Time: The Finalest Frontier?

            Time travel, let’s talk about it. First off, to deal with causality crises and paradox problems, I’m going to assume infinite alternate universes, so as soon as you arrive in the past the universe divides at that point, therefore your actions are occurring in a new universe and can’t have effects on your personal past. With that out of the way we can focus on the physics and not the metaphysics. This post will cover three methods of time travel, their consequences, and some bonus conjectures from me. I should point out that this is specifically about traveling back in time, since traveling forward in time is possible with simple relativistic effects according to the current theories of physics, and is therefore isn't as fun to talk about.

            In fiction time travel is often shown as using some vehicle (DeLorean, Telephone Booth, Police Box, Steam Punk Contraption) where you punch in a date, watch some flashing lights, and then drop into your desired time period out of thin air. Sadly, I don’t think this is physically possible. In the generally accepted model of the universe, space and time are two aspects of the same thing (spacetime), and movement in this model is somewhat limited. To travel from one point to another, you need to travel through all the points in between. This means that to travel backward through time you should need to travel through all the corresponding spacetime, or more simply, your time machine needs to exist in all the space and time between your arrival and departure. Imagine building a machine, waiting a year, stepping into it and then stepping out the day after you finished building it. This may not sound very interesting, unless you’ve ever seen the movie Primer, which uses time travel this way and is great, if in a more cerebral way than less feasible time travel films. By the way, you may need to spend the same amount of time in the machine as is moved back in time, aka, traveling a month into the past involves sitting in a box for a month. This method would probably be best for short trips, and even then isn’t useful for much beyond sports betting and day trading in the stock market.

A viable time machine has its own special kind of charm

            Another method for traveling through time involves wormholes, which are always exciting. The general idea is to make a wormhole, move one end around at near the speed of light, then take advantage of the relativistic effects to time travel. To visualize this, picture two doorways that when walking through one, you instantly walk out of the other, regardless of the distance between them (feel free to add some extra sciency stuff around the doors to this picture. I recommend Tesla Coils). Now, similar to the Twin Paradox, you put one door in a spaceship and fly it around at near light speed for a while. Time at both doors is tracked, probably in a handsome LED display above the frame, and when you bring them back together they show a difference of five hours. In theory, if you where to look at one clock, step through the corresponding door, and then look at the clock of the door you just excited, you would see the same time (plus a few seconds naturally). You can’t travel to a time before the wormholes existing, so you can’t use this to blow Isaac Newton’s mind (unless you find some existing wormholes that somehow pulled this off naturally), but I still think this is stupendous. A potential problem with this is that you could create infinite feedback loops, which are generally bad. An example would be if you had wormholes one minute separate in time and facing each other at a distance of one light minute. If you were to shine a light from the older door into the younger it would emerge at the same time and place it originated, creating an infinite loop. Infinite energy created through this could maybe break the universe, but I’m not sure if it would be a problem. Interacting with this energy, including just observing it, would necessarily interrupt the loop at the beginning, negating the whole thing and making it of no consequence (unless it just instantaneously ends the universe, which is a lame consequence, so who cares). A cool thing that you could do similar to this would be to position the sides of a wormhole in such a way that falling through one would reposition you directly above it again (no time differences, since it would just cause problems). This would create an infinite fall, or technically, an infinite source of potential energy. You could easily run water through this, set up a turbine, and then generate electricity like mad (I wonder if this is how Aperture Science gets its power?). This isn’t creating energy or anything, since it's just using gravity, and if overused it could pull the planet out of orbit or something, but it could still be handy (I wonder if you could use this to propel a planet on purpose by basically pulling it with its own gravity?). Wormholes are just so spectacular that it is hard to think of anything that couldn’t be accomplished with the ample use of them.

This is what I imagine an infinite fall wormhole arrangement looking like

            A third way to travel back in time is based on some physicists having some fun with math. If you create crazy enough spacetime geometry you can plot a trajectory through it that would result in exiting before you enter. I don’t know the specifics, but I assume it involves concepts like negative mass or white holes, whose existence is dubious. If they do exist, this seems like the only scientifically legitimate way for someone to travel back in time if a manufactured device hasn’t already been created. A greatly simplified version of this is commonly used in the Star Trek universe, so I’m willing to call this version James T. Kirk approved (you can also create warp drives using this same kind of spacetime geometry witchcraft). If you want to write a scientifically accurate story that involves time travel motivated by revenge or fixing the wrongs of the past, then this method would probably be the best. In the theme of scientific accuracy you would need to account for the fact that such exotic spacetime geometries would only exist a large distance from Earth, so you would need to travel out to it and then back. This would take a while so you better account for that with some extra time traveling, while also employing cryogenic stasis or something similar during the commute. Finding these spacetime phenomena would also be difficult, since if you observed it from a distance it might not still exist when you arrive at its location. Also, surviving travel through this space would be difficult do to insane tidal forces and the like. Hmm, maybe you shouldn’t write a scientifically accurate time travel story. Probably the most interesting thing here is that physicists are spending time thinking about how to make time machines, which makes me very happy.

