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Re: Quantum Time Travel
Posted By: SiliconDream =PN=Date: 12/18/01 8:54 a.m.

In Response To: Re: Quantum Time Travel (Steve Levinson)

: I missed this point when you posted. You do have an elegant idea, here. No,
: you're mind is not just electrons and the idea of linking electrons
: through quantum mechanics is quite a stretch. Even in modern computers,
: the binary states are maintained by energy wells with a relative change in
: charge - either positive or negative. To say your cybernetic implants
: keeps your thoughts as electrons is niaive.
: On the other hand, who knows how computers will work 200 years from now. Even
: today we are experimenting with quantum computing. There definitely are
: quantum processes in physics that generate quantum pairs that are linked
: in space and time. If I understand the theory correctly, the spins of the
: two particles are indeterminant until you attempt to measure the spin of
: one of the particles. As we all know, the act of measurement alters the
: future of that particle, but the spin of the other particle will also be
: determined at the same time, even if it is lightyears away. Let us assume
: that the marine's cybernetic implants use some sort of quantum process for
: storing data. In accessing a pattern buffer, it might be possible to
: generate quantum particle pairs, with one half of each pair remaining in
: the pattern buffer and the other half in the marine's implants. When the
: marine dies, a mechanism would be invoked that would measure the spins of
: the quantum particles in such a way that they would contain the marine's
: memories. The pattern buffer, no matter how far away in space or time,
: would then contain the marine's future memories, which he could then
: download.

Problem is, to the degree that you influence the particles' spins in any way--for instance, by using them to encode information such as memories--you also break the entanglement. The pattern buffer could only provide a perfect copy of the info in the marine's mind if that info had been generated perfectly randomly--which is hopefully not the case. :-)

All known quantum-related time travel/FTL tricks contain provisos such as this which prevent you from actually transmitting information faster than light or back in time. Of course, we have to (I guess) pick some theory which we'll play around with to justify Marathon's time-travel aspects, and quantum theory's no worse than relativity in this regard--but I'm not sure it's much better.

: It's a bit far fetched, but I like this theory and it has some plausability,
: particularly if we accept other far fetch concepts such as FTL travel and
: teleportation. This also allows us to reconcile Bungie's explanation with
: what happens. The marine does indeed upload his pattern in the form of
: quantum pairs, but he also downloads that pattern with updated memories in
: the event that he dies.

FTL and time travel are equivalent, so I'd be inclined to use a pseudorelativistic explanation for the time-hopping just as Bungie does for the FTL drive. Folding space...or singularities...or...something. :-)

--SiliconDream

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)SiliconDream =PN= 12/15/01 3:34 a.m.
     Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)Mark Levin 12/15/01 4:04 a.m.
           Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)SiliconDream =PN= 12/15/01 3:40 p.m.
                 Quantum Time TravelHippieman [B.Org] 12/15/01 4:48 p.m.
                       Re: Quantum Time TravelSteve Levinson 12/18/01 5:23 a.m.
                             Re: Quantum Time TravelSiliconDream =PN= 12/18/01 8:54 a.m.
                                   Re: Quantum Time TravelSteve Levinson 12/18/01 12:49 p.m.
     Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)Tru7h 12/15/01 4:40 a.m.
           Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)SiliconDream =PN= 12/15/01 3:45 p.m.
     Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)archon 12/15/01 8:33 a.m.
     Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)Steve Levinson 12/15/01 12:54 p.m.
           Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)[Tycho?] 12/15/01 1:28 p.m.
                 Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)Steve Levinson 12/15/01 2:47 p.m.
           Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)SiliconDream =PN= 12/15/01 4:05 p.m.
                 Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)Steve Levinson 12/16/01 11:09 a.m.
     OopsSteve Levinson 12/15/01 1:01 p.m.
           Re: OopsJeff Nosanov 12/16/01 9:23 a.m.
                 Re: OopsSteve Levinson 12/16/01 10:42 a.m.
                       Re: OopsGrail 12/29/01 1:34 p.m.



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