine right now, and you could step into it and travel back to some earlier time. Your actions in that time might then prevent your grandparents from ever having met one another. This would make you not born, and thus not step into the time machine. So, the claim that there could be a time machine is self-contradictory.
However, some philosophers and scientists believe that time travel into the past need not be logically impossible provided that there is no possibility of changing the past, as suggested, for example, by the Novikov self-consistency principle. Bradley Dowden himself revised the view above after being convinced of this in an exchange with the philosopher Norman Swartz.[4] Consideration of the possibility of backwards time travel in a hypothetical universe described by a Gdel metric led famed logician Kurt Gdel to assert that time might itself be a sort of illusion.[5][6] He seems to have been suggesting something along the lines of the block time view in which time does not really "flow" but is just another dimension like space, with all events at all times being fixed within this 4-dimensional "block".
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References
[1] Barjavel, Ren (1943). Le voyageur imprudent ("The imprudent traveller").; actually, the book refers to an ancestor of the time traveler not his grandfather. [2] Horwich, Paul (1987). Asymmetries in Time. Cambridge, MIT Press. pp.116. When the term was coined by Paul Horwich, he used the term autofanticide. [3] Deutsch, David (1991). "Quantum mechanics near closed timelike curves". Physical Review D 44 (10): 31973217. Bibcode1991PhRvD..44.3197D. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.44.3197. [4] "Dowden-Swartz Exchange" (http:/ / www. sfu. ca/ philosophy/ swartz/ time_travel1. htm). . [5] Yourgrau, Palle (2004). A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy Of Godel And Einstein. Basic Books. ISBN0-465-09293-4. [6] Holt, Jim (2005-02-21). "Time Bandits" (http:/ / www. newyorker. com/ printables/ critics/ 050228crat_atlarge). The New Yorker. . Retrieved 2006-10-19.
Ontological paradox
The bootstrap paradox is a paradox of time travel in which information or objects can exist without having been created. After information or an object is sent back in time, it is recovered in the present and becomes the very object/information that was initially brought back in time in the first place. Numerous science fiction stories are based on this paradox, which has also been the subject of serious physics articles.[1] The term "bootstrap paradox" refers to the expression "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps"; the use of the term for the time-travel paradox was popularized by Robert A. Heinlein's story By His Bootstraps (see below).
Definition
Because of the possibility of influencing the past while time traveling, one way of explaining why history does not change is to posit that these changes already are contained self-consistently in the past timeline. A time traveler attempting to alter the past in this model, intentionally or not, would only be fulfilling his or her role in creating history, not changing it. The Novikov self-consistency principle proposes that contradictory causal loops cannot form, but that consistent ones can. However, a scenario can occur where items or information are passed from the future to the past, which then become the same items or information that are subsequently passed back. This not only creates a loop, but a situation where these items have no discernible origin. Physical items are even more problematic than pieces of information, since they should ordinarily age and increase in entropy according to the Second law of thermodynamics. But if they age by any nonzero amount at each cycle, they cannot be the same item to be sent back in time, creating a contradiction. Another problem is the "reverse grandfather paradox", where whatever is sent to the past allows the time travel in the first place (such as saving your past self's life, or sending vital information about the time travel mechanism). The paradox raises the ontological questions of where, when and by whom the items were created or the information derived. Time loop logic operates on similar principles, sending the solutions to computation problems back in time to be checked for correctness without ever being computed "originally". Whether or not a scenario described in this paradox would actually be possible, even if time travel itself were possible, is not presently known. The bootstrap paradox is similar to, but distinct from, the predestination paradox, in which individuals or information travel back in time and ultimately trigger events they already experienced in their own present. In the latter case, no information or matter 'appears out of thin air'.
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Examples
Involving information
On his 30th birthday, a man who wishes to build a time machine is visited by a future version of himself. This future self explains to him that he should not worry about designing the time machine, as he has done it in the future. The man receives the schematics from his future self and starts building the time machine. Time passes until he finally completes the time machine. He then uses it to travel back in time to his 30th birthday, where he gives the schematics to his past self, closing the loop. A professor travels forward in time, and reads in a physics journal about a new equation that was recently derived. She travels back to her own time, and relates it to one of her students who writes it up, and the article is published in the same journal which the professor reads in the future. A man builds a time machine. He goes into the future and steals a valuable gadget. He then returns and reveals the gadget to the world, claiming it as his own. Eventually, a copy of the device ends up being the item the man originally steals. In other words, the device is a copy of itself and it is not possible to state where the original came from. A young physicist receives an old, disintegrating notebook containing information about future events sent by her future self via a time machine; before the book deteriorates so badly as to be unusable, she copies the information in it into a new notebook. Over the years the predictions of the notebook come true, allowing her to become wealthy enough to fund her own research, which results in the development of a time machine, which she uses to send the now old, tattered, disintegrating notebook back to her former self. The notebook is not a paradox (it has an end and a beginning; the beginning where she receives it and the end where she threw it out after she copied the information), but the information is: It's impossible to state where it came from. The professor has transferred the information that she wrote herself, so there was no original notebook.
Involving people
A man travels back in time and falls in love with and marries a woman, whom he later learns was his own mother, who then gives birth to him. He is therefore his own father and, because of this, also his own grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great grandfather, great-great-great grandfather and so on, making his ancestry infinite, and also giving him no origin for his paternal genetic material.
Ontological paradox One of the most noted examples of the bootstrap paradox in fiction occurs in the film Somewhere in Time, based on the Richard Matheson novel Bid Time Return. In the film, Christopher Reeve's character is given a pocket watch by an old lady. He then goes back in time and gives the pocket watch to the old lady's younger self, played by Jane Seymour, which prompts her to seek him out years in the future and give him the watch, resulting in the watch having no apparent origin. The bootstrap paradox occurs several times in the Terminator franchise, perhaps most notably in the creation of the main villain Skynet. In the first film, the Terminator cyborg sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor is destroyed, but its components are salvaged to form the basis of Skynet, the artificially intelligent computer network that will, in the future, send it back in time on its murderous mission. The knowledge of how to create an artificially intelligent machine therefore has no ultimate source. The current series of Doctor Who features many examples of the bootstrap paradox, most constructed by writer and later showrunner Steven Moffat. For example, in Moffat's 2007 episode "Blink", the Doctor records a message on film in 1969 in the form of half a conversation. The other half is filled in when Sally Sparrow views the film on DVD in 2007, which her friend Lawrence Nightingale transcribes. The full transcript, including the Doctor's portion, is eventually handed to the Doctor in 2008, but before he is sent back to 1969 from his subjective viewpoint, so he can use it in creating the message later. The contents of the conversation form a bootstrap paradox. In the movie Back to the Future, Marty McFly learns the Chuck Berry song Johnny B. Goode in the 1980s, but Berry presumably first hears it via telephone during McFly's 1955 performance of it at his parents' prom. The song thus has no origin. In the popular internet show Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, the blue team tank introduces herself as Sheila. However when Church goes back in time to "fix" the tank before it can kill him, the tank calls herself F.I.L.L.S. (pronounced Phyllis) and changes her name only after Church mistakenly calls her Shelia. Therefore the name Sheila has no apparent origin.
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References
[1] Matt Visser (1995). Lorentzian wormholes (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Zo_vAAAAMAAJ& q=Bootstrap+ paradox& dq=Bootstrap+ paradox& hl=en& ei=aHunTrGLMqTn0QG7q5inDg& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1& ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA). . "Bootstrap paradoxes A second class of logical paradoxes ..."
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Predestination paradox
A predestination paradox (also called causal loop, causality loop, and, less frequently, closed loop or closed time loop) is a paradox of time travel that is often used as a convention in science fiction. It exists when a time traveler is caught in a loop of events that "predestines" or "predates" them to travel back in time. Because of the possibility of influencing the past while time traveling, one way of explaining why history does not change is by saying that whatever has happened must happen. A time traveler attempting to alter the past in this model, intentionally or not, would only be fulfilling their role in creating history as we know it, not changing it. Or that the time-traveler's personal knowledge of history already includes their future travels to their own experience of the past. In layman's terms, it means this: the time traveller is in the past, which means they were in the past before. Therefore, their presence is vital to the future, and they do something that causes the future to occur in the same way that their knowledge of the future has already happened. It is very closely related to the ontological paradox and usually occurs at the same time.
