Time travel is a relative term, we actual have already mastered travelling through time. The catch is we only know how to move forward in time at the present time. Traveling through time outside of the limited window we’ve already mastered is the real issue.
Thanks to the monumental work of Albert Einstein we have enough of an understanding of time to understand that it is relative. Modern scientists have been able to show that the passage of time can be affected by both speed and gravity. Yet no one has been able to postulate a reasonable theory on how to travel backwards in time.
While we look to Quantum physics to answer many of the mysteries that the Grand Theory of Relativity fail to address, we must look at an even more revolutionary idea. String theory is relatively new to the scientific world, and in many circles it is not even accepted as being based on reality. However, string theory offers some very interesting possibilities into the insight of time. One most important is that time is cyclical. Building upon this idea offers some hope that travel both forwards and backwards in time is possible.
While Einstein has given us much to think about regarding time travel, it is Einstein himself that suggests it is impossible for us to conquer the time barrier. Einstein theorizes that in order to travel backwards in time one must travel faster than the speed of light. As one approaches the speed of light time slows to a point where it stands still at the speed of light. Unfortunately Einstein’s work also tells us that the speed of light, while constant, is impossible to match or surpass.
A great deal of work in the realm of theoretical physics and astrophysics has occurred since Einstein’s time. Some of this more recent work lends to speculation that Einstein might be wrong about the speed of light and the fact that nothing can travel faster than it. We need look only to works by Stephan Hawking and other scholars who have unlocked the mysteries of Black Holes.
As most first graders know the immense gravitational forces of a black hole prevent anything, even light from escaping it’s powerful grasp. This is a fact that has been mathematically calculated and even indirectly and directly observed through scientific instruments. We can therefore conclude that at least one thing can travel faster than light, gravity.
Now that we have discovered a way to travel faster than light, we simply need to harness it. Should this prove possible we can test Einstein’s further theory that travelling faster than the speed of light will allow us to travel backwards in time. Unfortunately we currently lack the technology to test either of these hypothesis’. However, knowing what little about the universe that we do know we can conclude that it is theoretically possible, though not very feasible given the current technical limitations.
