Inside the Legend: In The Beginning

Great Scott! There may be no other concept that quite captures the imagination more than the idea of time travel. The ability to travel to any point in the past or future, you could jump into your time machine and go back to see major events in history or see your parents! You could go back to meet yourself at an earlier age, go forward and see how you’ve changed… the possibilities are endless! As you sit at your desk, scrolling through this document, time is traveling around you. The future is constantly transforming, everything that you’re doing now is quickly becoming the past, which means it’s ready to move through time!

If you’re ready, let’s jump into the 67’ Chevy Impala, and take a closer look at how time travel works!

THE MECHANICS OF TIME TRAVEL

Well, alright thanks Doc Brown. This is Dean Winchester here to take you guys on a closer look into the mechanics of time travel.

Astronomer Carl Sagan once stated that time is resistant to a simple definition. Time is the forth dimension, the other three dimensions are of space.

The Space Time Continuum states that time cannot exist without space and vica-verse, in other words any event that occurs in the universe has to involve both time and space.

In Einstein’s theory, no not the dog – the scientist, of special relativity time slows as an object approaches the speed of light; however this is where the Delorean comes in handy, it’s also hypothesized that if one can travel faster than the speed of light it could open up the possibility for time travel.

Most theories concerning time travel actually don’t rely on machines at all. Instead, time travel will most likely be caused by natural space phenomena such as rotating black holes, wormholes, and cosmic strings.

Black holes are created when stars, that are more than four times the mass of our sun and have burnt up all of their fuel, collapse under the pressure of their own weight. Black holes have gravitational fields so strong that even light cannot escape. The Kerr Hole is a type of black hole hypothesized by mathematician Roy Kerr who described rotating black holes that could be used as portals for time travel; due to a lack of a singularity in these rotating black holes, he believed that it was possible to safely enter without being crushed by the central gravitational force and we could pass through to the other side.

Worm Holes, also known as Einstein-Rosen Bridges, are formed by masses that place pressure on different parts of the universe eventually coming together to form a tunnel. Wormholes are considered possible based on Einstein’s theory of relativity, which states that any mass curves spacetime. These holes are the most potent for a time traveler to pass through.

Princeton physicist J. Richard Gott proposed the idea of Cosmic Strings as a possible method of time travel. Cosmic Strings are thinner than an atom and would generate an enormous amount of gravitational pull on any objects that pass near them. The gravity produced by two cosmic strings, or the string and a black hole, would be needed to propel a spacecraft into the past; but even then in order to travel back in time by one year would need a loop of a string that contained half the mass-energy of an entire galaxy!

INTO THE LOOKING GLASS

Wormholes would allow us to travel into the past as well as the future. When reading this it may help to imagine seeing a younger version of yourself in a mirror, for those who read the MULTUS TEMPESTAS episode ‘Time’ this is very similar to the concept shown in that episode.

If the mouth hole of a wormhole is portable, imagine Person B carrying one wormhole mouth into space while the opposite end remained with person A on Earth. The two would continue to see each other as Person B traveled into space. Upon returning to Earth a few hours later, perhaps a few years later, time has passed for person A. Now when person A looks through the wormhole, that person will be able to see themselves at a younger age, the age when person B launched into space. The older person A could step into the past, while person B could step into the future.

THE GRANDFATHER PARADOX

To make sense of the Grandfather Paradox, recall Back to the Future Two and the power a sports almanac had to radically change the future.

This paradox asks what would happen if the time traveler traveled back through time and killed one of his ancestors before the traveler was born. How could that person be alive to go back and kill his grandfather?

The answer is found in the idea of parallel universes or alternate histories. If you went back to the past and killed your grand father you are only killing the grandfather of one parallel universe and upon arrival back to the present you would find yourself in a completely different universe than the one you departed from.

The general idea is that every action causes the creation of a new universe, for which there’s an infinite supply.

AN INESCAPABLE PRESENT

Recently researchers have speculated upon a new quantum model which states that time travel can occur within a feedback loop where backwards movement is possible, but only in a way that works with the present. In other words this new model states that it is impossible to change the present.

Under these constraints, lets use my warning to my mother as an example, if I go back to tell my Mom to not get out of bed no matter what she hears or sees on November 2, 1983 the very fact that she’s not alive today will conspire against me so that I couldn’t warn her, I’d never end up taking the path that leads me to her.

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

The Butterfly Effect is a phrase that refers to the idea that a butterfly’s wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location.

