time travel tech back to the future

Tech for time travel in “Back to the Future” Crossword Clue

Tech for time travel in Back to the Future NYT Crossword Clue Answers are listed below. Did you came up with a solution that did not solve the clue? No worries we keep a close eye on all the clues and update them regularly with the correct answers.

TECH FOR TIME TRAVEL IN BACK TO THE FUTURE Crossword Answer

• FLUXCAPACITOR

How the Time Traveling 'Back to the Future' DeLorean Works (Infographic)

Inspired by an idea he had 30 years earlier, Emmett “Doc” Brown completed his time machine in October, 1985. Some of his first temporal experiments were trips to 1955 and the far-off future year of 2015. Here are some of the details behind Doc Brown’s breakthrough technology:

The key to time travel is the flux capacitor. The capacitor was designed by Doc Brown in October 1955 and was finally tested in October 1985.

This dashboard console  is where the time travel destination is set. Readouts include destination time, present time within the vehicle, and last time departed.

Originally fueled by radioactive plutonium, the time machine was modified in 1955 to run on the electricity in a lightning bolt. In 2015, a Mr. Fusion power plant was installed, allowing the time machine to run on practically any available matter.

On a trip to 2015, Doc Brown had a repulsorlift flying unit installed. The wheels swivel 90 degrees to deploy the flight thrusters.

To an observer, the departure of the time machine is a dramatic event. Lightning coils around the vehicle as the flux capacitor creates the time displacement field. The car appears to implode into a ball of plasma, and fiery trails are left by the car’s tires.

Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now

Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.

Tasselled wobbegong: The master of disguise that can eat a shark almost as big as itself

'We're proving that this is a new door to understand cancer better': Tour de France coach Iñigo San Millán on what elite cyclists could reveal about cancer biology

How many moons are in the solar system?

• 2 Earth's rotating inner core is starting to slow down — and it could alter the length of our days
• 3 Argyle mine: Earth's treasure trove of pink diamonds born during a supercontinent's break up
• 4 'The early universe is nothing like we expected': James Webb telescope reveals 'new understanding' of how galaxies formed at cosmic dawn
• 5 Newly discovered asteroid larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza will zoom between Earth and the moon on Saturday
• 2 Stunning photos show 44,000-year-old mummified wolf discovered in Siberian permafrost
• 3 James Webb Space Telescope spies strange shapes above Jupiter's Great Red Spot
• 4 Shattered Russian satellite forces ISS astronauts to take shelter in stricken Starliner capsule

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• Backchannel
• Newsletters
• WIRED Insider
• WIRED Consulting

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

Scott Thill

Inside Back to the Future 's Novel Take on Time Travel

“[Director Robert Zemeckis] and I quickly came to the conclusion, ‘You know what? It’s not about the visual effects,'” says Back to the Future producer Bob Gale in the video. “It’s not about how long does it take them to travel through time. Because traveling through time should be instantaneous.”

Unlike other films with dizzying time-travel special effects, Back to the Future ‘s version, created with the help of Industrial Light & Magic , translated mostly into flaming tire treads, a flash of light, glowing neon and not much else.

The approach paid off: Back to the Future became one of the most successful sci-fi films in history, empowered by the manic comedy of Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.

Win Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy

We’re teleporting five free copies of the $80 Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy Blu-ray collection, which hits stores Oct. 26, to five clever readers who let us know in the comments section below what they think about Back to the Future ‘s conception of time travel.

With a caveat: No one should make the argument that Eric Stoltz should have stayed in Marty McFly’s time-traveling DeLorean . That spaceship has sailed. Entries must be received by 12:01 a.m. Pacific on Oct. 27, 2010.

Eric Stoltz’s Marty McFly Gets Dissected in Back to the Future Reissue

Best Trilogy Films: Back to the Future

Overlooked ’80s Sci-Fi Flicks, Recalled by Wired Readers

By Dhruv Mehrotra

By Paolo Armelli

By Simon Hill

By Angela Watercutter

James Temperton

Ray Kurzweil

Angela Watercutter

Jennifer M. Wood

Megan Farokhmanesh

Laura Kipnis

How Back To The Future's Time Travel Works

If you read the words “time travel” on a site like CinemaBlend, you can almost be assured that one thing will instantly come to mind. With the smell of burnt rubber and a familiar twinkle of well-worn musical notes, you can bet that the Back to the Future trilogy is one of those things that almost immediately presents itself in the pop culture consciousness. But we’re not here to talk about whether or not Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s landmark sci-fi trilogy is good, we already know the original is one of the best sci-fi movies of all time. No, we’re here to talk about something much more important: how the time travel in the world of Doc Brown and Marty McFly actually works.

Better still, this academic exercise in temporal studies will open the door to even more examinations in how time travel works at the movies. Just as we’ve previously discussed with Avengers: Endgame , the subject of traveling through the past, present, and future of any given timeline is going to be something we’re going to invest a lot of time into. So if you like what you see here, there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow and/or yesterday waiting for you after! For now though, let’s go back… to the past, present, and future of Hill Valley, California!

The Time Travel In Back To The Future

Now, you can stop me if you’ve heard this story before, as Back to the Future itself has turned 35 this very year. However, a refresher is always a good idea when it comes to the moving pieces that you’ll see moving through the story of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s legendary sci-fi trilogy. So here’s a quick and basic rundown of what happened throughout the Back to the Future saga:

Who's Time Traveling

Throughout the course of three movies, we see Einstein the Dog, Marty McFly (Sr), Doctor Emmett L. Brown, Jennifer Parker, Biff Tannen, and Clara Clayton all zoom back and forth through time. Oh, don’t forget Jules and Verne, Doc and Clara’s kids. This concerns them too, though just barely.

From When To When

For the intents and purposes of the Back to the Future series, “the present day” is 1985. From that particular point on the timeline, the Back to the Future trilogy’s time travel adventures span between the final film’s trip to 1885 to the then far flung future of 2015 . Two stops in 1955 and a trip to alternate 1985 also take place, because who would have thought time travel was such a dangerous, life altering thing?

CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER

Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News

The Purpose Of Their Trip

It all started with a science experiment in Back to the Future , which saw Doc Brown testing his time machine to see if it’d work. But then, Marty McFly accidentally goes back to 1955, and has to correct the mistake of throwing off his parent’s first meeting and falling in love. That’s a simple enough beginning, but then Marty has a double shot of intentional time travel adventures, as Back to the Future Part II starts with Doc bringing Marty and Jennifer to 2015 to save their kids from going to jail, but leads to having to correct old Biff Tannen’s betting streak starting in 1955, and preventing Doc from being murdered by Mad Dog Tannen in 1885. Last, but not least, Marty has to go home to 1985 when all is said and done; because the time continuum.

How Time Travel Happens In Back To the Future

The two main methods of travel in Back to the Future’s trilogy are a converted DeLorean and a converted locomotive. Both vehicles, whether through nuclear radiation, burning garbage, or steam power, need to get to 88 miles per hour, and generate a charge of 1.21 Gigawatts in order to do the thing. When your vehicle of choice hits those milestones, you’re going to see some serious shit… time travel shit!

One very important thing to keep in mind is you need to be mindful of where you’re travelling. The exact spot you’re traveling from is where you’ll arrive when you reach the date of your destination, and what was once a mall parking lot in 1985 could be a pine tree farm in 1955. Hover conversion is recommended, so that whenever and wherever you’re going, you won’t need roads. And thanks to some script changes early on in the franchise’s history, you won’t need Coca Cola either!

Can History Be Changed As A Result Of Time Travel In Back to the Future?

Oh boy, can it. Throughout Back to the Future history, we’ve seen the McFly kids almost wiped out of existence, Doc Brown almost murdered over a simple amount of money, and an entirely different 1985 where Biff Tannen runs Hill Valley, and is rich beyond his wildest dreams. There is a lot of history that’s almost changed in the Back to the Future saga. However, some pieces of history do change permanently, and for the better. One of the most classic examples of the perils of time travel, the Back to the Future trilogy is a single timeline, rewritten as events progress.

Artifacts like photographs, faxes, and matchbooks change as quickly as events are being changed in the timeline. So the better your chances of seeing an event come to pass, the longer that evidence is going to stick around. See also: Jennifer’s fax from Back to the Future Part II surviving until the end of Back to the Future Part III , when a newly wisened Marty rewrites his future by not engaging in 1985’s fateful drag race.

What Are The Consequences Of Time Travel In Back To The Future?

While Back to the Future’s time travel was a messy affair, the end result could be seen as a net positive. And the consequences present themselves in very similar scenarios that hit three main characters in pretty unique ways.

Doc's Consequences

As Doc Brown, his wife Clara, and their sons Jules and Verne are still traveling through the whole of space and time in their souped up locomotive, this could lead to even more chaos throughout the timeline. That’s great for a film and media franchise, but that’s horrible if you want to sleep at night knowing you won’t have to adjust for a consequences of an accidentally generated tangent timeline. Still, Doc got a happy ending, finally finding himself bound to a family he never even knew he wanted until he met Clara, whisking her away to be his companion for all of time and space. Now, why does that sound so familiar ?

Marty's Consequences

Seeing the consequences of the actions his children, his enemies, and even his own self take in their lifetimes, he learns to have more confidence in himself. Marty, much like Doc, found himself a changed man, in relationships that will keep him grounded. But learning not to give in to his more impulsive nature, and to turn the cheek when called a chicken, puts Marty on the presumed path to success as a musician; instead of the working stiff he’d have become if he got into the accident with the Rolls Royce. Like famed science fiction author/father George McFly once said, when you put your mind to it… you can accomplish anything. Which brings us to the evolution of Marty’s father being one of the lynchpins of the Back to the Future series’ altered history.

George McFly's Consequences

George McFly never traveled through time, but he certainly benefited from time travel.

When George McFly and Lorraine Baines first meet, their relationship begins out of pity after he falls out of a tree… while trying to creep on an undressing Lorraine. The course of their love runs in a safe and predictable manner, with a first kiss acting as the highlight to their steady but waning romance. However, once Marty helps his young father discover confidence, and thanks to the timeline presenting George with the opportunity to dethrone Biff Tannen as the big dog, the new George and Lorraine McFly are a pair of lovers that embrace romance and confidence. Proving that so long as you follow the rules of time travel, and know how to play a ripping guitar solo 30 years before it’s ever invented, you too could change the future for the better.

Let's Do Another One!

So there you have it: the world of Back to the Future’s time travel explained, in a simple guide! It’s a process that’s so much fun, we here at CinemaBlend are dedicating ourselves to keeping this subject going. Time travel is a well-beloved staple in sci-fi, and with so many variants on the subject, it’s a handy topic to be an expert on… just in case you find yourself somewhere, or some time, you don’t belong.

If there’s any particular time travel stories you’d like to send to our labs for deconstruction, feel free to suggest them in the comments below! As for the next time you’ll see us in the mood for time travel, it feels like a good time for a Star Trek! And dear readers, if you thought we went on a tangent about tangent timelines this time out, just wait until we break down one of the most iconic installments of that series, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home .

Though that could always change, as the timeline could always skew in the course of events between here and now. Wibbley wobbley, timey wimey… stuff always comes up, and you never know where or when you’ll be until you get there. So until our next meeting, don’t swipe any sports almanacs, and if a crazy wild-eyed scientist or a kid show up asking about this write up, send them our way. We’ve got some further questions we need to ask them. See you in the future!

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.

10 Most Iconic Queer Grey's Anatomy Characters

The Best '90s Teen Movies And How To Watch Them

How To Watch The Bear Season 3 Online And Stream New Episodes From Anywhere

Most Popular

• 2 X-Men ’97’s Jennifer Hale Shouted Out Ted Lasso To Us While Praising Jean Grey And Storm’s Friendship
• 3 I Already Hate Disney World's Genie+ Replacement, And There's Only One Way To Truly Fix It
• 4 The Bodyguard And Night At The Museum Actor Bill Cobbs Is Dead At 90
• 5 I Rewatched Toy Story 3 Recently And I Need To Talk About Lotso

Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!

What we think we know about time travel

Credit: Universal Pictures

It's strange living in a post- Back to the Future world. Not only have we surpassed the date of the future portrayed in Back to the Future Part II , we're also 30 years removed from the release of the third and final film , which premiered in theaters on May 25, 1990.

Over the course of three movies, we saw Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel throughout recent human history and the near future, going as far back as the Wild West and as far forward as the unimaginably distant 2015. The Back to the Future films are fanciful science fiction comedies, not meant to be taken seriously. The science is accurate only insofar as it serves to tell a good story.

Still, is it possible to go forward and see our mistakes before they happen? Is it possible to go back and fix things that are already in our past? Here's what we know — or think we know — about time travel.

WHAT IS TIME?

Time: the great equalizer. Time doesn't care about you at all. You can't gain more of it, and you can't give it away. Irrespective of any other thing about you, each of us lives through the same 24 hours every day. Right?

Not exactly.

Time is mushy. It's variable. Some have called it wibbly-wobbly. And it turns out, you can manipulate it if you try hard enough, thanks to Einstein.

We evolved in a sort of medium environment. Human beings are medium-sized objects, somewhere between the very small (quarks, electrons, atoms, and the like) and the very large (planets, stars, and supermassive black holes). And we operate at medium speeds, faster than the slow movements of tectonic plates, but slower than the speed of light.

Physics operates in pretty predictable ways in the world we inhabit. Gravity impacts objects in ways we can accurately measure; comets orbit and return at regular intervals. We know when solar eclipses will happen because the cosmic dance of the sun and moon follows along a known path. Time ticks onward in one direction and at a consistent rate. All is as it should be, all is according to plan.

Outside of our medium-sized world, however, things can get weird.

Physics breaks down when you get too small, or too massive. Gravity does things we can't quite work out, quantum effects find their way in. Things cease to play by the rules as we know them. Likewise, the faster we accelerate beyond our medium speed, the weirder time gets.

Special relativity concluded that the speed of light is consistent for all observers. Photons moving through a vacuum travel at a staggering 186,282 miles per second.

That speed is impressive all on its own. It's fast enough that the time delay between when light hits an object, bounces off, and enters our eyes is so short as to not be noticed. Which is good, especially for our ancient ancestors. It would have been difficult to evade predators if we were already half-swallowed by the time we noticed them.

The speed of light, though, becomes even more impressive and bizarre, because of the way it remains constant no matter the position or speed of the observer. Let's break down what that means. The actual speed of any given object is a combination of its personal speed, combined with the speed of any other objects acting upon it.

For instance, let's suppose you're reading this while sitting down. Your personal speed is zero. You aren't moving at all, relative to any objects you're in contact with. Easy enough. But maybe you're on a train on your way to work, and that train is traveling at 75 miles per hour.

Your speed then becomes the combined speed of you and the speed of the train. Let's go further. The train is traveling at 75 miles per hour relative to the Earth, but the Earth is traveling at 67,000 miles per hour around the Sun. Furthermore, the Sun is traveling at 514,000 miles per hour around the center of our galaxy.

Assuming the train, the Earth, and the Sun are all traveling in the same direction, your total speed is actually 581,075 miles per hour.

That doesn't even take into account the speed of the galaxy through space, but you get the point. To someone sitting on the train with you, our speed is zero. Your speed is different to an observer standing on the ground outside the train, it's different to someone observing from the Sun, or from the center of the galaxy. The position of the observer matters, it changes the outcome.

Speeds compound, that's the way things work in the Medium world. Not so with light.

Replace the train traveler with light and everything we expect about compounding speeds goes out the window. The apparent speed of light remains the same, 186,282 miles per second, regardless of the position or relative speed of the observer. Light gets no faster and no slower.

Special Relativity suggests an elegant, if counterintuitive, solution to this problem. As objects increase in speed, time moves more slowly. Changing the length of each tick of the clock allows the speed of light to remain consistent no matter how fast you're traveling in respect to it.

When Special Relativity was published, these ideas were just numbers on a page, but they've been confirmed by observation and experimentation. In fact, engineers have to account for time dilation when designing satellites.

Because they are orbiting at speeds much faster than we're accustomed to on the ground, a satellite's internal clocks will run more slowly. The difference is very small, but can stack up over time. Since satellites often need to have accurate timekeeping, this time dilation has to be accounted and corrected for.

It gets even more complicated because of gravity.

Gravity bends spacetime and, since GPS satellites orbit so far away from the surface of the Earth, they feel the effects of gravity less than we do, which has the opposite effect of causing the clocks to tick more quickly. All told, GPS satellites in orbit would drift 38 microseconds into the future every day if we didn't account for relativity.

It's a small amount, it would take about 72 years for their clocks to drift ahead of ours by one second, but it's enough to wreak havoc with GPS services, pretty quickly.

Besides, the synchronicity of our clocks isn't the important bit. What's important is the reality that those satellites are actually time-traveling at a rate of one second every 72 years. The effect is slow, but that's only because the fraction of the speed of light at which their traveling is small.

Time isn't static. It's personal. We aren't all experiencing the passage of time in the same way or at the same rate. Every time you get in a car, a train, or a plane, every time you go for a jog or even stagger to the bathroom in the middle of the night, you're altering the way you travel through time.

GRAVITY AND SPEED

Now that we know we can alter our relationship to time, by altering our speed or by manipulating gravity, how can we use that to our advantage and travel to distant temporal locales?

Speed is probably our best bet right now.

Considering the timescale of human existence, we've made incredible strides in increasing our maximum speed over the last several decades. It was once believed we would never break the sound barrier; that was accomplished by Chuck Yeager in 1947, a little more than 70 years ago.

That was the first time a human being traveled faster than 343 meters per second. That's about ten-thousandth of a percent of the speed of light. Pretty fast by human standards — very slow on the cosmic scale.

A little more than a decade later, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins blasted off in a rocket, headed for the Moon. Their top speed was 25,000 miles per hour, more than 32 times faster than Yeager. Still, the crew of Apollo 11 was traveling at only 6.94 miles per second, roughly 0.0037 percent of the speed of light.

Getting closer, some of those zeroes are falling off. Still, it's a long way away.

That's about where we top off, for now. At least for crewed vehicles. We have created faster spacecraft.

The Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018, was sent on a mission to study the Sun's corona. It approached to within 18.7 million kilometers, granting it the honor of closest approach of any artificial object.

At its fastest, it was traveling 430,000 miles per hour, or, 119.4 miles per second. That gets us to 0.064 of the speed of light.

We'd have to get moving more than 15 times faster than the fastest craft we've ever built to hit one percent the speed of light.

Even at those speeds, we'd notice a difference in relative time of about 26 minutes over the course of a year.

If you really want to time-travel in a significant way, you have to get much faster.

At 90 percent of the speed of light (167,653.8 miles per second), a craft traveling for 10 years according to their own clock would arrive back on Earth to discover that nearly 23 years had passed.

At 99.99 percent of the speed of light, a craft traveling for one year would come back to a world that had aged more than 70 years in their absence.

At 99.99999 percent of the speed of light, for a year, more than 2000 years would pass on Earth.

The point is, the closer you get to the speed of light, the more time dilation is experienced.

Achieving those speeds, however, is incredibly unlikely and probably impossible. Physics conspires against us in this regard. Any object with mass increases in mass as it approaches the speed of light . In effect, it gets heavier, which requires more fuel to continue to accelerate. Eventually, you reach an infinite mass and infinite energy requirement. It's like pushing a stone up a continuously inclining hill. It gets harder the closer you get to the top.

Which is too bad, because nearing the speed of light would allow us to travel forward in time, with minimal investment of personal time. And, if we could break the light speed barrier, all bets are off. The math suggests that it might allow us to violate causality and travel back.

If speed isn't the answer, then what about gravity?

Since we know space and time are intimately tied together, and that gravity impacts both (see GPS satellites, above) sufficiently warping space-time would create closed time loops. At least according to research by theoretical physicist Amos Ori at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.

Ori suggests using focused gravitational fields to bend spacetime into a donut-shaped vacuum.

There is one speed bump: A traveler would only be able to go to time-destinations that occurred after the creation of the donut. No going back to see the dinosaurs or save your mom from marrying the wrong person. No preventing things that have already happened before the creation of the machine. Additionally, the gravitational fields required are on the order of those created by black holes, far beyond what we're capable of creating or controlling.

For now, time travel is outside of our capability, at least as it's portrayed in movies. If you really want to evade the ticking of the clock, your best bet is to run as fast as you can.

• Back To The Future
• Science Behind The Fiction
• Time Travel

Related Stories

Before the Dark Universe, Van Helsing Was a Wild Remix of Universal's Monsters

'John Wick Puppy Scene Was Briefly Removed from Script

Back to the Future Fan Theory: Did Marty Invent Pop Music?

