[ADNAN NASIR]

Adnan Nasir asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Can we go into our past or future? if so then how?

What do you think?

[LeeE]

We can remember the past and predict the future, albeit not perfectly.  This is actually very little different to traveling in space (just spatial space, not 'outer' space).

Let's say that there are two cities, A and B, and we travel from city A to city B, back to city A, and then back again to city B.  Depending upon how long it takes to make the journeys, there will be a greater or lesser degree of change that has occurred since we left one city and arrived at the other.  If the journey time is very short it may appear that no changes have occurred, but at the atomic level we can be sure that none of the atoms and their constituent sub atomic particles are in exactly the same place or in exactly the same state as they were when we were last there.

If the journey time is of the order of years then we might notice that a few of the older building have gone and new ones have been built, and if we extend the journey time to the order of thousands of years the cities may have become ruins or disappeared entirely.

What this shows is that although it seems we can travel freely through space, we can never go back to exactly the same place because the place itself cannot ever be exactly the same as it was before.  I should also point out that the concept of the 'same place' also depends upon which reference system you use: if we use a reference system based upon the Milky Way galaxy, for example, then the complete solar system will no longer be in the same place.

When we travel through space then, the idea that we can travel back and forth freely is a bit of an illusion, because what we think of as traveling back to somewhere different is really traveling forward to somewhere different.

This is more obvious when we think about traveling through time; we clearly cannot travel back in time and the only, and inevitable direction is forward.

In summary then, while we can remember the past and predict or imagine the future, we can only move forward, towards the future, and only know or experience it once we get there.

[ameliaswank]

i think the only way to go in to our past or future is the way of imagination. surely while imagining things you can view all your past days which have gone through all your life and similarly you will imagine all your future just as you want it...

[cat_with_no_eyes]

This is rather an obvious question now isnt it?

[JP]

This is more obvious when we think about traveling through time; we clearly cannot travel back in time and the only, and inevitable direction is forward.

My time machine is broken!  It only goes forward in time.  To use it, I climb into it, tuck myself in and close my eyes.  Inevitably, when I regain consciousness, I've moved 6-8 hours into the future!  (Sometimes even 10 on weekends!)

[AlphBravo]

The only person with reasonable a hit rate, albeit rather badly interpreted by most was the French man Nostradamus, the 1999 Quatrain was partially fulfilled in October 1999 with the arrival of a King from the skies, who had a rather colourful military career before 1999, however he has yet to enact the death of the economy or bring about a Monarchal system of government also Nostradamus, being French he seemed somewhat indifferent to Americans or their whims!
See also Century 5 Quatrain 55 for another player who also will have a big effect on Western civilisation.