Time Travel & Parallel Universes
Kyle Parker-Millea
Kenny Black
Brigette Eckert
Carly Wilson
Framework
A Theory of Everything implies extra
dimensions & universes—makes
time travel possible
Starting w/Einstein
• Einstein attempted to discover a Theory of Everything—even
on his death bed he tried—he believed that all of “God’s
thoughts” could be expressed in an equation that was no more
than 1” in length.
• Einstein’s Theorys of Relativity (everything BIG) brings forth the
possibility of time travel and also a cosmic singularity
• Einstein died trying, but others may have succeeded….
Superstrings save the day….
• String Theory bridges gap
between quantum
mechanics and relativity
• Proposes 10 dimensions (we
are only used to 3—or
maybe 4 if we do what
Einstein suggested and add
a dimension of time)
• Like a guitar string, these
strings “vibrate” at different
frequencies—matter emanates
from these strings
• Changes everything: now the
universe can be explained as a
symphony of superstrings and
the laws of nature are
harmonies of this “string
music” all happening
simultaneously (and more the
time scale of plancks).
But not yet….
Einstein’s missing Theory of Everything would have to
definitively explain the birth of the Big Bang—one
concerns the birth of the universe, and the other
concerns everything within it…
…and this is where the problems began for physicists
A Cosmic “Singularity”
• Scientists could not mathematically merge String
Theory and the Big Bang.
• The most troubling problem exists in the fact that the
laws of physics break down in the instance of the Big
Bang; you can see the obvious issues that surface
here when physicists bound to the proposition that
nature is mechanistic, orderly, knowable and
explainable through math and reason get told that
their rules do not apply at the centerpiece of our
universe itself.
Other issues w/Strings
• String theory turned into 5 separate theories—
if the theory of everything had 5+ theories; is
it really the theory of nothing?
• Did the emergence of the Singularity and
multiple string theories stop physicists dead in
their tracks in describing all that we know as
small oscillating strings?...
From String theory to…
Nope. Some physicists continued to
work on using string theory to describe
the universe, and one day made a
revolutionary breakthrough—by
adding an 11th dimension that was
used by other “Super-gravity” theorists,
string theory made sense again, but
the strings transformed into something
new...
M-theory
• The 5 string theories unified into a
different kind of theory: the strings
stretched and combined into the
supposed super-membrane to which
everything in our universe is
connected. And so M-theory is born. M
stands for membrane, which is what is
proposed to be the underlying
structure of our universe—it is,
essentially, a membrane.
• So bold and mysterious, many thought
that M should stand for other things:
magic, madness, mystery, majesty,
mother
Weakness of Gravity
• Gravity is much weaker, in comparison, to
the other forces (electromagnetic, strong,
weak).
• We all know how strong a small magnet
is…well, then why can gravity be so weak
that I can still pick things up when I have
the whole world pulling on me?...
Extra dimensions and gravity
• Extra dimensions can serve to explain the weakness
of gravity:
• 1st said: gravity may only appear to be weak because
it dilutes itself out into extra dimensions which we
cannot perceive—didn’t work mathematically—until an
extra membrane is introduced into the 11th dimension
and the idea is flipped...
• Gravity is leaking out of another membrane (and here
it is just as strong as the other forces) and we are only
receiving the tail-end effects of gravity which make it
appear to be weak—the extra dimension explains the
weakness of gravity! Could it explain a lot more than
just gravity?
Parallel Universes
• A Pandora's box is now opened and physicists go into the 11th
dimension attempting to explain old math problems; every
explanation points to another parallel universe. From every corner of
the 11th dimension, parallel universes come out—more and more of
them.
• The theory progressed into claiming that there are an infinite # of
universes, which are thought to be parallel to ours (existing
simultaneously), and even quite close to us, yet we cannot see or
perceive them.
• These universes are all different: some may have life or not, some
may have different laws of nature, in some you may not have even
been born etc…
What does M-theory mean for the
Singularity and the Big Bang?
• The Singularity is unraveled. M-theory says that
all of the infinite # of universes are constantly
moving through the 11th dimension like waves, and
as these waves ripple and collide w/each other, the
result is imparted matter.
• So, the big bang and all of the matter it caused are
simply the product of a collision between a meager
two colliding membranes, or universes.
