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If you could control time...

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Copy Clerk
Posts: 85
Joined: 29 Jun 2008

For starters can I just point out that controlling time doesn't mean you can either stop or slow it - you can also speed it up if you want to be the world's oldest person*. Or just do whatever you want with it.

Anyhoo, I was just wondering what sort of creative things people could think of doing with the world when time is theirs to control.

*The way I see this whole "time control" thing is like two separate tunnels. In one, there's the rest of the universe and in the other, it's yourself with the magic watch or whatever it is. So if you sped up time, you'd still age normally within your own tunnel - so as the world around you goes faster, you're seconds become their minutes. That's what I think of it, anyway. Everything's open to opinion/science.

Gregorius
Paperboy
Posts: 34
Joined: 28 May 2008

I personally think there's more fiction than science in the "science-fiction of time control". The idea of actually being able to manipulate time is too abstract to be practical. What I'm about to type is my theory on the subject at hand:

    They say that time branches off into smaller trees. Two scenarios branch into four, then eight, sixteen, et cetera. They don't post the underlying possibility of those "branches" in time intersecting and joining. For example, say you were walking down the street, encounter a bank robber after a heist and got shot near the heart. You rewind time to the "intersection" between heading toward the robber or away from the robber, back to previous healthy condition, and head opposite the robber. What happens now?

    You know what happened. You feel at ease now that you're avoiding the robber with the gun, right? Well, the possibility slips into mind: what lies along path number two? There's the possibility that safety lies around the bend, or an equal danger. You soon enough realize that at approximately this time, you had gotten shot by the robber. You start to worry. What if I see him again? What if someone or something else comes? You can clearly recall the pain of getting shot; after all, at this point in time, it only happened a second ago. The heart is affected by the false pain signals sent by the brain, and begins to act irregularly. Suddenly, the heart stops and you fall into clinical death. You can still be resuscitated... within the next ten minutes.

You see? The body can take the strain of the time displacement, but the mind is fragile. Also, in another thread, I stated that the body, under certain conditions would be affected by the displacement.To sum it up in a few sentences:
    If time is sped up, the body will age and deteriorate faster.
    Slowed down, the molecules that compose your body would lose kinetic energy.
    To freeze time, all kinetic energy would be lost and you yourself would be frozen.
Time heals... and harms... all things.

SecretTacoNinja
Pulitzer Laureate
Posts: 871
Joined: 8 Jul 2008

This is making my head hurt already ~o_o~

Reaperman Wompa
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2111
Joined: 6 Aug 2008

what happens if you are in slow time while everyone moves faster and someone walks where you are standing?
do they bumb off of you or go through you, just always wondered.

Becoming Insane
Paperboy
Posts: 42
Joined: 18 Jun 2008

RE: Gregorius' rant

I think you're overthinking things. (or perhaps not, depending where this post goes) Assuming we live in an infinite multiverse with an infinite number of dimensions, anything is possible, and indeed, has already happened/is happening/will happen. Therefore, in your scenario, rewinding to the "intersection" will let the person have prior knowledge of the robber, and avoid him. After that, if they die, it's more than likely the user of the time-controlling magic/technology/whatever is too stupid to rewind again to avoid the "second" death (even though it's the first).

no.soap.radio
Anonymous Source
Posts: 8
Joined: 6 Aug 2008

Oh and your forgeting about paradoxes
Eg:

Lets say someone killed your brother, and you figured out who it was right? so then youd go back in time to kill the guy who killed your brother riteeeee???? So then you go back to the present to find your brother alive but in actuality the man who was alive to kill you brother before you went back in time is now dead so you would have never gone back to kill him which would mean the he would be alive to kill your brother but he can be because you killed him....... then the universe would implode on itself.

FeepingCreature
Anonymous Source
Posts: 2
Joined: 21 Feb 2008

No actually, there's a number of theories that handle this situation - for instance, it does not occur at all in the Many Worlds interpretation, or the Novikov principle is in effect meaning that you wouldn't be able to create a contradiction in the first place (e.g. your gun suddenly fails, you're out of ammo, you keep missing, you have a sudden stroke .. etc). Alternatively, if time travel is handled in a message-based fashion, the problem doesn't occur at all, because your "imprint" on the past is decoupled from your actual behavior in the future, meaning that you appear to have gone back in time even if you really haven't. (Of course, this violates conservation of matter).

Becoming Insane
Paperboy
Posts: 42
Joined: 18 Jun 2008

Here we have a classic case of what British author Terry Pratchett calls "the Trousers of Time." By killing the person who killed your brother, you've created an alternate "leg." When you go back to the present, you go back to the "leg" that contains your still-alive brother. In the other "leg," you never went back in time. Therefore, no paradox.

Consider this, though.

Hypothetically, if you're on a starship going .999999999999999999(etc.) the speed of light, if you have artificial gravity, what happens once you take a step? Once you do, will your combined velocities exceed the speed of light? If so, what will happen? Will your body go back in time, making it impossible for you to have taken the step in the first place? If so, that's a paradox.