Examples
A dual example of a predestination paradox is depicted in the classic Ancient Greek play 'Oedipus': Laius hears a prophecy that his son will kill him and marry his wife. Fearing the prophecy, Laius pierces newborn Oedipus' feet and leaves him out to die, but a herdsman finds him and takes him away from Thebes. Oedipus, not knowing he was adopted, leaves home in fear of the same prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Laius, meanwhile, ventures out to find a solution to the Sphinx's riddle. As prophesied, Oedipus crossed paths with a wealthy man leading to a fight in which Oedipus slays him. Unbeknownst to Oedipus the man is Laius. Oedipus then defeats the Sphinx by solving a mysterious riddle to become king. He marries the widow queen Jocasta not knowing she is his mother. A typical example of a predestination paradox (used in The Twilight Zone episode "No Time Like the Past") is as follows: A man travels back in time. While trying to prevent a school fire he had read about in a historical account he had brought with him, he accidentally causes it. An example of a predestination paradox in the television show Family Guy (Season 9, Episode 16): Stewie and Brian travel back in time using Stewie's time machine. They are warped outside the space-time continuum, before the Big Bang. To return home, Stewie overloads the return pad and they are boosted back into the space-time continuum by an explosion. Stewie later studies the radiation footprints of the Big Bang and the explosion of his return pad. He discovers that they match, and he concludes that he is actually the creator of the universe. He explains his theory to Brian, who replies with "That doesn't make any sense; you were born into the universe. How could you create it?" Stewie explains that it is a temporal causality loop, which is an example of a predestination paradox. A variation on the predestination paradoxes which involves information, rather than objects, traveling through time is similar to the self-fulfilling prophecy: A man receives information about his own future, telling him that he will die from a heart attack. He resolves to get fit so as to avoid that fate, but in doing so overexerts himself, causing him to suffer the heart attack that kills him. Here is a peculiar example from Barry Dainton's Time and Space: Many years from now, a transgalactic civilization has discovered time travel. A deep-thinking temporal engineer wonders what would happen if a time machine were sent back to the singularity from which the
Predestination paradox big bang emerged. His calculations yield an interesting result: the singularity would be destabilized, producing an explosion resembling the big bang. Needless to say, a time machine was quickly sent on its way.[1] In all five examples, causality is turned on its head, as the flanking events are both causes and effects of each other, and this is where the paradox lies. In the third example, the paradox lies in the temporal causality loop. So, if Stewie had never traveled back in time, the universe would not exist. Since it would not have existed, it could not have created Stewie, so Stewie would not have existed. One example of a predestination paradox that is not simultaneously an ontological paradox is: In 1850, Bob's horse was spooked by something, and almost took Bob over a cliff, had it not been for a strange man stopping the horse. This strange man was later honored by having a statue of him erected. Two hundred years later, Bob goes back in time to sight-see, and sees someone's horse about to go over a cliff. He rushes to his aid and saves his life. In The Big Loop the Big Bang owes its causation to the temporal engineers. Interestingly enough, it seems the engineers could have chosen not to send the time machine back (after all, they knew what the result would be), thereby failing to cause the Big Bang. But the Big Bang failing to happen is obviously impossible because the universe does exist, so perhaps in the situation where the engineers decide not to send a time machine to the Big Bang's singularity, some other cause will turn out to have been responsible. In another example, on the show Mucha Lucha in the episode "Woulda Coulda Hasbeena", Senior Hasbeena goes back in time to stop a flash from blinding him in an important wrestling match, when the three main protagonists try to stop him due to dangerous possible outcomes he unleashes a disco ball move thereby blinding himself in the past causing the future he knows to that day. Another example is in "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time", when the player travels to the future and meets a man in a windmill, who tells him about a mean Ocarina kid who played a song that sped up his windmill and dried up the well. He then teaches Link the song, who plays it in the past, causing him to learn the song in the future. This also an example of a Bootstrap Paradox, as the song itself was never written, but taught back and forth between Link and the man in the windmill. In most examples of the predestination paradox, the person travels back in time and ends up fulfilling their role in an event that has already occurred. In a self-fulfilling prophecy, the person is fulfilling their role in an event that has yet to occur, and it is usually information that travels in time (for example, in the form of a prophecy) rather than a person. In either situation, the attempts to avert the course of past or future history both fail.
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Predestination paradox himself, finds himself in progressively more bizarre situations. The character spends much of his own contorted lifetime at an extended party with dozens of versions of himself at different ages, before understanding the true nature of the gathering, and his true identity. Much of the book deals with the psychological, physical, and personal challenges that manifest when time travel is possible for a single individual at the touch of a button. Eakins repeatedly meets himself; has sex with himself; and ultimately cohabitates with an opposite-sex version of himself. Eventually, that relationship ends up with a male child who he finally realizes is him, and he is now his own "uncle". In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode SB-129m, Squidward, inspired by 'jellyfishing', teaches prehistoric SpongeBob and Patrick to catch a jelly in a net. This means that Squidward invented Jellyfishing. In the video game Timesplitters: Future Perfect the main protagonist, Sergeant Cortez, often helps himself solve puzzles, and protects himself during hard situations. In Flatterland, Vikki Line and the Space Hopper fall into a black hole, are rescued by future versions of themselves, and then go back in time to rescue themselves. In the American Dad! episode "Fart-Break Hotel", Steve becomes drawn to a Patrick Nagel painting of a woman. A hotel concierge explains to Steve that the painting was made in 1981, meaning Steve would have to travel back in time to meet the woman. After successfully traveling back in time, Steve meets Nagel, who drugs his champagne, causing Steve to pass out. When he wakes up, he finds himself naked on a bed and sees the painting of the woman. However, Nagel explains that he painted Steve, meaning Steve was the woman in the painting he had become attracted to. In the film 12 Monkeys, James Cole travels into the past to stop an attack attributed to the elusive "Army of the Twelve Monkeys", which leads indirectly to the formation of the group. The fatal shooting at the end of the movie is witnessed by his childhood version and leads to the nightmares that haunt him throughout his life. In The Twilight Zone 2002-2003 revival, in the episode, Cradle of Darkness, Andrea (played by Katherine Heigl) goes back in time to assassinate Adolf Hitler while he is a baby. She kills the baby (whom she presumes to be actual Adolf Hitler, though the viewer might note it seems like a very normal baby, perhaps not very dark hair), but the nanny (discovering the death) replaces the baby with a street gypsy's baby (the mother being a very crazy looking woman who has black hair resembling the Hitler we know), and she presents this baby to the father as his own. The father proceeds to introduce this son to his guests as "Adolf", presumably the Adolf Hitler known to history in the first place. In Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey the antagonist, unhappy with the future, sends evil robots back in time to kill Bill and Ted. When his robots are defeated, he goes back himself and takes control of the world's satellites so the whole world can see them defeated. Instead, the whole world watches them play their music, cementing their place in history. In Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure we see that the band could not have formed if not for Rufus appearing from the future to help them with their history project. The episode "Roswell That Ends Well" of the animated television series Futurama puts a more humorous spin on the paradox. In the episode, the main characters go back in time to 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico, sparking the Roswell UFO Incident. Meanwhile, Fry, told that the death of his grandfather Enos would nullify his own existence, becomes obsessed with protecting the man. He shuts Enos in a deserted house in the desert in order to protect him, failing to realize that the house is in a nuclear testing site. The resulting atomic test kills Enos, but Fry does not disappear. Fry later comforts Enos' fiance, no longer believing her to be his future grandmother. He has sex with her, only to realize afterward that she is his grandmother and therefore he is his own grandfather. The video game Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, the Prince is chased by the Dahaka, whose purpose is to preserve the time-line by erasing the Prince from it. Unable to fight the monster, the Prince travels to the Island of Time to kill the Empress of Time, who created the time-manipulating sands from the first game. He hopes to prevent the sands from being created, since it was the sands that put him in his current predicament. However, the
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Predestination paradox Prince realizes too late that killing the Empress is what creates the sands, and hence he becomes the architect of his own fate. A secondary paradox is the Sand Wraith, who seems to stalk the Prince throughout the first half of the game, even trying to kill him at one point. The wraith is killed by the Dahaka shortly before the Prince kills the Empress. After killing the Empress, the Prince realizes that he can change his fate by using the Mask of the Wraith, which transforms him into the Sand Wraith and sends him back in time a short distance. He learns that the wraith (who he now understands to be his future self) was trying to protect him, rather than attack him. Upon reaching the point at which the Dahaka is supposed to kill him, the Prince uses his knowledge of the encounter to have his younger self die instead, ending the mask's power and creating a grandfather paradox as well. The film Donnie Darko incorporates an example of fictional predestination paradox. Donnie avoids death by a jet engine that appears out of nowhere, only to later, because of information he has learned since, send the engine back in time himself so that he may die by it. He thereby negates all activity that occurred between the appearance of the engine and him sending it back, including his learning of the reason that he must die. This is explained through use of a tangent universe and a physical and temporal theory. In Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry is saved from the Dementors by a stag patronus. At that time, he thought it was his dead father's spirit of some sort watching over him. After traveling back in time, he realizes he was the one who produced the patronus- after watching himself being attacked and seeing that no one had produced the stag patronus- he himself casts the spell, producing the stag patronus he had seen earlier. [2] Similarly, in the film, Harry and his friends are alerted to the presence of the Minister for Magic when a rock hits Harry in the head; but after traveling back in time, Hermione recognizes the same rock and throws it at Harry herself. In the Legacy of Kain video game series, more specifically Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, and Defiance, the predestination is evident in the Soul Reaver as well as Raziel, whose soul is contained inside. Through the storyline of the 3 games it is learned that Raziel's soul must become part of the Reaver, despite the fact that it has been a part of the weapon the whole time. Defiance ends in Raziel being stabbed by the Reaver, allowing his soul to be transferred to it, however because of the purification his soul had gone through earlier the cycle is broken rather than beginning again. In the Terminator films, Skynet, a computer program that controls nearly the whole world in the future, sends a machine to the past in order to kill John Connor, the future leader of the human resistance, at different points of his life: once before he is conceived (by killing his mother, Sarah Connor), again when he is 10 years old (in Terminator 2: Judgment Day) and a final time a few days before Judgment Day happens (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines). In the second film Dr. Dyson (Joe Morton), the lead scientist for the Skynet project, explains that the surviving arm and CPU chip of the original Terminator was analyzed and found that the technology was so advanced, they (humans) would have never invented the technology themselves and was used to create Skynet in the first place. However, all the components and research were destroyed in an attempt to prevent Skynet, but in (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) Skynet is built anyway without any information or components from the future, implying that it was inevitable. In a not yet made movie, the humans somehow successfully invaded the complex in which the time machine is placed, manage to send someone else to the past so that the Connors can be protected, which is what starts the series. In The Terminator, the machines send the T-800 and the humans send Kyle Reese: Kyle will be John Connor's father (that is, if Skynet had not have happened, Kyle Reese would have no reason to go back in time to protect Sarah, and thus John Connor would not have been born). In the episode "He's Our You" of the television series Lost, several characters travel back into the 1970s. One of them, Sayid Jarrah, encounters the younger version of Benjamin Linus, the leader of the Others, and a man who has committed various acts such as betraying the Dharma Initiative and causing their complete genocide by the Others, the manipulation and deceit towards various people on the show and caused much strife to Sayid personally including recruiting him to become an assassin during his wife's funeral. When Sayid meets Ben's younger version he believes that it is his destiny to kill him and prevent all of the bad things he does from ever
