Many of us had dreamed at least once to reverse time and correct some of our mistakes from the past. Whether we wanted to study more for an exam, apply for a different job, or say ‘no’ to our wedding, we have to admit that going backwards in time sounds like a wild scenario. But even so, a young scientist grants us hope that it’s totally feasible.
The mere concept of going back in time isn’t something new at all for science. Albert Einstein showed about a century ago that if you can somehow surpass the speed of light, time is supposed to run backwards. As for the moment, nobody and nothing is able to travel anywhere close to the speed of light except for light itself, but the staggering rate of technological progress grants enough hope that it will someday be possible.
The time travel paradox can be a major hindrance… or not
To reconcile Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with traditional dynamics has been one of the greatest ambitions for scientists. Germain Tobar, who is a fourth-year Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) student, was under the supervising of UQ physicist Dr. Fabio Costa. By relying on Einstein’s work that states the theoretical possibility of time travel, Tobar has also examined the apparently wild idea. The young scientist concludes that there’s no need for a paradox to occur, at least in theory.
The time travel paradox represents one of the major reasons for why some scientists reject the possibility for someone to travel into the past. Dr. Costa himself, the supervisor of Tobar, explained the paradox in a simple way:
“Say you traveled in time, in an attempt to stop COVID-19’s patient zero from being exposed to the virus.
However if you stopped that individual from becoming infected—that would eliminate the motivation for you to go back and stop the pandemic in the first place.”
But Tobar is optimistic that his work shows that such a paradox would be avoided, as events will adjust themselves to be logically consistent with the time traveler’s actions. Tobar says:
“In the coronavirus patient zero example, you might try and stop patient zero from becoming infected, but in doing so you would catch the virus and become patient zero, or someone else would.”
The research was published within the Classical and Quantum Gravity.