In regards to how the butterfly effect refers to time travel, as stated in a classic time traveling adventure, traveling to the past and accidentally stepping off the past and causing the death of the littlest creature can lead to the most profound and sometimes most chaotic alterations in the present.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Another guy got the chance to go back and see his parents in a little 1985 film known as ‘Back to the Future.’ The film starred Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, it was written and directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steven Spielberg. The film also popularized such hits as ‘Back in Time’ and ‘Power of Love,’ Huey Lewis even had a cameo in the film as the high school band audition judge who told Marty’s band that they were “too darn loud.”

Production on the film began on November 26, 1984 with actor Eric Stoltz portraying Marty McFly, the film reportedly shot for more than four weeks, but soon shut down upon Steven Spielberg seeing a rough cut. Zemeckis and Spielberg both agreed that although Stoltz was a good actor, he wasn’t Marty McFly. Due to time opening in Michael J. Fox’s schedule, they were able to get their Marty.

The film opened on July 3, 1985 and grossed $210 million at the box office making it the highest grossing film of 1985. President Ronald Reagan, whom if you may remember was used as one of the jokes in the film, even referred to the movie in his 1986 State of the Union address, “Never has there been a more exciting time to be alive, a time of rousing wonder and heroic achievement. As they said in the film Back to the Future, ‘Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

BACK TO THE FUTURE TIME TRAVEL

Whenever a time traveler alters key events occurring in the past, they effectively bring an alternate timeline into existence at their point-of-entry, and their original timeline is erased, even though it’s events are not forgotten by the traveler.

Doc Brown built the time machine into a De Lorean DMC-12. The operator would sit inside, turn on the time circuits, enter a target date and accelerate the car to 88 miles per hour, which would then activate the flux capacitor. The Flux Capacitor, which consisted of a squared compartment with three flashing lights arranged as a “Y;” as the time machine neared 88 mph the light coming from the flux capacitor pulsed faster until it became a steady stream of light.

The car vanishes into a flash of blue, leaving behind trails of fire. Upon observation it may appear as thought the De Lorean has exploded and disappeared. The occupants, on the other hand, would see a quick flash of light and instantly arrive at the target date in the same geographical location as when it departed. Upon arrival the De Lorean is extremely cold and has ice covering much of the exterior.

The time machine ran on plutonium, because Doc Brown needed a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts needed to power the machine. In the final film of the trilogy, the original De Lorean was destroyed. The second model’s flux capacitor was steam-powered and located on the front of the vehicle rather than within the passenger area.

IN THE BEGINNING OF BACK TO THE FUTURE

My own journey actually had a couple of things in common with that of Marty. I ran into my parents, asked my mother to be careful on the night of November 2nd akin to the letter Marty gave to Doc Brown and upon my first arrival I felt really disoriented not knowing where or when I was. Hell, I even found my own mother to be hot - christ, I'm really going to go back to hell...

Alright, now that you know how time travel works. Jump into the passenger seat of the Impala as we hit the open road. DESTINATION: SEPTEMBER 18. 2008. 12 PM. Hang on, it's going to be a bumpy ride... 5 mph... 11 mph... 20 mph.... 40 mph.... 75 mph... 88 mph....

LAZARUS RISING

The legend of Lazarus of Bethany, also known as Lazarus of the Four Days, only appears in the Gospel of John in the New Testament. The story recounts how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, from this day on the name Lazarus has often been used to connote the restoration of life. The Lazarus phenomenon refers to the event in which a person spontaneously returns to life, his heart starts beating again, after resuscitation has been given up.

CASTIEL

As it turns out God has a job for me. Castiel brought me back from the dead because there’s unfinished business that needs to be taken care of. Castiel is known as the angel of the lord as well as the angel of Thursday; he helps anyone who was born or asks for help on this day. Castiel is also known for being the helper when there are changes in one’s life.

One cannot look upon his true form, as seen, the results of this lead to one’s eyes being burnt out. And trust me, you don’t want to hear his true voice either – learned that one the hard way. Dude seriously needs to lower his volume; apparently he thought I was one of the people who could perceive his true visage.

Castiel’s currently possessing a devout man who prayed for it, this must be what they actually mean by praying to do God’s work. Castiel also represents the autumn season and is linked to the color pastel green.

Well guess that’s it, Dean Winchester signing off this week and may the force be with you. Or how does that bible phrase go again? Peace be with you or something or another… but hey heavenly duty’s pearly gates are calling. Out.

Inside the Legend by Dean5339