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[Iron_Scarecrow]

Originally posted by Nikson@Nov 24 2005, 08:48 PM
Unfortunately that theory fails under the principle of complexity: If a system is very complex - that is, has an enormous amount of interconnected variables - it cannot be modelled in any other system that is less complex than the original.

That means that the universe cannot be simulated to 100% accuracy inside a computer unless that computer is at least as comples as the universe itself.

And since we don't even know just how big and complex the universe is, or all of its components (stars, galaxies, life forms, etc), the theory on the show is not just improbable, but impossible.

Well they said it couldn't be prefectly realistic, but so realistic no one would be able to tell the difference between it and real life, then leading some to wonder whether we are already in one.

The shows basic outline was that Einsteins theory of Special Relativity states that it is impossible to travel back in time, and this of course upsets a lot of scientists and many then went on to find possible ways you could travel back in time. The show went through some theory's of how you could possibly travel back in time, and this computer program idea was their last, it certainly got me wondering.

Fact: According to most you I am in the future (Time difference that is).

[Jimbo the Legend]

But if this was the only reality we knew, then it would be 'perfectly' realistic because we wouldnt know any different. There wouldnt be anything 'more' realistic than our own reality that we had spent our entire lives in.

J

[Iron_Scarecrow]

But it's not on what we know. It's what the people who are controlling the program know.

[a1s]

about time traveling in a computer:
there's a serious flaw in that theory- it's pointless ! (okay, maybe that's not so much of a theory flaw...) You can neither:
a) change the past (since it's just a simulation).
nor b) learn something new (since it's based on info you fed it).
Actualy that method would be most useful for creating close approximations of how current events will evolve (by limiting factors you can probably do this in polynomial time).
allso, I wanted to ask: what other methods they offered?

P.S. I officialy hate the B) smiley!!!

[blastradius14]

Smoking babies may never get to be more than 4 feet tall.

[whatshisface]

here is the only math problem i ever found even slightly amusing.
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

[Iron_Scarecrow]

Cool.


Anyway the whole point of the show was to travel back in time, not to change it, to experience it. Although point B would be correct I'd say it would be used for educational purposes, history lessons, that sort of thing.

The show only had 3 or 4 theory's, and it was probabaly 5 weeks ago, I can't exactly remember. There was one about time travelling in circles and if you could somehow travel fast enough you could get back to the same point in this circle before the time moved on, or something. :blink:

[Alf Hari]

Well, I saw the same program on television and it seemed like just another dumbed-down attempt at hype. They had some guy who said he could mentally travel into the future by rubbing an electromagnet to his body while concentrating hard... it was a bit wierd, though the pizza was to illustrate an idea about travelling through a shortcut in space.

[Iron_Scarecrow]

Oh yes the idiot how could I forget, I couldn't believe they actually put him in the show. And then he quite conveniently couldn't do it with a camera filming him. I believe he called it a time coil or something. LOL

[Alf Hari]

Funny thing is, as far as I know, the show was filmed a few years ago. However, one of the future psychics referred to an armed uprising in the US some time by the middle of 2005. This sounds crazy, as it hasn't happened, until you realise that the person was living in New Orleans and said they were walking the streets of New Orleans in their vision, and apparently saw evidence of this armed uprising. You could almost say they saw the looters and the military being called in to deal with them.