Where Is The Continental Hotel Located In New York City?

Why Don't People in Ghostbusters Remember the Ghosts?

The Thing Documentary Digs Into John Carpenter Classic

Abigail Blu-ray & DVD Bonus Features Date and Details

Monkey Man Streaming Exclusively on Peacock: How to Watch

Iconic Props from E.T. & Back to the Future Sold at Auction

The Science Behind the Ghostbusters' PKE Meter

Everything We Know About the New Jason Bourne Movie

Riddick’s Crematoria Might Be Common in the Cosmos

Recommended for you.

Linda Hamilton on Resident Alien Role: "I'm Not the Funny Girl, I'm the Straight Man"

The Classic Twilight Zone Episode That Inspired Jordan Peele's Us

Resident Alien's Alan Tudyk on Harry's New Love Interest, Edi Patterson's Blue Avian

Back to the Future screenwriter says time travel has become “too convenient”

Co-writer Bob Gale explores Back To The Future’s massive influence on the time-travel genre.

Few movies have impacted the public’s perception of time travel more than Back to the Future .

Alongside co-writer and director Robert Zemeckis , Back to the Future co-writer Bob Gale crafted his vision of how time travel would actually function and what rules should apply — and those rules continue to impact our real-life understanding of time travel to this day. (Just ask Ant-Man !).

Gale tells Inverse when they set out to make Back to the Future , they deliberately wanted to make the rules of time travel clear to audiences… and to make time traveling seem difficult, keeping it from being the sole driver of the plot.

“We created a history of the McFly family that we then changed,” he explains, “but the rest of history stayed the same.”

And that, he says, is why audiences went along for the ride with them.

Back to the Future set the cinematic world on fire upon its release in 1985, grossing almost $400 million and sparking two almost-as-profitable sequels. Millions (if not billions) of people have spent time absorbing the trials and tribulations of Marty McFly and Doc Brown, along with considering the movie’s rules of time travel as real-life science.

More than three and half decades later, Inverse sat down with Gale to talk about everything he knows about the rules of time travel, Back to the Future’s impact, and our perceptions of how time travel works — even when, in his opinion, it doesn’t work as well in other films.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The Rules of Time Travel is an Inverse special issue exploring the evolution of science fiction's most imaginative sub-genre. From Marty McFly to Avengers: Endgame .

Bob Gale sits inside the DeLorean at a "Back To The Future" event in 2016.

Inverse : Many people’s ideas about the rules of time travel are shaped by fictional properties — including Back to the Future . Why do you think that is?

Bob Gale : Because nobody knows. It gives you a certain level of speculation.

In Back to the Future , we made the rules pretty clear — so clear, in fact, that Alan Silvestri (our composer who also scored the last two Avengers movies) told me that the reason that they have that scene [in Avengers: Endgame ] where Ant-Man says, "So, Back to the Future's a bunch of bullshit?” was added afterward because they showed the movie to test audiences and they said, "Wait a minute. You can't do that because in Back to the Future , Marty..." So they realized they had to hit that nail right on the head.

We did too good of a job, I guess.

How did you establish your rules of time travel for Back to the Future ?

One of the things we did in Back to the Future that turned out to be really smart, if I do say so myself, is that we created a history of the McFly family that we then changed, but the rest of history stayed the same. So when you went to see Back to the Future , Ronald Reagan was president of the United States when you went into the theater, and when you came out of the theater, he was still president of the United States.

We didn't change anything about the world of the audience. We only changed the world of our fictional characters, and the audience was totally cool with going along with that version.

“There isn’t a damn thing in Blade Runner that looks like Los Angeles.”

Whereas, if we got rid of Hitler, what would the world look like? Well, that's just total speculation. If you did something like that in a movie, it would have to turn out that, even though you thought you killed Hitler, he survived the assassination attempt, everything still remained the same, and the train still stayed on that immovable track, or you'd end up in a world so entirely different that it put off the audience.

We always would plot our movies with index cards, and sometimes we really had to depend on that stuff to keep in mind, "OK, wait a minute, he's going to do this, so we'd better set this up." It was really important for us: "How do we do it? How do we make the 1885 version of a Frisbee? What have we shown before that everybody understands?”

The hoverboard came about, obviously, because of the skateboard sequence.

In the Back to the Future mythology or universe, we were always trying to say, "Let's take this element and either project it into the future or put it back into the past." One of the most fun ways to do that was with the whole town because the town almost became a character. In 1985, the town square was a parking lot, but in 1955, it was a grassy area, and in 2015, they restored it. That stuff was all based around the story of towns.

You see so many movies that go into the future, and it looks like they tore everything down and started all over again. I love the original Blade Runner , I really do, but there isn't a damn thing in Blade Runner that looks like Los Angeles . But if you were to take somebody from New York in 1955 and bring him to New York today, they would know where all the streets were, they would know how to go to Central Park, and the subways are still going to the same places. Lots of stuff has been torn down and rebuilt, but the grid of the city is exactly the way it's been for over 150 years.

“Doctor Strange basically can do anything, and that's too convenient.”

Have other writers come to you for time travel tips?

In all the various interviews that I've given, the one element that I stress above all is a lesson that people don't seem to learn — you cannot use time travel as a plot device. You can't use it as a way to get yourself out of a plot. Somebody gets killed, "Oh, we'll just go back in time and stop the bullet from reaching his heart." That's lazy writing. It's too convenient that you happen to have the technology to solve a dramatic problem like that.

That's why, in Back to the Future , we made time travel really difficult to do. You had to go 88 miles an hour, and you had to have 1.21 gigawatts of electricity. It was tricky; you couldn't just cavort around time.

That's why a lot of time travel TV series are not that successful, because after a while, the audience just kind of shrugs and says, "OK, they can travel through time and do this because the writer or the director says they can," as opposed to feeling connected or that we're discovering something through the characters.

Think about a movie like Primer , one of the best time travel movies of the last 20 years, and it was made for no money. They were honest about the concept and true to what their rules were. Then look at a movie like Looper , which I know some people think is really good, but I had a lot of problems with Looper because the premise was that the only way you could get rid of undesirable people was to send them through time, as opposed to just dumping them in an incinerator?

I mean, Doctor Strange basically can do anything, and that's too convenient. Like, "OK, you can just do a time spell, and that solves all the problems of the last Spider-Man movie?" Doctor Strange makes a spell that doesn't work right the first time and then goes, "You know what, I can fix it." I felt like saying, "Why did I watch, then?" The two hours in between weren't necessary.

Where did you first learn about time travel?

My conception of time travel came from seeing the George Pal movie adaptation of [H.G. Wells'] The Time Machine back in 1960. I was nine years old, and I had read the comic book adaptation before I saw the movie. My mother wasn't sure I should be seeing a movie that had a picture of a green monster on the poster, but nevertheless, I managed to go, and it pretty much fried my mind.

Then, I read the actual book, and from there, I discovered various time-travel science fiction, notably Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein. When I got older, I read Robert Silverberg, who wrote some wonderful time travel novels. Of course, the Twilight Zone was also on TV at the time, and uncharacteristic of my mother, she loved the Twilight Zone, so I would watch that with her. They did a number of fascinating time travel episodes.

It just was a fascinating idea that there was a way that you could travel through time the same way that you could travel through three-dimensional space.

Ray Bradbury's great short story A Sound Of Thunder was another one that always stayed with me. I was probably in seventh or eighth grade the first time I read that, and the idea that just stepping on a butterfly could change the outcome of the whole political movement was a pretty cool concept.

And then, of course, there were the Twilight Zone episodes where somebody would go back in time and try to prevent some historic event from happening and fail. Those are all those kinds of questions that people wonder about.

The interior of the DeLorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future II.

When we think of time travel, we think about going forward, but something you did with Back to the Future is that you went backward — at least initially. What intrigued you about going backward?

I remember reading DC Comics, and they had a series called The Legion Of Superheroes . They'd have stories in the 30th century, and Superboy would travel to various centuries and have all these adventures with the superheroes of that era. But I always had a problem with it because it was like, "That's what you think the 30th century is going to be like."

The idea of predestination also never sat well with me, either — the idea that, no matter what you do, you're powerless because you're stuck on a track that's always going to go this direction. That kind of defeats the whole purpose of life, if you will.

So, with the idea of going backward, it makes sense that where or when you're going, you'd have an idea of what that world is going to be like. And then, of course, the inevitable question is whether you could change anything.

Before the first Back to the Future movie came out, there were time-travel movies, but there were many more afterward. How do you think Back to the Future affected the sci-fi movie market?

Time-travel movies before Back to the Future were not successful at the box office, which was one of the reasons we had such a hard time getting it made. We'd pitch this idea to people, and they'd read the script and say, "It's a great script, but time travel movies don't make any money. Forget it."

Once we proved that the right kind of time-travel movie could make money, they started making them.

The devil's advocate argument is that maybe they didn't make money because the vast majority were poorly written or just plain bad.

Well, no. Take a movie like The Final Countdown , which was pretty good. To understand it, though, it requires you to have enough knowledge of what happened at Pearl Harbor to get it. But then viewers were also in a situation where they'd see it and say, "They can't prevent Pearl Harbor because we already know that it happened."

Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future .

Did you hear anything anecdotally around the release of Back to the Future in terms of how your movie affected pitches coming into studios, movies being greenlit, or anything like that?

I'm not sure if I heard anybody specifically say that, but I would imagine that if Back to the Future hadn’t been a success, they would never have tried to make Bill & Ted .

They had a great idea with that movie because going in, you know it's a comedy about these two goofballs who don't know anything about history. So let's have a-rockin' good time with their ignorance. That worked because the audience said, "Okay, these guys are bozos, and we can get down with them."

Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future .

Would you travel through time?

There's a fun game you can play with people, and it's a good icebreaker if you're in a group of people at some event and you want to try to get to know something about them. You ask, "Say you have a time machine, and you get to take two trips. One of them is personal, and one of them is historic. Where do you go? What do you do?"

My mom was a musician. She played the violin, and in the 1940s, she had an act called Maxine and Her Men that played in various nightclubs in the St. Louis area. I would love to go back in time and catch her act. That would be a real trip to see my mom in her 20s as a virtuoso musician.

For the historic question, I used to say I want to go back to Dallas and the Kennedy assassination to find out if the shots really did come from the grassy knoll. Now, since Covid, I'd want to travel 20 years in the future and get my hands on a book about what happened in 2020. The other option is since Mark Twain is one of my literary heroes, I think it'd be cool to go back in time and catch a lecture by Mark Twain.

“People think going back in time would be so romantic, but it wouldn't be.”

People think going back in time would be so romantic, but it wouldn't be. We tried to give you a little flavor of that in the third Back to the Future because if you go back to the Old West, you can't take a hot shower. And every street would smell like horse shit. That's not really romantic.

We did the horse shit gag in Back to the Future 3 , and Marty walked around the town and saw how bad the conditions were for the Chinese people, too. We wanted to put some of that reality in there.

One of the great things about Sergio Leone’s westerns is that he always shows amputees. It's like, "That's right! That's how crude medicine was." Somebody got a bullet in their forearm, so they'd just cut it off. You see that and say, "Maybe I don't want to go to a time when they don't have penicillin or indoor plumbing."

Why do you think people love the concept of time travel?

Lots of different reasons. First of all, we're always seeing history after it’s been revised. You're hearing stories about the thing that they said happened. "This happened this way. This is what could have happened to the dinosaurs. These maybe had feathers." There's a history detective aspect to it.

There's also the thing about traveling to the future where you're wondering, "If I take this job, is it going to be okay?" You want to take a peek behind the curtain to find out if you're making the right decision or not. Everybody thinks when they're lying in bed before they go to sleep, "Dammit, why didn't I do this instead of that? Why didn't I tell that guy to go fuck himself? If I had another chance at doing that, I think I would tell him to go fuck himself."

It's just a very human thing.

• Science Fiction

Tech for time travel in “Back to the Future” NYT Crossword

We solved the clue 'Tech for time travel in “Back to the Future”' which last appeared on March 26, 2023 in a N.Y.T crossword puzzle and had thirteen letters. The one solution we have is shown below. Similar clues are also included in case you ended up here searching only a part of the clue text.

TECH FOR TIME TRAVEL IN BACK TO THE FUTURE

• FLUXCAPACITOR

Common Answers

The above clues share an answer the the current clue.

• Tech for time travel in “Back to the Future”

Recent Puzzles

The most recent puzzles.

• The Open University
• Accessibility hub
• Guest user / Sign out
• Study with The Open University

My OpenLearn Profile

Personalise your OpenLearn profile, save your favourite content and get recognition for your learning

Back to the Future: Is time travel possible?

In the Back to the Future films, Marty McFly travels backwards and forwards in time with the help of Doc Emmett Brown and his souped up DeLorean car. But is time travel really possible?

The simple answer to this question is: Yes! In fact as you read this, you are travelling through time at a rate of one second per second. OK, that’s not quite the answer you were expecting, but it is time travel nonetheless – we can’t help but travel through time, because that’s the nature of time itself. It flows relentlessly from past to future, and the instant of ‘now’ is an infinitesimally short period of time that it’s impossible to remain in. However it turns out that the rate at which time flows forwards is not necessarily a fixed quantity.

So, what about travelling into the future or the past – is that sort of real time travel possible? Well, the first of these is certainly possible, but as far as we know, the other is impossible to achieve.

Time travel into the future is easy – in principle at least. Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, which he devised in 1905, shows that ‘moving clocks run slow’. This is an effect known as time dilation. Quite simply, if a clock moves at a constant speed with respect to a stationary observer, that observer would see the moving clock ticking more slowly than one at rest next to her. And the faster the clock moves, the more slowly it ticks. This isn’t just a trick either – all physical or biological process, or anything at all that you care to measure, would indeed happen more slowly when moving rapidly, as viewed from a stationary view point.

And this is what makes time travel into the future possible. Imagine that you boarded a spaceship to the star Tau Ceti, which is 12 light years away. Your spaceship can travel at 80% of the speed of light, which is about 240,000 kilometres per second. As soon as you get there, you turn round and come straight home. Back on Earth, 30 years have passed by the time you return, but on the spaceship, time has passed more slowly. To you on the spaceship, only 18 years would have passed. In effect, you would therefore have travelled 12 years into the future.

The faster you travel, the further into the future you can jump. For instance, in order to jump 1000 years into the future, but only have 1 year elapse on your spaceship, you would need to travel at 99.99995% of the speed of light.

So much for time travel into the future – but why is time travel into the past so difficult? This all comes down to what’s known as causality and is perhaps best summed up by the Grandfather paradox. If time travel into the past were possible, then you could (if you really wanted to) travel into the past to a time before your parents were born and kill your Grandfather. Then your parent would never be born, so neither would you, so you couldn’t travel into the past to kill your Grandfather after all… Because paradoxes like this simply don’t occur in the Universe (as far as we know), time travel into the past cannot be possible.

My favourite exploration of this time travel paradox is in a short story by Robert A. Heinlein from 1958 called “All you zombies”. The plot concerns a character who is eventually revealed (by a series of time travel experiences) to be both his own father and mother. Thankfully, such paradoxes seem not to occur in the real world or, if they do – like Marty McFly when he ensures his parents really did get together in 1955 – people just make sure things happen in the past the way they were meant to!

Learn more about time travel

60 Second Adventures in Astronomy: Special relativity

Who had more fun in life, Albert Einstein or Richard Feynman? Whichever one of them was travelling faster

Level: 1 Introductory

BBC Inside Science: Back to the Future special

BBC Inside Science explores the theme of time travel along with the Film programme as part of their Back to the Future special.

External link

60 second adventures in thought - The Grandfather Paradox

A well known story that questions the logic of time travel. Part of a series of fast-paced animations explaining six famous thought experiments.

This article came Back to the Future from 2013 when it was originally written to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who -  discover more perspectives on science fiction and time travel.

Become an OU student

Ratings & comments, share this free course, copyright information, publication details.

• Originally published: Monday, 19 October 2015
• Body text - Creative-Commons : The Open University
• Image 'An angled close-up of a large outdoor clock face that has golden numbers of Roman numerals on it and shows the numbers twelve to three within in the image. The clock-face is a grey and green coloured metal. ' - Marko [ CC BY-ND-NC 2.0 ] via Flickr Creative Commons under Creative-Commons license
• Image 'Save the Clock tower leaflet, Back to the Future' - Alex Headrick [ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ] via Flickr Creative Commons under Creative-Commons license
• Image '100 years of General Relativity' - Wally Gobetz [ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ] via Flickr Creative Commons under Creative-Commons license
• Image '60 Second Adventures in Astronomy: Special relativity' - under Creative-Commons license

Rate and Review

Rate this article, review this article.

Log into OpenLearn to leave reviews and join in the conversation.

Article reviews

For further information, take a look at our frequently asked questions which may give you the support you need.

Time travel could be possible, but only with parallel timelines

Assistant Professor, Physics, Brock University

Disclosure statement

Barak Shoshany does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Brock University provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR.

Brock University provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA.

View all partners

Have you ever made a mistake that you wish you could undo? Correcting past mistakes is one of the reasons we find the concept of time travel so fascinating. As often portrayed in science fiction, with a time machine, nothing is permanent anymore — you can always go back and change it. But is time travel really possible in our universe , or is it just science fiction?

Read more: Curious Kids: is time travel possible for humans?

Our modern understanding of time and causality comes from general relativity . Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein’s theory combines space and time into a single entity — “spacetime” — and provides a remarkably intricate explanation of how they both work, at a level unmatched by any other established theory. This theory has existed for more than 100 years, and has been experimentally verified to extremely high precision, so physicists are fairly certain it provides an accurate description of the causal structure of our universe.

For decades, physicists have been trying to use general relativity to figure out if time travel is possible . It turns out that you can write down equations that describe time travel and are fully compatible and consistent with relativity. But physics is not mathematics, and equations are meaningless if they do not correspond to anything in reality.

Arguments against time travel

There are two main issues which make us think these equations may be unrealistic. The first issue is a practical one: building a time machine seems to require exotic matter , which is matter with negative energy. All the matter we see in our daily lives has positive energy — matter with negative energy is not something you can just find lying around. From quantum mechanics, we know that such matter can theoretically be created, but in too small quantities and for too short times .

However, there is no proof that it is impossible to create exotic matter in sufficient quantities. Furthermore, other equations may be discovered that allow time travel without requiring exotic matter. Therefore, this issue may just be a limitation of our current technology or understanding of quantum mechanics.

The other main issue is less practical, but more significant: it is the observation that time travel seems to contradict logic, in the form of time travel paradoxes . There are several types of such paradoxes, but the most problematic are consistency paradoxes .

A popular trope in science fiction, consistency paradoxes happen whenever there is a certain event that leads to changing the past, but the change itself prevents this event from happening in the first place.

For example, consider a scenario where I enter my time machine, use it to go back in time five minutes, and destroy the machine as soon as I get to the past. Now that I destroyed the time machine, it would be impossible for me to use it five minutes later.

But if I cannot use the time machine, then I cannot go back in time and destroy it. Therefore, it is not destroyed, so I can go back in time and destroy it. In other words, the time machine is destroyed if and only if it is not destroyed. Since it cannot be both destroyed and not destroyed simultaneously, this scenario is inconsistent and paradoxical.

Eliminating the paradoxes

There’s a common misconception in science fiction that paradoxes can be “created.” Time travellers are usually warned not to make significant changes to the past and to avoid meeting their past selves for this exact reason. Examples of this may be found in many time travel movies, such as the Back to the Future trilogy.

But in physics, a paradox is not an event that can actually happen — it is a purely theoretical concept that points towards an inconsistency in the theory itself. In other words, consistency paradoxes don’t merely imply time travel is a dangerous endeavour, they imply it simply cannot be possible.

This was one of the motivations for theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking to formulate his chronology protection conjecture , which states that time travel should be impossible. However, this conjecture so far remains unproven. Furthermore, the universe would be a much more interesting place if instead of eliminating time travel due to paradoxes, we could just eliminate the paradoxes themselves.

One attempt at resolving time travel paradoxes is theoretical physicist Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov’s self-consistency conjecture , which essentially states that you can travel to the past, but you cannot change it.

According to Novikov, if I tried to destroy my time machine five minutes in the past, I would find that it is impossible to do so. The laws of physics would somehow conspire to preserve consistency.

Introducing multiple histories

But what’s the point of going back in time if you cannot change the past? My recent work, together with my students Jacob Hauser and Jared Wogan, shows that there are time travel paradoxes that Novikov’s conjecture cannot resolve. This takes us back to square one, since if even just one paradox cannot be eliminated, time travel remains logically impossible.