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Predestination paradox happening. However when he does this by shooting him, Ben is taken to the Others where they state that they could heal him in a mysterious temple but, "his innocence would be lost" and he would "always be one of them." By trying to prevent Ben from doing the things he did, Sayid actually caused him to become the evil manipulator that he is and caused all of the evil acts he committed. In Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox, Artemis's mother contracts the deadly magical disease, Spelltropy. To save his mother, he travels into the past to save the Silky Sifaka lemur, which he kills at age 10 by handing to the Extinctionists. In the past, Artemis the elder meets Opal Koboi, who follows Artemis into the future. In the present, Opal gives Artemis's mother Spelltropy-like symptoms, which causes Artemis to time-travel in the first place. In the 2008 episode of Doctor Who: "The Doctor's Daughter", the TARDIS takes the Doctor, Donna, and Martha to find the source of the Doctor's Daughter's signal. However, the TARDIS arrives early, which leads the Doctor to the accidental creation of his daughter, thus activating the signal. In the 2010 episode "The Big Bang", the Doctor is released from the Pandorica by Rory Williams, using the sonic screwdriver supplied by the Doctor after his release. In the 2011 episode "Let's Kill Hitler", Mels, a friend who Amy and Rory name their daughter Melody after, turns out to be a pre-regeneration version of River Song, who in the prior episode, "A Good Man Goes To War", was established to be an alias used by their daughter as an adult, an alias she adopts shortly after regenerating and hearing the Doctor, Amy, and Rory refer to her as such, having known her only by her alias until recently. In Red vs Blue, when the character Church is thrown back in time in Episode 50, he tries to prevent certain things from happening, in the process leading to everything becoming the way it was: kicking dirt on a switch hoping it to be replaced, instead it was kept and later got stuck; giving his captain painkillers to prevent a heart attack, but killing him because the captain is allergic to aspirin; trying to make the tank not kill him by disabling the friendly-fire protocol, which later proves his death; telling the tank and robot that they should not leave and build a robot army, thereby giving them the idea to do it; trying to shoot O'Malley with the rocket launcher only to shoot Tucker because of the launcher's highly defective targeting system and his inability to aim. In the PlayStation 2 video game Shadow Hearts: Covenant Karin Koenig, one of the main protagonists, falls in love with Yuri Hyuga. She is gently rejected because Yuri still has feelings for the exorcist Alice Elliot, who died in the previous game. Unrequited love does not stop her from fighting alongside Yuri, though, until at the end of the game when she is flung into the past and meets Yuri's father. There you finally see a picture she is given earlier in the game by Yuri's aunt that shows his father, mother and Yuri as a child. It's obvious the woman in the picture is Karin, thus making her Yuri's mother. She ends up being the only one staying in the past because she knows she is to become Yuri's mother and assumes the alias "Anne". She also takes back a cross Yuri gave to her, which is the same cross that belongs to his mother. The cross becomes an Ontological paradox. The Black Sabbath song "Iron Man" tells the story of a man who time travels into the future of the world, and sees the apocalypse. In the process of returning to the present, he is turned into steel by a magnetic field. He is rendered mute, unable verbally to warn people of his time of the impending destruction. His attempts to communicate are ignored and mocked. This causes Iron Man to become angry, and have his revenge on mankind, causing the destruction seen in his vision. In The Penguins of Madagascar, the episode "It's About Time" sees Kowalski constructing a time machine called the "Chronotron". A future Kowalski tells Private to convince his present self not to complete it. After he decides to destroy the Chronotron, another Kowalski from the future tells Skipper to convince him to save the Chronotron. When the present Kowalski spots his future selves, a vortex appears. The present Kowalski activates the Chronotron and goes back in time to talk to Private. When Private points out that if Kowalski had not invented the Chronotron then he would not have gone back in the first place to tell himself not to make it, the future Kowalski then goes back in time to talk to Skipper. Rico then throws the Chronotron into the vortex, sealing it. While a baffled Kowalski tries rationalizing that such a simple thing defies all laws of the universe, Skipper
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Predestination paradox simply states that Rico is a maverick who makes his own rules, and tells Kowalski to invent something that will not destroy the world. In the Red Dwarf episode "Timeslides", Dave Lister travels back in time using a mutated photograph of a pub in Liverpool where his band once played a gig to give his teenage self the idea of inventing the Tension Sheet (a stress relief tool invented by Fred 'Thickie' Holden, a former classmate of Arnold Rimmer, which earned him millions). This causes him to become rich and famous in the past and never get stuck on Red Dwarf. Arnold Rimmer, in an attempt to experience fame and fortune for himself, travels back even further in time to his school days, to give his own younger self the idea of inventing the Tension Sheet instead. Unfortunately for Rimmer, while he is giving young Rimmer the idea, the conversation is overheard by Thickie Holden (who sleeps in the next bed) and he is able to patent the idea before young Rimmer can, therefore putting everything back to how it was at the start of the episode. In the PC game Fallout 2, there is a side quest where the protagonist enters a time travel device and travels back in time to Vault 13, prior to the events of Fallout 1. During this time travel period, the hero sabotages the vault's water chip, thus starting the series of events of the first game and ultimately the birth of our hero. After sabotaging the water chip the game informs us that the hero "feels better about his future". In the British Television show Misfits, The group repeatedly encounters a man they call Superhoodie, who seems to know a lot about them. He's almost always seen whenever they have to deal with a dangerous situation and helps them out of it. The character Alisha Bailey eventually discovers he's really a future version of their friend Simon Bellamy and begins a relationship with him. He's shot and killed while trying to protect Alisha from a man who believes he's in a violent video game. He requests she doesn't tell his past self who he is and she agrees. Alisha, because of future Simon, begins respecting present day Simon and the two become closer. Alisha is killed by Rachel, a woman who the Misfits killed, but was returned in ghost form by a medium named Jonas to exact revenge on them. As Alisha dies in Simon's arms, she tells him Superhoodie's true identity. Later, Simon acquires a one-way time travel ability from a power dealer named Seth, traveling back and becoming Superhoodie. Rudy Wade, a member of the group, mentions that the paradox will continue and they'll probably just keep going in circles. In The Transformers episode "The Key to Vector Sigma", Optimus Prime assists in the creation of the Aerialbots who, in the later episode "War Dawn", are sent back in time and become instrumental in the creation of Optimus Prime, thus ensuring their own creation in the future. In Sam & Max Season Two there exist 2 examples of this paradox: In "Ice Station Santa", Sam and Max must save their future selves from being killed. In "What's New, Beelzebub?" they are saved by their past selves; this creates a never ending cycle of "save and later be saved; the savers are later saved". In "Chariots of the Dogs", Sam and Max are given an egg by their future selves from "What's New, Beelzebub?" who they also give a remote control too. Later, in What's new Beelzebub S&M give their past selves the egg and get the remote from them which, once again, creates a never ending cycle. However it is still unknown how the egg got into the hands of the Future S&M's in the first place. In the Chinese novel Bu Bu Jing Xin, centering the rivalry of Kangxi Emperor's sons for the throne during the 18th century Qing Dynasty, which will results the monarch's fourth son Yinzhen as Yongzheng Emperor. Its main character, Ma'ertai Ruoxi (Zhang Xiao), a time traveler from the 21st century, aware the princes' feud would leads to a tragic outcome. However, she is romantically entangled with the three of them, unawares that her relationship with them would inadvertently leading history to be unfold as written in the future instead of changing it. In the Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya, the fifth in a series of light novels by Nagaru Tanigawa, is about Haruhi, a girl who can unconsciously change the universe to her tastes (like a deity) and wishes that the summer holidays would never end. As a result, the summer loops over 15,527 times before her friend Kyon realises what is happening. He tries to break the time loop many times by trying to stop her leaving a restaurant to go home at the
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Predestination paradox end of the day. He eventually succeeds by convincing Haruhi to come to a study session, as neither of them have done their homework yet. Although this was only a 30 page chapter in the book, the much-anticipated second season aired what was essentially the same episode eight times, with minor differences in camera angles, the characters' clothes etc. This caused a lot of tension for fans and caused many of them to drop the series. In the 20th episode of the second season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the main character Twilight Sparkle receives a warning from her future self, and drives herself crazy in an attempt to avoid an unspecified upcoming catastrophic disaster, which the future Twilight couldn't explain exactly. Later it comes out that there is no such disaster, and that her future self just tried to tell her not to worry too much about the future, which accidentally caused her worrying about the future.
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Prophecies
Prior to the use of time travel as a plot device, the self-fulfilling prophecy variant was more common. In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker has visions of his wife dying in childbirth. In his attempt to gain enough power to save her, he falls to the dark side of the force and becomes Darth Vader. His wife is heartbroken upon learning this and argues with him. In his anger, he uses his power to hurt her, which eventually leads her to die in childbirth. Shakespeare's Macbeth is a classic example of this. The three Witches give Macbeth a prophecy that he will eventually become king, but the offspring of his best friend will rule after him. Macbeth kills his king and his friend Banquo. In addition to these prophecies, other prophecies foretelling his downfall are given, such as that he will not be attacked until a forest moves to his castle, and that no man ever born of a woman can kill him. In the end, fate is what drives the House of Macbeth mad and ultimately kills them, as Macbeth is killed by a man who was never 'born' as the man was torn from his mother's womb by caesarean section. In the movie Minority Report, murders are prevented through the efforts of three psychic mutants who can see crimes before they are committed. When police chief John Anderton is implicated in a murder-to-be, he sets out on a crusade to figure out why he would kill a man he has yet to meet. Many of the signposts on his journey to meet fate were predicted exactly as they occur, and his search leads him inexorably to the scene of the crime, where he cannot stop himself from killing the other man. In the end, the prediction itself is what had set the chain of events in motion. In Lost, Desmond Hume's future flashes regarding Charlie's deaths eventually lead to his death. Desmond has a vision in which Charlie pushes a button below a flashing light which allows the other castaways to be rescued just before he drowns. However when the event occurs, events happen slightly differently than in Desmond's vision and it is suggested that Charlie may have been able to save himself without jeopardizing the hopes of rescue, if he had not believed his death was crucial in the rescue of the other castaways. Yet there are examples of prophecies that happen slowly, if at all. In Red Dwarf: "Stasis Leak", when Lister travels back in time to meet with Kochanski to marry her, he finds out from his future self from 5 years later that he is going to pass through a wormhole and end up in a parallel universe version of Earth in 1985 but after 8 whole series, this has never happened (although similar events happen in "Backwards"). In the Harry Potter Universe by J. K. Rowling a prophecy by Sybill Trelawney is overheard by Severus Snape about the birth of a wizard "with the power to vanquish" Voldemort. This prophecy was only partially overheard by Severus Snape, who relayed what he heard to Voldemort. To stop the prophecy from coming true, Voldemort attempted to kill Harry while he was an infant, but his curse backfired on him, separating his soul from his body for 13 years, and transferring some of his powers, as well as a part of his severed soul, to Harry. Dumbledore tells Harry several times that the prophecy is only true because the Dark Lord believes it. Harry is free to turn his back on it, but the fact that Voldemort will never turn his back on it, and therefore never rest until he has killed Harry, makes it inevitable that Harry will have to kill Voldemort, or vice versa. Moreover Harry wished to finish Voldemort only because Voldemort killed his parents following the prophecy.
