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If the human mind can think it, it can be done.

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Signs654
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03 Apr 2009, 10:55 am

From Wikipedia talk page on time travel:

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Time travel will certainly become a reality; all things the human mind can comprehend can be accomplished. The claim that only photons can travel at the speed of light will be ridiculous to a first year student in the year 3008. Ask almost anyone on the planet 108 years about travelling from New York to San Francisco in 8 hours and they would have said its impossible. Ask someone 508 years ago about travelling 70 miles in one hour and they would have said thats impossible. Any problem is solvable given enough time and resources. The atom did not even exist in the year 1744, at least not to scientists of the day, yet in 1945 we smashed a few together over Japan with spectacular results. One new discovery leads to discovering something else which will lead to travel faster than the speed of light. If the human brain can think it, then it can be done. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.44.1.69 (talk) 11:03, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

You might want to consider the difference between science and wishful thinking

I can think of jumping to the moon, but I can't do it. There is a difference between that which is difficult and that which is impossible. Just because difficult things have been done does not mean that there are no impossible tasks.--RLent (talk) 20:27, 17 April 2008 (UTC)
I think that jumping to the moon is much more likely then travelling in time, but i believe both scenarios are accomplishable. - Thymo


Do you believe this statement? "If the human mind can think it, it can be done"



lau
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03 Apr 2009, 11:13 am

Signs654 wrote:
...

Do you believe this statement? "If the human mind can think it, it can be done"

How about the stronger statement: "If the human mind can think it, it has already been done".

I can already conceptualise a simulation of the universe, which, to the inhabitants of that universe, appears identical to this one, with the exception that a "tweak" has been added to allow time travel (or any other "impossible" task).

You must now prove to me that we do not already live in such a simulation.


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ruveyn
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03 Apr 2009, 11:16 am

Backward time travel produces a logical paradox, the so-called grandfather paradox. On the other hand we are all traveling to the future at the speed of light. Even if you don't move in space you are moving in time.

ruveyn



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03 Apr 2009, 11:18 am

If the statement ever turns out to be true, shouldn't we first be thinking of a world where we are not reciprocally destroying each others existences on a whim? At least that should be possible without turning cosmic laws inside out.


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lau
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03 Apr 2009, 11:29 am

ruveyn wrote:
Backward time travel produces a logical paradox...

I suggest you explain that to the next backward time traveller you meet.


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Signs654
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03 Apr 2009, 11:35 am

lau wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
Backward time travel produces a logical paradox...

I suggest you explain that to the next backward time traveller you meet.


If you enter a parallel universe with the same past, but a different future, that paradox goes away.



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03 Apr 2009, 12:02 pm

Signs654 wrote:
Do you believe this statement? "If the human mind can think it, it can be done"

It's a load of crap. So are Retrograde Time Travel, Telepathy, Parallel Universes, and the Spirit World.

:roll:

Next question?



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03 Apr 2009, 1:15 pm

Fnord wrote:
Signs654 wrote:
Do you believe this statement? "If the human mind can think it, it can be done"

It's a load of crap. So are Retrograde Time Travel, Telepathy, Parallel Universes, and the Spirit World.

:roll:

Next question?


And if man were meant to fly, he'd be born with wings, eh Fnord?

'More things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio'...only the fool is certain.



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03 Apr 2009, 1:44 pm

Sorry kid, but the ability for flight was already a well-established fact of nature. All that was required was for humans to create for themselves the right set of wings. This was accomplished through observation and experimentation - two facets of scientific investigation.

Now, if Retrograde Time Travel, Telepathy, access to Parallel Universes, and communication with the Spirit World could be clearly and repeatedly observed to exist, then eventually, through experimentation, humans could accomplish these things in the commonplace world.

Unfortunately, the only "proof" of these things is offered by people relating purely subjective experiences with no pattern to them, making scientific validation impossible.

Ideas are not proof.



Signs654
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03 Apr 2009, 1:46 pm

Willard wrote:
And if man were meant to fly, he'd be born with wings, eh Fnord?

'More things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio'...only the fool is certain.


Most people in the time before aircraft were invented would tell you that people traveling in the air was impossible.



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03 Apr 2009, 1:53 pm

... and it took only one demonstration to prove them all wrong.

Show me that Retrograde Time Travel, Telepathy, Parallel Universes, and the Spirit World exist, and I will believe.

Just show me, that's all you have to do.



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03 Apr 2009, 2:03 pm

Signs654 wrote:
lau wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
Backward time travel produces a logical paradox...

I suggest you explain that to the next backward time traveller you meet.


If you enter a parallel universe with the same past, but a different future, that paradox goes away.

Why is it that everyone makes a bee line for the most complicated solution possible here? It's like slitting your wrists with Occam's Razor...or something. I much prefer the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle.


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03 Apr 2009, 4:17 pm

^^ I believe the question is a very interesting one indeed, yet one with many possible answers. I personally believe that anything is really possible, for I can only experience a finite amount, and all that I do experience from the physical world is perceived and interpreted. Therefore although I say it is possible for this to be the case, I believe it is also possible for it to be impossible. ^^ I am very sorry if this statement is self-contradicting or somewhat of a paradox yet I can find no other happy way to express this. It also depends on what ' what mankind can achieve' actually means. For instance if it (whatever it may be) actually takes place, will the humans who accomplished it be considered as humans due to genetic changes. Also, mankind would never accomplish anything alone as mankind. For instance, with oxygen to breathe provided by plant-life, it would not be possible (this is just one example). Also how is it considered if all humans within the human race contributed? Whatever the final result, those who contributed are numerous and most probably not all of one species. ^^ I am very sorry if this is very confusing and incorrec however. As I initially stated, I believe the number of answers (I believe none correct and none incorrect) is most possibly infinite.



metelz
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03 Apr 2009, 4:23 pm

Consider how many people have thought about living forever.

Does that answer the question?



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03 Apr 2009, 4:26 pm

metelz wrote:
Consider how many people have thought about living forever.

Does that answer the question?


^^ This too is very interesting I believe. How can you know that no individual living at any one moment will not live forever? ^^ I wish not to say that this shall come to pass, however it can neither be disproved or proved I believe, as for many matter.



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03 Apr 2009, 4:51 pm

Quote:
^^ This too is very interesting I believe. How can you know that no individual living at any one moment will not live forever? ^^ I wish not to say that this shall come to pass, however it can neither be disproved or proved I believe, as for many matter.


We know that no one will live forever because even in thousands of years civilization has made a cure for every illness has stopped aging, and has resourses for the whole of population, at some point our sun will blow up destroying the entire planet.