Probably no one has yet counted how many books have been written, how many films about time travel have been made. And it is unlikely that a person can count this - the number of such works is huge, because such a topic is perhaps the most popular topic in science fiction. However, it is quite possible that time travel is not as fantastic as it seems at first glance. Let's try to figure it out …
A question that has no answer
We are used to thinking that time is the most common thing. Well, in fact - after all, the past no longer exists, the future does not yet exist, only the present exists, so why bother racking your head in vain. But maybe not everything is so simple? Let's say you are asked the most common question: “What time is it? - You look at the clock, answer, say: "18:40". If your interlocutor is more demanding, look at the second hand: "18 hours, 40 minutes and 33 seconds." And if even more demanding? Imagine that your watch is ultra-accurate and shows the time with accuracy to the thousandth, to the millionth of a second. But even in this case, you will not be able to answer absolutely exactly - after all, while you answer, time passes. Therefore, here is a question for you, which, in principle, cannot be answered. So, it turns out that the present does not exist either, because the past flows into the future continuously? But we areundoubtedly we exist! And, it turns out, we are constantly traveling in time.
Time meets time?
In his fascinating book Secrets of Memory, published by the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house back in 1974 and withstood many reprints, the famous neurophysiologist, Professor Boris Fedorovich Sergeev narrates, in particular, the following: “Interesting experiments were put by Gardner at Stanford University (USA). One of the participants guessed the cards that the second had to draw from the deck. The first named the card before it was taken out, so here we are not talking about the transmission of thought to a distance, but about an even more mysterious phenomenon - foreknowledge. Sometimes the subject named all 25 cards, even when the deck was not shuffled! " True, Professor Sergeev believes that this study does not demonstrate the flow of "information from the future", but much simpler phenomena. “There is nothing mysterious,” he writes, “aboutthat the subjects in such experiments guess more often than the theory of probability allows. It (the theory) proceeds from the concept of equally probable events, and this condition is very difficult to reproduce. The manner in which the cards are thrown or shuffled will always have some effect on the outcome."
And yet … 25 hits out of 25 possible ?!
Stanislav Lem, in turn, suggested that in addition to our Universe, where the speed of light is the highest, there is another, where this speed, on the contrary, is the lowest. Accordingly, time flows in it “in reverse”. These two Universes are interconnected and interdependent. Thus, according to Lem, there is nothing, in essence, impossible in obtaining information from the future. And in time travel too.
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Objections of skeptics
“Well, what kind of travel are there? - say the skeptics. - These are continuous paradoxes! Let's say someone went to the past and killed his ancestor there. Consequently, this someone was never born, which means that he could not go to the past and could not kill anyone there … A vicious circle!"
Yes, this is the simplest of the paradoxes, described many times by science fiction writers. Another objection is this: “If the past, present and future exist together, and a time machine is not difficult to build, then in the future it has already been invented, having received the opportunity to change history. Why is history unchanged and we don't see any visits from the future?"
But history is immutable only from our point of view. It is likely that it is changed every second. But we will not know this - after all, our history begins every time from the point of change, for us the development of our civilization goes in a completely certain order. And, besides, what if the notorious UFOs are not alien ships or atmospheric phenomena, but technological devices from the future?
Genius financier
You can treat the above as you like, but here's a story that happened not so long ago. It was first published by the English newspaper Weekly World News in 2003 and has since been widely distributed in the media, including the Internet. The situation described is, in fact, curious enough to draw attention to it.
In March 2002, New York City federal investigators arrested a mysterious Wall Street “virtuoso” on insider trading charges. Sources at the US Securities Market Commission have confirmed that 44-year-old Andrew Karlsin gave a very bizarre explanation for his strange success in the stock market after the would-be financier was handcuffed and interrogated. “We don’t believe this guy’s story - he’s either just a lunatic or a pathological liar,” said one of the experts who is closely acquainted with the case.
Nevertheless, the fact remains: having invested the initial $ 800, Karlsin had a portfolio estimated at $ 350 million in two weeks. Each trade this investor made increased the total portfolio capitalization through unexpected business events. They were impossible to predict and impossible to explain by mere luck. Investigators showed firmness: "Karlsin will sit in a prison cell until he agrees to reveal all his cards."
The "lucky man" came to the attention of the Wall Street watchdogs when he made 126 high-risk trades in a row and was the winner every time. "When the shares of a company rose in price due to a merger or a technological breakthrough, which in any case assumed the secrecy of the reason, then Mr. Karlsin inexplicably knew about it in advance," the investigation said. When they began questioning the strange investor, they got even more than they expected, namely a stunning four-hour confession. According to Karlsin, he traveled back in time from 2256. “The knowledge that your era was marked by the fall of the stock market is widespread in our country, and everyone, armed with information on selected stocks, can make a fortune on this. - said Karlsin, - it's hard to resist the temptation. I planned to look natural, to lose a little here and there so that my investment didn't look so suspiciously shiny. However, he could not resist and was caught. " What has been said, of course, can be doubted. Apparently, Karlsin is a very gifted speculator, and his colossal income is quite capable of being the result of his commercial talents. But in exchange for personal peace of mind, the "time traveler" offered investigators a lucrative deal - he provides "historical facts": information about bin Laden's whereabouts and the cure for AIDS. In exchange, he gets freedom and the opportunity to get to his time machine to return home. Karlsin is a very gifted speculator, and his colossal income may well be the result of his commercial talents. But in exchange for personal peace of mind, the "time traveler" offered investigators a lucrative deal - he provides "historical facts": information about bin Laden's whereabouts and the cure for AIDS. In exchange, he gets freedom and the opportunity to get to his time machine to return home. Karlsin is a very gifted speculator, and his colossal income may well be the result of his commercial talents. But in exchange for personal peace of mind, the "time traveler" offered investigators a lucrative deal - he provides "historical facts": information about bin Laden's whereabouts and the cure for AIDS. In exchange, he gets freedom and the opportunity to get to his time machine to return home.
Karlsin was released on bail and … disappeared without a trace. Officials from the US Securities Commission believe that all the stories of the "time traveler" are fiction. However, a senior official said that no information about the former existence of Andrew Carlsin was found until his appearance on Wall Street. But bin Laden was found and destroyed. As for the cure for AIDS, it is allegedly not found until now. Why "supposedly"? Because, according to other sources, it was found. But its use is disadvantageous to powerful medical cartels receiving billions of dollars in research grants.
Back to the Future?
So is time travel still possible? Who knows … After all, we live in a constantly changing world, where the past, present and future exist together, constantly intersecting. And even the greatest scientists of our day, such as Stephen Hawking, do not deny the most incredible prospects when it comes to the mysteries of time.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №7. Author: Andrey Bystrov