Looks simple enough to me

            I’ve come to a conclusion. The best method for traveling back in time would be for aliens to show up and give you access to a bunch of time machines that they have spaced throughout the past, preferably using wormholes. I think I’ll just wait for the wormholes, because they’ll make a when no different than a where, and that’s a concept so excellent that I can barely handle it. 

Why, Dear Boy, Why - REVISITED

            One year ago I wrote this. Looking back, my first post was short, boring, and pretty lame (at least this one isn't short, right). My statement about why I’m writing is still mostly true, and the content is still holding with what I originally planned (which is basically no plan). On this anniversary, I think it’s as good a time as any to address my current thoughts about the blog and look back on what it accomplished over the last year.

            I’m still using this blog as a vehicle for all my theories, opinions, and ramblings as originally intended, but I’ve noticed that sharing isn’t as important as I imagined. Soon after I started, I realized that this blog is not reader friendly. With frequent and random changes in both tone and subject, there isn’t really anything here to build a serious audience around. Others can probably find some value in here, but the real person this blog is for, is me. I’m using writing as a way to collect my ideas. Putting my thought down in words has helped me to better understand subjects ranging from what I enjoy about my favorite things to aspects of my personal philosophy.  I’ve also learned a lot from the research that I do for posts (you can never know enough Jeff Goldblum facts). Any sharing is still great, and I would be happy to hear other’s opinions and counter-theories (also let me know if any links are broken), but I am more than willing to keep writing without all that. What I don’t want this blog to become is a shrine to my own intellectual narcissism, where I can worship my own ideas, but it might already be too late for that so whatever. It also just happens to be fun to write and I enjoy the practice and opportunities to think about new things.

            Some people do seem to be viewing this thing, so let’s talk about them. After one year I have just over 2,000 hits, which is less impressive than it sounds since I believe that vast majority of those hits don’t involve anything being read. Spam visits seem to be a fairly common thing, so a large fraction of views can be chocked up to these questionable occurrences. My next main source of hits is from Google image searches. My Moonraker posts are a veritable goldmine of image search destinations, but some of the traffic doesn’t come from images I’ve collected myself, which I feel kind of bad about. The pictures I used in my John Stockton post, and oddly, the tennis dress from the Relationships post get a lot of hits, but I just took them from Google images. I don’t know if there is some sort of internet search “nepotism” or something going on where Google prefers to direct searches to associated sites like blogger, but I feel a little guilty for stealing traffic from more original image sources. Surprisingly, some of my traffic is actually from people reading this stuff, and I'm happy about that. My lone subscriber happens to be my best friend, and my only other know faithful reader is my mom, plus I get some odd traffic from other family and friends. Since this blog is a good window into my mind, I understand how people who know me can find it valuable (it’s also a good list of discussions that I would be willing to have). Beyond all the pageviews mentioned previously I would be willing to estimate that upwards of FIVE other people have viewed, read, and enjoyed some of my writing. You can find anything on the internet, including people who like to read made up duck facts, and I’m glad to have them.

            This will be my 45th post, which is a number that I can accept for my first year. Topics that were addressed include; Ducks, Dinosaurs, Dolphins, Hermaphrodites, Robots, Religion, Philosophical Zombies, and some various auto-biographical garbage. A few posts (eight) were only Top Tens, which are kind of half-assed and I don't know if they should really count as full post as they don't really involve much writing, but whatever. I still have mixed feelings about the Top Tens, and they might undergo some style changes in the future (still probably won't contain ten things though). Another thing I'm undecided on is self reference, since free standing essays would be nice, but other posts are often related and have good support material. I love links so much that the self reference will likely stay. My current goals are to write posts in some styles other than the excited fanboy (the dolphin post being an attempt at this), and I might try some more serious philosophical essays (but not too serious). I still have plenty of topics that I want to cover and don't plan on narrowing my focus any time soon. The variety is what makes it fun for me, and I don't like to beat any subject to death, so that there is always room for more thought. A weekly schedule is something that I'm hoping to maintain in the future, and another thing on the To Do List is figure out what I want to do with my Quotes List page. Other than that I think things will probably continue as they've been.

            Well, one year in, I consider the experiment of writing my own blog a success, and plan on persisting. New things that I want to try in year two is video entries, and maybe some stuff based on drawing. Let the blogging continue. 

Why Two Wheels Are Better Than Four

            We are finally into the time of year when I am confident that I won’t see any snow for a while, and that means that I can use my preferred means of transportation, the bicycle. What began as a lame attempt to impress some girl has developed into something that I really enjoy. Unless I have a really good reason to not to, I ride my bike whenever I go out now (which admittedly isn’t super often), and my internal combustion based transportation can often go weeks without being used. I think I forgot something when I turned 16 that I knew when I was 10, and it was how stupendous riding a bike is.

