Like Dr. Michio Kaku in the book “Physics of the Impossible”, I believe that time travel is possible but unlike him, I don’t believe in parallel universes. I hope to show that the combination of belief in time travel/disbelief in parallel universes validates string theory’s faith in unification. And unlike the Doctor, who says on page 283 that “It would set off a major shake-up in the very foundations of modern physics if precognition was ever proved in reproducible experiments”, I believe the unification born from time travel/no parallel universes will one day be seen to be not merely mathematical but a literal unification of the mind with all space-time, making the non-existence of precognition impossible.
These comments are adapted from my book and are based on scientific facts and theories which, woven into a consistent philosophy using Albert Einstein’s famous quote that “Imagination is more important than knowledge”, show how every aspect of the world can be radically transformed forever. It starts with a proposed new view of ultimate reality which grew from 30 years of study into physics’ belief in universal unification as well as experiments in quantum mechanics which show that subatomic particles instantly share information even if physically separated by billions of light years. The conclusion is that there is absolutely no solidity or separation, as commonly understood, between any physical or nonphysical entities on Earth, in space or in time. This interesting, but not very relevant to daily routine in 2009, conclusion led to the realization that the world might be on the brink of revolutionary breakthrough in all areas of life: any and all objects which appear distant from each other are not actually separated at all. This is similar to 2 objects which appear distant from each other on a huge computer screen actually being unified by the strings of ones and zeros making up the computer code which is all in one small place (this appears, based on Einstein’s equations, to be a 5th dimension – hopefully, Europe’s Large Hadron Collider will verify the 5th dimension’s existence). In a universal zero-separation unification; the feedback of matter, energy and force into matter, energy and force is also likely to produce distortions and corrections. Instead of microphones’ high-pitched screeches or control of missiles’ trajectories, we could see blurring/smearing/indeterminacy in positions and velocities on all scales (subatomic, human, galactic) because, in a unification, effects cannot avoid influencing causes and because the universe consists of fractals (phenomena repeated at all magnifications, from the tiniest to the grandest). The 2 objects which appear distant from each other could be a star (along with its gravity and heat) and this world – or any two people, or 2 atoms in different millennia, or the opposite sides of an atomic particle somewhere in space or somewhere in time.
All this sounds totally strange because separation between things seems obvious and, according to science, the quantum scale of atoms obeys different rules from the classical scale of humans and galaxies (if science is correct about this, the quantum and classical can never be unified in a literal sense). But remember that this book is based on grand ideas of Unification that began with Einstein and are best known today from Superstring Theory, as well as being based on experiments in quantum mechanics which have been confirmed time and time again. If the hypotheses in this book, though necessarily extremely incomplete, offer even the briefest glimpse of the true nature of unification and quantum mechanics; then it follows that the book is correct when it says everything will change and nothing can ever be the same. Science will be different, medicine and surgery will be different, religion will be different … all things within and beyond imagination will be different!
Essential to such a future is the idea of the great English writer William Shakespeare not merely being poetic or entertaining when he said in his play “Hamlet”,
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
A good illustration of the journey into these limitless miracles and magical experiences of the science that will create a new earth and a new universe is this line from the 1968 song “Master Jack” (by the South African band 4 Jacks and a Jill),
“It’s a strange, strange world we live in”.
Now for a paragraph about time travel –
Particles and the universe can be regarded as closed loops of electromagnetic energy. These could be called strings or superstrings or Mobius loops (a Mobius loop can be visualised as a strip of paper which is given a half-twist of 180 degrees before its ends are joined). Remember that the top, side and bottom of each loop each consist of a miniaturised, fractal version of electromagnetic pulses forming length, width and depth (a fractal is a geometric structure having an irregular or fragmented appearance which is of a similar character at all magnifications – the word “fractal” was coined in 1975 by French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot). The 3 familiar dimensions of length, width and height along, for example, the top of a loop would have a 4th dimension (time) perpendicular to them (on the side of the twisted paper … or electromagnetic loop). And there would also exist a 5th dimension called hyperspace, at right angles to the 4th and 180 degrees from the length/width/height along the loop´s top. The previous parts of this paragraph can be likened to astronomy´s picture of the 3+1 dimensions of space-time existing on the surface of a balloon which is expanding from an inner hyperspatial point (not in space-time) where the Big Bang occurred. These loops unite space and time into Einstein´s space-time; and the famous scientist Stephen Hawking says time can be thought of as another space dimension, so literal time travel is a possibility. With literal time travel, people who have long since died could have their minds downloaded into reproductions of their bodies (establishing colonies throughout space and time would prevent overpopulation). Remember that a paper Mobius, like particles and the universe, is flexible – it can resemble a triangular, circular or square shape at various times; and its side and bottom may or may not be precisely 90 and 180 degrees from its top. Thus the electronic computations necessary in a time machine may not involve precise digital calculations but those of “fuzzy” neural networks.