So, is this the final nail in the coffin of time travel? Not quite. We showed that allowing for multiple histories (or in more familiar terms, parallel timelines) can resolve the paradoxes that Novikov’s conjecture cannot. In fact, it can resolve any paradox you throw at it.

The idea is very simple. When I exit the time machine, I exit into a different timeline. In that timeline, I can do whatever I want, including destroying the time machine, without changing anything in the original timeline I came from. Since I cannot destroy the time machine in the original timeline, which is the one I actually used to travel back in time, there is no paradox.

After working on time travel paradoxes for the last three years , I have become increasingly convinced that time travel could be possible, but only if our universe can allow multiple histories to coexist. So, can it?

Quantum mechanics certainly seems to imply so, at least if you subscribe to Everett’s “many-worlds” interpretation , where one history can “split” into multiple histories, one for each possible measurement outcome – for example, whether Schrödinger’s cat is alive or dead, or whether or not I arrived in the past.

But these are just speculations. My students and I are currently working on finding a concrete theory of time travel with multiple histories that is fully compatible with general relativity. Of course, even if we manage to find such a theory, this would not be sufficient to prove that time travel is possible, but it would at least mean that time travel is not ruled out by consistency paradoxes.

Time travel and parallel timelines almost always go hand-in-hand in science fiction, but now we have proof that they must go hand-in-hand in real science as well. General relativity and quantum mechanics tell us that time travel might be possible, but if it is, then multiple histories must also be possible.

• Time travel
• Theoretical physics
• Time machine
• Albert Einstein
• Listen to this article
• Time travel paradox

PhD Scholarship

Senior Lecturer, HRM or People Analytics

Senior Research Fellow - Neuromuscular Disorders and Gait Analysis

Centre Director, Transformative Media Technologies

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

• LISTEN & FOLLOW
• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Amazon Music
• Amazon Alexa

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

Paradox-Free Time Travel Is Theoretically Possible, Researchers Say

Matthew S. Schwartz

A dog dressed as Marty McFly from Back to the Future attends the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade in 2015. New research says time travel might be possible without the problems McFly encountered. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A dog dressed as Marty McFly from Back to the Future attends the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade in 2015. New research says time travel might be possible without the problems McFly encountered.

"The past is obdurate," Stephen King wrote in his book about a man who goes back in time to prevent the Kennedy assassination. "It doesn't want to be changed."

Turns out, King might have been on to something.

Countless science fiction tales have explored the paradox of what would happen if you went back in time and did something in the past that endangered the future. Perhaps one of the most famous pop culture examples is in Back to the Future , when Marty McFly goes back in time and accidentally stops his parents from meeting, putting his own existence in jeopardy.

But maybe McFly wasn't in much danger after all. According a new paper from researchers at the University of Queensland, even if time travel were possible, the paradox couldn't actually exist.

Researchers ran the numbers and determined that even if you made a change in the past, the timeline would essentially self-correct, ensuring that whatever happened to send you back in time would still happen.

"Say you traveled in time in an attempt to stop COVID-19's patient zero from being exposed to the virus," University of Queensland scientist Fabio Costa told the university's news service .

"However, if you stopped that individual from becoming infected, that would eliminate the motivation for you to go back and stop the pandemic in the first place," said Costa, who co-authored the paper with honors undergraduate student Germain Tobar.

"This is a paradox — an inconsistency that often leads people to think that time travel cannot occur in our universe."

A variation is known as the "grandfather paradox" — in which a time traveler kills their own grandfather, in the process preventing the time traveler's birth.

The logical paradox has given researchers a headache, in part because according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, "closed timelike curves" are possible, theoretically allowing an observer to travel back in time and interact with their past self — potentially endangering their own existence.

But these researchers say that such a paradox wouldn't necessarily exist, because events would adjust themselves.

Take the coronavirus patient zero example. "You might try and stop patient zero from becoming infected, but in doing so, you would catch the virus and become patient zero, or someone else would," Tobar told the university's news service.

In other words, a time traveler could make changes, but the original outcome would still find a way to happen — maybe not the same way it happened in the first timeline but close enough so that the time traveler would still exist and would still be motivated to go back in time.

"No matter what you did, the salient events would just recalibrate around you," Tobar said.

The paper, "Reversible dynamics with closed time-like curves and freedom of choice," was published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Classical and Quantum Gravity . The findings seem consistent with another time travel study published this summer in the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review Letters. That study found that changes made in the past won't drastically alter the future.

Bestselling science fiction author Blake Crouch, who has written extensively about time travel, said the new study seems to support what certain time travel tropes have posited all along.

"The universe is deterministic and attempts to alter Past Event X are destined to be the forces which bring Past Event X into being," Crouch told NPR via email. "So the future can affect the past. Or maybe time is just an illusion. But I guess it's cool that the math checks out."

• time travel
• grandfather paradox

• Arts & Lifestyle
• Competitions
• Games & Tech

‘Back to the Future’: A Cinematic Story That Made History

Time travels have become one of the most popular topics in movies and series, used by movies like ‘The Avengers', ‘The Flash' and ‘Interstellar'. Their popularity has even brought forth some casino online slots that feature the same theme. 

However, the concept of time travel wouldn't have the success it enjoys today without a single movie called ‘ Back to the Future ‘. Released in 1985, the film became the founding stone of most stories that use time travel.

So now that this idea is again on the rise, it seems like a good time to look back and learn more about the franchise that started it all.

A Difficult Beginning

Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale created the idea of ‘Back to the Future' in 1980, with both wanting to make a successful movie after many failures. After seeing the yearbook of his parents, Gale wondered if it was possible that he and his dad would have become friends if they ever met at the same age.

Gale passed this idea on to Zemeckis, and they both talked about how these memories of their parents would often contradict each other. Then, they decided that time travel would be the ideal device to connect the protagonist with their parents.

While the idea was made in 1980, the project wouldn't see the light of day until many years later. Many studios were sure that Back to the Future could succeed, as time travel movies weren't very popular back then.

Finally, in 1984, Zemeckis and Gale struck a deal with Amblin Entertainment, funded by their friend, Steven Spielberg. Zemeckis and Gale were anxious that the movie would fail but decided to, like in a casino online, and bet on this project.

The filming began with Eric Stoltz as the protagonist, Marty McFly. However, Zemeckis wasn't convinced of his portrayal and decided to hire Michael J. Fox and reshoot all the scenes with him instead. 

These reshoots raised the movie's budget to $4 million, but it did pay off, as the film was an absolute success.

‘Back to the Future' made $385,510,132 worldwide and became the highest-grossing movie in 1985. The film was also loved by critics and earned an Oscar for Best Visual Effects and various BAFTA awards.

Four years after the first movie's success, Zemeckis and Gale would gather the cast again and produce ‘Back to the Future II' and ‘III'. While these didn't gain as much money as the first one, they were still liked by the public and now enjoy good IMDB scores.

Time, Parents, and Fate

‘Back to the Future' tells the story of Marty McFly, a teen who travels 30 years in the past using a time machine created by Emmet “Doc” Brown. Marty now has to cooperate with the 50s Doc to return to his era. He must also help his young father, George McFly, conquer his mother, Lorraine, before getting erased from existence.

While many people believe that the main focus of ‘Back to the Future' is time travel, the film deals with three different topics. 

Fear of the Future and Parents

Throughout the film, Marty is afraid of never succeeding in his dreams. Marty exclaims that he is scared of ending up like his dad, living in an unhappy marriage while being pushed by his supervisor, Biff Tannen.

After traveling back in time, Marty accidentally interferes with the events that caused his parents to meet. This causes him and his siblings to begin to fade away, since his parents were never together.

Seeing this, Marty decides to befriend his dad and help him woo Lorraine, so he doesn't disappear from existence.

By interacting with his dad, Marty discovers that George also used to fear the future, but didn't have anyone to support him. Marty decides not only to help him pursue Lorraine, but also to have more confidence in himself.

Idealization of the Past

Following Gale's original idea, Back to the Future shows that the past is not always as lovely as people remember; sometimes, it might be far worse than the present.

In the first act, Lorraine tells Marty that she used to be more reserved in the day. She also tells him that she and George lived an incredible love story when they were young. But, when Marty travels back to that era, he finds none of this is true.

George used to be a stalker of Lorraine, while she was way more carefree than her depressed adult self. While Lorraine liked George, he often doubted himself due to his self-esteem issues, making them a very problematic couple.

Changing the Fates

One of the critical points of the ‘Back to the Future' franchise is the butterfly effect, a theory that explains that a single change in the past can drastically alter the future.

By altering his parents' fate, Marty almost gets erased from the timeline. However, he gets a second chance by helping George gain more self-confidence. He also tries to save Doc and avoid his future death in the 80s.

Marty's actions are rewarded at the film's end, with Doc surviving the attack and his parents living a happier life. However, doing this would also alter the fate of Marty's future children, proving that there will always be consequences for changing the past.

Marty And Doc Walked So Others Could Run

‘Back to the Future' wasn't the first time travel movie, but it was the first to present the idea that people can change their fate and that the future is never set in stone. Said idea would be used years later in many other movies like ‘Interstellar', ‘Avengers', and ‘Men in Black'. 

‘The Avengers' even uses the plot of ‘Back to the Future' to explain that altering the past would create new timelines instead of changing the original one, leading to the multiverse itself.

However, that same concept is briefly introduced in ‘Back to the Future II'. In the film, Marty visits a dystopian timeline where his father dies, and Biff controls everything in the town.

Without ‘Back to the Future', many series and films wouldn't have even existed or become as popular as they are today, making it one of the most influential in the sci-fi genre and a cinematic gamble that indeed changed the future.

• Back to the Future

EF newsletter sign-up

Join our mailing list to get the latest entertainment news to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.

You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter.

RELATED ARTICLES

’80s film soundtracks – we pick our top 10, win ‘back to the future’ and ‘the hard way’ steelbooks, ‘back to the future the musical’ to open in the west end in may 2021, back to the future: the ultimate trilogy arrives in 4k ultra hd this october, grace bowers set to release debut album ‘wine on venus’, kelsea ballerini & noah kahan emote on new ‘cowboys cry too’.

UK-based entertainment site offering news, reviews, interviews, features and much more!

[email protected]

Latest articles, keith urban’s new album ‘high’ set for release in september, popular categories.

• Music 10173
• EF Country 4789
• Games & Tech 4354
• Arts & Lifestyle 3498

© 2024 Entertainment Focus | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy

March 18, 2024

The Great Debate: Could We Ever Travel through Time?

Our space and physics editors go head-to-head over a classic mind-bending question.

By Clara Moskowitz & Lee Billings

cemagraphics/Getty Images

Clara Moskowitz: Hi, I’m Clara Moskowitz, a space editor here at Scientific American. We’re taking a break this week to look back at some of our favorite podcast episodes. I chose this one about the physics of time travel, because I’m a big sci-fi geek, so I’m fascinated by the topic. But also, it was such a fun debate to have with my colleague and friend, Lee Billings, another space editor here. We each picked a side – I was pro time travel, he was con—and dug our heels in. Check it out!

[Clip: Show theme music]

Moskowitz: We’re here today to talk about time travel. A perennial – dare I say, timeless–topic of science fiction, but is it possible? Is there any chance at all that it could actually happen?

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Lee Billings: No. No, no no no no. (laughs). Well, kinda. Not really. ARGH. I’m Lee Billings.

Moskowitz: I’m Clara Moskowitz, and this is Cosmos, Quickly , the biweekly space podcast from Scientific American . 

Moskowitz: We’re going to have a little friendly debate.

Billings: Really? I came for a throwdown.

Moskowitz: Well, a wrangle. A parley. A confab. Lee, what do you have against time travel?

Billings: So I love the idea of time travel! And in fact I do it all the time—like most everyone else I’m traveling into the future at one second per second. I’m less of a fan, though, of more speculative time travel, which is good fodder for goofy sci-fi stories, but in the real world it’s an implausible distraction.

Moskowitz: But really, we can stay within plausible physics and still see how more extreme versions of time travel are possible. See, Einstein’s special theory of relativity shows that the rate time flows at depends on how fast you’re moving. 

Billings: Einstein strikes again, what a rascal.

Moskowitz: If you’re traveling in a starship at close to the speed of light, you’ll still experience the familiar one-second-per-second ticking of a clock– but an observer back on Earth would see your clock moving glacially slow. To them, you’d be moving through time at a snail’s pace. That means that when you finally got back,  maybe only a year would have passed for you, but a century could have gone by for your friends on Earth. Ergo, you just traveled to the future! 

Billings: Right, right, no one’s disputing any of that! We can even measure this sort of “time dilation” right now on Earth, not with starships, but with subatomic particles. Some of those particles have very short lifetimes, decaying almost instantaneously. But if we drastically speed them up, like in a particle accelerator, we find they endure longer in proportion to how fast they’re going. So riddle me this, though, Clara: How can we travel into the past? That’s something so hard to do–effectively impossible, almost–that it’s scarcely worth thinking about.

[Clip: Back to the Future : “This is what makes time travel possible. The flux capacitor!”]

Moskowitz: I get it—no one has yet conceived of a way to journey to the past. But the crazy thing is it’s not impossible. Time is one of the four dimensions in the universe, along with three dimensions of space. And we move through space in all directions just fine, and according to physics, travel through time should be just as possible.

One way that people have looked into is via a wormhole—a shortcut bridge through spacetime that was predicted by general relativity. Wormholes can connect distant points in spacetime, meaning you could conceivably use one to bridge not just the gap between here and a distant galaxy, but the span between 2023 and 1923. 

[CLIP: Interstellar : “That’s the wormhole.”]

Billings : Ah yes, wormholes—the last refuge of scoundrels and desperate physicists. The trouble with wormholes Clara, is that, unlike a DeLorean, we have no evidence they actually exist—and, even if they did, it seems the only ways to make them traversable and stable involves using negative energy or negative mass  to prop them open. And, guess what, just like wormholes themselves, we have no evidence these weird forms of matter and energy actually exist, either. And let’s just beat this dead horse one more time—even if wormholes exist, as well as the means to make them traversable, to go back in time seems to require anchoring one end in a region of very warped spacetime, like around a black hole, or accelerating it to nearly lightspeed. Are you sensing a theme here, Clara?

Moskowitz: Yeah, yeah. All I can say is that just because there’s no evidence any of these things exist, there’s also no evidence they don’t or can’t exist. Wormholes are real solutions to the equations of general relativity, and even negative energy and mass are concepts that come up in the math and aren’t prohibited.

Billings: Well how about some more practical arguments, then? If time travel were possible, wouldn’t we have met some time travelers by now? Wouldn’t someone have gone back and killed Hitler—or at least prevented me from wearing that ridiculous outfit to my high school prom? You know there’s a famous story about physicist Stephen Hawking, who invited time travelers to come to a party he was holding. The trick was the the party happened in 2009, but the invitation came out in a miniseries that was broadcast in 2010—thus, only time travelers would have been able to attend. 

[CLIP: Stephen Hawking Time Travel Party: “Here is the invitation, giving the exact coordinates in time and space. I am hoping in one form or another it will survive for many thousands of years.”]

Billings: Sadly, the hors d'oeuvres went uneaten and the champagne sat unopened, because, clearly, time travel to the past is impossible! 

Moskowitz: I admit a party with Stephen Hawking should have been pretty alluring to time travelers, if they were out there. But you’re forgetting about the International Clause of Secrecy that all time travelers probably have to swear to, making sure to hide their identities and abilities from those in earlier eras.  

Billings: Hmm, yes the clause of secrecy here. Feels like we’re really veering into science fiction territory special pleading here. And don’t forget all the paradoxes that we have to worry about too. There are lots of good reasons to think time travel might introduce insurmountable paradoxes in physics. The most famous being the grandfather—or grandmother—paradox. If time travel were possible into the past, so the thinking goes, then a person could go back in time and kill their own grandparents, thus making it impossible for them to be born and impossible for them to travel back in time to ever commit the murder, and so on and so on.

Moskowitz: I wonder if it could be like a many-worlds scenario, where each change a time traveler makes to the past spawns a whole new universe that carries on from that point. So if I went back in time and killed one of my forebears, then a new branch universe would begin where that whole line of descendents, including me, never existed. I mean, it sounds crazy, but then again, physics is pretty enamored with multiverses, and they seem to pop up for lots of reasons already. Maybe it’s not impossible? 

Billings: If not impossible, then I’d say, implausible.

Moskowitz: Well, I’m forever an optimist, Lee! Thanks for listening to the Cosmos, Quickly .

Billings: Our show is produced by Jeff DelViscio, Tulika Bose and Kelso Harper.  Our music was composed by Dominic Smith.

Moskowtiz: If you like the show, please consider rating or leaving a review. You can also email feedback, questions, and tips to [email protected] . 

Billings: For more spacetime hijinks and all your science news, head to SciAm.com. This has been Cosmos, Quickly . I’m Lee Billings. 

Moskowitz: I’m Clara Moskowitz. 

Billings: And we’ll see you next time, in the future!

Doc Brown's Entire Back To The Future Timeline Explained

Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) may be the main character of the Back to the Future trilogy, but Emmett "Doc" Brown ( Christopher Lloyd ) manages to have quite an adventure as well — one which starts before Marty's and keeps going long after Marty's is complete. In fact, none of Marty's romps through time would've ever come to pass if not for Doc's scientific curiosity, his drive to innovate, and of course, his fascination with time travel.

Although Doc Brown is never the central focus of Back to the Future , his actions often drive the story, and his journey as he bounces around in time runs the full gamut of human experience, from falling in love and having children to dying (twice) ... although not necessarily in that order. While Doc's timeline does overlap with Marty's quite a bit, they're not entirely the same, and tracing Doc's trajectory through the movies leads to some interesting places, splitting into seven separate timelines. To make sense of them, we'll start when Doc first invented time travel, and then follow him as he begins to jump back and forth through time.

Timeline A - Doc Brown gets the idea for time travel

There would be no Back to the Future trilogy without the invention of time travel, and there would be no invention of time travel without — appropriately enough — a clock. On November 5, 1955, Doc Brown decided to hang a clock over the toilet in his bathroom, and the rest was history (and the future ... and alternate history ... and alternate futures). While balancing on his toilet, Doc fell and hit his head, knocking him unconscious. When he came to, he'd had a vision of the flux capacitor, the device that makes time travel possible.

We don't know how long Doc spent translating his vision into reality, but sometime over the following 30 years, he was successful in creating a working flux capacitor, which he then set about installing in a DeLorean. Meanwhile, on November 12, a week after falling off his toilet, while Doc was likely still trying to make sense of his bathroom epiphany, the clock tower at the Hill Valley courthouse was struck by lightning. At the time, this event didn't seem related to Doc's tumble off his toilet, but eventually, they'd wind up inextricably linked.

Timeline A - Doc meets his doom

Three decades after inventing the flux capacitor, Doc finishes his time machine, but there's just one small hitch in testing it out. In order to run, his machine requires 1.21 gigawatts (perplexingly pronounced "jiga-watt" in the film) of power, which is significantly more than your average car battery can produce. Doc's solution? Just juice up the car with a little plutonium.

Of course, as Marty points out, plutonium is hardly something you can just buy at the store, but Doc has an answer for that, too. In a totally foolproof plan, Doc makes a deal with a group of Libyan terrorists to build them a bomb, steals their plutonium, and gives them a bomb casing filled with used pinball machine parts. What can possibly go wrong?

Turns out, quite a bit. In October 1985, Doc asks Marty to come help him document the first test of his time machine in the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall, but no sooner has he conducted a successful test with his dog, Einstein, than the Libyans show up, incensed that Doc has stolen their plutonium. Marty hides, but Doc knows he's been found and braces for his fate. Sure enough, the terrorists open fire and kill Doc as a traumatized Marty looks on. Marty then tries to escape in the DeLorean, still programmed by Doc for the day he first invented time travel, bringing him back to November 5, 1955.

Timeline B - Marty meets Doc Brown back in 1955

Not long after receiving his vision of the flux capacitor and bandaging the bump on his head, Doc Brown has just decided to test out his latest mind-reading invention when there's a knock on his door. When he opens it, a kid named Marty is standing there, claiming to be from the future and asking for Doc's help returning to 1985. At first, Doc doesn't believe him, but not only does Marty know how Doc got the bump on his head, but he's carrying a videotape that shows a much older version of Doc himself, purportedly testing out a time machine.

Convinced, Doc decides to help Marty hatch a plan to get him back to the future. Doc is initially stumped by the power requirements of the time machine, saying the only thing capable of producing the necessary 1.21 gigawatts is a bolt of lightning, but Marty then informs him that he does, in fact, know exactly when and where lightning will strike — the Hill Valley courthouse clock tower, on the evening of November 12, 1955.

