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xkcd #2976: Time Traveler Causes of Death (xkcd.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/xkcd

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Many a hungry time traveler has Googled 'trilobites shellfish allergy' only to find their carrier had no coverage in the Ordovician.

https://explainxkcd.com/2976/

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We disproved a cosmic frame of reference, or "ether" hypothesis using interferometry. It is well worth a read, I think you will enjoy it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Not exactly - what was proven is that there's no way to distinguish between inertial frames of reference. There could be a universal frame of reference, which would most likely be the average velocity of all things in the universe. There's not much point in making a distinction in most cases, because if you can't detect it, it might as well not exist - but since we're making up time travel, we might as well make up a universal frame of reference, it doesn't break anything time travel hasn't already broken...