That's very interesting. I've done some reading on string theory and time travel, but it's been a while. So my "alternate timeline" idea isn't too far off? If you could provide some links or a list of recommended reading, I'd like to brush up on this stuff.spacemonkey wrote:OK, Let's clear up something here,time travel IS possible,however,the OBSERVED time changes The thoery that covers this particular area is string theory within quantum mechanics,special relativity.You can in fact(mathematically) go back and kill your grandfather BUT you will still exist in THAT particular string timeline.You would have a devil of a time returning to your proper string as the strings are infinite.............
The most "plausible" time machine I've ever heard physicists talk about is pulling two ends of a wormhole next to each other. It might take using mini-black holes as the "tugboat" to haul the wormhole around. And, if I remember correctly, you have to accelerate one end of the wormhole near the speed of light. Now, if my increasingly shaky memory of this thing is correct, this would only take you into the future due to relativistic effects--the rest of the universe would move by much faster relative to your own time. So even though you'd arrive many centuries later at the other end, you don't really travel through time, you just travel through a much slower "time rate" of personal time than the rest of the universe. But the end result is the same: you go forward many centuries in a few seconds.
Now, could this send you back through time if you went backwards through the wormhole? Gosh, I forgot. I think moving backwards through time isn't really possible according to present day physics.