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References
[1] Dainton, Barry (1958). Time and Space. Montreal, California: McGill-Queen's University Press. p.126. ISBN0-7735-2306-5 [2] Silberstein, Michael (2004). "Space, Time, and Magic". In Baggett, David and Shawn E. Klein. Harry Potter and Philosophy. United States: Open Court Publishing. p.198.
Gerrold, David (1973). The Man Who Folded Himself. Random House. ISBN1-932100-04-0.
Samuel Madden A guardian angel travels to 1728 with letters from 1997 and '98
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Traveler picked up by a stagecoach but is suddenly transported back over a thousand years.
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A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens Ghosts accompanies Scrooge into the past to show his life, then the future to show the consequences of his heartlessness if he does not change his ways. Pierre Boitard Magic of a lame demon allows main character to interact with prehistoric life. A clock that has the power to take people back in time.
1861
1881
Edward Page Mitchell Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau Edward Bellamy William Morris H.G. Wells
1887
El Anacronopete
First to introduce a time machine, originally written as a zarzuela in 1881, released as a novel in 1887. Julian West towards the end of the 19th century, falls into a deep, hypnosis-induced sleep and wakes up 113 years later. Describes a time travel encounter between the medieval and modern worlds. Inventor takes another with him in a time machine, before deciding to leave to a time where he will fit in more. 19th century citizen goes to King Arthur's time (528 AD).
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1888 1888
1889
Mark Twain
1891
Time travel and the paradoxes that can result from it.
1895
Inventor creates a time machine and travels to the year 802,701 A.D., where he finds humanity have evolved into two races, Morlocks and Eloi. Enoch is transported 100 years into the future (1997) to see if he became a great writer or not - a Faustian-like pact with the Devil is involved. Anthony Rogers is transported to the year 2419 by a strange cave gas. Later became the comic strip Buck Rogers.
1919
Enoch Soames
Max Beerbohm
1928/ 1929
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T. S. Eliot Begins with "Time present and time past// Are both perhaps present in time future..." Child goes back into Derbyshire of the Babbington Plot and Mary Queen Of Scots. Circular paradox-character is brought to the future where he later operates a time machine to bring himself to the future Justice Society of America use a time ray to travel 500 yrs in to the Future and get an effective bombing defence to protect America. C. S. Lewis C.L. Moore Merlin travels through time to dispel a N.I.C.E. dystopia in post war England. Time travellers from the future experience vintage seasons in the past. Villain Per Degaton murders a scientist who has invented a time machine and tries to use it to change history, causing modern technology from the Present, meaning he can then conquer America with technology protected from thee effects. Ray Bradbury Changes in the past affect the future; part of the genealogy of the term Butterfly effect A time traveller from an alternate reality appears at the Battle of Gettysburg and alters his own future into ours. An experiment involving the time travel of a small brass cube results in disaster.[1] Use time machines to transfer goods between centuries Historian returns to mid-20th century to study artist whose works he finds himself having to create, so the past is a product of the future's interest in the past. Series of 11 novels related to the Time Patrol, an organization which protects the past. Man learns how to travel through time Time travellers from the future disrupt life in a small town life by treating it as a quaint place for sightseeing. A novel in the Welsh Language where the narrator travels to Wales on two occasions in the year 2033 and encounters contrasting future scenarios each time. After thirty years trapped in suspended animation, a man uses a time machine to go back and exact revenge on his friend and fiance for stealing his business. Tale of Armageddon and the devil A soldier comes back from the future to warn against the path toward global conflict. Everett Barthold travels through time to find an ancestor look-a-like that can be used to defraud an insurance company. Comedy in which a professor travels back in time to kill someone by killing their grandparent, but the results confound him. Explores many time travel scenarios in a short story format. Circular paradox-the hero is both his own mother and his own father, in addition he manipulates his younger self using a time machine to make his own birth happen. Boy Scouts find an abandoned time machine and visit the year 4000 AD. (First of a 23-story Time Machine series appearing 1959-1989 in Boys' Life.)
1936
Burnt Norton
1939
A Traveller in Time
Alison Uttley
1941
By His Bootstraps
Robert A. Heinlein
1942
1952
A Sound of Thunder
1953
Ward Moore
1954
Experiment
Fredric Brown
1955 1955
Poul Anderson
1957
Wythnos yng Nghymru Fydd (A Islwyn Ffowc Week in the Wales of the Future) Elis
1957
1957 1957
1957
Double Indemnity
1958
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Robert A. Heinlein
1959
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Alan Garner Colin and Susan go back in time in the caves of Alderley Edge in Cheshire crystal bracelet, magic great wolf included. A couple of teenagers use their professor's time machine to study the history of the US.
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Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
1962
The Fantastic Four travel to Ancient Egypt, and meet Pharaoh Rama-Tut, who is really another time traveller, from the 31st century. First appearance of Marvel Comics time-travelling villain Kang. George Bletzo mistakenly call his own phone number and talks to his own person in a few months into the future. Predestination in play. More than 530 original novels and novelisations based on the popular TV show. Ensign Joe Rate, "captain of a wooden ship in a predominantly atomic navy," is transported, with his ship and crew, first back to the time of the Vikings, then to the time of the Romans. Teenage girl finds ancient mirror buried in sand, looks into it, is transported back in time to the Roman empire- where she is mistaken for a runaway slave. A man inadvertently destroys the world in order to travel back eighteen minutes in time. A time machine is used by an oppressive government for deporting political prisoners a billion years in the past, to the Pre-Cambrian era. A man is randomly traveling through time in his life jumping from one event to another in no particular order. Time travel as guided tours to past historical events.
1963
Walter Tevis
various authors
1965
G. C. Edmondson
1966
Lynne Ellison
1966
Dannie Plachta
1968
Hawksbill Station
1969
Slaughterhouse-Five
1969
Up the Line
Robert Silverberg Daphne du Maurier Michael Moorcock D.G. Compton Jack Finney Wilson Tucker
1969
1969
A man travels in a time machine to 28 AD, hoping to meet the historical Jesus.
A millionaire establishes a research village to experiment with time travel Uses hypnosis to travel through time The government uses a forward-traveling time machine to survey the future and adjust its policies accordingly. Four scientists/anthropologists travel from 2070 A.D. to 12,000 B.C.
1972
1973
Lazarus Long travels in time to 1916 and falls in love with his own mother.
1973
Main character receives a belt that allows him to travel through time. Complications ensue. A young man sees an old photograph of a woman, and through hypnosis travels back in time from 1980 to 1912 to meet her. Basis of the 1980 film "Somewhere in Time" Marc Despard graduates from an involuntary time traveler to a deliberate time travel, picking up many fellow travelers along the way. A half finished Tipler cylinder is discovered by a future human explorer. When the leader decides to complete it, his civilization is destroyed by a nova.
1975
Richard Matheson
1977
Time Storm
1977
188
Ian D. Watson "you must travel through time by an equal amount of accumulate hindward potential" H.G. Wells builds a time machine, which is stolen by Jack the Ripper so he can escape the authorities and continue his killing spree What happened when H.G. Wells' time machine returned from the future. A man uses time travel to experience the sensation of death.
1978
1979
Karl Alexander
1979 1979
1980
Timescape
1980
James P. Hogan Messages are sent back through time which deletes the timeline in which it exists Harry Harrison Time machine misuse. U.S. Government aids the Confederacy with submachine guns Dana, an African American woman, is inexplicably transported from 1976 Los Angeles to early 19th century Maryland. She meets her ancestors: Rufus, a white slave holder, and Alice, an African-American woman who was born free but forced into slavery later in life.
1980
A Rebel in Time
1980
Kindred
Octavia Butler
1980
Douglas Adams Milliway's is "located" in the very last future time of the Universe and requires time travels to reach it and then return back to your own time. Due to time travel effects you can now deposit a penny in a bank account to get lots of money to pay for your bill, and you can book a table after you return home from the restaurant. David J. Lake H.G. Wells' time traveller confronts the Morlocks again, this time equipped with a camera and revolver. Time travellers from the late 21st/early 22nd century go through a one-way time portal to the Earth's Pliocene period, already controlled by humanoid extraterrestrials.
1980
1981
The Many-Colored Land, first book of the Saga of the Pliocene Exile series Life, the Universe and Everything
Julian May
1982
Douglas Adams Time travel paradoxes are described in a funny way such as moving back and forward through the history and so affecting it, as in the case of an ancient poet Lallafa. John Varley In the far distant future, a time-travel team is preparing to snatch the passengers of a plane collision, leaving prefabricated smoking bodies behind for the rescue teams to find. Basis of the 1989 film. In 1983, a millionaire discovers time-travel gates, and organizes a trip to the past to attend a lecture by S. T. Coleridge in 1810. A professor hired by the millionaire is trapped in 19th century London. Spock is aboard a Klingon ship when it travels back in time to Seattle in 1867. He discovers a Klingon plot to destroy the Federation by assassinating an ancestor of his mother, a prominent local businessman who will later be instrumental in repelling an invasion by the alien Karsids. In an effort to prevent the Vietnam War, a man travels back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A girl, Vivian Smith, is kidnapped while being evacuated from London during World War II, and is caught up in a struggle to preserve history. A man in 1988 suffers a heart attack and finds himself back in his life in 1963. A time traveler from Nazi Germany interferes with the life of a young woman in the future. A great warrior, the Shrike, is sent from the future for an unknown reason. Main characters will travel through time in a very complex timeline.
1983
Millennium
1983
Tim Powers
1985
Barbara Hambly
1986
Stanley Shapiro
1987
1988 1988
Replay Lightning
1989
Hyperion
Dan Simmons
189
Harry Turtledove Jack Finney Connie Willis During American Civil War, South African white supremacists give the Confederacy AK-47s Use of hypnosis to travel through time Travel through time from 2048 to 14th century. Time travel limited by the Laws of Physics.