And now for a paragraph about parallel universes –
How could subatomic particles communicate instantaneously across the universe (phrased another way – how could they experience the whole universe in their existence)? The last two phenomena could be understood by stating that any particle has the same properties as the universe as a whole (unconventional US cosmologist Max Tegmark says “You are made up of quantum particles, so if they can be in two places at once, so can you.” We can say “The universe is made up of quantum particles, so if they can be in two places at once, so can the universe.” There need not be any such thing as parallel universes, however (the parallel-universes, also called the many-universes or many-worlds, interpretation of quantum mechanics was developed by American physicist Hugh Everett III in 1957). The universe’s being in two places simultaneously could mean it’s in the same space-place as any or all of its particles. It could also be in the same time-place as any or all of its earlier or later selves because there can be be no space without time. Jack Harris, an Applied Physicist at Yale University says quantum mechanics describes a crazy microscopic world where particles whiz around at blistering speeds and routinely violate the classical laws of physics we take for granted. Jack Harris’s goal is to take advantage of the “really strange, even mystical” laws of the microscopic and apply them to problems in our macroscopic world. “The ultimate eureka moment would be to suddenly realize that a [macroscopic] object is doing something that is absolutely forbidden by classical physics,” he says. If we look closely at the universe by not restricting it to the classical physics which preceded the quantum principle, we can comprehend how the macroscopic universe could behave quantum mechanically and violate classical physics. It´s easy to imagine all parts of the universe being in contact (and thus forming a unification) when that universe was the size of a subatomic particle, nearly 14 billion years ago. Since the universe still has the same properties as a particle (and particles obey quantum mechanics’ wave-particle duality), it is still a unification (and a unified field). In 1980 or the late 1970s, American astronomer Carl Sagan (1934-1996) wrote these lines for his award-winning television series and accompanying book, “Cosmos”: “There is an idea – strange, haunting, evocative – one of the most exquisite conjectures in science or religion. It is entirely undemonstrated; it may never be proved. But it stirs the blood. There is, we are told, an infinite hierarchy of universes, so that an elementary particle, such as an electron, in our universe would, if penetrated, reveal itself to be an entire closed universe.” Well, this book doesn’t support the idea of a hierarchy of universes. I believe there is one static megauniverse (one Cosmos) existing forever and made up of an infinite number of expanding subuniverses (more about this below). But I do believe – it stirs my blood! – in the “exquisite conjectures” of the universe (and the infinite Cosmos) behaving like an elementary particle, and of these two combining to form one unified field.
A megauniverse is hinted at by Einstein´s equations as well as cosmology´s Steady-State theory, which say the universe has always existed and will continue forever. Einstein spoke of a “static” universe (which accurately describes a megauniverse that has no limits in space and has always existed/will continue forever), but he thought of this local branch as static, and rightly called it his greatest mistake since the local universe is now known to have had a beginning and to be expanding. Each universe and its region of space-time is created from a big bang, but the megauniverse they belong to has no beginning and no end. And it maintains its average density through continuous “creation” (actually, recycling) of matter via the small amount from a preceding universe which is used to initiate expansion of its successor. This steady-state, or static, megauniverse would have its tendency to collapse (from, according to the viewpoint that only one time exists at any instant, ever-increasing gravitational attraction) always exactly balanced by, again from the viewpoint that all times cannot exist at once, the ever-increasing expansion of the universes it contains. The notion that contained universes that are forever expanding would somehow “burst” a static, steady-state megauniverse mistakenly assumes the megauniverse possesses a finite size; and it also reverts to our everyday experience that only one time exists at any instant (forgetting that all times exist and the megauniverse therefore accommodates not just some, but all, extents of expansion). We can regard the cosmic hologram and the megauniverse as examples of invariance (the quality of not changing) and the hologram´s relativistic property of appearing different from differing vantage points as represented by the expanding universes with their big bangs.