Timeline B - Doc sends Marty back to the future

Over the course of the next week (November 6-12, 1955), Doc spends much of his time making models of the town and fine-tuning his plan to harness a bolt of lightning into the flux capacitor. Due to the tight deadline and much to his chagrin, Doc doesn't have time to paint his model or make it fully to scale, but somehow, he muddles through.

While Doc is trying to make sure all the pieces are in place to get Marty back to the future, a wrench is thrown into his carefully laid plans when he realizes that Marty has accidentally bungled the timeline, preventing his parents from ever falling in love. Horrified at the temporal implications of what Marty has done, Doc assists Marty in making sure his parents get together before Marty is erased from existence.

After successfully matchmaking Marty's parents, Doc and Marty prepare to channel the imminent lightning strike into the DeLorean, but before Marty climbs into the car, he tries to give Doc a letter predicting his future. Furious about the possible effects that knowing his own future could have on the space-time continuum, Doc refuses to read the letter and rips it up. Marty is clearly upset, but he doesn't have time to argue. Lightning strikes, Doc's plan is successful, and Marty disappears in the DeLorean.

Timeline B - Marty's note saves the day

We don't know how long Doc carries around the ripped-up pieces of Marty's letter, but eventually, he decides to tape the torn scraps of paper back together and reads what Marty wrote. When he does, he learns that on the night Marty travels back to the future , Doc will be shot and killed by terrorists. In the letter, Marty urges Doc to "take whatever precautions are necessary to prevent this terrible disaster."

Doc takes Marty's advice to heart (although it doesn't stop him from stealing from terrorists in the first place). This time, when Doc goes to the mall to test his time machine, he wears a bulletproof vest underneath his coveralls and survives the shooting. When Marty asks him what made him change his mind about the disastrous implications for the space-time continuum, Doc gives him an extremely scientific explanation: "I decided, what the hell."

Having survived his formerly fatal encounter with the terrorists, Doc decides his next trip in the time machine should be to the future. On October 26, 1985, accompanied by his dog, Einstein, Doc sets out for the year 2015.

Timeline B - Taking a trip to 2015

When Doc first arrives in 2015, everything about the future seems great. Cars are flying, clothing is self-adjusting, and movie theaters project holograms out into the street. Doc takes full advantage of the advanced technology of the future, placing Einstein in a suspended animation kennel while he modifies the Delorean with a hover conversion and adds a Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor to circumvent the need for plutonium. He also goes shopping for new clothes, picks up a sleep-inducing alpha rhythm generator, and visits a rejuvenation clinic to receive an "all-natural overhaul," which promises to add 30 to 40 years to his life.

However, while Doc is enjoying all of the amenities the future has to offer, he learns some troubling information about Marty's kids. It turns out that Marty's son, Marty Jr., falls in with Biff's (Thomas F. Wilson) grandson, Griff, and his gang, and he's with them when they rob the Hill Valley Payroll Substation. Marty Jr. is arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Even worse, Marty's sister, Marlene, then tries to break him out of prison, and is subsequently sentenced to 20 years for her troubles. Unable to abide this future for Marty's family, Doc returns to 1985 to get Marty and change the future.

Timeline C - Doc and Marty head back to the future again

Having successfully picked up Marty and his girlfriend, Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue), from 1985, Doc pilots the now-flying DeLorean back to the future to prevent the bad choices of Marty and Jennifer's kids. Once they arrive, Jennifer quickly becomes excited with all the possibilities that time travel presents, such as getting to see her wedding, and Doc immediately knocks her out with his sleep-inducing alpha rhythm generator, saying she was asking too many questions. After stowing a sleeping Jennifer in an alley amidst packages of silicon and laserdiscs, Doc gives Marty a crash course on 2015 (kids wear their pants inside out!), then sends him forward with instructions to keep his son from getting arrested.

While Marty heads to the Cafe '80s to meet up with Griff, Doc intercepts Marty Jr. and uses the same sleep-inducing device on him to keep him from interfering in Doc's plan. Doc then goes to pick up Einstein from the suspended animation kennel. After meeting back up with Marty, Doc learns that he's purchased a sports almanac that covers the years 1950-2000. Doc berates Marty for even thinking about meddling with the timeline, and he forces him to throw the almanac away. Doc and Marty then pick up Jennifer and return to 1985.

Timeline D - 1985 is all wrong

When Doc and Marty return to 1985 from 2015, the timeline has already split thanks to Old Biff's tinkering in the past, which means that although the 1985 that Doc and Marty left had only one Doc Brown, the one they return to has two. Unfortunately, the Emmett Brown native to Timeline D has been declared legally insane and committed to the mental ward of Hill Valley Hospital by 1985.

Quickly, the Doc Brown from Timeline B, who's just arrived back from 2015, realizes that something must've happened to alter the timeline in the past, and he heads to the library to do research. Through studying old newspapers, he learns of the unfortunate fate of his Timeline D counterpart and deduces what's caused the divergence in the timeline — the sports almanac Marty purchased in 2015, which he spots in an old photo of Young Biff. As it turns out, when Marty tossed it aside in 2015, Old Biff grabbed it, stole the DeLorean, traveled to 1955, and gave it to his younger self, ensuring a future where he could become insanely wealthy.

Doc explains the concept of diverging timelines to Marty, who decides to head to Biff's massive casino hotel to confront the bully. While Marty is talking to Biff, Doc pilots the DeLorean to hover just below the roofline of the towering building, which is fortunate, since Biff forces Marty up to the roof, where he intends to kill him. Marty jumps on top of the DeLorean, and Doc uses the car's gull-wing doors to knock Biff unconscious. Armed with the correct date — once again, November 5, 1955 — Marty and Doc head back 30 years to restore the timeline.

Timeline E - There are way too many Doc Browns running around

Back in 1955 once more, Doc and Marty work together to steal the sports almanac from Biff in order to restore the timeline. While there, they also have to work to avoid their Timeline A and B counterparts, who are still living through the events of 1955 Timeline B. Doc is sure that if they encounter themselves in the past, it could have disastrous implications on the space-time continuum.

After a few failed attempts, Marty is ultimately successful in retrieving the sports almanac from Biff, grabbing it from the bully's car while riding on a hoverboard after a medium-speed chase. Marty narrowly avoids a potentially fatal crash when Doc drops a rope down to him from the flying DeLorean and pulls him to safety. Doc then tells Marty to burn the almanac, which he does, and they confirm that the timeline is restored.

However, before Doc can land the DeLorean and pick up Marty to return to 1985, the car is struck by lightning, causing the time circuits to go haywire and transport him to 1885. Back in 1955, the Timeline E version of Doc helps Marty figure out how to repair the DeLorean so that Marty can go after him. This version of Doc also dresses Marty in a truly unfortunate "cowboy" outfit, so that he'll fit in when he travels back to the Wild West.

Timeline F - Doc Brown gets stuck in 1885

After realizing what's happened and that the DeLorean has been so damaged by the lightning strike that there's no hope of repairing it enough to return to the future, Doc resigns himself to remaining in 1885. First, he hides the DeLorean in a cave, and he leaves a letter with the Western Union for Marty, telling him how to fix the time machine so he can return to the future. Doc gives the Postal Service extremely specific instructions to hold the letter for 70 years, then to deliver it to the person they'll find at a precise location at a precise date and time.

Satisfied that Marty will be okay, Doc begins building a life for himself. He becomes a blacksmith, using his futuristic scientific know-how to invent things like a mechanical refrigerator and ice maker. After establishing himself in town, Doc is asked to pick up the new schoolteacher, Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen), from the train station, and the two quickly fall in love.

Tragically though, not long after meeting Clara, Doc shoes a horse for Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, which later throws Tannen off, causing him to break a $5 bottle of whiskey. Tannen shoots the horse, which he values at $75, and demands Doc pay for both. Doc refuses, and in retaliation, Mad Dog shoots him in the back, killing him.

Timeline G - Marty travels to 1885 to save Doc's life

After leaving the DeLorean for Marty and becoming a blacksmith but before meeting Clara, Doc rescues Marty from Mad Dog and his gang. (They were going to hang him, partially because of the outfit that 1955 Timeline E Doc picked out for him.) Initially, Doc is irritated that Marty traveled back for him, rather than returning to 1985 as he instructed, but after learning about his death in Timeline F, he agrees to return with Marty.

However, returning to 1985 proves easier said than done, since Marty nicked a fuel line in the time machine when he arrived in 1885, and there aren't exactly an abundance of gas stations in the Wild West. Without a way to self-propel the car, Doc hatches a plan to hijack a train and use the engine to push the DeLorean up to the necessary 88 miles per hour. However, after Clara and Doc meet and fall in love, she attempts to follow Doc onto the speeding train and winds up nearly taking a catastrophic tumble onto the tracks.

Instead of joining Marty in the DeLorean, Doc makes a split-second decision to save Clara instead, missing his window to return to the future. Marty goes back to the future alone, and Doc remains in 1885 with Clara. Fortunately, before stealing the train, Doc and Marty foiled Mad Dog's plans to kill Doc, enabling Doc and Clara to live their lives free of tragedy.

Timeline G - Doc Brown's future turns out pretty great

Some time after Marty departs for the future — and destroys the train by running it into a ravine — Doc and Clara get married and have two sons, Jules and Verne. During this time, seemingly inspired by his successful attempt to use a train to help facilitate Marty's time travel, Doc acquires a new locomotive engine, converts it to steam power, and modifies it to become a time machine.

Doc, Clara, and their children ride their new time machine all through the timeline, including a trip to the future where they update the train engine with hover technology and presumably a few other upgrades as well. When Jules and Verne are a few years old, Doc and Clara decide to make a stop in 1985 to pick up Einstein and to introduce Marty to their children. Doc gives Marty a framed photograph that they took together with the Hill Valley courthouse clock back in 1885, then he departs on his train for places and times unknown.

Is Time Travel Possible?

We all travel in time! We travel one year in time between birthdays, for example. And we are all traveling in time at approximately the same speed: 1 second per second.

We typically experience time at one second per second. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's space telescopes also give us a way to look back in time. Telescopes help us see stars and galaxies that are very far away . It takes a long time for the light from faraway galaxies to reach us. So, when we look into the sky with a telescope, we are seeing what those stars and galaxies looked like a very long time ago.

However, when we think of the phrase "time travel," we are usually thinking of traveling faster than 1 second per second. That kind of time travel sounds like something you'd only see in movies or science fiction books. Could it be real? Science says yes!

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxies that are very far away as they existed a very long time ago. Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Thompson (Univ. Arizona)

How do we know that time travel is possible?

More than 100 years ago, a famous scientist named Albert Einstein came up with an idea about how time works. He called it relativity. This theory says that time and space are linked together. Einstein also said our universe has a speed limit: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).

Einstein's theory of relativity says that space and time are linked together. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

What does this mean for time travel? Well, according to this theory, the faster you travel, the slower you experience time. Scientists have done some experiments to show that this is true.

For example, there was an experiment that used two clocks set to the exact same time. One clock stayed on Earth, while the other flew in an airplane (going in the same direction Earth rotates).

After the airplane flew around the world, scientists compared the two clocks. The clock on the fast-moving airplane was slightly behind the clock on the ground. So, the clock on the airplane was traveling slightly slower in time than 1 second per second.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Can we use time travel in everyday life?

We can't use a time machine to travel hundreds of years into the past or future. That kind of time travel only happens in books and movies. But the math of time travel does affect the things we use every day.

For example, we use GPS satellites to help us figure out how to get to new places. (Check out our video about how GPS satellites work .) NASA scientists also use a high-accuracy version of GPS to keep track of where satellites are in space. But did you know that GPS relies on time-travel calculations to help you get around town?

GPS satellites orbit around Earth very quickly at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. This slows down GPS satellite clocks by a small fraction of a second (similar to the airplane example above).

GPS satellites orbit around Earth at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. Credit: GPS.gov

However, the satellites are also orbiting Earth about 12,550 miles (20,200 km) above the surface. This actually speeds up GPS satellite clocks by a slighter larger fraction of a second.

Here's how: Einstein's theory also says that gravity curves space and time, causing the passage of time to slow down. High up where the satellites orbit, Earth's gravity is much weaker. This causes the clocks on GPS satellites to run faster than clocks on the ground.

The combined result is that the clocks on GPS satellites experience time at a rate slightly faster than 1 second per second. Luckily, scientists can use math to correct these differences in time.

If scientists didn't correct the GPS clocks, there would be big problems. GPS satellites wouldn't be able to correctly calculate their position or yours. The errors would add up to a few miles each day, which is a big deal. GPS maps might think your home is nowhere near where it actually is!

In Summary:

Yes, time travel is indeed a real thing. But it's not quite what you've probably seen in the movies. Under certain conditions, it is possible to experience time passing at a different rate than 1 second per second. And there are important reasons why we need to understand this real-world form of time travel.

If you liked this, you may like:

Is time travel possible? Why one scientist says we 'cannot ignore the possibility.'

A common theme in science-fiction media , time travel is captivating. It’s defined by the late philosopher David Lewis in his essay “The Paradoxes of Time Travel” as “[involving] a discrepancy between time and space time. Any traveler departs and then arrives at his destination; the time elapsed from departure to arrival … is the duration of the journey.”

Time travel is usually understood by most as going back to a bygone era or jumping forward to a point far in the future . But how much of the idea is based in reality? Is it possible to travel through time? 

Is time travel possible?

According to NASA, time travel is possible , just not in the way you might expect. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity says time and motion are relative to each other, and nothing can go faster than the speed of light , which is 186,000 miles per second. Time travel happens through what’s called “time dilation.”

Time dilation , according to Live Science, is how one’s perception of time is different to another's, depending on their motion or where they are. Hence, time being relative. 

Learn more: Best travel insurance

Dr. Ana Alonso-Serrano, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Germany, explained the possibility of time travel and how researchers test theories. 

Space and time are not absolute values, Alonso-Serrano said. And what makes this all more complex is that you are able to carve space-time .

“In the moment that you carve the space-time, you can play with that curvature to make the time come in a circle and make a time machine,” Alonso-Serrano told USA TODAY. 

She explained how, theoretically, time travel is possible. The mathematics behind creating curvature of space-time are solid, but trying to re-create the strict physical conditions needed to prove these theories can be challenging. 

“The tricky point of that is if you can find a physical, realistic, way to do it,” she said. 

Alonso-Serrano said wormholes and warp drives are tools that are used to create this curvature. The matter needed to achieve curving space-time via a wormhole is exotic matter , which hasn’t been done successfully. Researchers don’t even know if this type of matter exists, she said.

“It's something that we work on because it's theoretically possible, and because it's a very nice way to test our theory, to look for possible paradoxes,” Alonso-Serrano added.

“I could not say that nothing is possible, but I cannot ignore the possibility,” she said. 

She also mentioned the anecdote of  Stephen Hawking’s Champagne party for time travelers . Hawking had a GPS-specific location for the party. He didn’t send out invites until the party had already happened, so only people who could travel to the past would be able to attend. No one showed up, and Hawking referred to this event as "experimental evidence" that time travel wasn't possible.

What did Albert Einstein invent?: Discoveries that changed the world

Just Curious for more? We've got you covered

USA TODAY is exploring the questions you and others ask every day. From "How to watch the Marvel movies in order" to "Why is Pluto not a planet?" to "What to do if your dog eats weed?" – we're striving to find answers to the most common questions you ask every day. Head to our Just Curious section to see what else we can answer for you. 

Screen Rant

Back to the future trilogy: 10 high-tech gadgets that actually exist in real life.

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Still Wakes The Deep Review: A Strong, But Not Particularly Creative Horror Title

Luigi's mansion 2 hd review: a return worth waiting for, #blud review: an adventurous but clunky homage to cartoon network's classics.

It may have been over 30 years since the Back to the Future trilogy first exploded into theaters and won every kid's heart with its array of awesome and creative gadgets but that doesn't mean the second movie's vision of the distant future doesn't remain one of the coolest even now. In fact, stars Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are still rocking new Back to the Future merch today.

Of course, technology has now had plenty of chance to catch up to the franchise's creative take on what the distant year of 2015 might look like and that means a ton of the movie series' gadgets exist now. From ones that have become mainstream like fingerprint scanners and smart homes to ones that are still some way off from truly entering the market, these are just some that have come to fruition.

Marty's Wheelless Hoverboard Is Now Possible

Aside from Doc's time-traveling DeLorean, which is still a long way off from ever existing for obvious reasons, the most iconic gadget in the entire Back to the Future trilogy is Marty's pink hoverboard. Whilst hoverboards have been around for a while, the "hoverboards" on the market now are more accurately described as "self-balancing scooters" as they still have wheels in contact with the ground.

However, for anyone wanting something a little closer to the movie's depiction of the gadget, wheelless hoverboards have been a thing for a while, albeit still a long way from properly hitting the market. As explained in BBC Future , hoverboards that use magnets, semiconductors, and liquid nitrogen to stay suspended above the ground have been a reality for a long time now.

Back To The Future's TV Glasses Are Very Similar To VR Headsets

In Robert Zemeckis' vision of the future, almost everyone had their pair of high-tech glasses that could do everything from making phone calls to watching TV. Whilst attempted projects like Google Glass may have been closer to the more multipurpose aspect of this gadget, it's impossible not to equate them to the increasingly popular market for VR headsets.

On the Meta website, the Quest 2 boasts an incredible 1832x1920 pixels per eye, meaning owners can watch TV on their headsets at a far higher quality than could have been imagined in the late 80s. Of course, what Back to the Future 2 didn't account for was how gaming would become its primary function.

Flying Cars Have Technically Existed Longer Than Back To The Future

In the case of flying cars in Back to the Future 2 , it's less so the concept and more so the widespread and practical application of it that's the futuristic part. That's because cars have been spreading their wings and taking to the skies since at least the 1930s, according to Ripleys ' brief history of the technology.

Unfortunately, it would perhaps be more accurate to call these early vehicles road-capable planes rather than flying cars simply due to their impracticality. Of course, cars are constantly evolving as once-futuristic technology becomes more mainstream and it seems only a matter of time before companies like AeroMobil begin to deliver on their high promise.

Back To The Future Predicted Fingerprint ID Scanners

Though the application of the technology in Back to the Future 2 was significantly more dystopian than how the technology has entered the mainstream in the real world, there's no denying that the movie foresaw how important biometric data would become in the future.

The movie shows multiple uses of the technology, one in which the police use a dedicated device to scan Jennifer's finger and reveal a bunch of her data and another where her finger is used to open the front door of her house. In real life, they're most often used to unlock smart devices instead. According to Expert Insights , there remains some doubt surrounding the security of the technology which is likely why it isn't yet on everyone's front door as in the movie.

Modern Smart Homes Have Caught Up To The McFly's House

Whilst not every smart home gadget is a hit , it's grown into a massive industry in recent years to the point where a lot of the smart features of the McFly's 2015 house are now relatively straightforward to implement if not common. Most notably, their home greets them when they walk through the door and the lights can be activated with a voice command.

According to Statista , almost 37% of households in the U.S. had at least one smart home device by 2020 and that figure was on the rise. It's more than likely these included an AI like Amazon's Alexa or Google Home, which can both be programmed to give "welcome home" messages and to turn on lights with a voice command.

Nike Has Recently Made Marty's Self-Tying Trainers A Reality

Since there were few better pieces of advertising for the massive sportswear giant than Marty's excellent Nike trainers with the ability to tie their laces, it's about time Nike repaid the favor by making self-lacing shoes a reality. Luckily, that's exactly what they've started doing.

According to Nike themselves, their new Adapt line of trainers utilizes an innovative lacing system that adjusts to the shape of the wearer's foot to ensure the right fit. The shoes can be charged wirelessly when not in use and the fit can be adjusted via a smartphone or smartwatch app. The only thing stopping them from being a great tech gift is the steep price tag.

Back To The Future Predicted Remote Video-Calling Devices

Whilst it might not be the most eye-catching gadget in Back to the Future , the television in the McFly's home that Marty uses to talk to his boss and Needles via video call is something that became a reality in a big way. Video-calling devices and apps are so ubiquitous now that it hardly seems futuristic at all.

Whilst laptops and smartphones are more commonly used for video calls, Smart TVs, consoles, and screen-casting technology all make video-calling on television simple to do and plenty of outlets like Digitaltrends offer guides on the many ways to get it set up. It might have seemed novel at the time but Marty getting fired by video call isn't so unusual in the modern world.

