So something I hear a lot from skeptics of time travel is the idea that time isn't this real, tangible thing that we can interact with and manipulate. They say its more something created by the human imagination, as a way to measure and keep track of things we may otherwise not be able to. To some extent they're right about this, but the thing that's important to note here is that not everyone's illusion of time is the same- it's as Einstein would put it "relative" to how fast an observer is going through space. As someone is going faster and faster, time slows down for them according to the laws of relativity. And if it were somehow possible, once you went past the speed of light time would rewind. Because of this Einstein considered time to be a fourth dimension in space, with the first three be length, width, and height; and the last(time) being direction.
That's nice and all, but the thing was Einstein didn't believe it was anywhere near possible to get past the speed of light. His fourth dimension of direction could only point one way- forward. I think it may be possible, though, based off of the theories suggesting the start and the end of the universe. To put it simply, we know that the universe had a beginning, aka our loving pal the Big Bang. To add to this we're pretty certain that the universe must have an end, like the Big Crunch for example. So to these I think it's important to ask- If the universe is supposedly infinite, then how could it have a definite start and end, especially considering it somehow started on its own? I think the answer to that is that yes, the universe does still have a start and a finish, but that only includes the first 3 dimensions of space. What if the universe was made up of an infinite amount of possibilities(worldlines anyone?) continuously branching off from both the past and the future? Maybe we could think of the universe as as a huuuuge choose your own adventure book with a start and an end, but an uncountable number of pages and ways you could get to the same end. I believe time does exist, and as something whose direction we may be able to swerve, in the form of these infinite possibilities.
That's nice and all, but the thing was Einstein didn't believe it was anywhere near possible to get past the speed of light. His fourth dimension of direction could only point one way- forward. I think it may be possible, though, based off of the theories suggesting the start and the end of the universe. To put it simply, we know that the universe had a beginning, aka our loving pal the Big Bang. To add to this we're pretty certain that the universe must have an end, like the Big Crunch for example. So to these I think it's important to ask- If the universe is supposedly infinite, then how could it have a definite start and end, especially considering it somehow started on its own? I think the answer to that is that yes, the universe does still have a start and a finish, but that only includes the first 3 dimensions of space. What if the universe was made up of an infinite amount of possibilities(worldlines anyone?) continuously branching off from both the past and the future? Maybe we could think of the universe as as a huuuuge choose your own adventure book with a start and an end, but an uncountable number of pages and ways you could get to the same end. I believe time does exist, and as something whose direction we may be able to swerve, in the form of these infinite possibilities.