JC123
Copy Clerk
Posts: 67
Joined: 10 Apr 2008

Just do whatever the hell I felt like. Mess with people's minds, prevent events I didn't want to happen, maybe something so simple as pausing time to see what Elisha Cuthbert's rack ACTUALLY looks like (lol, boobies).

I've thought about this pretty regularly for the last few years, it was a common daydream of mine, until I realised that if I stopped time I couldn't see, as no light would hit my eyes, and I might not be able to move, what with the air particles being frozen in place as well.

Lord Krunk
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2692
Joined: 3 Mar 2008

I would stop time, steal whatever I wanted, and get on with my life. Whenever audits happened, I either stop time and get the hell out of there, or I just stop it and hide my stuff.

mark_n_b
Press Junketeer
Posts: 464
Joined: 24 Mar 2008

I'd have to get back to 1985!

88 Miles an Hour... Where we're going we don't need roads.

Souplex
Press Junketeer
Posts: 488
Joined: 29 Jul 2008

Todays Lotto jackpot numbers are 965!
*Goes back to yesterday*

mark_n_b
Press Junketeer
Posts: 464
Joined: 24 Mar 2008

Souplex:
Todays Lotto jackpot numbers are 965!
*Goes back to yesterday*

No! Because then Biff steals your idea and uses it to open a casino and marry your mother! And it's up to us to to get the Sports Almanac back!

FrankDux
Beat Writer
Posts: 169
Joined: 5 Aug 2008

Ya, I'd definitely pull some shit with the lottery and being able to win money. You could only win one though, so you'd have to pick wisely and get a huge payout.

Johnn Johnston
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2923
Joined: 4 May 2008

mark_n_b:

Souplex:
Todays Lotto jackpot numbers are 965!
*Goes back to yesterday*

No! Because then Biff steals your idea and uses it to open a casino and marry your mother! And it's up to us to to get the Sports Almanac back!

All the while, he'll be telling us to make like a tree and split.

Thais
Beat Writer
Posts: 185
Joined: 12 Jun 2008

Becoming Insane:
Consider this, though.

Hypothetically, if you're on a starship going .999999999999999999(etc.) the speed of light, if you have artificial gravity, what happens once you take a step? Once you do, will your combined velocities exceed the speed of light? If so, what will happen? Will your body go back in time, making it impossible for you to have taken the step in the first place? If so, that's a paradox.

Um...nothing. You move forward in the space inside the ship a little bit. In no way are you powering or accelerating the ship beyond ".999999999999999999(etc.) the speed of light" by taking a step inside the cabin. Astrophysics does not run on hamster-wheels.

chimmers
Copy Clerk
Posts: 55
Joined: 18 Nov 2007

Aside from anything sex related, i would enter a food eating contest. Whenever i feel full, stop time for a bit and recover. I shall be the master of food contests!

Also play at Matrix style bullet dodging, obviously

mark_n_b
Press Junketeer
Posts: 464
Joined: 24 Mar 2008

Johnn Johnston:
All the while, he'll be telling us to make like a tree and split.

"Make like a tree and get outta here!"

Manard... I hate Manard... (it sounds like manard when he says it)

Becoming Insane
Paperboy
Posts: 42
Joined: 18 Jun 2008

Thais:

Becoming Insane:
Consider this, though.

Hypothetically, if you're on a starship going .999999999999999999(etc.) the speed of light, if you have artificial gravity, what happens once you take a step? Once you do, will your combined velocities exceed the speed of light? If so, what will happen? Will your body go back in time, making it impossible for you to have taken the step in the first place? If so, that's a paradox.

Um...nothing. You move forward in the space inside the ship a little bit. In no way are you powering or accelerating the ship beyond ".999999999999999999(etc.) the speed of light" by taking a step inside the cabin. Astrophysics does not run on hamster-wheels.

I wasn't talking about accelerating the ship; I was simply wondering what would happen to you.

the monopoly guy
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2746
Joined: 8 May 2008

Make things in the microwave cook faster. I don't want to wait 3 minutes to burn my mouth on molten cheese from a Hot Pocket!

Thais
Beat Writer
Posts: 185
Joined: 12 Jun 2008

Becoming Insane:

Thais:

Becoming Insane:
Consider this, though.

Hypothetically, if you're on a starship going .999999999999999999(etc.) the speed of light, if you have artificial gravity, what happens once you take a step? Once you do, will your combined velocities exceed the speed of light? If so, what will happen? Will your body go back in time, making it impossible for you to have taken the step in the first place? If so, that's a paradox.

Um...nothing. You move forward in the space inside the ship a little bit. In no way are you powering or accelerating the ship beyond ".999999999999999999(etc.) the speed of light" by taking a step inside the cabin. Astrophysics does not run on hamster-wheels.

I wasn't talking about accelerating the ship; I was simply wondering what would happen to you.