The “not so big” bang
• So the implications of this dismantling of
the Singularity by M-theory conclude that
the Big Bang is not that big at all in
theory, because there are an infinite # of
big bangs and they happen all of the time.
Our universe, our membrane, our bubble
could be just one bubble in an endless sea
of bubbles
Is it possible that everything
we know and conceive is
only the manifestation
allowed by one unique
“bubbling” in an infinite
ocean of possibilities?....
Bubbling through the 11th
dimension?...
What can we even conceive this
to be like? (a.k.a. here are some
cool pics I’ve found)
The fabric of our universe is obviously much
more inconceivable, mysterious and abstract
than any of these pictures though, if m-theory
and all of these physicists prove to be in the
right...
So, if we are only a small part of the multiverse
and such, we can get a better understanding
of time travel through advancing our
understanding of the framework of our
universe
Problem numero uno
• The power required to open up gateways
through space and time are much too
massive.
• Time travelers would say: “Atomic what!?
This is nothing.”
We are already time travelers
• Time dilation: the faster you go, the slower
time beats—we can measure this w/atomic
clocks
• Astronauts are time travelers because they
experience time dilation and are therefore
slightly younger than if they would have
stayed on Earth.
• If you could accelerate at the speed of light,
then you would actually be suspended in time
and could travel way into the future (but
probably not in a DeLorean w/Michael J.
Fox).
Is Time Like a River?
Newton said time was like an arrow that never
deviated from its path…but Einstein said that
time is like a river in which there is the
possibility of bending time through a whirlpool
in the river, or the river forking off into two (or
more) rivers.
Now comes the harder part…
• Although time travel to the future may
seem “Easy” by method of time
dilation, time travel to the past
becomes a bit complicated.
• A major problem of time travel to the
past is causality…you do not want to
kill your grandfather
Thanks Einstein….
• Modern physics still thinks that Einsteins
models of the universe are the best so far
• Both his theories of relativity allow time
travel
• Based on his works, hundreds of theories
have been developed that involve time travel
possibilities—the energy req. keeps most
theories as theories and not plans for a time
machine
• Because Einstein died we cannot resolve
within his equations whether time travel is
actually possible or not.
It is conceivable….
• That if a person knocks on your door one
day and claims to be your great great great
great great great grandson, they might be
telling the truth.
• If we evolve into a type 3 civilization that
can harness galactic power, then there is the
possibility of mastering time and actually
going back to meet your ancestral
grandfather/mother
So then where are the tourists from the future?
Stephen Hawking said that he didn’t believe in time
travel because we don’t see any tourists .
1 response: we are too arrogant, conceited, and
naive to realize that if we evolve into a civilization
that has mastered the secrets of the universe, our
type 3 ancestors would probably be less interested
and more embarrassed about our troubled world in
the 21st century.
• Wormholes
Some Theories
• Residing just outside the event horizon of a black hole
• Cosmic strings
• Residing inside a hollow, high mass object
• Orbiting the earth for long periods of time
• Traveling at the speed of light
WORMHOLES
• Located at the center of black holes.
• Intra-Universe Wormholes connect one
location in a universe to another in the
same universe (In the present time or
not).
• Inter-Universe Wormholes connect one
universe to another.
Traveling to the future is
more than possible
• The speed of light is the same for everyone, no
matter how fast you are moving towards or
away from it, so… something has to give—
space and time—if something is moving fast
enough through space, it can alter its
movement through time
• This next guy is using this idea and lasers to
make particles the first “real” time travelers
The First Time Machine?
• Einstein believed that light held the secrets of
everything: from the unspeakable power of the
atom to time travel
• Since black holes are not readily available,
Ronald Mallett is trying to go w/Einstein’s idea
about light and use a circulating/spiraling light
beam to twist space and close time into a loop.
• A corkscrewing particle would wind its way into
the past theoretically.
• Harnessing enough laser power is the main
problem.
Implications of this time machine
• It is his hope that particles might appear out of
nowhere, from experiments that he is doing in the
future
• A person could only go back in time as far back as
when the first time machine was activated.
• He dedicated his life to time travel so that he could
see his father again, but this is impossible.
• It is his hope that particles might appear out of
nowhere, from experiments that he is doing in the
future
• A strange possibility when the machine is first
switched on: Mallett might get messages from the
future of people trying to communicate w/him.