            There are a lot of reasons that I like riding my bike. First, is that it’s just fun. I guess it’s probably the same reason that some people like motorcycles; wind in your face, the sense of speed, and simplicity, but bikes always have one thing that motorcycles don’t. I can ride through sprinklers, and that’s one of the best things in the world. Another positive aspect is the pure physicality of bike riding. Needing to work harder to go faster and lean into turns make moving from Point A to Point B more interesting and engaging. When I get home I am generally breathing heavy, and that just add more of a feeling of accomplishment to an arrival. Also, riding my bike gives me a good mental break. The need to pay attention to traffic and the physical effort are great for focusing my mind. My short ride home from work is all that I need to completely forget anything stressful that happened that day. Nature is more accessible on my bike. I can hear birds, smell lilacs, and chase a squirrel up a tree if I want. Not so much a motivation but a bonus to riding my bike is that I get to roll up my right pant leg in what seems like some obscure fashion move. This is functionally so my pants don’t get caught in the bike chain, but I like to sport it all day, so if you see this catching on I totally started it (this will never catch on). Factors that don’t really influence me are environmental impacts or fuel prices. Those costs wouldn’t keep me from riding my bike if I still had to pay them or even had to pay more. I do feel pretty superior when I’m on my bike though. This is mostly because I behave like I’m above the law as far as traffic is concerned. I weave between road and sidewalk at will, ride through roads closed for construction, jump curbs, and cross through private property whenever it’s convenient. I assume all the privileges of a pedestrian while behaving as a vehicle when it suits me. I pretty much act like the king of the road.

            I do live in a pretty convenient place for bike riding. Nothing is very far away in town and there are an abundance of bike paths and sidewalks to use. A half mile ride to work is short by any standard. Here is a picture of my route:

Somebody was working on private projects at work

I’ve noted elevations to point out one prohibitive factor to biking is that Pierre isn’t exactly level. A town on the river generally means that the farther you get from the water the higher up you go. Over roughly 3,000’ to get home there is a vertical rise of over 75’, most of which happens in one hill. The hill labeled in the center of the route rises over 43’ and averages a slope of about 7%, which is decent. Assuming me and my bike weigh a combined 200 lbs, that means it takes 8,600 ft-lbs (roughly 2.8 nutritional calories, which sounds way less impressive) for me to get up the hill as purely as an increase in potential energy (see, physics can apply to everyday situations). I timed the ride at 3 minutes 45 seconds, so I average about 9 mph. The most difficult destination to reach in town would have to be the mall (for when I want to get hassled by the over helpful employees of Radio Shack). It’s about 9,600’ horizontal feet to the mall, and it is at an elevation of roughly 1763.84’ about sea level. That’s a vertical difference of over 250’ from my house, but I actually have to pass through a low point to get there. After the first 1,000’ traveled the elevation is only 1488.43’ so then I have to make up 275’ over the remaining 8,600’ for an average slope of 3.2%. That doesn’t sound too bad, but the slope isn’t constant and is probably better than 8% for extended stretches. I definitely get some use out of my low gears by the end of the ride is all I’m saying. Thus ends the asinine technical section of this post (FYI, a percent slope is just the vertical distance over the horizontal distance multiplied by 100).

The hill home in all its epic glory

            There are a few aspects about riding a bike that aren’t ideal. Danger is an big aspect of riding in traffic. I’m harder to see than a car and I’m not really protected if someone runs into me (I don’t even wear a helmet). A bike is very limited in how fast it can go or how much it can carry. I will struggle just to do 30 mph going downhill if there is even a bit of a headwind, and can’t even approach a car's ability to do 75 mph over a period of hours for long trips. My bike has saddle bags so it can carry everything I need to go fishing on the river, but it can’t handle a load of groceries or something like furniture. In winter a bike is not very practical for a few reasons. The main reason is that it can’t handle snow with any sort of proficiency. The factor that actually makes me pack my bike away for about five months of the year is the fact that it’s dark when I go to work, and riding in twilight seems like a really good way to get run over. I also get flat tires much more commonly on my bike. When I first started riding I struggled to go a full week without a flat. I now have puncture resistant and self-sealing tubes in my tires so I haven’t had any problems recently. I never did find the puncture vine that had been troubling me last year so I could have more flat tires later in the season.

The Wheels

            In the end I think my bike has more of an impact on me as a means of transportation because I have more of an impact on it. I actually matter when I ride my bike. My abilities have an impact, I have to pay more attention, and I have more freedom to do what I want. It boils down to a technological augmentation of my own body, but one that I can park when I don't need it, and I really like that.