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