Time Travel

Time may well be the most complex phenomenon known to mankind. Scientists know many things about it yet at the same time know very little. One conclusion, however, is pretty straight forward. Time travel – at least the kind that would be of any use to us – is just not possible. Firstly we will focus on a few ideas and questions about time travel. One major question asked by people is: if time travel exists where are all the time travelers? This does seem to be an exceptional question. If time travel does exist then wouldn 't we see time travelers popping up here and there in different time periods? One theory is that all the UFO 's, ghosts and other strange phenomenon we experience are caused by time travelers. (Faige) There is of course no proof whatsoever in these statements but it is interesting to think about. The grandfather clause is another very interesting aspect of time travel. It 's an extremely good example of why time travel does not make sense. Say for example you were to travel back in time and kill your grandfather before he produced a son. This would mean your father would never have been conceived and in turn lead to you never being born. But if you were never born then you could not have killed your grandfather and therefore your grandfather had a child which, in turn, leads to your birth. (Richmond 299-300) To put it in a more straightforward context if you went back in time and killed yourself as a child you would never have grown up and would never have been able to travel back in time to kill yourself. This obviously does not make sense and completely contradicts itself. Richmond, however, brings up an interesting defense of the theory. He states that time can not be tampered with. For example you go back in time to kill your grandfather. You try to stab him but at that moment he gets into a taxi cab. You try to shoot him but your gun jams. No matter how you try to kill him, you simply can not do so. You run into an

Cited: Richmond, Alasdair "Recent Work on Time Travel" Philosophical Books Vol. 44 Issue 4 (Oct 2003): 297(13p). EBSCOhost: Acedemic Search Premier. Dowe, Phil "The Coincidences of Time Travel" Philosophy of Science Vol. 70 Issue 3 (Jul 2003): 574(16p). EBSCOhost: Acedemic Search Premier. Riggs, Peter J. "The Principal Paradox of Time Travel" Ratio Vol. 10 Issue 1 (Apr 1997): 48(17p). EBSCOhost: Acedemic Search Premier. Faige, David Space/Time Continuum (date not specified)