1992
1992 1992
1992
Outlander
Diana Gabaldon Travel through time from 1940s to 1740s. Woman time travels through standing stones in Scotland. Diana Gabaldon Time-travel romance, the second of a trilogy (after Outlander, 1991). 1960s to 18th century. Diana Gabaldon Time-travel romance, the third of the Outlander series. Time travel from the 20th century to 18th century. Leo Frankowski 20th Century Polish Engineer is transported back to 13th century Poland 10 years before the Mongol invasion. Greg Egan After the invention of a method for sending messages back in time, history of the future becomes common knowledge, and every person knows their own fate. Authorised sequel to H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.
1992
Dragonfly in Amber
1993
Voyager
1993
1995
The Hundred-Light-Year-Diary
1995 1996
Stephen Baxter
Diana Gabaldon Time-travel romance, the fourth of the Outlander series. Time travel from the 20th century to 18th century. Kurt Vonnegut People in 2001 are transported back to 1991 to relive their lives
1996 1996
Timequake The Dechronization of Sam Magruder Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus Animorphs
George Gaylord A scientist working in the year 2162 is thrown back in time 80 million years to Simpson the Jurassic period. Orson Scott Card Researchers travel back in time to see Christopher Columbus's arrival in the new world in order to know the historical truth.
1996
1996
K. A. Applegate In book 11, the Animorphs and Visser 3 are sent back a few hours to the Amazon by a Saurio Rip, with the plot used again in Altermorph 1. The same concept is uses to sent the animorphs back to time to 65 million B.C. in Megamorph 2. In the Andalite Chronicles, Elfangor discovers a technology known as the Time Matrix, seen again in Megamorph 3. Stephen Fry Connie Willis Gary Paulsen Two men in the present attempt to prevent the birth of Adolf Hitler. Time traveler from 2048 travels back to the 19th century A boy gets transported to a weird world by a blue light, only to discover that it is the dark future of planet Earth A modern day boy switches places with a Shakespearean actor who needs to be cured by modern medicine so as to return to his own age and help Shakespeare to greater success on the stage. People from three atemporal time tribes must unite to save the crystallization and fracturing of all of history. Historians travel to and become stuck in the Middle Ages.
1999
King of Shadows
Susan Cooper
1999
All of an Instant
1999
Timeline
1999
Hogwarts student Hermione Granger acquires a Time-Turner, a magical necklace that allows her to travel back in time on a daily basis in order to take an unusually large courseload. The device is later used to manipulate the events of a single night to aid a wrongly accused convict's escape.
2001
Diana Gabaldon Time-travel romance, the fifth of the Outlander series. Time travel from the 20th century to 18th century. Robert Charles Wilson Monuments from the future appear in the early 21st century, precipitating a global political collapse.
2001
The Chronoliths
190
Terry Pratchett Stephen King Unfreezing and freezing of time using a small mechanism An airplane accidentally flies through a rip in space/time and appears in the "used time" of yesterday Shorts stories of lateral time movement and alternate universes ForeWord Magazine Silver Medal Winner for Sci-Fi Book of The Year, 2002 - Sequels: Nexus Point, Touchstone, Anvil of Fate - The first ever experiment in Time travel sets off a "Time War" where opposing sides struggle to alter key events on the Meridians of Time. Five book series: Meridian, Nexus Point, Touchstone, Anvil of Fate, Golem 7. Character interacts with a younger version of himself Time travel with the twin perspectives of a man who travels back in time for relationship stability A huge storm traps a girl who is accused of being a thief and takes her into the future Takes place on Mars. A man has a virus that puts him to sleep every 15 years and he wakes 10 younger. West-Virginian town is taken back to the Thirty Years War in Germany and gives them insight to the future Two characters, Mikuru Asahina and Fujiwara, are time travelers from the future and many parts of the storyline involve time traveling. Man with a rare genetic disorder unpredictably travels in time, living his life out of sequence A naval task-force from 2019 is accidentally sent back to the battle of Midway. Describes the First Crusade and the beginning of the Knights Templar in the future Loops in a man's life told through a narrative that goes from future to present A human, a dragon and an orc travel back in time to help save Azeroth from the Burning Legion.
2001 1990
2001 2002
2002 2002
2002
Thief!
2002
Kaleidoscope Century
2002
1633
Eric Flint
2003
2004
Axis of Time
2004
The Spark of God (orig. title: L'clat de Dieu) Pen Pal Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy A Breath of Snow and Ashes
2004 20042005
2005
Diana Gabaldon Time-travel romance, the sixth of the Outlander series. Time travel from the 20th century to 18th century. S.M. Stirling Nantucket is transported 3000 years back in time because of a space disturbance Multibillionaire clones a mammoth and sends it back in time. A Time Rover from 2057 returns to 1888 London in search of a missing time tourist only to be caught in the Jack the Ripper murders and the history-changing plots of a mysterious group of shape-shifters called Transitives. Time travelers from 2042 to prevent Socrates from consuming hemlock Fifth book in the Artemis Fowl series. Artemis must pair up with his old comrade Captain Holly Short, to track down the missing demon, before the spell that holds a demon island Hybras in limbo dissolves completely and the lost demon colony returns violently to Earth. Artemis also ends up saving Holly by manipulating time. Characters participate in "Party Crashing" which can, under certain conditions, cause time travel. A research assistant stumbles across a forward-traveling time machine.
2005
2005 2006
Mammoth Sojourn
2006 2006
2007
2007
191
Spider Robinson 3 books (Mindkiller-1982, Time Pressure-1988, LifeHouse-1997) chronicling the story of visitors from earth's future visiting the past to essentially harvest souls. A Time Rover from 2057 is sent to 1888 London to find Harter Defoe, the first time traveler who slowly going insane. Abandoned in a Victorian insane asylum, memories erased, a Time Rover from 2057 must find a way to thwart a plot from the future that will remake British history. Sixth book in the Artemis Fowl series. After Angeline Fowl contracts spelltropy, Artemis travels back in time eight years to when he was ten years old to find a lemur that can help cure his mother. The plot twist in the end of the book creates a circular timeline that started the series. Thirteen year olds Jonah and Chip find out that they are missing children from time and go on a journey along with Jonah's sister Katherine to uncover many secrets. In the near future, an authoritarian regime discovers a time-travel device invented before the technology existed to make it work. The reconnaissance team from that future kidnaps Max Burkowski, the inventors son, and Brother Frank Bootsma from the Vatican Observatory, who says that he has been abducted for a related reason. While they struggle to find a way back home, the story unfolds and reunfolds as things that happened in the past change, and things that happened in the future change back again. Time Hack (also available as The Day Time was Hacked) has a fresh outlook on what it means to visit the past, and perfectly blends Cold War paranoia with new-age digital terrorism. Mackenbach weaves at least five different narratives masterfully into a well-balanced story. Time Hack is the film edition of "The Day Time Was Hacked".
2007
2007
Virtual Evil
Jana G. Oliver
2008
Madman's Dance
Jana G. Oliver
2008
Eoin Colfer
2008
Found
2009
2009
Time Hack
[3]
Carel Mackenbach
2009
Diana Gabaldon Time-travel romance, the seventh of the Outlander series. Time travel from the 20th century to 18th century. Margaret Peterson Haddix Duane Swierczynski Margaret Peterson Haddix Connie Willis Jonah, Katherine, Chip and Alex are sent back to 1483 to learn that Chip is actually King Edward V and Alex is his brother Richard, Duke of York.
2009
Sent
2010
Expiration Date
Hardboiled pulp tale of an ex-journalist who discovers pills in his grandfather's medicine cabinet that transport him back in time to the 1970s. Jonah and Katherine go on yet another mission to return a missing kid named Andrea(really Virginia Dare) to her time in the Roanoke Colony.
2010
Sabotaged
2010
Time travelers from 2048 go to the London Blitz during WWII to observe and end up being part of it. Novel published in two parts. The sequel to 'The Fourth World' has the kids from Area 51 caught up in an accident that sends them a million years into the future. In search of his father, a time machine mechanic adventures through time accompanied by TAMMY and his ontologically valid dog, Ed, all while documenting his travels in a manual for future travellers. Various methods of time travel are explored in these poems and short stories. Thrall, an orc shaman, travels through time and alternative reality in order to find his inner strength. Follows the story of two teenagers who are transported back in time to medieval Wales.
2010
2010
2011 2011
Everything Is Actual World of Warcraft: Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects The After Cilmeri Series: Footsteps in Time, Prince of Time, and Daughter of Time
2011
Sarah Woodbury
192
Stephen King A man travels through a time portal to 1958, intending to stop Oswald from shooting John F. Kennedy. A young man is transported from 2010 to 1929 and tasked by a disillusioned archangel with correcting historical errors. Part of the Alien Characters series of children's stories. Alien Tim helps people by going back in time to prevent accidents. When Alien William has thousands of time crossing Alien Tims in his city every lunch time he decides to find a way to prevent him from 'helping'. Alien Tim becomes a regular character later in the series which means many of the later stories touch on time travel. A boy from a distant planet living on Earth frantically searches for his missing parents with the help of seven unique friends, battling many deadly obstacles and one terrifying enemy along the way.
2011
11/22/63
2011
J.M. Surra
2011
Alien Tim
Neil A Hogan
2012
1960
George Pal
1962
La jete
Chris Marker
1964
Ib Melchior
1965
1966
Gordon Flemyng
1968
1970
Beneath the Planet of the Apes Escape from the Planet of the Apes Slaughterhouse-Five Idaho Transfer
1971
Don Taylor
1972 1973
1973
Leonid Gaidai
1978
Superman
Richard Donner
1979
Nicholas Meyer
193
Don Taylor Jeannot Szwarc A storm at sea transports a nuclear warship back in time from the 1980s to the 1940s. A young man sees an old photograph of a woman, and through hypnosis travels back in time from 1980 to 1912 to meet her. Based on Matheson's 1975 novel "Bid Time Return" A young boy unwittingly joins a band of dwarves as they travel through time hunting treasure. The hero travels by means of "time cannons".
1980 1980
1981
Time Bandits
Terry Gilliam
1982
William Dear
1983
John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller James Cameron
Big-screen adaptations of three classic episodes from the popular 1950s and 1960s Rod Serling television series, plus a new segment featuring a bigot who is transported into the lives of past victims of racism.
