13 jul 06

"Is time travel possible either towards the future or the past? If so, can you change the past? i.e. the family paradox theory, such as can you kill your father and still be alive?"

no.

One would also expect to have seen large numbers of tourists from the future, curious to look at our quaint, old-fashioned ways. -- steven hawking

time travel fantasies abound because of the perception of linear time: past, present, future. this not only generates philosophical problems (such as the family paradox), but contradicts a good lot of contemporary physics. consider special relativity, in which we learn that time isn't the same for any two observers. if there isn't an objective time, it's strict linearity is called into question, and along with it our ability to move along this line.

consider "block time", a construct that allows us to conceptualizes time as one of the four dimensions, simply existing along with the others. it isn't a moving thing, but rather just "is". past, present, and future are artifacts of consciousness -- if you think about it, what is existence, except the present? the past and future are merely neurochemical constructs, and actually don't make sense in any physical way.

but screw that.

i made you some rotten vegetable art (i cleaned out my fridge today):

you know you like it; i wonder if that's penicillius on the former lemon there. i have four or five pieces of fried chicken in my backseat, inside a styrofoam container. it's been in the 90s lately, and they've been sitting there for something like four days. in another week or so, i'll take 'em out and show 'em to ya.

speaking of penicillin, let me tell you about my science fair projects. the first was in 7th grade, and after reading about mold spores in the library, i got the idea of growing some penicillius, of which penicillin is a derivative. i read that it grows on citrus fruits, such as oranges. i figured "what's in oranges?" answer: vitamin C. so, my hypothesis became "will the growth of penicillius in a series of petri dishes vary based on how much vitamin C i drop into them?"

so, i set up dishes full of agar, laced with varying amounts of vitamin C, in the bathroom cupboard, and somehow got mold to grow on them. in a week or so, they were moldy, and indeed, some were moldier than others. so, i wrote up my paper based on my weird hypothesis. of course you realize that it was totally uncontrolled, etc, and was basically garbage. i got a "b", i think, which was undeserved: i think i should have gotten an "a" for that.

in 8th grade, i attached different configurations of fins on different model rockets, fired them off, and observed what they did. i got a "b" on that one too, i believe. a sad state of affairs.

I WISH I COULD TRAVEL BACK IN TIME TO DO BETTER ON MY SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS

it was worth a shot.