Science Memes

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submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] davidgro 49 points 10 months ago (4 children)

In most media time machines are also teleporters - many are explicitly so, with the destination space needing to be chosen at the same time as the destination time, but even when that's not shown they still make the time traveller suddenly vanish and then just suddenly reappear elsewhen.

One movie I've seen with a more "realistic" time machine is Primer. It's not at all a teleporter or portal. Very slight spoiler:

It sidesteps the whole issue that OP presents because the place where you exit the machine after traveling is just where the machine is when it's turned on to begin with. You can't time travel outside the machine, including to before it exists, and your path (in all four dimensions) is contiguous.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I prefer the H.G. Wells The Time Machine style of time travel , where you affect the flow of time instead of a discontinuous jump.

You're still attached to your current location, things just happen faster (in forwards or reverse). It also means that time travel takes time, which can be a handy plot tool.

Edit: grammatical swipe keyboard errors

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Primer is one of my favourite movies ever. It was made on a budget of 3 peanuts and pocket lint, and it shows, but damn it's an interesting premise.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Great movie. I enjoyed the lofi feel of Primer as it handled a really fun concept.

[–] perviouslyiner 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Same with The End of Eternity - they can travel to different times at which the machine existed.

In fact, isn't it a bit similar with the only 'real' possibility of time travel - you create a wormhole and take one end on a relativistic journey to create a time difference between the ends, but the only possible travel is between the two ends that you have created.