The Digital Payment Device In Back To The Future's Taxis

Whilst people don't directly use their thumb to pay for things in the real world, that doesn't mean this technology doesn't exist in a roundabout way. For a start, Back to the Future 's prediction that payments would be digital and as simple as tapping something against a scanner was entirely correct, as paying via smartphone and contactless card are now completely normal.

Since people are using their phones to pay, which may be secured with a thumbprint, the reality isn't far off from Back to the Future 2 's prediction. Meanwhile, apps like Uber have made paying for taxis a completely remote process with no contact required, going a step further even than the movie's thumbprint payment technology.

Tablets And Apps Have Made Back To The Future's Digital Waiters A Reality

One of the least appealing futuristic devices in Back to the Future 2 was the digital waiter in Cafe 80's that greets Marty with an extremely glitchy video interface. Whilst modern waiters aren't video-based, restaurants certainly do use screen devices to do the job that real waiters once did.

As far back as 2017, outlets like Washington Post were touting touchscreens as the future of ordering at restaurants, allowing customers to place their orders without interacting with a real waiter at all. In more recent years, many restaurants have their apps that will enable customers to order remotely.

Drones Have Made The Flying USA Today Cameras Possible

Though the press generally still makes use of old-fashioned cameramen to get footage of events as they happen, the flying USA Today camera that appears on the scene when Griff gets arrested certainly isn't unrealistic in the modern day. The rapid advancement of drone technology is shaping the future in a variety of ways and one of them has been for recording video footage.

According to Time , drones have been revolutionizing the way movies and television shows are being made for a while and that's largely thanks to their affordability and ability to get shots that would usually have required a helicopter.

NEXT: 10 Memorable High-Tech Gadgets From The Spy Kids Franchise, Ranked Least To Most Useful

• Back to the Future (1985)

Will We Ever Be Able to Time Travel Into the Past?

Forward or back—which will it be?

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us?

You likely don’t realize it, but when you’re done reading this article, you will have traveled perhaps 90 seconds into the future. The truth is that it is easier, theoretically speaking, to travel forward in time than it is to travel backward, and that’s partly because we’re all moving forward in time naturally.

The possibility of time travel stems from Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, which, loosely speaking, describes the relationship between space and time. An outgrowth is something known as “time dilation,” which suggests that time can move at different rates for different observers—and therefore at different rates in different places. This theory is borne out by the (rather freaky) fact that clocks on the space shuttle—whether internal clocks or atomic clocks placed aboard for experimental purposes—run more slowly than reference clocks on Earth. In this sense, astronauts on extended missions may already be considered time travelers, as they arrive home very slightly later than the elapsed time measured on their own instruments would suggest. Moreover, “Time beats faster on the moon than on Earth, and time beats slower on Jupiter,” says celebrated physicist Michio Kaku of the City College of New York. “So if you were to simply camp out on the moon or Jupiter, you’d be going backward and forward in time. Now, of course, these are for fractions of a second.”

A more useful implication of time dilation is the fact that the closer to the speed of light you’re moving, the slower your internal clock will be ticking relative to time on Earth. “If you reach 99 percent of the speed of light and spend like a year moving at that speed—around the solar system, say—and then come back to Earth, you will find that the Earth has moved on, 100 to 200 years into the future,” says Dr. Ulvi Yurtsever, coauthor of a seminal paper on time travel. So, in theory, if we could improve propulsion systems enough, we could skip ahead centuries. But we still couldn’t move backward.

Indeed, backward time travel, while theoretically possible, is far trickier and would involve black holes and “tunable wormholes” and more energy than a kindergarten class on a sugar binge. “You can write down solutions of the equations,” says Clifford V. Johnson, a professor of theoretical physics at USC, “and those equations tell you two things: how you twist up space and time, and what matter you need to do that. And every time you get those weird twists in space and time that look like a time machine, the matter and energy you need to do that is in a form that may not exist in this universe. So that’s just a fancy way of saying that the jury is out.”

So from a technical standpoint, it seems far more likely that we’d move forward in time first. But how about from an ethical one? “Scientists and physicists may say ‘You know what, it’s much safer for us to go to the future, because if it’s possible to alter the past and therefore have that reverberate into the present—create a paradox—that’s pretty dangerous,’ ” says Bob Gale, who has spent some time thinking about this stuff, given that he cowrote the 1985 time-travel blockbuster Back to the Future. “So they would say ‘Well, to preserve the sanctity of the space-time continuum, we better go into the future, because that provides the least amount of risk.’ ”

So there you have it: 25th century, here we come.

Do you have unusual questions about how things work and why stuff happens? This is the place to ask them. Don’t be afraid. Nobody will laugh at you here. Email ­[email protected].

Want more Popular Mechanics? Get Instant Access!

.css-cuqpxl:before{padding-right:0.3125rem;content:'//';display:inline;} Science .css-xtujxj:before{padding-left:0.3125rem;content:'//';display:inline;}

Hydrogen Burns Hot, But This New Alloy Will Help

Meteor Shockwave May Have Ruined Woolly Mammoths

Want Stronger Cement? Oysters Have the Answer.

Treasure Hunters Shocked by Find At 1715 Shipwreck

Charred Scroll Explains Plato’s Final Night

This Experiment Hopes to 'Trap' Dark Matter

Can Young Blood Transfusions Really Reverse Aging?

Human Consciousness Is an Illusion, Scientists Say

Treasure May Be Hidden Amongst Terracotta Army

Can Time Crystals Make Quantum Computers Reliable?

Liquid Batteries May Solve Renewable Energy Issues

Time travel is possible, but it’s a one-way ticket

Chenoa van den Boogaard , Physics and Astronomy editor

The ability to travel through time, whether it is to fix a mistake in the past or gain insight into the future, has long been embraced by science fiction and debated by theoretical physicists. While the debate continues over whether travelling into the past is possible, physicists have determined that travelling to the future most certainly is. And you don’t need a wormhole or a DeLorean to do it.

Real-life time travel occurs through time dilation, a property of Einstein’s special relativity . Einstein was the first to realize that time is not constant, as previously believed, but instead slows down as you move faster through space.

As part of his theory, Einstein re-envisioned space itself. He coined the phrase “spacetime,” fusing the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single term. Instead of treating space as a flat and rigid place that holds all the objects in the universe, Einstein thought of it as curved and malleable, able to form gravitational dips around masses that pull other objects in, just as a bowling ball placed in the centre of a trampoline would cause any smaller object placed on the trampoline to slide towards the centre.

A computer-generated representation of Einstein’s curved spacetime. The Earth creates a gravitational dip in the fabric of spacetime which is deepest at its core. Courtesy and © of NASA

The closer an object gets to the centre of the dip, the faster it accelerates. The centre of the Earth’s gravitational dip is located at the Earth’s core, where gravitational acceleration is strongest. According to Einstein’s theory, because time moves more slowly as you move faster through space, the closer an object is to the centre of the Earth, the slower time moves for that object.

This effect can be seen in GPS satellites, which orbit 20,200 kilometres above the Earth’s surface. These satellites have highly precise clocks onboard that gain an average of 38 microseconds per day due to time dilation. While this time gain seems insignificant, GPS satellites rely on their onboard clocks to maintain precise global positioning. Running 38 microseconds fast would result in a positioning error of nearly 10 kilometres, an error that would increase daily if the time difference were not constantly corrected.

A more dramatic example of time dilation can be seen in the movie Interstellar when Matthew McConaughey and his crew land on a planet with an extreme gravitational field caused by a nearby black hole. Because of the black hole’s intense gravitational influence, time slows dramatically for the crew on the planet, making one hour on the surface equal to seven years on Earth. This is why, when the crew returns to Earth, Matthew McConaughey’s daughter is an old woman while he appears to be the same age as when he left.

So why hasn’t humanity succeeded in making such drastic leaps forward in time? The answer to this question comes down to velocity. In order for humanity to send a traveller years into the future, we would either have to take advantage of the intense gravitational acceleration caused by black holes or send the traveller rocketing into space at close to the speed of light (about 1 billion km/h). With our current technology , jumping a few microseconds into the future is all humans can manage.

But if technology one day allows us to send a human into the future by travelling close to the speed of light, would there be any way for the traveller to use time dilation to return to the past and report her findings? “Interstellar travel reaching close to the speed of light might be possible,” says Dr. Jaymie Matthews , professor of astrophysics at the University of British Columbia, “[but] this voyage is one way into the future, not back to the past.”

If we can’t use time dilation to return to the past, does this mean that the past is forever inaccessible? Perhaps not. Einstein proposed that time travel into the past could be achieved through an Einstein-Rosen bridge, a type of wormhole. Wormholes are theoretical areas of spacetime that are warped in a way that connects two distant points in space.

A visualization of a wormhole: The fabric of spacetime curves back upon itself, forming a bridge between two distant locations. Image by Panzi , CC-BY 3.0

Einstein’s equations suggested that this bridge in space could hypothetically connect two points in time instead if it were stable enough. “At the moment, even an Einstein-Rosen bridge cannot [be used to] go back in the past because it doesn’t live long enough – it is not stable,” Matthews explains.

“Even if it was stable, it [requires] other physics, which we don’t have. Hypothetical particles and states of matter that have “exotic” physical properties that would violate known laws of physics, such as a particle having a negative mass. That is why “wormholes” are only science fiction.”

While it would be fascinating to travel back in time to see the dinosaurs or to meet Albert Einstein and show him the reality of time travel, perhaps it is best if the past remains untouched. Travelling to the past invites the possibility of making an alteration that could destroy the future. For example, in Back to the Future , Marty McFly travels to the past and inadvertently prevents his parents from meeting each other, nearly preventing his own existence. But if he had undone his own existence, how could he have travelled back in time in the first place?

Marty’s adventures are a variation of the grandfather paradox: what happens if you go back in time and kill your grandfather before your father is conceived? If you are successful, how is it possible that you’re alive to kill your grandfather in the first place?

A recent study at the University of Queensland may have the answer to this baffling paradox. In this study, the researchers prove mathematically that paradox-free time travel is possible, showing that the universe will self-correct to avoid inconsistencies. If this is true, then even if we could travel back in time, we would never be able to alter events to create a different future.

While these new findings are enlightening, there appears to be more evidence that, although time dilation can allow us to glimpse the future, we will never be able to visit the past. As the late Stephen Hawking said in his book Black Holes and Baby Universes , “The best evidence we have that time travel [into the past] is not possible, and never will be, is that we have not been invaded by hordes of tourists from the future.”

Banner image by Alex Lehner, CC BY 2.0

240 thoughts on “ Time travel is possible, but it’s a one-way ticket ”

How do I go about time travel? what do I need how do I get those required things?

Very large ring magnets and some mathematics and will to see it in reality.

How about a sphere magnet ship…

hoe about 3d time and hemi synch or portals augmented reality,power of suggestion..drugs pcp binural tones frequency amplitude .virtual computing ie.

I’m a time traveling tourist, Stephen Hawking was wrong.

Time is simply a measurement of space under the amount given its mass and the amount of light and dark in which governs its mass in a 4dimensional reality step outside of the force in which permenates its flow one would reside there would be no past present or future there be a fixed permance of a constant here and now and so ok then what is to come.

Very well explained article !!

But I think if physics says time travel can be possible then it’s definitely possible. Considering not to go back to your childhood and fix things but rather can go to the past but as invisible person to them. So that,

No actions by you would impact your future.

Regards, Kirankumar DR

Tell me more

Yes.. I wish I can do this too 🙂

We will understand it better, by and by…

I have a theory for warp speed, but nasa would have to put it to the test…check my Facebook

I am reading for this drive , i am ready , without think my life safe or not

@Ravi chandila English translation please?

Please someone help me I just want to send a message to myself in my past.,to get the love of my life, he never revealed to me his feelings now my life is ruined by the decision of my elders Please help me, it’s question of my life and death. Nazneen

Is time travel machine is their, if the time travel machine is true can it move to the past . To bring back my lost life

That’s the problem you know.. it is not there that’s why we aren’t able to travel time..and yes it it will be built then you will be able to do so…..

damn my life is also lost and broken but still no one can give a time machine for free

DO NOT change the future. That’s why people like you couldn’t go. One wrong person to ruin it for the rest of us

On the point of time reversal, it is evidently impossible. The Uncertainty Principle prohibits spacetime reversal. The Universe is unable to remember its past (as a consequence of the Uncertainty Principle), therefore the Universe cannot reorganise itself.

Can I have to go on my past with another time travel it is a possible when just tell me about one thing that can I have to go in my past one year

we dont need magnets.we need a strong gravitational force to warp spacetime allowing us to travel through with speed of sound or speed of light or faster.we need to learn how to control such force carefully or it could be lethal.gravity slows down time.but it can theoratically work both ways.if we can reverse the gravity’s natural reaction we could speed up a spacecraft faster than light(its all relative(and theoratical))

I WAS ACTUALLY JUST THINKING THE SAME THINFG BEFORE READING YOUR PIECE. VERY WELL EXPLAINED, AND IT DOES MAKE ALOT OF SENSE. WELL DONE.

oh and I forgot to add it can be the key to look into the universe and also travelling time(theoratical).speed and gravity are the key to the universe(theory not proved)

All you really need is a crystal diode with 16 sides, a large pain of glass, and a frequency transmitter near a bathtub full of ice cold water….if you reach the right frequency you can travel through time forward and reverse…

Magnetized metal(VCR Reading Head), to read time out of the Magnetosphere all around earth. The Magnetosphere kills 2 birds with one stone- it protects earth and it records human time:

Mystery solved and I will explain, I was in a coma 3 months and I experienced things, I traveled time forward and backward, it is not a one way ticket. Movies and songs are recorded on magnetic tape in a VCR tape Cartridge or Cassette tape,   Magnetic tape recording works by converting electrical signals into magnetic energy, which imprints a record of the signal onto a moving tape covered in magnetic particles.   3D life on earth(a movie), and the Magnetosphere all around earth coming from the core of earth(MAGNETIC ACTIVITY) without Atom Made Tape, is like a movie on magnetic Atom made tape in a VCR tape cartridge. Revolution and Rotation is the motor(VCR).

This is why people have those freaky Deji’vu feelings like they have lived this before, BECAUSE YOU HAVE, and how people can be psychic, and how there is Prophecy in the Bible. When a person dies, their Spirit- MIND(Thoughts, Feelings, Urges(Physical and mental personality)) breaks out of human body- a stopped heart is what releases the spirit from the human body. Then the Soul(Life) with the memory of your existence in it breaks out of spirit and goes back to your birthday with a erased memory, meanwhile your spirit goes back in time to when you were a teenager starting the mental puberty, maturity from that adult spirit you died with in last life.In that old movie Star Wars or maybe it was the Empire Strikes Back, there is a scene where Princess Laya plays like a 3D movie, that is EXACTLY how its of life on earth.

Mr Snow, I believe you as I have seen it too. As humans we have deep knowledge of things we cannot rationally explain but you have done a great job here.

I thought that Analogy would be a better and easier way to explain, or in a picture of the earth from far out in space with the atmosphere around it looks like a DVD disk and the earth being the center sticker but is in 3D.

Actually you are on to several things here. I have also had the infusion of knowledge that also had to do with comparing life to recorded movies and music. I know you were using it to explain your theory, but I do think there is something there, I always have. When you watch a movie you are seeing the past. Why can’t you somehow use a recording as a base to go back into? I agree with everything you said here, and it’s worth looking into.

Jeffrey, very interesting idea!! Could be something to that. As far as your coma experiences, I think there are things we just do not understand and are nearly impossible to explain. Perhaps time IS like a video tape, or a DVD? Magnetism is one of the forces of nature. I too have had some odd experiences that suggest that we are able to perceive things beyond our five known senses.

I think if you have had a near death experience, such as being in a coma, then you have experienced the powerful hallucinations provided by the chemical substance DMT which your body creates naturally in times of extreme trauma, but also found in most plants and used recreationally by some who are brave enough and into that kind of thing. Your theory is interesting, but completely unproven and as far as I know untested. If things were so simple, I’m sure many scientists would have already thought of such an idea and tested it.

How do I travel through time

Be alive and live life to the fullest is the best way to travel through time ! OR Befriend grey aliens../ They may hold the key to the sum of all knowledge in the universe..

Sounds good will it work

Really log vaps mil sakte hau h kya

Can you plz explain I didn’t get it

You dont first all you are not experienced in the field of the space time continum and you could you upset the already fragile and multitude of alternate realitys that have looping due irresponsible ones who somehow gotten the technology causing another altered time frame there are a disarray multiple reality which are looping in earths 4dimensonal time frame time traveling is not for a vacation or just to get a joy ride its a serious and complex reality not be joked about it is a real thing and certain individual have are upset the balance of earths original time zone note now the gaurdians of this region of milky way the galatic order of the light keepers Angelic gaurdians of the (names with held)are working over time ooh nice pun (over TIME) ha wow to restore Earth back to a original time continum

Who said I want a joy ride, my life is devastated even my kids are suffering, I want to commit suicide but can’t leave my kids back, Being captive for most of my life, if my life is changed nothing will be disturbed, only thing happens is 3 life’s will be saved. And more so over I don’t want to travel I just want to send a message to myself in my past plz on the date of 30th May 1996. My life is ruined plz help me, it was my dad,brother, sister who pushed me into the dungeon and my husband and his family took over the charge of torturing me. Nazneen

I want to go back in time and tell my 5 year old self to burn the creepy dolls that my mom bought cause there is demons in it at the same time I will kidnap and torture my dad right now go back in time and show the younger version of my dad show him what will happen to his future self if he don’t get rid of those possessed objects and keeps letting my mom buy those antiques I’m 18 now I’m single no girlfriend no friend alone nothing very depressed too and I try to remember the positive things that happened in my life which there aren’t many tho but the demons keep squeezing my memory brain and my mom keeps on making so much loud noise including her damn mouth I have attempted to burn the demonic dolls but I only burned them for a minute or two with gas cause I was worried I might accidentally set my whole neighborhood on fire but then my mom threw it all in the recycle instead of the trash so the demons just keep bothering me its driving me nuts he he.

Access to a Quantum Computer Network on the web would be a good start. A series of ChatBots and webhook sites strategically placed in not only space, but in time. A series of algorithms and I think information can be transferred backwards to ones self…

How do we know that there are no horde of tourists among ourselves?

How do we know we’re all not tourists?

We’re all time travelers. We all travel into the future daily. 1 second at a time. Lol…

Agreed! I had the same thought!

Excellent question

If is possible, I would like to go back to: January the 1st 1975 & relive the 70’s as I prefer that decade to the awful one I am facing now, Back then We had more police our streets & left our front doors open, Those days were far much more better .

https://3netra.co.in/61-2/

Please do comment on my blog post regarding time travel

how about you ask the flash to help you

I need the time travel so I’m fails so many times i love time travel i have to go fast and future so i have no idea im travel is a my dream so my dream solution plz say me i have time travel so please help me someone please…..

I think you are over reacting

When we look at the stars now it is what they looked like years ago so what if we go to the stars and look down?

You cant go to the stars. It will just take billions and billions of years to go even to the next nearest star than our Sun- proxima centuri. Sorry to say, but do you think that you will be alive all those years??

You can do that without going to the stars… our planet reflects light as well thus making it visible from other parts of the universe…. has the word “reflection” crossed your mind ? 😉

Contact me on my hangout I will help you [email protected]

bro just time travel its not that hard

Please help me to time travel, can I see myself when I go back in time like Harmaini sees herself in Harry potter?? Or can I send messages to myself I know the particular date when to send. It’s not the mistake I had done in my past but it was done by my father and brother who are safe, happy enjoying their lives,my life is totally ruined Please help me. Nazneen

I want to go back in time to save my wife .it was a bad mastake she died .that could be changed i need to go back and save her. Please help me.yours gordon sutcliffe

Would love to hear more how it’s possible, as I am really so desperate to go back in time. I lost my wife 6mons back because of COVID and I will do the impossible things to make it happen.

DMT Experience

what is that?

Dmt experience. Time travel, out of body and sometimes superhuman capabilities.

Jump into a black hole

We have to lose something(the past) to gain something(the future) in time travel.Time cannot be played with.Am I correct.

you need to have d e t e r m i n a t i o n

Time machine is possible

speeder than light LOL

speeder than light cuz if the light break it limits it will move backward in time

Don’t Just don’t disturb the past

I want to go back in time and see my dad. I miss him.

mee too raina I lost my father the day before you posted the comment 18th may, crap it hurts me so much. I would rather die to bring those moments back….

Everything is connected . Time isn’t real .