Every bit of space/instant of time exists like an individual frame of a movie (when these are displayed in rapid succession, what we call motion comes into being). Let’s consider ordinary, visible light and that vacuum it travels through: space. Quantum particles like the photons which compose light are not separate from space itself. The universe would not merely be a vast collection of the countless photons, electrons and other quantum particles within it, but would be a unified whole that has particles and waves built into it, just as a computerised hologram would have seemingly separate points built into its union of digital zeros and ones. It’s necessary to suggest how this unified whole could appear to us as an infinity of different and separate entities (not only in space but also in time). If light and space were unified in a digitised hologram, the apparent velocities of light and space’s expansion would differ because light would be a subroutine embedded in the main space program (speaking of circulation, travel, expansion or velocity would simply be a convenience, like talking of the sun rising and setting).
When future civilisation acquires the technology to manipulate the unification and zero separation of all space-time (resulting in unimaginable revolutions in travel within outer space and on Earth, as well as what science-fiction fans term time travel); everyone who has long since died could have the mind downloaded into a reproduction of the body and be resurrected into a world where that mind can use ESP or directly influence seemingly separate biological or nonbiological matter, and where world and domestic peace is normal since nobody can attack anyone in any way without knowing they’re attacking themself.
What kind of technology could manipulate the unification and zero separation of all space-time? Morpho butterflies create colour by selectively adding and deleting certain wavelengths of light. Physicists have only recently devised comparable materials, called photonic band-gap crystals; and are now exploring their use in phone switches, solar cells and antennas. No surprise, then, that some engineers are looking to the living world for the next generation of optic inspirations. I believe advances in engineering and biology will enable humans, like the morpho butterfly, to selectively add and delete certain wavelengths of light. But the word “light” need not only refer to visible wavelengths. It can be extended and refer to any wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum. Science accepts that radio, infrared, ultraviolet waves and X-rays as well as gamma radiation are all forms of light.
For decades scientists have theorised the existence of a particle, called the Higgs boson, that explains how other particles acquire mass. The Higgs boson is believed to produce a field that interacts with particles and gives them a property we interpret as mass, explains Dr Kevin Varvell, of the University of Sydney in Australia. Dr Aldo Saavedra, a particle physicist also at the University of Sydney, made this comment as colleagues at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), near Geneva, switched on the Large Hadron Collider – “It would be really nice if nature actually provided some very puzzling thing that theories haven’t actually thought of.” In September 2008, renowned British astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking bet US$100 that the LHC experiment would not find the Higgs boson. “I think it will be much more exciting if we don’t find the Higgs.” Suppose matter acquires all its properties (including mass) by the superimposing of electromagnetic and gravitational waves* (computer-generated in a 5th dimension and projected into the hologram of 3+1 dimensions which we call space-time). We can then further extend the above reasoning and regard matter as a form of light. So the day will come when we can add or delete wavelengths anywhere we choose! The concept of “dark matter” would be used today to explain the increased gravitational effects caused by undetectable matter. But that undetectable matter might not be a new, unknown form of matter – it might be known particles travelling through the 4th and 5th dimensions (and therefore nonexistent in the 3 dimensions of ordinary space). While in these other dimensions, the particles known as dark matter are invisible … but would of course still exert gravitational influence. (Physics´ string theory states this by saying “Gravity may not be confined to 3 dimensions.”)
* Einstein predicted the existence of gravity waves but they haven’t been discovered yet.
I anticipate people will oneday have band-gap structures in their brains that are no bigger than a computer chip (these won’t require surgical implantation, but simply downloading, because of the computer-generated hologram’s creation of the pre-existing digital nature of all parts of the universe). Photonic band-gap crystals would, of course, only deal with light in its photonic forms (energy forms such as visible light or radio waves). The band-gap structures I have in mind would need to deal with forms like matter, so they could add or delete anything and everything we choose. They might accomplish this by acting similarly to a modem that acts on a scale trillions of times smaller than a modem manufactured by nanotechnology, and would be capable of manipulating digitised matter. Then they could emulate computers´ copy/paste function to add things; as well as their delete function, to remove things. This ability must only come to fruition in a future, ideal society: it would only be wasted and abused in the present warring and selfish world!