No matter how fast you move within the ship, you will not be moving faster than the speed of light, you will just be moving faster than you at the speed of sitting on your butt. Nothing extraordinary is going to happen to you. You cannot run faster than the ship is going, which means you cannot hit a speed at which you are going to be faster than light and able to...outrun time.

snuffler
Beat Writer
Posts: 169
Joined: 4 Jun 2008

Speed in space is relative. Since you would be in the ship only the planets outside of the ship would be going .99999999999999999999 etc, the speed of light. The ship would essentially not be moving, the universe would be moving past the ship. Therefore you getting up and moving within the ship would do nothing. However someone looking at the ship *WITH THE ABILITY TO SEE OBJECTS MOVING LIGHT SPEED* would more than likely see you disappear.

On topic if I could control time, god I dunno. Find out how the universe actually did begin? There's certain scientific things that I just want to know the answers to because there's WAY too much controversy over them. How the Universe Began, is there an actual god?.

And I would also go back into days of medieval times and "invent" an impenetrable fortress with "magic" fences that shock everyone that tries to get near me. Then with my immense knowledge of the magical ways become so popular that the legions of the mightiest kings were sent upon me to steal my secrets where upon I would battle them off since I had previously perfected the fighting arts (hey I can control time why the hell not learn how to fight?) from all ages. And I'd record it all and put it on you-tube. I'd be totally ripped too, cause it's awesome. Yeah...

*Edit* I've always been a fan of architecture and science so I'd probably learn both and design some really abstract building. The buildings that people come up with often inspire awe in me (see Burj Al Arab)

zirnitra
Press Junketeer
Posts: 460
Joined: 2 Jun 2008

I have a habit of speaking before thinking. and have a lot of those scenarios where you say something, the music cuts out and everyone is staring at you gasping. so being able to rewind time by about 30 seconds would be very useful

Birras
Infamous Scribbler
Posts: 598
Joined: 19 Jun 2008

If I could control the entire flow of the space-time continuim, I probably wouldn't go back in time to avert many major crises from happening, as that would most likely make the world entirley different. I would, however, go back 5-10 years and make a killing on the stock market. Also, I heard something similar to the spaceship thing, except it was 'Say you're in a car going at the speed of light, and you turn the headlights on, what happens?'.

Landslide
Art Director
Posts: 448
Joined: 13 Jun 2002

I'd impale people on a tree of thorns!

mark_n_b
Press Junketeer
Posts: 464
Joined: 24 Mar 2008

Landslide:
I'd impale people on a tree of thorns!

You'd do what?!? That's about as funny as a screen door on a battle cruiser.

(I could do this forever. Buy me a delorian, please.)

HomeAliveIn45
Muckraker
Posts: 315
Joined: 4 Jun 2008

*Insert grandfather paradox post here

Landslide
Art Director
Posts: 448
Joined: 13 Jun 2002

mark_n_b:

Landslide:
I'd impale people on a tree of thorns!

You'd do what?!? That's about as funny as a screen door on a battle cruiser.

(I could do this forever. Buy me a delorian, please.)

Read more!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shrike

Jakeyboy776
Paperboy
Posts: 45
Joined: 7 Aug 2008

Ok what about this, say you are in a shootout..you survive that shootout to discover how to go back in time to that shootout, your original self sees and is distracted by yourself in the future therefor you would not go into the future now in that case would your futureself exist?

ZacOfTheZombies
Copy Clerk
Posts: 99
Joined: 4 Aug 2008

*comes back from the future* Hey, who wants to try out Diablo 5?

BallPtPenTheif
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1411
Joined: 11 Jun 2008

SecretTacoNinja:
This is making my head hurt already ~o_o~

basically, freezing time is literally freezing an object. so, if you want to pause something throw it in your freezer.

sicDaniel
Copy Clerk
Posts: 111
Joined: 30 Mar 2008

Why do so many people post semi-scientific stuff in here, isnīt it a purely hypothetical fantasy topic?
Anyway, what I would totally do is using my time-tunnel to sleep. You see, activating it whenever I want and sleep a good eight hours while in the real world a mere minute passes by.
I never liked how much time is lost by sleeping.

Oh and since time runs differently when you are traveling at near light speed I just heard an awesome fact. If you start from earth with a spaceship that goes 99.999% (iirc) the speed of light, and four minutes pass in your spaceship, the time that has passed on earth will be 15.000 years.

Vic Sage
Paperboy
Posts: 34
Joined: 6 Aug 2008

if i could control time what would i do......
I would fight crime! with a small irish man called paul who speaks worse english than Arnold Schwarzenegger and cannot stand up properly due to him being pissed!
Well, thats just me.

*jumps into the past.*

CrazyBerk
Beat Writer
Posts: 193
Joined: 1 Jul 2008

Weeeeell i've actually thought about this a lot.
First off i'd oggle attractive people while i stop time.
I'd cause havoc, burn things, rob places and then unfreeze time. All that sort of stuff. :3
I'd also go forward in time and see how good the games are

Souplex
Press Junketeer
Posts: 488
Joined: 29 Jul 2008

Two words, Stock market.

Love them zeppelins

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