1984
The Terminator
A cyborg (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to destroy humanity by killing the future mother of its future savior. In 1943, an anti-radar experiment accidentally sends two sailors forward in time to 1984. Nancy Allen and Michael Pare star in this film. The school janitor Mario (Massimo Troisi) and the teacher Saverio (Roberto Benigni) have an automobile breakdown, decide to spend the night in an inn, and the next morning they awake in the Florence of the 16th century. Time travel is achieved by means of a flux capacitor. Marty McFly intervenes in his parents' first meeting, preventing them from falling in love, and placing his own existence in danger. Jack Deth is a kind of cop/bounty hunter in a future dystopic Los Angeles. Michael and Ellie break into a military junkyard to find a science project. They find an orb that dangerously bends time and have to stop it to save the world. Peggy Sue Bodell faints at her high school reunion. When she wakes up, she finds herself in her own past, just before she finished school. To save Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk and his crew travel back in time to retrieve the beings who can communicate with an alien probe (humpback whales). Five cowboys of the 1880s are sent forward through time 100 years and fight crime. In 1978, a boy winds up 8 years into the future, and discovers an alien spaceship brought him there. A Russian dystopian comedy. Uncle Vova asks a person from the planet Alpha to move him and Fiddler back in time to save two aliens who got imprisoned because of the main hero's actions. The villain uses a camcorder-like gadget that shows the past, and an inventor opens up wormholes to other timestreams allowing the heroine (a young Courteney Cox) to save her parents from dying. A professor who's lost his family finds evidence of a time traveller in Old West memorabilia. Sequel to Back to the Future, Part II follows Marty McFly and Doc Brown as they go to the year 2015 to prevent Marty's kids from ruining the McFly family's reputation. Along the way, an old Biff Tannen steals the DeLorean so he can give a sports almanac to himself in the past, and win millions of dollars gambling. This creates a hellish alternate 1985 that it's up to Marty and the Doc to correct.
1984
Stewart Raffill
1984
1985
1985 1985
1986
1986
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Outlaws Flight of the Navigator
1986 1986
1986
Kin-dza-dza
Georgi Daneliya
1987
1987
Timestalkers
Michael Schulz
1989
Robert Zemeckis
194
Stephen Herek Two teenagers (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves) will not graduate from high school unless they pull on A on their history project. A time traveler (George Carlin) visits them to help because their success on this report is vital as it ensures they will stay together to create a Utopian future. As Bill and Ted travel through time, they encounter historical figures including Socrates, Joan of Arc, and Billy the Kid. Time travelers from the far future steal people already destined to die, such as in plane crashes, in order to restock humankind in their own desolate future. Based on the 1983 John Varley novel. A warlock in the 17th century who has been sentenced to death for witch craft is transported to the 20th century, followed by a witch hunter who must stop the warlock finding the Grand Grimoire. A scientist creates a weapon that causes your enemy to disappear but has a side effect of causing shifts in time. The scientist is transported back in time to 1817 and he meets Doctor Frankenstein and his monster as well as Mary Shelley who in this film wrote her novel based on true events. Sequel to Back to the Future Part II. In the final installment of the trilogy, Marty McFly goes back to 1885 to stop an outlaw from killing Doc Brown in a duel, and bring him back home to 1985. Sequel to The Terminator.
1989
1989
Millennium
Michael Anderson
1989
Warlock
Steve Miner
1990
Frankenstein Unbound
Roger Corman
1990
Robert Zemeckis
1991
Terminator 2: Judgment James Cameron Day Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey Army of Darkness Peter Hewitt
1992
Sequel to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Two evil robot versions of Bill and Ted are sent back in time to kill them. Central character Ash (Bruce Campbell), a supermarket employee, is sent back in time by a specific book to the 14th century. The rich in a future where time travel has been invented snatch people from history a moment before their death in order to use the bodies as hosts for their own minds after death. Ben Wilson and daughter Hillary are visited by a strange group of travelers looking for lodging. The travelers are from the future, intending to witness an impending catastrophe. The turtles go back in time to feudal Japan to retrieve a kidnapped April.
1992
Sam Raimi
1992
Freejack
Geoff Murphy
1992
Timescape (or: Grand Tour: Disaster in Time) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III Les Visiteurs
David Twohy
1993
Stuart Gillard
1993
Jean-Marie Poire
A 12th-century knight and his servant travel in time to the end of the 20th century and find themselves adrift in modern society. Barry Thomas is the average office worker. He becomes attracted to Lisa Fredericks who works in the same company. After work, Barry witnesses the murder of Lisa and goes to a bar to get drunk. Later that night, there is a storm and Barry gets a shock from a lamp's faulty power wire at exactly 12:01 am. The next morning, he realizes that everything is happening exactly as it did the previous day. The next morning the day is repeated again. It is now Barry's job--being the only person alive who is aware of this time loop--to stop the murder of Lisa, and stop the time loop or be caught in time forever. Weatherman Phil Connors is trapped in February 2 in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania when he finds the same day repeating over and over. An amateur inventor goes through time with an airplane to stop a villain from changing history for profit. USS Enterprise Captains James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard meet through the effects of an energy ribbon. Includes a prohibition against changing the past. The Time Enforcement Commission (TEC) is created to prevent alterations to the past. This causes a dilemma for the hero, Max Walker, who has to prevent time-travelers from altering time, but is tempted to do so to prevent his wife's death.
1993
12:01
Jack Sholder
1993
Groundhog Day
Harold Ramis
1994
Time Chasers
David Giancola
1994
David Carson
1994
Timecop
Peter Hyams
195
Terry Gilliam James Cole tries to change the past but fails. It therefore runs on the principle of a fixed timeline (the Novikov self-consistency principle). This film involves the Doctor in his eighth incarnation and has a showdown with the Master. The USS Enterprise follows the Borg back in time to stop them from altering history and preventing Earth's first warp flight and first contact with the Vulcans. Dr. Evil is back and has invented a time machine that allows him to go back to the 1960s so he can steal Austin Powers' mojo. A reporter, learning of time travelers visiting 20th century disasters, tries to change the history they know by averting upcoming disasters. A music group finds a time portal while on their way to Los Angeles and find themsevles in a desert town in the year 1959 under the control of a gang with a corrupted sheriff as an ally. The group learns about the fate of a local chef at a diner and tries to prevent certain disaster despite threats against them from both the sheriff and the gang. An accidental cross-time radio link connects father and son across 30 years. The son tries to save his father's life, but then must fix the consequences. Two people separated in time are somehow able to talk to each other using an amateur radio. The people in question are two students in the same school, one in 1979, the other in 2000. A 40 year old image consultant (Bruce Willis) finds himself being visited by his 10 year old self. The two protagonists both live in a lake house two years apart in time, but are able to communicate through a mysterious post box. This movie inspired the 2006 American film The Lake House. A teenager travels through time using wormholes, a man in a bunny suit, and the modern ritual of sleeping on golf courses. A medieval knight and his serf travel to 21st century Chicago, meeting the knight's descendant. But they must travel back to their time to ensure her birth. A Duke time travels from 1876 to the present and falls in love with a career woman in New York. The film focuses on Celebi who travels to the future and returns with a boy named Sam when being chased by a hunter.
1995
12 Monkeys
1996
Doctor Who
Geoffrey Sax
1996
1999
Austin Powers: The Spy Jay Roach Who Shagged Me The Time Shifters Mario Azzopardi
1999
Andrew Margetson
Frequency
Gregory Hoblit
2000
Ditto
Kim Jeong-gwon
2000
Jon Turteltaub
2000
Il Mare
Lee Hyun-seung
2001
Donnie Darko
Richard Kelly
2001
Just Visiting
Jean Marie-Poire
2001
James Mangold
2001
Pokmon 4Ever
2002
Returner
The human race is on the edge of annihilation after decades of war with an alien force. In an outpost in Tibet, mankinds last hope of survival is a time travel device. Remake of 1960s version of the film, directed by H.G. Wells' great-grandson, has little in common with H. G. Wellss original novel. A Bible professor from 1890 comes forward in time to the present via a time machine and cannot believe the things that he sees. Upon learning that his father has been kidnapped, Austin Powers must travel to 1975 and defeat the villain Goldmember - who is working with Dr. Evil. In Israel, a student in archaeology is seeking a video camera hidden 2000 years ago by a mysterious time traveler. Eddie Hitler builds a time traveling toilet which he calls the TURDIS
2002
2002
Time Changer
Rich Christiano
2002
Jay Roach
2002
2003
2003
Richard Donner
196
Jonathan Mostow Sequel to The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
2003
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2004
Alfonso Cuarn
Hermione Granger receives a Time-Turner from Professor McGonagall, so she can attend more classes than time would normally allow. She and Harry later use the Time-Turner to save Sirius Black and Buckbeak. Time travelers spend as much time in the time machine as they want to go back, and can only travel as far back as to when the machine was first turned on. A college psychology student (Ashton Kutcher) learns he can temporarily travel to his past and change it. The time traveling in this film involves a process initiated by reading childhood journals. A 13 year old girl makes a birthday wish and wakes up as a 30 year old woman. Distraught over his drug-addicted girlfriend, Cody (Sarah Lind), who's overdosed and fallen into a coma, small-time dope peddler Art (Jay Baruchel) uses a time machine to journey into the past in a desperate gamble to change her future. A amnesiac Persian Gulf War veteran (Adrien Brody) is subjected to an experimental treatment which moves him forward 15 years. For an extraordinary price, Time Safaris, Inc. will take clients through a wormhole to a time in pre-history to hunt dinosaur game. Based loosely on the 1952 short story by Ray Bradbury, with the Butterfly Effect portrayed as much more pronounced. Five college boys in a sci-fi club break their air-conditioner's remote control. In the sweltering clubhouse, a time machine appears and they go back in time to retrieve a functioning controller, but this causes complications.
2004
Primer
Shane Carruth
2004
2004 2005
2005
The Jacket
John Maybury
2005
A Sound of Thunder
Peter Hyams
2005
Katsuyuki Motohiro
2006
Alejandro Agresti Time travel romance where two people living in the same house at a lake at different times are able to exchange letters through its mailbox and fall in love. Frank Coraci Mamoru Hosoda Adam Sandler is given a remote that lets him fast forward, pause, and rewind his life. A teenage girl discovers that she can leap through time.
