Victor Grippi – The Atomic Writer

Is time travel possible?

Many technologies were once considered impossible. Look at computers, the internet, airplanes, and the atomic bomb. Many scientists believed an atomic weapon was impossible because splitting a single atom would not produce enough energy. In 1914, HG Wells wrote a novel called The World Set Free, and in it Wells predicted the atomic bomb and described the concept of a chain reaction. Leo Szilard, a scientist, read the novel and set into motion a number of key experiments with Einstein and this led to the Manhattan project and ultimately the atomic bomb.

The moral of the story: the study of the impossible led to the realization of the real. Mainstream science should examine all avenues including works of fiction.

I am currently reading Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku. In it he describes three classes of impossibilities.

Class 1 impossibilities are impossible with today’s technology but they do not violate any known laws of physics. They could become possible within a century or two. These include items such as: force fields, invisibility, teleportation, antimatter engines, and psychokinesis.

Class 2 impossibilities are also impossible today and sit at the frontier of our understanding of physics, but could become real in millennia or more. These include: time machines, hyperspace travel, and travel through wormholes (Dr. Daniel Lamb may help out on this one).

Class 3 impossibilities are technologies that violate the known laws of physics. There are very few items in this class and if they ever become possible it is because of a fundamental shift in our understanding of the laws of science.

Another antidote from Dr. Kaku’s book describes how Stephen Hawking tried to prove that time travel was forbidden. Hawking called it the “chronology protection conjecture”. For many years he tried to mathematically prove that time travel was impossible, but failed. Physicists believe a law preventing time travel is beyond our current mathematics and therefore it has to be taken seriously. If there is no law preventing it then it may be possible.

According to T.H. White who wrote in The Once and Future King, “Anything that is not forbidden, is mandatory!”

Until next time…

Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer

Hello Readers,

The Ninth Cube is heading to the printers! It will be available this summer here on Amazon and through book distributors. I am very excited to finally see my debut novel in print. Even though it has been available electronically on the kindle, to actually hold a printed copy in my hands is a great feeling.

Perhaps as time goes on, and more people adopt the kindle, printed books will become obsolete. But until then, having my book available on both platforms will ensure more great people, like you, have the opportunity to experience it firsthand.

For discussions on the science of The Ninth Cube, where I ask the big “what if” questions: is time travel possible, does Hawking radiation exist, can soceity benefit from a scientific race to be the first to traverse a wormhole, can we survive and spread out into the cosmos??? For these and other discussions check out my blog at:

The Atomic Writer:
www.atomicwriter.com

Take Care,
Victor Grippi

Is time travel possible? As science considers this possibility, we may find an unlimited source of energy. In the quest for knowledge, and the solution to hawking radiation and traversing wormholes, we may find a source of clean natural energy to help solve our current energy crisis and dependence on foreign oil.

It’s called zero point energy and it involves harnessing quantum fluctuations in a vacuum. In the vacuum of space virtual particle pairs pop into existence, very briefly, and usually annihilate each other since they are oppositly charged. By interfering with the annihilation we can convert this potential energy into positive power.

There’s no coal to burn, wood to burn, oil to pump out of the ground, or nuclear chain reactions. And it’s a lot more effective than wind or solar power.

Could this help solve the energy dilemma this country faces? Even if time travel is proved to not be feasible, as previously mentioned here on the atomic writer, benefits from the attempts at time travel may provide new technologies and systems useful in a myriad of applications.

Industries will organically emerge and replace the failing sectors of our economy that are in dire straits at this time. We must fund projects that open and expand our horizons, and move away from the dying ones of the past.

Until next time…

-Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer

NASA’s GLAST satellite is gearing up to send data back to earth on gamma ray radiation from celestrial bodies like; pulsars, supernova’s, and black holes. It is this latter item that may soon prove several of Stephen Hawking’s theories including that of evaporating black holes.

But is time travel possible?

This will be another step in learning more about the possibility of time travel and how science can help us understand the universe we live in. Whether time travel is something we want to embrace or not, it is an area that needs to be understood. If time travel and solving Hawking radiation is proved to not be possible, then it is very important that we understand why.

When we went to the moon, new technologies emerged that weren’t even thought of. New exotic materials, processes, innovative solutions permeated into our society and culture forever changing who we are. In a similar fashion, moving out into the cosmos via wormhole technology will again forever change who and what we are. If we as a species are to survive the long run, we must move out to other planets and systems. We must not keep all our eggs in one basket. Our current technology is not capable of allowing us to reach the stars, it will take far too long. We must develop alternative forms of transportation before it is too late.

If we discover that time travel or hyper-travel is not possible then the resulting knowledge will not have been in vein. Knowing the physics of why time travel is not possible will open up new avenues unthinkable today. Quantum mechanics has already given us solid state electronics and perhaps someday the power of quantum computing. Both of these technologies were not imagined when Neils Bohr discovered that electrons in atoms are arranged according to the energy levels in their orbits.

Here is a link to the latest news from NASA:

GLAST update.

Sidebar:
The way our economy is going, reaching out into space and other worlds may be what is needed to solve the global economic slump we are all experiencing. No longer is it us against them, but a world community where we all must join together to push the limits of our imagination and with it we all rise as new technologies and industries are born from those who dare to think out of the box. Take care until next time.

-Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer

Hello,

On this 4th of July, I look forward to a not too distant future when we humans will celebrate a different independence. Like the explorers who came before us, space is the next frontier and new technologies will be needed to traverse it. Columbus used the technology of the tall sailing ship to cross the Atlantic and discover a new continent.

If we are to ever spread out through the expansive cosmos, and hedge our chances of survival, we must develop new technologies like time travel. Time travel may be possible with wormholes but one obstacle that we must overcome is the predicted Hawking Radiation present at the event horizon. A common theme in this blog, my frequent readers know the importance of overcoming Hawking Radiation and how this will allow macroscopic objects to traverse the wormhole.

NASA recently launched the GLAST satellite, gamma large area space telescope, and they are currently calibrating it with the first received data. This may give us more insight into gamma ray bursts and evaporating black holes and prove that Hawking Radiation exists. We may begin to classify and catalog existing black holes that someday may prove to be one opening of a wormhole. A wormhole that may lead us to new worlds…

Stay tuned for more updates from NASA’s GLAST project. I hope you all had a safe and fun 4th of July.

-Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer

Related to discovering and measuring Hawking Radiation will be the validation that time travel, in one form or the other, will eventually be possible. Arguments such as, why are we not being visited currently by travelers from the past, is not a valid argument against the possibility of time travel. What if travelers from the past can only return to the point in time when time travel is perfected and reduced to practice. Let’s say that in the year 2020 the first wormhole is opened and sustained. This would then mark time 0. Carl Sagan expressed this very idea in an interview he did for the Nova PBS channel.

Carl Sagan, the astronomer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and legendary popularizer of science, gave this interview during the making of “Time Travel.” True to form, he discusses arcane aspects of the field—from how you define time to what it might look like inside a wormhole—with flair and a refreshing dash of humor. Sagan was David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University when he died in 1996.

Here is the link to that interview:

Carl was taken way too soon from us, and I personally owe alot of my interest in science to this great man.

-Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer