Time flies as another farewell party had ended and it seems like we had just had the previous one for another ex-colleague the week before last. Does my sense of déjà vu meant that the time in-between had been “fast-forwarded”? Time can be an exasperating element of life; even the most extended stretches of euphoric moments are always extremely short-lived, while an instantaneous second that we loathe will pass by forever so antagonisingly sluggish.
Steven Hawking proclaimed that Time Travel is probable, even a non-believer like Albert Einstein had equations and theories which were used by others to prove that it is possible mathematically and in theory, and Theoretical Physicist Michio Kaku also states that there is no laws in Physics prohibiting Time Travel. Well since my Science knowledge is only certified at Air Level, I shall not dispute what the Masters say.
Time River
This theory is derived from Einstein’s equations which states that time is like a river that may be bent into a Worm Hole. Like a piece of paper (time) with 2 dots (present and future) drawn on each end being bent in half so that the 2 dots met.
It is a shortcut between the present and the past or future much like the Looking Glass of Alice in Wonderland. The catch to this theory is that the energy required for this to happen will be comparable to an exploding star which will be far beyond what we can harness for the time being. Alternatively, you can try to befriend Alice and see if she is kind enough to borrow you the glass.
Time Dilation
Ever heard of the saying 天上一天，地上一年? This effect is called Gravitational Time Dilation. Einstein's theory of General Relativity had proven that clocks that found located in closer proximity to a planet's gravitational pull are running relatively slower than those found further away. That means if you lived your life on top of Mount Everest for 2 years, your life will be fast-forwarded with reference to the ground level in that same 2 years.
Einstein's theory of Special Relativity states that perception of time can change from the view of different observers.
An observer is standing on an asteroid and sees 2 spaceships fly overhead at 0.8c. On the space ships are 2 astronauts and a set of laser and mirror facing each other and they are 0.9m apart. It takes 3 nanoseconds for a light beam to cover 0.9m. As the spaceships passes overhead, one of the astronaut flashes a light so that it hits the bottom mirror and back. It takes the light 6 nanoseconds to make the round trip, and this is from the frame of reference of the astronauts.
The observer from the asteroid will see that same light need to travel a longer distance and thus a longer time of 10 nanoseconds is required for the round trip instead of just 6 measured by the astronauts.
You must be wondering now what has the information above got to do with Time Travel?
First, assume that the astronaut's heart beats every second. After crunching some maths calculation based on the above scenario, for every 10 heart beats of the observer, he will observe that the astronaut’s heart beats only 6 times. So when the observer has aged one year, he will have seen the astronaut age only 0.6 year. Therefore the astronaut had only used 0.6 year to travel an additional 0.4 year into the future.
The fact is we are all forward Time Travellers as the seconds tick pass when you are reading this article whether you like it or not. However, we have yet to be able to control the speed and direction of travel through time, and who knows, we might be able to achieve just that in the near future. Many lament that our current educational system killed our creativity, some of them may be the people who are also thinking inside the same box that confounded the vicious cycle. The society that we lived in has no room for Mavericks and that is why even Hawking used to be afraid about speaking up on the topic of Time Travel for fear of being labelled as a crank. There was a time when people said, it was not possible for humans to fly in the air, but we did. There was a time when people said, it was not possible to fly to the Moon, but we did. There was a time when people said that Singapore won't make it, but we did. Ideas start from dreams; dreams about tomorrow, dreams about the impossible, dreams about the fantasy world, so start dreaming who knows what kind of bright sparks you may come up with.
Nitez and sweet dreamz.
