Before watching NatGeo’s Naked Science: Time Machine, I’ve encountered time travel ideas mainly from films and literature. After all, time travel has been so fascinating that it has driven several box-office and best-seller plot lines, ranging from action (i.e. The Terminator franchise) to psychological thriller (i.e. The Butterfly Effect) even to romantic comedies (i.e. The Time Traveller’s Wife). As amazing as it is, I’ve always deemed time travel as just that- a fictional concept. However, upon listening to numerous professors in this show, I’ve started to welcome its potential feasibility. Plus, I really appreciated getting deeper knowledge on time.
After taking into account the episode’s featured time concepts and time travel attempts, I’ve realized that time travel through a time machine isn’t possible today or in the near future, but it may be possible after several centuries of advancements. This is because the episode featured small forms of time travel occurring naturally and discoveries currently being made about time travel’s mechanism.
I appreciated the detailed examples of natural forms of “time travel;” Due to the time it takes for light to travel distances, stars like the Sun that we see on Earth are their images from the past. Also, when one twin goes to outer space, he ages slowly because of high-speed travelling. When he goes back to earth, it would seem that he is traveling to the future because his twin would be much older! Also, a person on the top of a building and is farther from earth experiences a very slightly faster time compared to the person on the ground floor. Clearly, speed and gravity have an effect on time. With more studies on how to apply this knowledge, I think man can harness the effect in the future.
In fact, scientists have already been on that track. Scientists have been studying Muons (high energy and high speed particles that may hopefully be pushed to the speed of light one day), cosmic strings (hypothetical thin threads of energy with great gravity that can bend space-time), and wormholes (connections from two ends of bended space-time). Thus, I think we’re on the way to creating effective time machines. Sure, there are still a lot of problems with these theories, like we currently don’t have enough energy on earth to make a particle move as fast as light. However, we’ve still gained insights and learning points on how time works; with little steps, we can make great discoveries. And the human race keeps developing and finding ways to produce things we never thought we could make, so even if it’s not possible in this century, it may be possible one day.
As Professor Ron Mallett said in the introductory spiel of the episode, probably the human race’s fascination with time travel comes from the sense of power over destiny, that’s granted by the idea of controlling space and time. Assuming time travel will be possible in the far off future, another main concern would be how man will use this “power” responsibly. We must be reminded that changing events in the past or future may alter and negatively affect the lives of those who live in the present. Changes that we predict to be beneficial may backfire and ultimately bring more harm. Thus, as we continue research on time travel we must constantly ask ourselves not only “Is it possible?” but also “Are we really ready for this?”
Darla Bautista
2013-14467
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