2006 2006
2006
Tony Scott
Denzel Washington is an ATF agent investigating a terrorist act who is invited to assist in a government time travel surveillance project. Alien scammers discover the code for time travel tattooed on Philip J. Fry's buttocks, and use it to send Bender back in time to steal priceless artifacts. Young Lewis is taken to the year 2037 by his future son Wilbur to stop a "Bowler Hat Guy" who has stolen Lewis' memory scanning machine. House wife (Sandra Bullock) learns that her husband died in a car crash the previous day, but, wakes up next morning to find him well and alive, and awakens the next day to a time when it has been a few weeks since he had died.
2007
2007
2007
Mennan Yapo
2008 2008
Timecrimes Minutemen
Nacho Vigalondo A man who accidentally travels back to the past and meets himself there. Lev L. Spiro Three high-school outcasts use a time machine that one invented to save their fellow classmates from embarrassing moments. Their time-travel creates a black hole, which could destroy the world. Ba'al changes the timeline so that SG-1 or the Stargate program never existed. Three people were unaffected by the change but are unable to do anything until Ba'al and the system lords arrive. Spock's attempt to prevent a supernova fails, resulting in the destruction of the Romulan homeworld. The captain of a Romulan mining ship blames Spock, and both the Romulans and Spock fall through a black hole to the past, creating an alternate reality. A romantic drama about a Chicago librarian (Eric Bana) with a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel, and the complications it creates for his marriage. Based on the Audrey Niffenegger novel.
2008
Stargate: Continuum
Martin Wood
2009
Star Trek
J. J. Abrams
2009
Robert Schwentke
197
Gareth Carrivick Two geeks and a cynic attempt to navigate a time-travel conundrum in the middle of a British pub. Faris plays a girl from the Future who sets the adventure in motion.
2009
Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel Disney's A Christmas Carol The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
2009
Robert Zemeckis
Miserly moneylender Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, in order to change his ways. Kyon is the only one who knows two of his classmates are missing and everything is different. To restore his life, he gathers several keys to power an alien device and travel back three years. Four friends spend a crazy, drunken night in a hot tub at a ski resort only to travel back in time to 1986. They are each presented with an opportunity to alter their futures. The film stars John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke. Disney's adaption of the video game of the same name. A dagger is used to turn back the clock, it has a grip made of crystal through which a special "Sand of Time" has to flow in order to create the time transition effect. The Prince has to prevent someone from alternating history.
2010
Tatsuya Ishihara
2010
Steve Pink
2010
Mike Newell
2010
Kenichi Takeshita Series protagonist Yusei Fudo encounters Turbo Duelist Paradox, who is from the future, and who believes the only way to prevent his future from happening is to stop Duel Monsters from existing. Ernie Barbarash James is a guy from the year 2032 who comes back in time with a custom-made watch that is a time machine. He travels back in time to fix his life but fails. While visiting Paris with his fiancee, an American writer discovers a way to travel back to the 1920s, allowing him to mingle with and draw inspiration from historical greats such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein.
2011
Ticking Clock
2011
Midnight in Paris
Woody Allen
Captain Z-Ro
Roy Steffens
Scientist Captain Z-Ro, working in his remote laboratory, safeguarded mankind and history from impending harm. He had a time machine, the ZX-99, both to view history and to send someone back in time. A Time Lord known as "the Doctor" travels through time and space in a TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space).
1963
Doctor Who
1966
1967
Irwin Allen
The year is 1968, and Doug Phillips and Tony Newman are working on a top secret project beneath the Arizona desert called "tic-toc". The project has been 10 years in the making, and a visiting senator wants to see if this project really works, or he will cut the funding for it. To prove that it can work, Tony Newman turns on the time tunnel and goes back to the year 1912, and is on board the Titanic, which would sink hours later. Doug Phillips goes into the tunnel to help Tony, and both are stuck hapless in time. They are catapulted each week to a new adventure in history. Two astronauts who break the speed of light, accidentally travel back in time to prehistoric Earth. When they realise that they are unable to return, they make friends with the cave-people they encounter. Eventually, they are able to return, but inadvertently bring some of the cave-people with them who then have to learn how to get along in the 1960s.
1966
1967
Sherwood Schwartz
198
11th Century wizard accidentally ensorcels his way into the 20th. Humorous mistakes are made. Two time traveling children visit both the past and future. Two time traveling inter-dimensional agents protect and guard the order of time in this British drama.
1970
1971
Catweazle
Richard Carpenter John Cooper Peter J. Hammond (dir.s Shaun O'Riordan & David Foster)
1970 1979
1971 1982
1982
1983
Voyagers!
James D. Parriott
A member of a league of time travelers and a boy travel through time repairing errors in world history. After a family traderdy a young girl is transpoeerted into the past.
1988
Moondial (TV serial) 1991 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures Back to the Future: The Animated Series Quantum Leap
Helen Cresswell
1990
Animated spin off of the movies Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
1991
1992
Bob Gale
1989
1993
Donald P. Bellisario
Dr. Sam Beckett helped to develop Quantum Leap, a project that would allow a person to time travel back to any point since that person was born. Beckett ended up being the test subject, and while he could remember only certain details, he traded places with a person in the past. Others in the past saw the other person instead of Beckett. In the present, an observer named Al, who Beckett could see as a hologram, gave Beckett advice. This usually involved having Beckett correct some problem in the other person's life. Live action spin off of the movies Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
1992
1993
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures Time Trax Harve Bennett Jeffrey M. Hayes Grant Rosenberg
1993
1994
A police officer from the 22nd century makes his way back to our time to track down fugitives from the future.
1993
1999
Laurence Marks An accidental time traveller, Gary Sparrow, who leads a double life after discovering a time and Maurice Gran portal allowing him to travel between 1990s London and wartime London of 19391945. Anthony Horowitz Jeff Slade uses a time machine created by colleague Holly Turner's father to solve crimes. The machine operates seemingly-randomly, sending the user(s) back in time a time that can be a matter of minutes, or several days. NSA Agent Frank B. Parker can travel back 7 days in a time machine powered by alien technology. Four policemen travel from the year 3000 to the year 2000 to arrest fugitives.
1997
1997
1998
2001
Seven Days
2000
2001
2001
2004
An ancient demon throws the hero Samurai Jack into the future, in order to allow himself enough time to conquer the world. Time cops from the year 1,000,000,000 A.D. travel back in time to keep famous historical figures from diverting the course of history. Various species from the 30th century are having a "Temporal Cold war" that is interfering with life in the 22nd century, which affects the lives of the USS Enterprise (NX-01) and its crew.
2001
2003
Time Squad
2001
2005
199
Joel Larsen, a 34 year old man, gets a second chance to get his life right, thanks to a freakish accident that catapults him back to 1981, as a 14 year old. He is electrocuted, then wakes up in his teenage body, but with all his adult memories intact. Blessed with adult wisdom, though hampered by adolescent urges, Joel sets out to right the wrongs that will befall his family. Astronauts are sent back in time after witnessing the end of the Earth from space. A young woman receives request from corpses to stop their untimely deaths and wakes up then the day before, in order to attempt to save them. A family attempts to repair their spaceship after being stranded in the past, or modern day, while maintaining the appearance of being normal people. On their journeys through the Stargate SG-1 experiences timetravel both to the past and future. Both John Sheppard and Dr. Elizabeth Weir experiences timetravel when dealing with various ancient devices among others the Stargate. Desmond Hume, former Royal Scots Regimen, is caused by electromagnetic radiation to become "unstuck in time." His consciousness switches between 2004 (the present) and 1996. Benjamin Linus, former leader of the island natives, travels ten months into the future after moving the island. In Season 5, the characters on the island skip through time to different periods of the island's past and future. A children's cartoon where using books three children travel through time and space. Hiro Nakamura and Peter Petrelli can travel in time and space. This is the foundation for the plot of both series one and series two, in which apocalyptic disasters happen and the characters travel back and forth in an attempt to prevent them. A police officer who must learn to adapt to the way things were done in the 70s after being thrown back in time by an accident. (A U.S. version of the series Life on Mars aired in 2008-2009.)
2002
2003
Do Over
2002 2003
2004 2005
2004
2006
Phil of the Future Tim Maile & Douglas Tuber Stargate: SG-1 Peter DeLuise
1997
2007
2004
2009
2004
2010
Lost
2005 2006
2007 2010
2006
2007
Life on Mars
2006
2007
Transformers: Cybertron Torchwood Russell T Davies Chris Chibnall Jane Espenson John Fay
The Autobot Vector Prime is a defender of spacetime, he saved your friends human using your power over time, did before of destroy them, by Megatron Humans and aliens alike from different periods in time start to come through to our world by means of a rift in the space/time continuum. (Spin-off from Doctor Who.)
2006
2007
Primeval
Portals to different time periods start opening up and creatures from the past and future start to come through. Kevin Falls Matt McGuinness Tom Szentgyorgyi Dan Vasser is the main protagonist of the series, who finds himself jumping through time, unable to stop or control the jumps. Olivia "Livia" Beale is also a traveler from 1948 who jumps into the future. After not being able to jump home, she was stuck in Dan's present and adapted to life there, where she began a legal career and fell in love with Dan, only to finally jump back home while on the plane. For unknown reasons, she now jumps to the same times that Dan visits, and offers him advice and assistance in his missions. In one episode, Phineas and Ferb "fix" an old model of a time machine at a museum which allows them to travel back to the age of the dinosaurs, and eventually back to the future again. In another episode, they used this same time machine again to travel into the future. This time, a much more complicated series of events followed, where their future sister follows them back through time and accidentally disrupts the normal course of various events, setting off a chain reaction that turns the future into a dystopian society.
2007
2007
Journeyman
2007
200
The protagonists must work with and fight creatures known as Imagin who come from a possible future and have come back in time to kill the key figure to the Junction Point: a human whose sole existence ensures that the Imagin's future cannot exist. The Imagin grant wishes to weak-willed humans to travel farther back in time along that person's memories in order to find the Junction Point by destroying anyone and anything in their way to change the future.