It is universe we travel to and not a time line in one universe

Ask trump….Mandela effect…. dmt 5th dimension

u need an X-WING starfighter and a lightsaber to fight the knights at past and a R2-B2 to track

The fact that no one has time travelled to the past is the proof that time travelling will NEVER exist.

Others have. Portals open most of the time. Example: Miami Fl. Magnetic Material gets bombarded by the sun. Which fractures and formed portals within that area. Ley lines can lead to the portals of travel within miami for just to start. One can laugh or wonder if. In my experience jumping for the better the word of it (Movie Jumper) can be done. You can either Teleport or Time Travel. Our sun open these portals everyday. The best time when Sun spots start to emerge. All that electrons traveling at light speed is enough to rupture our magnetic fields on Earth. You will return of course. Like water on a lake or an ocean time will corrects itself. Your inner clock is your ticket back home. With a little math,fourth dimensional thinking,a magnetic meter, the right location,history research and luck. You may get to expirence it. First clue….cold spots…it may not be a ghost.

Plz can you help me please help me you can save my life

I wish I could help you, I can sense your sufferings.

You need a bag of hyperlink modules to start, then nuclear beepbeep gatangas, when you have that come back here and I will tell you what you need next.

You need high voltage beepbeep gatangas and a large broonasic magnet of about 450 Gauss, come back here when you have these and I will tell you the rest.

you need an old fashioned police box

If you rotate the center of the earth in the opposite direction, then the whole earth can be moved back in time, on the other hand, if you move the center of the earth and change its position by separating it from the part of the earth, then you will be able to time correctly. Let’s reach the other side.

How I could time travel any time travel machines inverted

give audition in the flash series..

I think that to go back in time you’d to travel faster than the speed of light since time stops at the speed of light but if you wanted to go back to say mlk’s assassination you would need to go at least 10 times the speed of light

You don’t want to, the moment you wrote that message is a historical point in time.

When time travel is possible, you should d̵͔̮͉̣̯̳͌i̩͒̍̆͟ͅs͎̲̖͙̺ͬ̽̊͆͢r̖̹͆͂̚͘ê̛̫̪̱͇̘̩ͬg̖͉̤͚ͭͣ̊̌͜a̯̗͚̬͍̱̦͑͂͒͡ṟ̝ͦ͗͘d͋҉̪̖̥͔̟̟͚̻ ͎̬ͧ̔́i̧͚̫̻̇ͮͫ̆t̩̻͉̩̘̰̠̫̓̂̕ ̦̻̳̦̉͆̊̇̀i̴̗͍̞͙͇ͣ̈́mͦ̑ͦ̚͏͚̜̬̹̘̟̭m̱͕̻͇̮̠̰̼ͫ̌͆͡e̢͈̜̱ͩd̵̦͙͔̭̹̃̿̈̚ͅi̛̖̬͓͚̩̝̗ͯa̦͎̭̣̭̘͔͙̅̏́ṯ̴̟ͥ̀͗e̵͎̭͓̟͗ͨ̂͒l̼͕͕ͦͦ͜y̸͙̯̺̘͉ͣ,͈̻͙̭̺̘̞̑ͫ͜ ͔̗̣͒͜d̶͇͚͉̦̞̗͛̍o̞̮̻̲̜̠̒ͩ̈́̀ͅ ̲̙̦̮̺̉́͂̏̀ṋ̞͖̌͠o̬͕̯̩͓̮̫̝͛ͩ̐͛͜t̼̙̿͊͆̕ ̲͚̲̬̦̗̐̀m̢̹̜̭̠̬͗̆ͣą̲̺̻͈̹͎̈́̇̉͛ǩ̜̪̱̀e̜̳͔͉̣͓̓͗͘ ̉҉̲̞̘͈ͅc̴̦̣̝͇͈̙̋ͥ́o̫͇͇̘̻̠̹͎ͯ̀n̺̹̣̦̔̇̾͢t͚̹͚̙̞̪̗̺̄͂͜a̞̗̖̻̩͉̋͛̆͘c͙̙̎͘t̻̠̣͉̹̠̣̲̐ͧͩ̈́̕ ̶͕̗̬̿w͓̞͍̹̰͖͉ͦ͐͡i͎̞̾ͦ̃̈́̕t̜̺̖̭̍ͦ͞h͙̰̬̖͎̰͛̇ͮͫ͡ ͣͯ͏͕̻͚̹̺ā̱̙̝̦̤̼̥͡n̶͔̜ͥ͆̌̋y̷͓̻̺̺͉͇̻ͨọ̱͙̜̈́̉ͣ̔͟ņ̦̟͔̜̫̗̒ͬe̡͕̮̓͂̚ ̡͓̘͚̭̹͔̉͐͋̽t̖͍͚̝̬͈̝͌͋͘ͅẖ̗̖͚̼͔͕͆̓̾͜a͈̣͍͕͍̋ͦͩͭ͢t̖̪̤̳͎̱̏͡ ̛̻̠̼̬̓ͫl̶̞̤̣͔̗͔̂ͅö̹̞̦̖͚̫̜̱́ͯ͠o̧̯̱̪̓ͮ̋k͉͎̝̻̓ͧ̕s̤͈̪̍͟ ̤̞̳͔̝̪̟̹̔̂ͨ͜h̛̝̲̰̻͗̅̏̃u̜̙͐̇̈͝m̧̞̮̟̦̳̟̊a̸͓̺̲̼̜͊͛̐n̶̳̮̒.͇̻͚͓̳̺̜̱͋ͬ͗ͩ͢

It’s Close I can feel it

Yes it becomes a history but my life also in the past changes and the present also with it. The way I’m suffering from the pain and want to end my life I’m 100% sure at least sure no one around me is or was as hopeless and horrible as my hubby I’m devastated I really want to send a message to my past it may not start but it will definitely change. I was forced, not given any option, my father and brother gave me wrong information and had no concerns for me. It was just survival for me. I repent for not killing myself when I had time, but now if I have a chance why not. Now when I’m out of my marriage I come to know a guy then had feelings for me, was madly in love and wanted to ask for my hand, now I want to inform my self and change everything plz help me.

I too would like to go back in time. I just wish he lived a happy eternal life. I would just like to repeat to come back in 2020.

I heard from a guy in Idaho that time travel is possible. You’ll need to go online and purchase a pogo stick looking device and make sure not to forget the crystals.

I think u need a black-hole-proof spaceship, go to the centre, escape the black hole and viola! You are now in the past. If you can’t escape, then you’d travel to a time where that black hole didn’t exist.

Believe me you time travel! If not physically then you do mentally,like you through dreams.

Though they sale it online, it would not take the chance. It is as simple as beating the speed of light and having some system to send you to the time you want. Time however is not real, and were just traving universes. It will all be in the open in 2028 according to other travelers.

All you need base on how to travel to time is very simple but had to find firstly find a way to get to space through a space rocket secondly find a very perfect consifigration for traveling to tiTme then find a very fast rocket that could create a form of force reaction in space in order yo enable fast speed in space for the break through of non gravity in space and make sure that while doing all you activities is not far away from planet and not also to close to planet earth and make sure that you are with wristwatchs whose time is set disame then you can to the future

Man you can get all you need for too build a time machine in your local store man, man I sure wished I’d kept mine but it frightened the heck off me man, sometimes when I fart I find a grape in my pants

time travel is a fake, baseless and delusional idea. If you believe in that crap then tell us if we are living in the future or in the past. To travel backward the entire system has to return all along with nature and events, it won’t be for you alone except time travel only happens in the mind.

you would need to get about 1,000,000 pounds of silicon and then somehow conduct enough energy to make 500 cars run without an engine and then go to a nuqular power plant and somehow make a portal. but the whole world could go out of orbit if you do that so I wouldent sugest it.

Time machine is good and bad because,with the time machine you will know about your future which is not good.

Is time travel actually a real thing because if it is then I need it because I am trying to go back in time to fix all of my mistakes

So what if time travel is the reason that we now believe there are other realities in our own world.this could be that a Time traveler we could only go back and couldn’t come back, and on doing so if you do something to change the past in stead make a new reality.making other things are deferent and ours realty stays the same . sometimes reality gets mixed up make the mandela effect that we see today

Time in the future it is faster then now. The past is slower so you can travel . It is up to you. One way is to meditate. You can travel and see any body you want right now. You can fly faster then light. That is one way. You go to the future. To go to the past you sleep for a long time. Some time you go to the future or the past. Your heart well stop and your body gets cold. Sometimes you can control it sometimes you can’t.

but how do we know that is really true ? i mean i want to figure this out, i want to time travel, but how is it that simple ? so many people have been trying to figure this out for many years and its that simple ?

Yeah what if you get stuck in there what do you do than

You cant go there in the first place. Dont worry. With current technology, we will only end up messing some few microseconds. Highly doubtful, if we can end up getting the news of travelling hundreds of years in our lifetime.

wait what would happen if someone saw you while you where in past/future i’m curious

Time is an illusion based on perceived reality and is only relative to our limitations. Time isn’t what it seems and all things can’t be figured out

Im on a school computer looking this up and i found this article and scrolling trough it and ive not heard one statement here as good as yours bro

This is blowing my mind people, then I see the school boy on the post. Great stuff, whoever reads this is already capable of travelling through time. Think about all people who have posted on this thread, now think about who will read mine. Now think of those €opposite trolls $ who never ever bother posting on you tube thread etc. But ONE comment from one of the time travellers who wrote on this thread. So that opposite troll is me,I don’t normally post.however because of previous comments I’m posting here. And I love the DMT shit I loved that and lived that one out in real life,,,,another day.

So my point is ifOne or two threads have made me write this….then what will my post make others write , think…..then I could travel back and not write this…. then what. Love the conception of time how can u travel something that doesn’t YOU perceive to be time, like a train can only run on its train tracks, a car can only drive on a road etc It’s posibble I know it is. Sometimes when u have fun times moves swift but locked in jail it goes snail pace. U c me. I write letters to myself from past from future. Remember everything that happens in present becomes part the past. But the future is what you hold in your hands. Question is, now you know….what the f are u gonna do about it?.. 01/04 ==== 21

Hahahah only realised school boy is named BIG dick pissing myself laughing I gotta go pee. Respect certified

so not halal mode

True so were not traveling in time. It is just different universe (on what we call) different time, day, tears, etc.

You would be scared for life

you will desepear

Maybe it has happened before and we just don’t know that they’re from the future. If people in the future time traveled, the would know that it’s dangerous to mess with the past and would pretend to be part of the past.

I believe time travel is already possible, however we cannot fix past mistakes without altering future predicaments. Say we stop JFK’s assasination, that would completely change the future from that point forward to one none of us can know/guess or conclude the effects? Other time travel purposes go to the future I think that from now our world will die off before 2096 basdd on overpopulation, global warming & polution as such creating islands of plastic waste in our oceans. The best thing my opinion go back to the garden of Eden, kill that Serpent Satan before he tricks Eve into the forbidden fruit. Then let God raise, enlighten & teach us how to be humanly sustainable on his planet & I guarantee technology & smart phones? Ain’t no part of it!!

Time travel possible but one n only theory of Stephen hawking

How it is possible to jump in time …??

Many ways. The most used is creating a black hole which can be done in a few ways. 1) traveling forwards or backwords faster than the speed of light 2) been known during heavy lightning strikes. Each way is a fast movement that opens the black hole. It has been done by the Government since the 1980s though they claimed they never beet the speed of light until 2002. However, Time is a illusion and their for we are actually traveling different universe that are differnt than ours even if the difference is by 1 thing. Each universe may have (what we call) different time, days and years. And each time we change that time line we created a new one. It is belief as CERN has said they destroy 5 universe, that they can travel to them. Since 2012 it has seem we been shifting and is now belief they have possibly came together. The event is known as The Mandela Effect.

No one has the right theory in my thinking. Only a few things are wrong. It is universes with (what we call) different time, days and years we are traveling to and not time itself as it is a illusion. Their is no stop to how much we can do, or where we can go. No limit as such say.

There is no God. No magical serpent or Garden of Eden ever existed. Basing a scientific theory on archaic stories does no one any good.

You choose a hopeless eternity. I choose hope through the promise of salvation through Christ for those who believe. You see, I have child in heaven. Thankfully, have a hopeful reality that I can embrace. There is a God. Our known universe is only 14 or so billion years old… is it mathematically possible that random molecules out of the Big Bang mixed in just the right way from to form a complex cellular organism… with DNA… and result in humans and such diversity of life forms? It’s naive to accept this as a result of chance. Think about it. How is that remotely possible without a creator?

Hahaha. You make it seem as tho the big bang happened, and we just popped into existence? Naw it’s called evolution baby, we started out as microscopic organisms, seriously, when did you drop out of school? But that’s like saying a some guy writes a book to explain away natural phenomenons that they were to stupid (un-evolved) to grasp and the concept good and bad and the eternal damnation, And thus, the Bible, and boom, everyone now was made by God, hahaha. When you can prove he/she exists, and that the Bible was a autobiography, and not just some twisted piece of Fiction, that has no real basis in reality, and cannot be proved to be more that a work of Fiction. Rather than being used as the16th Century control tact, ‘be good or you’ll go to hell’. But I guess that’s what they mean when they say ignorance is bliss, (maybe if I was as ignorant as y’all believers I’d believe to). But I can’t see how a ‘GOD’ would ever ask one of its creations to kill another.. Genocide, Crusades, all the ethnic cleansing.. All In the name of God Almighty! Hahahahahhaaa. Aliens are more believable than this shit, and theirs no proof they exist either. Hahahahaha. Fug’n Bible thumpers. ‘Step out side your faith and see the world for what it really is, a complex organism, mad of gravity and dust, quite a unique specimen! And we, yes Bible bangers, this includes you, are destroying it like the bubonic plague.’. ‘The end is coming and it’s our fault’

Have you taken the time to read The Old Testament and the prophecies therein that came to be ?.

How do you explain that ?.

My last post should read GS not G

You have not had an encounter yet with God. Don’t be so certain on yuour theory of evolution. He came and shook my reality to it’s core. Made thing possibly that no one could ever explain.

What are you talking about? Ur so wrong and funny in every way.

BlissfullyInformed just told me his comment was all an April fools prank. He believes in Jesus and was just fooling.

Time travel is very much possible just as you decided to come existence in this century meaning one can decide to be in another time zone . life is all about numbers, you just have to work on numbers

I’m pretty sure ppl don’t decide to come into existence. If that were true I wouldn’t be replying to your comment.

Un like your other reply, I understand what you mean. Each timeline (or universe as some see it) can easily be traveled to at will. No different than traveling threw your time you want to visit.

Science has proven a few things from the Bible is true. God does exist. Christians are confused with time and what it says. For a example. God created the world, as science even belives it was God who created the big bang, yet the bang has happen itself creating the moon, planets and stars. Christians also fail to understand chapter 1 and 2 of gen. spoke of two different creations which can be why we see dinosaurs before humans as chapter 1 spoke of animals first and humans 2nd. Their also was different time than, as without the moon a full day is 6 hours. It would take 4 days back than to equal are 1 day. Time is lost and Christians are just confuse on that time. That does not proof their is no God. As they have already found the robes of Jesus and remains of Noah’s ark, it proves much did happen. The bible only has less than 50% of what was written.

Changing the past is impossible, because if we went back into the past, that means we were already there during the time you experienced it.

We all know how to get into time travel but how do we get out……..

You don’t need time travel – all you need is life. And what is life? Life is the evolution of the impossible into the inevitable over an infinite amount of time.

if it is shown that if something, such as a solution to a particular class of equations, were possible, then two mutually contradictory things would be true, such as a number being both even and odd. The contradiction implies that the original premise is impossible.

This is called proof by impossibility. Thus if some traveled back in time far enough to kill his grandfather, we have the contradiction and therefore it is impossible.

You could argue that he would be able to time travel, but not kill his grandfather. However almost anything a person does going back in time would cause the same contradiction, thererfore it is the traveling back in time that is impossible.

Actually, it probably is possible to travel back in time, however to do so, you would also have to travel so far in space that you cannot see anything that happened before your current time due to the speed of light, because this to could affect the future.

The reason I am here is that, i really want to go back the day when our matriculation exam was just finished. Everything around me is peaceful and happy. Currently, I am living in dire situation. People are dying outside on the streets. Smokes everywhere. Everything is in doom. Ah, yeah. I really miss my past. If you are reading this, you can judge me in anyways. I just want to live peacefully and happily.

You must live in Portland

I entirely know what you say and how you feel, Robin. I am totally convinced that future is no promise to offer a better place to live. World is becoming unnecessarily more complex and more horrible and more insecure. Therefore, travelling back in time to a point where things were still far away from such ordeals is what I aspire. But I think if it is possible to travel back in time without the possibility of carrying our lived experiences with us, it will be useless as we will be repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Now, this begs the questions “in what type of physique could we imagine ourselves back there if such time travel becomes possible? That is, becoming younger again in a physical regression (as I said this would be a torture without having learned from all these later years)? Or appearing at our desired times in our present physique and age? I believe the most ideal one would be if we appeared at our desired point in time at the same age that we were at that point of time with a good feeling of our later lived experiences.

Mam all u need to do is just run faster as much as u can or visit the black hole because in both condition time just slow it down ….

Time travel is simple. If you do happen to travel to the past you create a new time line not affecting the time line you left. In essence you going to the past is now your future. Even if you were able to return you may never know if you remained in your time-line or created a new one. So even if you changed something in your travels it would happen in the future not the past.

Sorry time traveling is not possible, there is no way you can go into the past or the future ‍♂️. You can only be in the time you are already in.

Incorrect. General relativity allows time travel into the future. You need a space ship that can travel extremely fast though, approaching the speed of light, or you need to get close to a supermassive black hole.

It is travel into the past that there is no known practical way to do, and is probably impossible.

So what happens when we Die? Where do we go? I want to go back in time so I can meet my childhood friends…

Simple question from a simple mind:

At what point, when a person says they are from the future, do we stop throwing them in the funny farm and actually start listening??

When they show actual proof. Not just some random prediction of the future.

I don’t believe that “glimpses into the future” could be possible. If it were so, we could glimpse blueprints of the future that we could bring back to the present and build before they were invented. My personal.beleif is in any time frame there is only one active time which is the present. The past no longer exists and the future hasn’t occurred yet, so there is no such thing as ‘time travel’ except for the frame we are in now.

First off time is not real we make time if you travel anywhere all you are doing is beating the Earth speed try this for a mathematical equation the Earth travels a thousand miles per hour you’re not beating human time that is your own equation the Earth travels a thousand miles per hour a space shuttle travel 17,000 mph you can beat time that you made so time is not real you are only beating the Earth speed if you go in a space shuttle and go around the earth 17,000 miles per hour the Earth only travels a thousand miles per hour plus it has all types of gravitational pull from the Moon Earth’s access on the til t you figure out the mathematical equation I cannot time travel is real if you can beat the Earth speed and we can it has nothing to do with its 12:00 it’s 1:00 that’s not real time is made up as a mathematical equation you can beat the Earth speed you can go back into the Earth’s time in a space shuttle but you’re not beating anything except the Earth’s speed think about that one time is not real at all all it is is a mathematical equation think about that one real long

What I’m trying to say is this a space shuttle travel 17,000 mph the Earth travels a thousand you beat it 16 times faster that’s all you did you’re not beating any time you’re not beating 1:00 you’re not beating 3:00 all you’re doing is beating the Earth’s time you can go in reverse around the Earth 17,000 mph okay you can go forward with the Earth’s centrifugal force 17,000 miles per hour you’re not beating anything you’re beating a mathematically equation that we we created astronauts been traveling time for instance for years and haven’t told us because of the space shuttle that does travel 17,000 mph it beats the Earth speed 16 times a boggles my mind you have the Earth access the moon gravitational pull but you can get in a space shuttle and travel 17,000 miles per hour and beat the Earth’s speed 17 times think about it

If any scientist or anybody can actually answer this question how do you set up this equation with the Earth spinning a thousand miles per hour you have the moon pulling gravity the Earth’s access on until I want to know tell me then wondering for a while this equation popped into my head about 2 years ago I’m not a math whiz or anything I just thought about it weird how the mind works I’m not into space or any space stuff at all I’m Samanthas boy friend John antos wrote this

I liked your post and the knowledge you given. I also written a post on Time Travel.

how would any of that stuff be true because e’*34+Em would stop all the forss of vissecs and how would we do it if you now what i mean??? also thanks for the scuff for my project

I would love it if I had a real life time machine here with me now which could take me to anytime I want, the past, present or future. If I had a time machine here with me now, I would go to the past in September 2004 when I was born and give myself to another family that is actually rich and not this horrible family that I have now.

that not nice

Close but not quite right scientists of the idiotic variety, yes, you don’t want people to travel back in time to mess with their own pasts, of course, but you say it’s impossible, but it’s not, and I’m always ignored with my crazed crackpot theories, so what’s the harm in telling the truth as I see it, while it could be possible to travel to the past, here in lies the problem with rewriting the future, while some believe it’s possible to travel back in time, but it’s very expensive and definitely a one-way trip to the future or to the past. Basically Doc Brown got the mechanism for time travel almost right but the energy out put needs to be quadrupled instead, allowing for the ‘physical item, being or vehicle’ to transport through time without killing the time traveler in question. Wormholes are unpredictable, until warp speed for spaceships are a thing, it is not possible for the space ships to achieve time travel, unless they want to enter a black hole, which I would not recommend. as you need warp speed to survive the emptiness of the black hole, without being ripped to shreds. Say for example, Back to the future 1, the timeline doesn’t erase it continues on without the ‘said time traveler’ in existence basically the Marty from Wimpy George’s timeline did time travel to the past and messed with his parent’s meeting so to speak, but never return to the same timeline therefore Marty A went known as a Missing Child in timeline A, while it continues on without him, however Marty A became Marty B/C, in the Successful George Timeline. So that is what I’m talking about. the timeline changes only for the time traveler themselves the ones who are left behind don’t experience a thing of timeline rewritten-ism, as it would never happen in the first place. The other thing is if you want to mess with your own childhood, to make a better life for the past self, the key thing to remember it’s not really you. It’s an alternative version of you, that you interfered with. creating a parallel timeline to it’s original, yet slightly different. Yes it would be awkward to raise yourself. but as long as you are staying in the past, nothing should happen until the age you traveled back in time, unless of course you touched your past self and suddenly de-aged and merged with your past self, is an option 1, option 2 the future self explodes spreading guts all over the place and therefore the past self, of you became a murderer of your future self, I am more inclined to believe option 1 as option 2 seems a little too out there. Basically you would have two memories one of the former timeline and one of the current different timeline. Still traveling through time is truly a one way trip and if you want to travel through time, you would need some time travel mechanism, the way you scientist talk is basically a dream version, or an OBE version (OUT-OF-BODY-EXPERIENCE) which is basically a vivid/lucid dream which is not true time travel, the true time travel is based on the BTTF Trilogy not the idiotic versions you preach about. I believe I’ve said enough.

