Comments on: Neil Tyson and I talk time travel

By: Mike Turner

Mike Turner — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:49:28 +0000

just wondering if you’ve seen “Primer”
its one of my favorite films and i think the best film that involves a lot of advance science
and some fun lines like “hey man are you hungry? i haven’t eaten since later this afternoon”

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:53:05 +0000

Carl (16) said:

And what about when you travel into your own past so that there are two of you? What does that say about the nature of consciousness or the existence of a soul? And what does traveling into the future imply about free will? If you see the consequences of your future decisions, whose will exactly made those decisions if the events haven’t happened to you yet?

I think I know why these questions don’t get addressed.

How can you formulate the questions in such a way that they can be meaningfully resolved?

By: mike burkhart

mike burkhart — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:57:04 +0000

Just thought of another time travel pradox.If I build a time machine and try to go to the past it would disapear ,why? because I built it in 2011 and as I travel back to a time before the machine was compleat it would disasmble it self reverting back to the way the machine was before it was compleat as I was building it. The only way around this is if I built a time machine that would send me back but not travel with me (like the Gardian of Forever in Star Trek)

By: BradC

BradC — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:59:26 +0000

My favorite time travel movie is “12 Monkeys”, which I consider the quintessential example of a “can’t change the timeline”-style time-travel movie. It also has one of those “trying to change an event is what actually causes it” twists. Plus, I just love Brad Pitt’s depiction of the crazy man in the asylum.

Mentioning it might get my man-card revoked, but another good time travel “chick flick” was “The Time Traveler’s Wife”. In this one, it is the *character himself* that has something wrong with him, where he will suddenly and without reason leap through time (without clothes), either to the past or to the future, for a couple hours, then jump back to the present. Excellent romance, but have a box of tissues handy . Also of the “can’t change the timeline” style.

Watching a time-travel movie, I’m always trying to quickly determine which “bucket” it belongs to (“branching time”, like Back to the Future or Terminator, or “fixed timeline” like 12 Monkeys). Until you mentioned Groundhog Day, I didn’t really consider it in the same category, but I guess you could describe “time loop” movies as a third category of time travel movies (the ST: TNG episode “Cause and Effect” was of this type).

Excellent podcast!!

By: jamey johnson

jamey johnson — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:53:44 +0000

Three great recent time travel movies you didn’t mention
Primer
Timecrimes (spanish)
Summer time machine blues (japanese)
I love a well done time travel movie and hate when they don’t think it through, these three movies do a great job and are a lot of fun.

By: mike burkhart

mike burkhart — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:34:00 +0000

I call myslef a scifi addict and there is no treatment for it witch is good. As for time travel , I mentioned the “granfather pradox” before on this blog. But hears another : what if I only go back 1 minute in time ,would I meet myself? would there be two of me one from the past and one from the future? and would there be any problems ? If I went ahead into the future and meet myself or found out about my future would I like what I find? could I change my future ? Carl I would leave questions about the afterlife to the Religous realm , this is one thing that science can neather prove or disprove maybe the only way to findout is to die. I like the Final Countdown , the thing is with all of that modern weapontry that one carrier could of sunk the entire Japanese fleet. Also I found it educational : before I saw it on tv I always wondered how they land aircraft on an aircraft carrier now I know .

By: SLC

SLC — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:57:14 +0000

One movie that is not usually mentioned is, “The Final Countdown.” The plot here is that the modern aircraft carrier Nimitz, operating in the Central Pacific near Pearl Harbor, is transported back in time to December 6, 1941 through a freak weather event. The plot illustrates the dilemma that faces the notion of time travel backwards, namely should the captain order his aircraft to attack the Japanese fleet heading towards Pearl Harbor and sink it, thus preventing the attack that took place on December 7, 1941?

By: rob

rob — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:25:35 +0000

hey Phil, you calling us dorks? lol.

i resemble that remark!

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:50:18 +0000

I don’t have time to listen to that today but I’m visiting family this weekend so I’m burning both podcasts on CD (I’m probably one of only ten people in the country without an ipod) and I’ll listen to them while on the road.

Hopefully the time travel podcast will make time pass by faster…

By: Carl

Carl — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:30:35 +0000

The weirdest thing to me about time travel in the movies is this: nobody seems to be interested in the utterly stunning philosophical implications. The physics may be stunning, but the metaphysics are absolutely breathtaking.

For example, in a typical movie or TV show, some people are dead… and then time is changed, so they are no longer dead! What does that even mean? If there is an afterlife, what happens to the no-longer-dead person’s afterlife experience? What does it even mean to no longer be dead? The “killing your own grandfather” paradox pales into insignificance compared to unkilling your grandfather.

And what about when you travel into your own past so that there are two of you? What does that say about the nature of consciousness or the existence of a soul? And what does traveling into the future imply about free will? If you see the consequences of your future decisions, whose will exactly made those decisions if the events haven’t happened to you yet?

And yet, if you watch an episode of (say) Star Trek with time travel in it, it’s as if the protagonists say to each other, “Well, we restored the Enterprise, brought the captain back to sanity, and erased millions of deaths. Let’s never speak of this again.”