2007
2008
2008
2010
Ashes to Ashes
Matthew Graham Ashley Pharoah Julie Rutterford Mark Greig Jack Lothian
2008
2009
Parallel storylines taking place in 1986 and 2008 are told, with two of the protagonists from the 2008 timeline going back in time to 1986. The latter time traveler goes back in time to attempt to prevent his birth such that his love may live, but instead ensures that his existence remains by saving his father from being killed by the series' antagonist. A female Terminator from the year 2027 comes back in time to 1999 to protect a young John Connor. They then use the time displacement equipment to move forward in time by 8 years to hide John. Various other Terminators are sent back in time on varying missions. Jana Sinyor Erica Strange, a woman who begins seeing a counselor to deal with regrets in her life, only to discover the counselor (Michael Riley) has the ability to send her back in time to actually change these events. A T-rex named Buddy travels with his adopted Pteranodon family on the Dinosaur Train. The Dinosaur Train has the ability to visit the entire Mesozoic Era, the Age of Dinosaurs, passing through magical Time Tunnels to meet the dinosaurs in the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous time periods. FBI agent Mark Benford and the rest of the world fall victim to an incident that renders the entire population of Earth unconscious for two minutes seventeen seconds on October 6, 2009. During the "Black Out", as it is called, the consciousness of the entire planet shifts forward six months into the future to the date April 29, 2010, where they witness their potential futures that could occur that day. Dr. Victor Frankenstein has since completely mastered immortality and now has also created an infinite number of Einstein-Rosen Bridge "wormholes" portals or "Frankenholes" between his small Eastern European village (which is teeming with monsters and supernatural forces) and every time period from the past and the future. This allows historical figures and celebrities seeking the doctor's services to find him. Although many classic Horror monsters are present, the series' focus is mainly on Dr. Frankenstein and his family. A mysterious girl named Homura Akemi is revealed to have made a contract with a being known as Kyubei to go back in time and save the titular character. When Earth is threatened with extinction in 2149, some humans travel back 85 million years in hopes of preventing disaster later. In a TV special, Hoops and Yoyo accidentally travel through a wormhole and meet Santa Claus when he was still Kris Kringle.
2008
2009
2009
2009
Dinosaur Train
Craig Bartlett
2009
2010
FlashForward
2010
Dino Stamotopolous
2011
2011
Gen Urobuchi
2011
2011
201
Date 1991
Description As the TMNT reach the Technodrome, Shredder sends the m through a time warp through the past (Age of Dinosaurs, a pirate ship in 1530 AD, a train in the American West in 1885 AD) and the future (New York City in 2020 AD and a Star Base in 2100 AD) before they can go back to their present in 1991. In order to prevent Purple Tentacle from growing a pair of arms and subsequently enslaving humanity, students Bernard, Laverne and Hoagie attempt to travel one day back in time in Dr. Edison's Chron-o-Johns, time machines housed in portable toilets. During the trip, the machines malfunction and strand Hoagie and Laverne 200 years into the past and future respectively. Players control each character in his/her own time zone (past, present, future), meeting historical figures and progenitors/descendants of some characters; the goal is to return Hoagie and Laverne to the present and prevent Purple Tentacle's world domination. A group of heroes from different eras travel back and forth through time in an attempt to prevent the end of the world in the year 1999. Crash Bandicoot is sent to various points in time to retrieve relics.
Chrono Trigger
1995
1998
1999
A car combat game and Sequil to Vigilante 8 Time Travel plays a big role in this games storyline. as well as one character "Agent Chase" using a weapon that momentarily freezes time for anything his weapon hits. the future vehicles and time travel systems used in the game appear to be very much inspired by Back to the Future. At the series' core is the struggle of human beings against the TimeSplitters, a race of aliens that attempt to exterminate humanity by altering its past. The first game in the series took the perspective of several characters fighting off the TimeSplitters in their own eras. The second game added two central protagonists, Sgt. Cortez and Corporal Hart, soldiers from 2401 who traveled to different eras to fight the TimeSplitters. Future Perfect placed a heavier emphasis on a linear story, cinematic cutscenes and character-based humor, and follows Cortez as he teams up with characters against the TimeSplitters and a new, human antagonist, mad scientist Jacob Crow. The ending of Future Perfect implies a definite conclusion to the plot, although a fourth game has been in development hell since 2007. The protagonist, Eike Kusch, is murdered at the start of the game by a knife stab on the back. He is saved from death by an unknown entity who gives him a time travel device, called a digipad, that can be used to send Eike back to a pre-determined point in time, allowing him to take actions in order to prevent his death. After being sent back 30 minutes, Eike succeeds in preventing his stabbing, only to find that he is killed in some different manner, starting the time-travel cycle again. During the course of the game, Eike travels to several time periods as far back as medieval times, gradually uncovering the connection behind the attempts on his life, the mysterious being who saves him and his own past. The game features several possible endings, depending on the player's actions and choices that alter the timeline. Scientists from the near future have begun work on creating a viable time machine. The project results in the creation of two devices, the Alpha Suit, a less advanced prototype jump suit, and the Beta Suit, a more advanced, so-called military grade model with features the Alpha Suit lacks such as combat-related timeshifting abilities and an integrated artificial intelligence to prevent the creation of temporal paradoxes. The director of the project, Dr. Aiden Krone, takes the Alpha Suit and travels into the past. Once there he alters the timeline, placing himself as the ruler of the Krone Magistrate that controls a dystopic world. The protagonist, a fellow scientist whose name is never spoken (never mentioned in the game or manual), then takes the Beta Suit and follows Dr. Krone back to the year 1939 (in an alternate timestream) to a place called Alpha District. During the trip parts of the Beta suit are damaged, forcing the protagonist to assist the Occupant Rebellion against Dr. Krone in hopes of salvaging parts from the Alpha suit.
TimeSplitters series
20002005
2001
Timeshift
2007
"World of Warcraft"
2007present
Beginning with the Burning Crusade expansion in 2007, The Caverns of Time hosted dungeons and raids in which players traveled back in time to prevent Azeroth's timeline from being negatively changed. The original 3 dungeons/raids from the Burning Crusade expansion include Escape from Durnholde Keep (level 66+ 5-player dungeon), Opening the Dark Portal (level 68+ 5-player dungeon), and Battle for Mount Hyjal (level 70+ 25-player raid). The Wrath of the Lich King expansion added The Culling of Stratholme (level 80 5-man dungeon). The Cataclysm expansion added End Time (level 85 5-man dungeon), Well of Eternity (level 85 5-man dungeon), Hour of Twilight (level 85 5-man dungeon), and Dragon Soul (level 85 10/25-player raid) as post-release content in its patch 4.3.
202
Prior to the release of the Burning Crusade expansion, players were able to enter The Caverns of Time through terrain exploits. The caverns at the time were incomplete, having no direct access to the instances which were to be added later on. Anonymous players have stated that their access to the game was temporarily suspended for entering the caverns via terrain exploits. Many quests are available to players which bring their character's mind and/or body back in time. "Braid (video game)" 2008 Braid is a platformer art game where the player manipulates time in a variety of creative ways to solve puzzles. Braid's story also deals with the subject of time travel in a way similar to the relationship portrayed in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
"Professor Layton and the Unwound Future" "Back to the Future: The Game"
JP: 2008, US: The Third in the Professor Layton series, set between London Present and 10 years later. Layton receives a letter 2010 from Luke ten years in the future. and it is connected by a failed time Machine Demonstration and the missing Prime Minister of the UK
2010
The game takes place six months after the events of the film Back to the Future Part III and sees Marty McFly, the protagonist of the series, trying to adjust to a life without his best friend, scientist Doctor Emmett "Doc" Brown, whose belongings are being sold off by the bank following his disappearance to an unknown time period. Out of nowhere, an intact duplicate of the destroyed DeLorean time machine appears in front of Marty, and hints and notes inside instruct him to come to Doc's rescue, who is stranded in the year 1931, during the time of Prohibition. The game's series follows the events of Marty and Doc trying to repair hellish timelines created by their past attempts. RTS tme travel game - if you lose a skirmish you can travel back to before it happened and avoid or fix it. But so can your opponents. [5]
"Achron"
2010
References
Odgers, Sally O. (1999). "Twilight Times Feature: SF? Fantasy? What's the difference?" [6]. Twilight Times. Retrieved 2007-01-29. Goldschlager, Amy; Avon Eos. "Science Fiction & Fantasy:" [7]. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Homepage. Retrieved 2007-01-29. "The Internet Movie Database" [8]. Retrieved 2007-01-30. "The Ultimate Science Fiction Webguide" [9]. Magic Dragon Multimedia. 2004. Retrieved 2007-01-30. "Scifipedia" [10]. Scifi.com. 2007-01-10. Retrieved 2007-01-30. timelinks - the big list of time travel video, time travel movies, & time travel TV [11] - over 600 movies and television UltimateTimeTravel - the best source on the web for finding time travel books, time travel movies, and time travel computer games [12] SciFan: Time Travel - Time Control - Time Warp [13] - list of over 2400 books featuring time travel Aparta Krystian. Conventional Models of Time and Their Extensions in Science Fiction [14] Master's thesis exploring conceptual blending in time travel. "J.M. Surra Book Releases" [15]. 2011. Retrieved 2012-01-11.
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Footnotes
[1] http:/ / www. gutenberg. org/ files/ 29948/ 29948-h/ 29948-h. htm [2] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Day-Time-Was-Hacked/ dp/ 1439227853/ ref=sr_1_1?s=books& ie=UTF8& qid=1329085246& sr=1-1 [3] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Time-Hack-Carel-Mackenbach/ dp/ 1456562703/ ref=sr_1_1?s=books& ie=UTF8& qid=1329084887& sr=1-1 [4] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ gp/ product/ 1463521332 [5] http:/ / www. achrongame. com/ site/ [6] http:/ / www. twilighttimes. com/ Odgers4a. html [7] http:/ / www. sfsite. com/ columns/ amy26. htm [8] http:/ / www. imdb. com/ [9] http:/ / www. magicdragon. com/ UltimateSF/ SF-Index. html [10] http:/ / scifipedia. scifi. com/ index. php/ Category:Time_Travel [11] http:/ / www. aetherco. com/ timelinks/ timevideo-thebiglist. html [12] http:/ / www. UltimateTimeTravel. com [13] http:/ / www. scifan. com/ themes/ themes. asp?TH_themeid=4& Items= [14] http:/ / www. timetravel. 110mb. com [15] http:/ / www. jmsurra. com/ Book_Releases. html
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License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/