Mystery solved and I will explain, I was in a coma 3 months and I experienced things, I traveled time forward and backward, it is not a one way ticket. Movies and songs are recorded on magnetic tape in a VCR tape Cartridge or Cassette tape, Magnetic tape recording works by converting electrical signals into magnetic energy, which imprints a record of the signal onto a moving tape covered in magnetic particles. 3D life on earth(a movie), and the Magnetosphere all around earth coming from the core of earth(MAGNETIC ACTIVITY) without Atom Made Tape, is like a movie on magnetic Atom made tape in a VCR tape cartridge. Revolution and Rotation is the motor(VCR).

This is why people have those freaky Deji’vu feelings like they have lived this before, BECAUSE YOU HAVE, and how people can be psychic, and how there is Prophecy in the Bible. When a person dies, their Spirit- MIND(Thoughts, Feelings, Urges(Physical and mental personality)) breaks out of human body- a stopped heart is what releases the spirit from the human body. Then the Soul(Life) with the memory of your existence in it breaks out of spirit and goes back to your birthday with a erased memory, meanwhile your spirit goes back in time to when you were a teenager starting the mental puberty, maturity from that adult spirit you died with in last life.In that old movie Star Wars or maybe it was the Empire Strikes Back, there is a scene where Princess Laya plays like a 3D movie, that is EXACTLY how its of life on earth.

If only wish I could undo everything what I’ve done wrong in the past, I’d be more happier

And that my friend is absolutely what you do not or would not know. Everyone focuses on what they don’t or haven’t had rather than what positives they do have around them. To change the ingredients of a past life only changes the flavour you have in this life, it does not make you happier.

No, travel to the future is not possible. Like, future is unpredictable and always have been so give up on that field

Already has been, and has been proven.

Time travel is not so possible for every one , but there are already time travelers on earth #@*

Who are these time travelers?

Depends if it is the Governments (they done it since the 80s), or if it was a Accidental travel, or a simple us creating our own machine. Either way, one can easily find storys, and other evidence with a good research. I have a website that shows the effects of change cause by time travel.

They are out their (done by the government since the 80s) but the future is open with time travel (told its open since 2028) so they travel back much.

Time travel 101-

Create a closed loop circuit around a full metal structure, hermetically seal it and bring O2, Use two tesla coils to create north and south poles. (Artificial Magneto sphere.) Make sure to pain the outside in lead to prevent any cosmic rays from penetrating the materials on the inside. (Radiation = bad). Connect a ball made of w/e with wires that alternate the current from the coils to w/e panel on the outside of the structure to make it move via inductive magnetic / electric Lorentzo (Lorentzo = ExMfield = Velocity. = Antigravity) Create Antigravity by using forces from the inside reactor. (Pressurized Mercury, and Tesla Turbine.) Then Move 10-100x faster than light depending on the charged field, Friction will be added to the electric field instead of the craft allowing the G-forces not to crush you inside. The field will take the pressures of outer space, The temperature of space will allow for super conductivity of the structure.

Eventually you will arrive in the future, if you stay in one place. but account for the movement of earth in your travel log. To see outside you will need a monitor / camera system, as any leaks through a viewing area will cause death by radiation from the cosmic rays from the field you have created.

The O2 can be used as a backup generator, through air pressure and the tesla turbine.

There are many different ways to make wormholes, but the curvature of space is really hard to calculate to send a machine far out to the end and create a link with the machine that wants to travel there. And leaving one behind to get back.

If you can imagine it, it can be done. You just need the knowledge of not dying to complete it.

U.S.S. Tourist, You’re a time traveler or just insanely smart.

You don’t need to go the speed of light. Human Time is recorded in the magnetospere as a movie is record, ed on magnet VCR Tape or a song on a record. A VCR or record does not have to go light speed to retrieve the recorded info. All of life is recorded in 3D by our Magnetosphere. My Analogy is imagine a VCR tape cartridge being the earth, imagine life on earth being the movie but in 3D with out adom made tape, imagine Rotation and Revolution of Earth being the VCR putting all in to motion- playing. That is how its done, the magnetosphere kills two birds with one stone, it protects earth and records time, human time is in a magnetic bubble that is why the Bible refers our time is different from gods time and this is how God the maker(PLANET OF UNITED SUPREME BEINGS) can flip through our time to know everything. By the way long before life on earth, he built the original 7 wonders of world(Pyramids) to Pump the Seven gasses into the atmosphere of this planet found in the goldilocks zone, so Life can live on it, and that life of all types is his technological cyborgs that grow and multiply on earth also he seeded it with plant, trees, sea creature and things that fly,. Anyway that above is how time is recorded.

Until recently, I thought my neighbor was a crackpot until he actually invented a time machine. He utilized an ordinary closet, and showed me the sophisticated (to me) instrumentation he had installed. I was very skeptical at first, until he offered a small demonstration and entered the time coordinates and energized his invention. To my amazement, when I opened the door, the clock on the wall was 30 minutes later than when we stepped into the machine. OMG!!! Destroy this thing before it destroys us!!!.

So happy to have my husband back after 6 months of separation. get any kind of relationship/marriage help you want from….Robinsonbuckler11 @gmail com………………………

I find it odd that people say time travel isn’t possible yet… If time travel is possible, it has always existed. Meaning, there is not past present it future, only our perception of time. What we know as past present and future have always been occurring simultaneously, so travel was invited the moment the universe wss formed. Dinosaurs are roaming the earth right now, and forever. A version of me is typing this and has always been typing this, within this perceived moment of “time” and time travel has always happened, whether or not we exist in that reality at the right “time” to observe time travel is the only question.

I find it odd that people say time travel isn’t possible yet… If time travel is possible, it has always existed. Meaning, there is no past present or future, only our perception of time. What we know as past present and future have always been occurring simultaneously, so travel was invited the moment the universe was formed. Dinosaurs are roaming the earth right now, and forever. A version of me is typing this has always been typing this, within this perceived moment of “time” and time travel has always happened, whether or not we exist in that reality at the right “time” to observe time travel is the only question.

Their had to be one point however, when it was created and started, and for that, there was nothing but the current time. Once it was created, than we had a pass, present and future to which we can go back to millions of years to see Adam and Eve with the dinosaurs or go millions of years in the future. However, given the events that changes, each time a new time line has been created. We also have destroyed the planet and repopulated many times in the last million years. Each event changed, or something we do different (without traveling) enters a new universe where some things may be different or the same. Today are universe are shifting a lot.

To be fair, even if it is a one way trip into the past, that doesn’t stop machines going back. We could send a machine back and order it to do anything we want and then tell it to meet us at a certain time in the future. We send it back, then go straight to the meeting point we agreed and then we’ll be able to prove if it worked or not.

I’m a girl who has read a book about seeing future through a box. So is it actually possible?

Time travel has been done on purpose by the Government since the late 1980s. From research, the mostly use kids, or future Presidents. Their are some cases where people have been struck by lightning or came across some tragically event that cause them to leave their timeline either forward or behind in time. The Mandela Effect is the current cause of how things go wrong when time travel is not done right. Click on my name to see the website.

Even as traveling to a location as a future or pass date is possible as what people here mean. However, as you said, it is numbers. Time is a illusion and we do not travel threw time, just universe that are different than ours. What we call time dates and months is what changes each universe. We are all from different universes today as they came together. The mandela effect is a fine example.

thx to eleon wont we soon be able to digitize our conscious being, then accelerate that data pass the speed of light some how then download it into some android or something…..i dunno…..just a thought

I want to go to my elementary school again. Someone help me out, I know its Idiotic but stil.. I am not good at science. As far I understood, 1) we can trace through time if we travel fast than speed of light.. I think memory os the only thing that is faster than light, Yeah I can go to Paris within 1 sec in my memory but yeah its illustion, i want in real 2) Through Blackhole – I think its Bermuda triangle

if you travel back in time you will still be your age now. That is how it worked with others. No one gets younger otherwise traveling to far back would kill you. No school would let you return to school as a adult so not possible.

Plz help me I just want to send a message to myself in my past and save my self from a beast plz help Nazneen

Would love to experience many moments in life again for the first time again!

I think that time traveling should be left alone, for the sake of humanity. There are some things we’re not ready for yet.

Well stephen hawking may be wrong. I mean, the study proved that the universe self corrects itself to prevent inaccuracies. So maybe tourists from past do visit us but we don’t remember them as the universe alters our memory. If you guys have read about Butterfly Effect, a simple mistake today may grow through years to become a giant disaster in future so if you think of it, oncoming tourists from future may cause giant inaccuracies. Imagine this, You have travelled to past. You brought two cakes for yourself, so you pay the shopkeeper 20$. The shopkeeper invests the 20$ in stocks, strikes gold there and becomes a rich businessman.His daughter goes to Cambridge and marries someone else than the person she was supposed to marry according to time. Can you imagine the magnitude of inaccuracy after 100 years? Therefore, whatever the tourists from future do, is corrected by the universe and we don’t remember it. Creepy, but food for thought.It also adds a special meaning to the word ‘Fate’.

How much wacky terbacky (i.e. weed) you be smokin’ JOE JOE?

Hmmmm…. As brilliant of a mind as Stephen Hawkins was, how is he so sure that he would even recognize hordes of tourists from the future? Almost everyone is aware of the warning of the Butterfly Effect. So I’m sure any future visitors Intelligent enough for Past-Time travel would be amply attuned to this.

Most future people coming to the pass (our time) seems careless and not intelligent. Most are taking FBI lie detector test and telling us what is happening in the future. That is a bad idea, because if you tell us (example) who is the next President, and the Government does not like the person they than can change that event to let someone else in (as seen in 2020) One should never acknowledge who he or she is or why they are their. Most traveling is to get knowing of the pass or to pick up certain things. Since are pass is changing, events are changing and are timelines are messed up, someone made a mistake. The Mandela Effect is a fine example.

Wow that’s great plz help me go to my past plz,I can’t do it by my own at least help me send a msg to myself in my past Nazneen

I think it is possible, but time traveling is really just changing universe created by different time lines. Our whole solar system is in a whole different place now and Earth is much smaller in this universe from the one I grew up end. Someone has already changed the timeline.

Roads? Where we’re going, you don’t need roads!

Youre wrong about your measurement of speed for traveling, in order for time to slow down, with inside an object compared to outside. Scientists proved that time with inside an object at an excelorated speed actually appeared to have slown down during the duration of time for the test. The speed was far less then the terminal speed of a rocket for NASA at 256,000 kms p/h.

In to the volicity of space. Generating a vacuum of space, could be no different the the actual transport of matter over frequency where in fact matter can be carried by sound. It is believed that an alien civilization harnessed this energy in the form of bolisks that where believed to carry the same properities and in consideration of harmonic resinance, the simularities could be used in order to carry large weight. In accordance with a documentry on theoretical science.

However the properties, present the fact that a working property controdicts your counter intuative theory of gravitational deceloration of matter to colide within itself to absorb all things into non existance as to the transfer of matter into energy, rather then your idiolisms of transfer between dimentional space to another destination that is not linked or the transfer between time that isnt, either.

However to reproduce the fabric of time within space in a practical measurement as I have mentioned, would put an end to all the lunacy of an unmeasureable field, which people fail to identify. Like running into a glass window. Only to not know what forcefield is present.

Time travel into the past can be achieved simply going faster than the speed of light.

The closer you get to the speed of light the slower time goes

If you reach the speed of light time stops

If you go faster than the speed of light it starts to reverse

Why does no one seem to know this?

Christopher Reeves did this in Superman 3 brah.

Any time travel, pass and future, is by going faster than the speed of light. It is said by reversing that that you can go back in time. However, I assume since the Government has done this since the 80s they have better ways (maybe tying in a date) and not having to go to a unknown date.

I want to send a message to myself in the past on a particular date plz can you help me, this means a lot lot lot to me,plz help me Nazneen

Why don’t we drop the declaratory statements that it “is or isn’t possible!” Until someone actually does so. Just say “maybe”.

People have and their are records both to the pass and future. The Government has done it since the 80s as part of the “star wars project” and are much better at it today. This explains the black holes in the sky of 2019, and the CERN destroying 5 parallel universes in 2013. We also see changes because of time travel events changing time. The Mandela Effect is a find example.

I want to send a msg to myself and my family in the past ,is it possible plz help me my life will be saved one who helps me saves me and my kids from a pack of beasts,

The worst idea ever. We all want to do this and where does it stop. A lottery win does not sound bad if you knew the actual location, time and place. After a while though, would you not want to write that hit song, become the author of the Harry Potter books, stop 9/11? The idea of giving your pass self (a time time travel was not proven) information of the future could change things in a major way. This would cause one small thing to change creating many others to change. This has already happen in simple ways of the The Berenstein Bears changing to The Berenstain Bears. This is a small event but this event “The Mandela Effect” now has over 3,000 changes.

What if you decided to give your pass self information about a lottery ticket that would be a winner, bought late at night and he was hit by a car on the way to get it. Changes the whole future. However, If detailed right, done right, with no large changes, it may not effect much, but to know your being given info from yourself in a future time (when that was not known much or provrn back than) You would either assume it is a joke or you gone crazy.

I don’t want to win a lottery, my decision about my career and studying was right but my family and their cruelty has put me into this worst condition I just want to go back complete my studies and live a life like a human not like a animal or slave,help me plz Nazneen

Can someone take me to 2013? i can pay later to all of you in bitcoins so its a win win and you dont need to do anything, just wait

LOL but still complicating on my side

You travel in your dreams where time and space colloids ..That’s y sometimes the dream which you dreamt might be a 10 mins reel time but you felt dreaming whole time like 6 to 8hrs .. Probably even traveling to parallel universe

I agree. Dreams as we know it is not a simple sleep. The part of the brain we do not use while awake, we use at night. This is the phenomenon part of the brain that can do thing we feel a human can not do. We of course use less than 30% of our brain. By the use of 100% of the brain we would use both sides and be able to do common things such as read thoughts, move things without touching them etc. The idea of using this side of the brain, would be the theory we can leave our bodies and visit different universe, see what could of happen shall we done something different, and even see future events. This may be why we notice different memories to some things as we could of held some from another reality.

It would be very weird, however, if we were trapped in that universe, or another body and fail to return to ours. Is that how people die in their sleep?

i just fell like going to late 70’s, where i can see majority of family.. i am willing to trade life for it…..

Time travel to the pass is just as common as the future. However, as both has been done it is NOT travel threw time. Time is a illusion we created. We are actually traveling threw different universe with (what we call) different time, dates, years, etc. The Mandela Effect is a find example how traveling threw different reality’s change the time lines.

As a add on to the above, Time travel is not a theory, has been proven, and has been done by the Government since the 1980s. Their is many residue in our history to even show some time travel storys to be real.

Where can one get a reverse watch, is it really possible to go back in past with its help, is it sooo easy ,plz help me ??????? Nazneen

US20060073976A1- search this patent number,this describes the process for time travelling,I really don’t think magnetic energy will work,maybe heat focused on a specific point could expand the fabric of space and make a hole in it.even then I will the hole take you to another time.it would be one thing to time travel but selecting a point in time would be impossible.you could only travel to the time you device was built?

Is there a watch which back travels in time or reverse time watch? Is it true? How to get one? But with that how can I send a message to myself in my past, plz help Nazneen

I don’t believe such a watch exist and their are plenty of smart minds with huge funds trying to travel.right now there are only theories.

Thank you very much for your response. I just want to send a message to myself in my past. Nothing much will be changed but 3 literally dying devastating lives will be saved. We are suffering for the mistakes and egoistic arrogance of others so if possible plz help me

Traveling back in time isn’t just a when problem, it’s a *where* problem. Where was the place you’re standing right now a thousand years ago, or a thousandth of a second ago? There is no useful answer to those questions, so there’s nowhere to travel back in time to.

Traveling forward in time? You’re doing it now.

when you step through a door is time lost when you come back through? lets say you return days Later how much time did you loose. what exactly is Time,.? is dialation a safe way to return ,. a Blackhole will assist you in in travel, the question is will you arrive safe,.

Traveling back in time is impossible. 2 reasons why that are never taken into account.

A) The stuff you are made of ( subatomic material) is being used by something else. It I not like you are a facsimile of the already existing material. What you are made of is exactly the same existing material. The problem is exact stuff can not exist in 2 different places in the same point in time. You will either : Decompile or fall out of phase with the universe. Both bad outcomes for the time traveler.

B) Lets look at it from logical commonsense. You have a bar of gold . You intend to send the bar back 1 second in time. Now you have 2 bars of gold . You send those 2 bars back one second . You have 4 bars …… do that 50 times . You have over 900 trillion bars of gold. All made of the exact subatomic particles. The more the bars back the more the existing mass of the universe increase. What are the consequences of changing the mass of the universe . Hence the paradox . Information can not be destroyed., It also can not be created.

At least this is the way my brain perceives going back in time.

Time is a function of change. None of the 4 forces The strong force , The weak force , Electromagnetism and Gravity can not work without time.

I will figure out time travel one day but only for the past.

I wish I could travel back to 18th of June to save my mom.

Is time travel really a one way ticket? Theoretically, if you can go one way, you should be able to go back.

Time is not one way. It’s consequences are however irreparable given certain circumstances and is not something that should be taken lightly or thought of in a manner of disregard. I’ve only very recently decided to take to your social platforms regarding space and time.

You can try finding me on Instagram. I’m not familiar with these platforms to better direct you there. My Instagram name is johnrvh

On Twitter it seems to be @_JohnRvH

If I go forward I will have to pay extra bills and taxes. I don’t think I can afford it.

You’re the first person I’ve come across in this timeline that has a sense of humor. Thankfully, going forward is not possible if that future hasn’t been created yet.

timetraval is no joke if its created the whole universe could go out of orbit.

