There could be a law that prevents them from coming to the past.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

If they came back from the future and brought us time machines it would illiminate the need for us to invent them in the first place. Hence, they would never be invented so they couldn't come back to give them to us.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Exactly.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I think if someone brought a time machine back to the past, it would eliminate the need for invention but that doesn't mean they just wouldn't exist. They already have one that's why they wouldn't invent it

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Exactly, we already have one, so we wouldn't invent it. Now think about how we got it in the first place, someone brought it from the future, but they wouldn't feel the need to do that anymore because the time machine would already exist in that time.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

its going to be a never ending cycle lol time travel is confusing

by Anonymous 11 years ago

But once the person brings the time machine back then we'll know how to make it, therefore we will have the time machine, just earlier. If the time machine was brought back to the past then it's true that it would not be invented, however it would not need to be because it's introduction in the past would allow us to learn to make it whenever it was brought back to.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Not exactly, we would know how to make a time machine, but our knowledge would result in whomever brought the time machine back in the first place not doing so anymore.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Doesn't matter if they don't do it anymore, bringing the time machine to the past would create an alternate reality in which it does not need to be invented because it was invented in the other version of history

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I thought that the whole premis of this post was assuming there was only one reality, although in that case you are correct.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Maybe, however that's theoretically impossible

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Exactly, that is what I was arguing. Bringing a time machine back in the same reality would be impossible because of the paradoxes it would create.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Ah, thank you I now see the discrepancy. Theoretically, if a time machine were to go back in time, the moment it arrived at the time in the past it would alter the reality of the future in which case you are correct that the time machine may never be invented in that version of reality. However, by virtue of the linear manner in which matter moves through time, changes to the world in the future cannot retroactively change the past, even if the thing that is in the past (aka the time machine) came from a point after the future event which was altered because that thing now exists in the past. So maybe the time machine would never be 'invented' but it would be 'discovered' because the human race suddenly got it at some point preceding when it would have been invented. Therefore the idea of it being the same reality is a theoretical impossibility. Seem logical or am I losing my mind?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

What you said was logical, but it seemed somewhat circular when you were explaining it. I understood though.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Ha ha, it's freaking hard to explain in just text

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Time travel is something best explained using diagrams, speech, and potent hallucinogenic drugs.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

You can't go back in time and change the past. If you do then you didn't actually go back in time, just to a parallel universe.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

They could have given it to people at a later time.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Perhaps time machines WILL be invented, but only so that you can travel to other time machines, which would mean that you could travel into the future (where there would be more time machines) or back to the first time machine, but no farther back.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

look time always moves forward so if you go back and change something you wouldnt notice because you would always be living it so there is no point to time machines anyway.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

You're assuming that time is a linear concept

by Anonymous 11 years ago

well its impossible to go back in time so yes i am saying it linear. well i was reading up on this (yeah i do that). I learned that if you where to create a wormhole to the past the feedback radiation would destroy the wormhole and if time only moves in one direction then its linear.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Unless they don't want us to have them until they're meant to be invented because we can't be trusted with that level of technology. Every country in the world would try and use it to go back and make their empire more powerful if they got a time machine. I wouldn't trust anyone alive today with a time machine, especially my own country.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

*futer

by Anonymous 11 years ago

*time macne

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I think that there are enough mentally unstable people right now. And in the future that at least one person could come back change the past horrible and as i said earlier that means we would all be living it cause time moves forward. and if you look at history humans are predictable in behavior and there are no moments where we are like "what the hell happened!!!"......OK well there are but no reports of an other worldly angel or demon invading.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I rationalise this in my head by saying time machines are like telephones - there has to be a recieving end. The day we invent a time machine will be the earliest possible date to which someone can return. ... it's a theory, right?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Maybe people are traveling back in time (to now) and they just aren't allowed to tell anyone they're from the future. Wouldn't it mess you up if someone told you he/she is from like year 2300?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Maybe when people travel to the past, it splits off into an alternate reality...

by Anonymous 11 years ago

no because then there would be no point to time travel. you would already be living it

by Anonymous 11 years ago