The issue for me is that, let’s say that one day a magical device does allow time travel, it would also have to do teleportation relative to some point since everything is in motion. What would all of time and space use for a relative location? Can’t be the earth or sun since those are moving. Even our galactic cluster is moving. So if you went back in time a year, the earth wouldn’t be at the same point in space even though it’s done a full revolution. I’m no space scientist but I don’t imagine we have a solution.
That ‘everything’s moving’ argument is a convenient shutdown, not a dead end. We already track motion precisely, GPS corrects for relativity every second. That means relative positioning isn’t unsolved; it’s restricted.
You wouldn’t target a spot in space. You’d target a worldline, like Earth’s continuous path through spacetime. Same path, different point.
Saying you’d end up in empty space assumes a cartoon machine that only changes the date. A real device moves you along spacetime itself.
So when people say time travel is impossible because there’s no reference frame, what they really mean is: you don’t have access to the frame that works. Not impossible. Classified.
Uh, why can’t it be relative to the Earth’s surface? We’re already trapped in that gravity well after all, we don’t drift off it because of normal time travel in real time.
The issue for me is that, let’s say that one day a magical device does allow time travel, it would also have to do teleportation relative to some point since everything is in motion. What would all of time and space use for a relative location? Can’t be the earth or sun since those are moving. Even our galactic cluster is moving. So if you went back in time a year, the earth wouldn’t be at the same point in space even though it’s done a full revolution. I’m no space scientist but I don’t imagine we have a solution.
That ‘everything’s moving’ argument is a convenient shutdown, not a dead end. We already track motion precisely, GPS corrects for relativity every second. That means relative positioning isn’t unsolved; it’s restricted.
You wouldn’t target a spot in space. You’d target a worldline, like Earth’s continuous path through spacetime. Same path, different point.
Saying you’d end up in empty space assumes a cartoon machine that only changes the date. A real device moves you along spacetime itself.
So when people say time travel is impossible because there’s no reference frame, what they really mean is: you don’t have access to the frame that works. Not impossible. Classified.
May I introduce you to the concept of time travel in the time machine, where you are in a gravitationally bound dimensional pocket
Uh, why can’t it be relative to the Earth’s surface? We’re already trapped in that gravity well after all, we don’t drift off it because of normal time travel in real time.