Time Travel Theories?

I googled 'forward time travel' and there is a lot to find out there.

here is one link that might help you;

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~carroll/time_travel/forward.html

What kind of theories are you looking for? Are you interested in the practical physics of it or sci-fi theories? Brian Greene is an easy read for the practical physics. He is also great seed material for generating sci-fi ideas.

Common sci-fi stuff (IIRC)

H.G. Wells - Doesn't explain how it works, it just does
Star Trek - It's all wormholes Captain!
Quantum Leap - never goes forward, vaguely shown as some sort of psychic phenomenon
H.P. Lovecraft - Incomprehensible alien technology
Sarah Connor Chronicles - not explained, just works

In short most sci-fi doesn't attempt to explain the mechanics, just the effects. i.e. It's a McGuffin to allow for a story about something else

As such you can probably get away with glossing over the details and just show the special effects as most readers will not be expecting a bunch of maths/physics to be thrown at them.

Some interesting ideas about time travel theories can be found in several of my favorite fiction novels. One is Dean Koontz's "Lightning" which is my favorite Koontz novel. In it, the Nazis developed a time travel machine that only goes forward, never back.

Another, is "Time and Time Again" Jack Finney and a subsequent sequel. His ideas are based on Einstein's theory that time is a river. Pretty interesting reading.

Another is Richard Matheson's "Bid Time Return" on which the movie starring Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour was based. The book is far better than the movie, especially on explaining his theory of how time travel could work.

One more is Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series of novel in which main character Claire Fraser goes back and forth in time more than once. So does her daughter and son-in-law and grandkids.

Travel into the future at a greater than usual rate is the most interesting variety, but it is true that few authors have touched it. The science that would allow such travel is less certain than travel into the past.

I thought time travel was solved years ago. But I’ll remind you just in case you missed it. All you need is a supped up DeLorean and enough road to get up to 80 MPH. also you need a Flux-Capasitor…which is a series of blinking lights that sit just behind the passenger seat. There…now you can write your book
Another good si/fi book is “Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait”

I thought that it was travelling forward in time that was well established, and travelling backward that is deemed impossible.

To travel forward at a higher rate is 'easy' you simply accellerate to near the speed of light, causing your personal time frame of reference to slow down, while the rest of the universe continues on as normal. When you return from your trip, little time has passed for you, while much has passed for everyone else. This was used in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.

Travel backwards in time is considered impossible, because of the laws of Thermodynamics.

Sarpedon said:

I thought that it was travelling forward in time that was well established, and travelling backward that is deemed impossible.

To travel forward at a higher rate is 'easy' you simply accellerate to near the speed of light, causing your personal time frame of reference to slow down, while the rest of the universe continues on as normal. When you return from your trip, little time has passed for you, while much has passed for everyone else. This was used in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.

Travel backwards in time is considered impossible, because of the laws of Thermodynamics.

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Ah but most time travel fiction banks on the idea that we can go backward.

Didn't HG Well's famous time machine do both? Go forward and backward?

johnnysannie said:

Ah but most time travel fiction banks on the idea that we can go backward.

Didn't HG Well's famous time machine do both? Go forward and backward?

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Wells' traveler got back home, so it went backwards in that sense, but he doesn't ever travel backwards relative to his starting point. It's implied that he might, and maybe that his models might have been sent back in time, though. I think some film versions might have him go backwards for while also.

ChristineR said:

Wells' traveler got back home, so it went backwards in that sense, but he doesn't ever travel backwards relative to his starting point. It's implied that he might, and maybe that his models might have been sent back in time, though. I think some film versions might have him go backwards for while also.

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Some of the film versions do indeed; it's been too many years since I read the novel. Maybe I should revisit it!