Cauchy problem converging to non minimal terraces as t → +∞

Stephen Hawking may he rest in peace a genius but not all knowing. As far as he knows we haven’t been flocked by tourists, in the same maybe these UFO sightings are actually time travelers from the future coming to the past to view how we really lived why things really happened the way they did, etc. To limit the imagination of possible and impossible is wrong then you create fantasy. And we have learned from history that there is truth in fantasy. I.e. the different mythos of the different ancient cultures from around the world including those of the Norse. Improbable and probable should be more appropriate. It’s possible because it can be imagined improbable die to the right math or this or that not existing or matching up. I also believe that if time travel to the past were possible that the changing of something in the past would create a new timeline running current with your timeline at which will inevitably collide and will cause the collapse of the universe at which point a new universe will be born.

so i think the speed of light is only relative to deciding a point of destination -initially- as specific gravity of destination needs to be ascertained to calculate the frequency needed to run an alcubierre-white engine to bend space correctly to cross space ‘quickly’, the point of reference may well be jupiter in our solar system for the fact of the moons that orbit it, i surmise that by using a ‘dead end ‘ equation that usually puts notable mathematicians into the outer regions by trying to solve it may actually be the key as calculations end in a loop of 4-2-1 ie 3N+1; this process of calculation creates a sine wave over time/distance relative to specific gravity of chosen destination – as time is determined by gravity therefore if the speed of light to a destination can be used to ascertain the specific gravity of a ‘body’ to visit ie a star or sun due to receivable resonant frequencies emitted by the body, then the constrictions of the speed of light do not exist other than to give a constant, by using the 3N+1 method of calculation ,once the speed of light and returning resonant frequencies of a destination are determined the calculation can be extrapolated to match the distance giving the end point -in doing this the sine wave required can be ascertained and be condensed to create a wormhole and allow the alcubierre-white engine to ‘bend or distort space enough so that the bubble you are in matches the required specific gravity of the destination – the frequency of the body nearest to the destination point should be used and resonated inside the bubble to create synchronicity of frequency and cause attraction i also believe that travelling through space require the ability to see things from different perspectives and it requires the ability to navigate through a series of what may be described as “Aims Windows” where your point of view needs to change inherently with a given position at a given point in the galaxy

Comments are closed.

Blogging from Canadian Perspectives

An inclusive digital science salon featuring Canadians blogging about a wide array of scientific disciplines.

Associate Sponsor

Travel Tech Revolution: 3 Experts Share Their Insights on How Tech Shapes Journeys

W e've gone from paper maps and written itineraries to instant technology at our fingertips in less than a decade. But is the tech revolution ruining our travel experiences?

It's true that more people are glued to their phones than ever, but is the convenience worth it? And are we safer with technology while traveling the world?

In this post, three tech experts share their insights into how technology shapes our journeys and what the future of travel might hold.

Personalized Travel Recommendations

The COVID-19 pandemic left the travel industry on its knees, and it underwent a serious transformation to regain its customer base.

Now, people want personalized travel recommendations, unique experiences, and effortless travel planning – all from the comfort of their homes.

Technology is making that possible with remote check-ins, travel guide apps, and 24-hour chatbots to engage travelers anywhere in the world.

These tools are widely used in various industries, from clothing fitting rooms to home interiors. But they are now beginning to make an appearance in the travel industry.

Museums, in particular, have opened their doors to online exhibitions, allowing you to visit them without ever leaving home. In the future, the same tech could allow you to visit the wonders of the world without being there in person, making "travel" more accessible.

But is VR a good replacement for the real thing? And will people even adopt the technology?

"In the gaming world, VR is already huge. The technology gives players immersive experiences, and about one in ten gamers already own a VR headset. Although augmented reality will never replace travel, it does make worldwide experiences far more accessible." – Michael Robery from GTA Boom

Smart Wearables

Technology is also creeping into our experiences during travel. There are already travel companies using smart wearable technology to improve customer engagement.

For example, Air Berlin has smartwatch boarding passes that display documents with a shake of the wrist and can be scanned the same as a digital boarding pass on a phone.

Of course, relying on digital boarding passes can result in difficulties, and many travelers still rely on paper backups. So, perhaps a fully digital check-in isn't quite here yet.

The Role of AI

There are different opportunities for AI to enter the travel sphere. AI-powered chatbots like ChatGBT can already give you personalized travel recommendations, activity lists, weather reports, hotel recommendations, and more based on your inquiries and past travel history.

AI can also help with language barriers. Any chatbot equipped with language translation can provide real-time communication with locals, helping travelers navigate with ease.

"The travel industry will undoubtedly be disrupted by AI. The technology significantly eases the process of travel research, and can even give real-time updates on travel delays, prices, and more to make the process of traveling much smoother." – Dr. Johns from Hackr

But what will advances in AI mean for travel agents? Will more reliance on technology remove the human element of our vacation plans?

Cybersecurity Concerns

When any industry begins to rely too heavily on technology, dangers arise when the technology fails. Technology has unquestionably made us safer while we travel, but we need to respect its limits if we want to retain the joy of traveling.

"Huge amounts of information are collected by travel agencies, meaning that increased cybersecurity measures are needed to handle the increase in reliance on technology. " – Taimur Ijlal from Netify

Although technology is making travel more convenient, it's also creating a digital divide. In remote or economically poor regions, people have less access to the internet or digital devices, creating inequalities in travel opportunities and access to the best deals.

Over-Tourism & The Environment

Many of our leaps forward in technology have been made to help the environment. With less reliance on paper boarding passes and other documents, it can feel as though technology is helping our planet, but is that the whole story?

With travel becoming more convenient than ever, we're experiencing over-tourism in the most popular destinations around the world. Places like  Venice, Barcelona, and Bali are swarmed by tourists each year, leading to overcrowding, stretching of resources, and loss of culture.

There's also the issue of the envrionmental impact of flights. In the US alone, there are around 45,000 flights handled by the FAA's Air Traffic Organization (ATO) every day – that's a massive contributor to our carbon footprint.

The Verdict

As we look to the future, it's clear that technology will play an ever-growing role in the travel industry. From augmented reality and smart wearables to AI-powered planning, the impact is undeniable.

But the technology revolution doesn't come without challenges. With concerns about safety, over-tourism, and the environment, it's important to strike the right balance between technology and authentic human interaction when planning our trips.

This article originally appeared on TheRoamWild and was syndicated by MediaFeed.

More from MediaFeed:

• 8 Guns 100% Made in the USA
• Only People Who Lived Through the ’90s Will Understand These Things  

Like MediaFeed’s content? Be sure to follow us.

Curious about the benefits available to AARP members? Watch this two-minute video to learn more.

AARP daily Crossword Puzzle

Hotels with AARP discounts

Life Insurance

AARP Dental Insurance Plans

AARP MEMBERSHIP 

AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal

Get instant access to members-only products, hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Find how much you can save in a year with a membership.  Learn more.

• right_container

Work & Jobs

Social Security

AARP en Español

• Membership & Benefits
• AARP Rewards
• AARP Rewards %{points}%

Conditions & Treatments

Drugs & Supplements

Health Care & Coverage

Health Benefits

AARP Hearing Center

Advice on Tinnitus and Hearing Loss

Get Happier

Creating Social Connections

Brain Health Resources

Tools and Explainers on Brain Health

Your Health

8 Major Health Risks for People 50+

Scams & Fraud

Personal Finance

Money Benefits

View and Report Scams in Your Area

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide

Free Tax Preparation Assistance

AARP Money Map

Get Your Finances Back on Track

How to Protect What You Collect

Small Business

Age Discrimination

Flexible Work

Freelance Jobs You Can Do From Home

AARP Skills Builder

Online Courses to Boost Your Career

31 Great Ways to Boost Your Career

ON-DEMAND WEBINARS

Tips to Enhance Your Job Search

Get More out of Your Benefits

When to Start Taking Social Security

10 Top Social Security FAQs

Social Security Benefits Calculator

Medicare Made Easy

Original vs. Medicare Advantage

Enrollment Guide

Step-by-Step Tool for First-Timers

Prescription Drugs

9 Biggest Changes Under New Rx Law

Medicare FAQs

Quick Answers to Your Top Questions

Care at Home

Financial & Legal

Life Balance

LONG-TERM CARE

​Understanding Basics of LTC Insurance​

State Guides

Assistance and Services in Your Area

Prepare to Care Guides

How to Develop a Caregiving Plan

End of Life

How to Cope With Grief, Loss

Recently Played

Word & Trivia

Atari® & Retro

Members Only

Staying Sharp

Mobile Apps

More About Games

Right Again! Trivia

Right Again! Trivia – Sports

Atari® Video Games

Throwback Thursday Crossword

Travel Tips

Vacation Ideas

Destinations

Travel Benefits

Outdoor Vacation Ideas

Camping Vacations

Plan Ahead for Summer Travel

AARP National Park Guide

Discover Canyonlands National Park

History & Culture

8 Amazing American Pilgrimages

Entertainment & Style

Family & Relationships

Personal Tech

Home & Living

Celebrities

Beauty & Style

Movies for Grownups

Summer Movie Preview

Jon Bon Jovi’s Long Journey Back

Looking Back

50 World Changers Turning 50

Sex & Dating

Spice Up Your Love Life

Friends & Family

How to Host a Fabulous Dessert Party

Home Technology

Caregiver’s Guide to Smart Home Tech

Virtual Community Center

Join Free Tech Help Events

Create a Hygge Haven

Soups to Comfort Your Soul

AARP Solves 25 of Your Problems

Driver Safety

Maintenance & Safety

Trends & Technology

AARP Smart Guide

How to Clean Your Car

We Need To Talk

Assess Your Loved One's Driving Skills

AARP Smart Driver Course

Building Resilience in Difficult Times

Tips for Finding Your Calm

Weight Loss After 50 Challenge

Cautionary Tales of Today's Biggest Scams

7 Top Podcasts for Armchair Travelers

Jean Chatzky: ‘Closing the Savings Gap’

Quick Digest of Today's Top News

AARP Top Tips for Navigating Life

Get Moving With Our Workout Series

You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply.

Go to Series Main Page

AARP The Magazine

Jun/Jul 2024

Apr/May 2024

Feb/Mar 2024

Dec 23/Jan 24

Digital Special Issue 2023

Oct/Nov 2023

Aug/Sep 2023

Jun/Jul 2023

Apr/May 2023

Feb/Mar 2023

Election latest: Farage urged to 'get a grip' of Reform UK amid racism row

John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, has urged Nigel Farage to "get a grip" of Reform UK after a racism row involving the prime minister. It comes as a Reform UK canvasser who used a racial slur against Rishi Sunak called himself a "total fool" and said he has learned his lesson.

Saturday 29 June 2024 16:10, UK

• General Election 2024

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

• Farage urged to 'get a grip' of Reform UK
• Reform canvasser in PM racism row says he was 'a total fool'
• Faultlines:   Eight-hour school runs and kids too hungry to sleep - the families caught up in housing 'social cleansing'
• Politics at Jack and Sam's : The last weekend
• Live reporting by Faith Ridler

Election essentials

• Manifesto pledges: Conservatives | Greens | Labour | Lib Dems | Plaid | Reform | SNP
• Trackers:  Who's leading polls? | Is PM keeping promises?
• Campaign Heritage:  Memorable moments from elections gone by
• Follow Sky's politics podcasts:  Electoral Dysfunction | Politics At Jack And Sam's
• Read more:  Who is standing down? | Key seats to watch | What counts as voter ID? | Check if your constituency is changing | Guide to election lingo
• How to watch election on Sky News

Reform UK has withdrawn support from three of its candidates, the party has confirmed.

Nigel Farage's party is no longer backing Edward Oakenfull, Robert Lomas, and Leslie Lilley - who were all previously candidates for Reform.

Mr Oakenfull reportedly penned social media posts about the IQ of sub-Saharan Africans - which he told the BBC were "taken out of context".

Meanwhile, Mr Lomas allegedly said black people should "get off [their] lazy arses" and stop acting "like savages".

Ms Lilley is accused of describing people arriving on small boats as "scum".

The candidates will remain on the ballot paper, but are no longer endorsed by Reform UK.

It comes as Sky News identified two additional Reform UK parliamentary candidates who shared material deemed "vile" and in breach of the internationally-recognised definition of antisemitism.

Pledges and promises are coming thick and fast from every party as the general election approaches. 

Struggling to keep up with who is saying what?

Here is a summary of where the main parties stand on major issues.

For a more in-depth look at what each party has pledged, scour our  manifesto checker ...

By Jason Farrell , home editor

The Welsh electorate has travelled in one direction for the last 100 years.

Labour always win more votes and seats than their rivals in Wales but, floating our parliamentary bench on a barge across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, we discover not everything is as tranquil as it seems in this stunning beauty spot.

The 20mph speed limit, wind farms and waiting times on the NHS are all matters raised by people who are not happy with Labour's record in the Senedd.

The first person we meet is Reuben Jones, who works at the local barge hire company adjacent to the aqueduct.

"I'm a transgender person," says Reuben. "I'm very unhappy with the state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts at the moment. There are a lot of issues with the education system, a lot of problems with the health care system."

Our live poll tracker collates the results of opinion surveys carried out by all the main polling organisations - and allows you to see how the political parties are performing in the run-up to the general election.

With under a week to go, the Tories and Labour have taken a drop, while support for Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats is on the rise.

Read more about the tracker  here .

First Minister of Scotland John Swinney has joined criticism of "racist and homophobic comments" allegedly made by Reform UK campaigners.

Despite this, he said they are "not a surprise to me".

Mr Swinney, also the leader of the SNP, said: "I think this is where the politics of Reform ends up and I deplore it. I deprecate it. I want nothing to do with it. 

"We will always rail against racist and homophobic comments, and I can't believe that there's a single thing Nigel Farage can do to control a problem that he himself has started."

The SNP leader goes on to claim that this is not a case of bad apples, but "an ingrained problem of Reform".

He says: "Nigel Farage has set this all up. He has stoked it all.

"With every word over all these years, he has incited all that intolerance and prejudice in our society. 

"I want to have nothing to do with it. 

"And I don't think there's anything Nigel Farage can do to stop it, because he created it."

Reform UK has reported Channel 4 to the elections watchdog for alleged "scandalous... interference" over what the party claims was a fake rant planted by the broadcaster.

Footage from an undercover Channel 4 reporter showed Reform campaigner Andrew Parker using a discriminatory term about the prime minister, as well as saying the army should "just shoot" migrants crossing the Channel.

Police are now assessing the comments to establish if an offence has been committed, while Mr Sunak  said the insult directed at him "hurts and it makes me angry".

Mr Farage, the leader of Reform UK, has since suggested that Channel 4 may have paid an actor to make racist comments about the prime minister, posing as a canvasser for Reform.

In a letter to the Electoral Commission, party secretary and leading barrister Adam Richardson claimed that "Mr Parker is not a property developer as he has alleged but a jobbing actor".

He added it was "entirely evident that Mr Parker was a plant within the Channel 4 news piece". 

The letter said: "It is wholly unbelievable that by complete coincidence Channel 4 were performing an undercover investigation and by chance were paired up to go canvassing with a man who was pretending to be someone else, using a false voice and saying almost exclusively racist and bigoted remarks."

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, has said he is refusing to appear on Laura Kuenssberg's Sunday morning politics show until the BBC apologise for a "dishonest" audience.  

He claimed this audience existed during his appearance on Question Time.

Mr Farage says: "I have just been invited to appear on Laura Kuenssberg. 

"I'm refusing until the BBC apologises for their dishonest QT audience. 

"Our state broadcaster has behaved like a political actor throughout this election. 

"Reform will be campaigning vigorously to abolish the license fee."

Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has insisted that his party shares "no values with Nigel Farage" in the wake of a new racism row.

It comes after Mr Farage, the leader of Reform UK, suggested that Channel 4 may have paid an actor to make racist comments about the prime minister, posing as a canvasser for Reform.

Sir Ed says: "Liberal Democrats share no values with Mr. Farage. He can sort himself out. My job as a Liberal Democrat leader is to tell you what we're about. 

"I want to fight a positive campaign about how we rescue our NHS and make sure we get the investment in health and care. Make sure we sort out the cost of living problems that people are really suffering under, and deal with things like the environmental issues, like sewage. 

"You know, and I think people get fed up in this campaign when there's all these diversions and nastiness. They want to know what you're going to do for them. 

"And that's what the Liberal Democrats are going to say."

The Archbishop of Canterbury urged people to avoid "personalised abuse" in the closing stages of the election campaign as he encouraged voters to go to the ballot box.

The Most Reverend Justin Welby said: "In these last few days before the election, let us pray for all candidates taking part in this most essential act of democracy.

"Let us encourage courteous and kind debate and not use personalised abuse.

"Let us carefully consider issues and the common good, and above all vote."

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told former soldiers of his plans for a veterans' bill, if the Tories are re-elected, during a campaign visit in his North Yorkshire constituency.

Mr Sunak drunk tea and munched on a cake at the Ellerton Lakeside Cafe, near Northallerton, as he chatted with about a dozen veterans who had gathered for Armed Forces Day, joking that: "You need a lot of sugar to get through my day."

Listening to the men, he said: "That's why we now have, like they do in the US, we have a dedicated office for veteran's affairs, a minister in the cabinet, funding. 

"So, we're at the start of that journey."

He said: "If we're re-elected, we're actually going to have a veteran's bill, we're going to pass our first ever veteran's bill in parliament. 

"That will bring together all the things that we need to do - put some things in law that will improve the service that we've providing. 

"That hasn't happened before - a flagship veteran's bill that (veterans' minister) Johnny Mercer's been working on which will just continue to improve the support."

Mr Sunak listened as he was told about initiatives to tackle veterans' homelessness, mental health problems and issues facing service families at the nearby Catterick Garrison.

He said: "We want to make sure all of you get the support you are entitled to."

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free

How IBM helps Wimbledon use generative AI to drive personalised fan engagement

This collaboration with Wimbledon teams extends beyond the fan-facing digital platform, into enterprise-wide transformation.

Authentication vs. authorization: What’s the difference?

6 min read - Authentication verifies a user’s identity, while authorization gives the user the right level of access to system resources.

Applying generative AI to revolutionize telco network operations 

5 min read - Learn the many potential applications that operators and suppliers are capitalizing on to enhance network operations for telco.

Re-evaluating data management in the generative AI age

4 min read - A good place to start is refreshing the way organizations govern data, particularly as it pertains to its usage in generative AI solutions.

Top 7 risks to your identity security posture

5 min read - Identity misconfigurations and blind spots stand out as critical concerns that undermine an organization’s identity security posture.

June 27, 2024

IBM announces new AI assistant and feature innovations at Think 2024

June 26, 2024

A major upgrade to Db2® Warehouse on IBM Cloud®

June 25, 2024

Increase efficiency in asset lifecycle management with Maximo Application Suite’s new AI-power...

Achieving operational efficiency through Instana’s Intelligent Remediation

June 24, 2024

Manage the routing of your observability log and event data 

Best practices for augmenting human intelligence with AI

2 min read - Enabling participation in the AI-driven economy to be underpinned by fairness, transparency, explainability, robustness and privacy. 

Microcontrollers vs. microprocessors: What’s the difference?

6 min read - Microcontroller units (MCUs) and microprocessor units (MPUs) are two kinds of integrated circuits that, while similar in certain ways, are very different in many others.

Mastering budget control in the age of AI: Leveraging on-premises and cloud XaaS for success 

2 min read - As organizations harness the power of AI while controlling costs, leveraging anything as a service (XaaS) models emerges as strategic.

Highlights by topic

Use IBM Watsonx’s AI or build your own machine learning models

Automate IT infrastructure management

Cloud-native software to secure resources and simplify compliance

Run code on real quantum systems using a full-stack SDK

Aggregate and analyze large datasets

Store, query and analyze structured data

Manage infrastructure, environments and deployments

Run workloads on hybrid cloud infrastructure

Responsible AI can revolutionize tax agencies to improve citizen services

Generative AI can revolutionize tax administration and drive toward a more personalized and ethical future.

Intesa Sanpaolo and IBM secure digital transactions with fully homomorphic encryption

6 min read - Explore how European bank Intesa Sanpaolo and IBM partnered to deliver secure digital transactions using fully homomorphic encryption.

What is AI risk management?

8 min read - AI risk management is the process of identifying, mitigating and addressing the potential risks associated with AI technologies.

How IBM and AWS are partnering to deliver the promise of responsible AI

4 min read - This partnership between IBM and Amazon SageMaker is poised to play a pivotal role in shaping responsible AI practices across industries

Speed, scale and trustworthy AI on IBM Z with Machine Learning for IBM z/OS v3.2 

4 min read - Machine Learning for IBM® z/OS® is an AI platform made for IBM z/OS environments, combining data and transaction gravity with AI infusion.

The recipe for RAG: How cloud services enable generative AI outcomes across industries

4 min read - While the AI is the key component of the RAG framework, other “ingredients” such as PaaS solutions are integral to the mix

Rethink IT spend in the age of generative AI

3 min read - It's critical for organizations to consider frameworks like FinOps and TBM for visibility and accountability of all tech expenditure.

IBM Newsletters