# Believable, portable time-travel



## OurJud (Jun 23, 2013)

I'm in the process of writing a short sci-fi story dealing with the idea that time-reversal is possible by means of some handy, portable device (as opposed to having to climb into a huge, static time-machine).

At first, I decided the device would look like a smartphone; a simple palm-sized thing, but am now thinking that this is stretching the imagination just a little too far (as though time-reversal isn't ). 

Anyway, can anyone out there with a good grasp of science/sci-fi give me some clue as to how time-reversal might be achieved with the means of a small, portable device? I'm not looking for a scientific paper, just something that the sci-fi reader might buy in terms of plausibility.

Thanks in advance.


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## patskywriter (Jun 23, 2013)

I'd use a small device that at first glance would appear to be a cassette player (Sony Walkman type). The reverse, fast-forward, and stop buttons could correspond to going back in time, traveling to the future, and stopping to pay a visit in either realm.


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## OurJud (Jun 23, 2013)

Thanks, patskywriter. It's a nice idea, but a bit tongue-in-cheek for the style I was aiming for. I tend not to inject too much humour into my writing and was looking for something slightly more hi-tech.

I'm thinking some kind of mind implant that contects with your portable device, but I'm just having a problem visualising this device and how it might be operated.


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## Leyline (Jun 23, 2013)

Time travel is utterly ridiculous from a scientific perspective, as most of the Hard SF folks who've written it admit. So, don't worry about it. It's a lovely narrative device, so design your time machine on lovely narrative terms.


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## OurJud (Jun 23, 2013)

Sorry to sound so dim, Leyline, but could you possibly expand on than? What do you mean by 'design your time machine on lovely narrative terms' ?

Are you simply suggesting that the appearance and workings of the device don't matter?


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## Outiboros (Jun 23, 2013)

OurJud said:


> Sorry to sound so dim, Leyline, but could you possibly expand on than? What do you mean by 'design your time machine on lovely narrative terms' ?
> 
> Are you simply suggesting that the appearance and workings of the device don't matter?


I think he is, and I agree with him. 

Time travel is impossible. At the very least impossible for a human to survive, and impossible on a small scale without near-infinite energy supplies. So go your own way. It won't be believable, but it can still be well-executed.


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## OurJud (Jun 23, 2013)

Thanks for the answers, folks! I think I see it a little clearer now.

I do need to describe the process somehow or other, as the set-up will consist of me explaining that my main character has acquired the ability to reverse time, while the story itself will involve him doing this on more than one occasion.


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## Outiboros (Jun 23, 2013)

OurJud said:


> Thanks for the answers, folks! I think I see it a little clearer now.
> 
> I do need to describe the process somehow or other, as the set-up will consist of me explaining that my main character has acquired the ability to reverse time, while the story itself will involve him doing this on more than one occasion.


You can explain the effect, but you don't have to explain the processes behind it. I think the mystery of the device would do more good to the story than a lengthy paragraph of incorrect science-babble. And it would be incorrect, probably, seeing time-travel is impossible.

I wouldn't worry too much about stretching the imagination. Many stories in science-fiction, even hard science-fiction, are built on impossible or highly infeasible ideas of faster-than-light travel, time travel, orbital superstructures, gravity generators, cold fusion, warm superconductors, artificial intelligence and so on. I'm not saying all of these are impossible, but they are impossible by today's standards, and thus explaining how they work just can't be done.

Sorry if this offends any fans of science-fiction. I confess I haven't read many good science fiction stories that focus on the actual science, myself.


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## OurJud (Jun 23, 2013)

Thanks again, Outiboros. I understand what you're saying, but when I say I need to explain the process, I don't mean the science behind it. I wouldn't even dare attempt such a thing. But I do feel like I have to describe him triggering his 'jumps', and in order to describe this process I need... _something_. A tool of some kind that allows these time reversals.

Anyway, I'm kind of seeing now that this can be anything, and I'm now imagining something like the tool used in the MiB films to erase memories.


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## Outiboros (Jun 23, 2013)

OurJud said:


> Thanks again, Outiboros. I understand what you're saying, but when I say I need to explain the process, I don't mean the science behind it. I wouldn't even dare attempt such a thing. But I do feel like I have to describe him triggering his 'jumps', and in order to describe this process I need... _something_. A tool of some kind that allows these time reversals.
> 
> Anyway, I'm kind of seeing now that this can be anything, and I'm now imagining something like the tool used in the MiB films to erase memories.


Ah, now I see what you mean. Any kind of portable device would work. A watch would be overdoing it, perhaps.


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## Staff Deployment (Jun 25, 2013)

OurJud said:


> I do need to describe the process somehow or other, as the set-up will consist of me explaining that my main character has acquired the ability to reverse time, while the story itself will involve him doing this on more than one occasion.



It seems as though you could skip the exposition of "Bob can travel through time" by having Bob actually travel through time. That'd be self-explanatory, eh?

I recommend a calculator.


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## escorial (Jun 25, 2013)

Holding an object made in the past that is now in the future.


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## FleshEater (Jun 25, 2013)

To further Leyline's opinion, I highly recommend watching Safety Not Guaranteed to see how little the device in question really means. Or the film adaptation of H.G. Wells Time Machine.


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## OurJud (Jun 26, 2013)

escorial said:


> Holding an object made in the past that is now in the future.



My story isn't about time-travel.


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## FleshEater (Jun 26, 2013)

I actually like your cell phone idea. I think it would be rather fitting. Also, it's very familiar, and is it really that far out there? I mean, they're able to clone now. Fifty years ago that was something left to science fiction. Fifties years from now we'll be dialing in dates and times on our iPhones and stepping back in time, thinking, "Boy, when I was thirty this was science fiction!"

Stick with the cell phone idea. Phillip K. Dick was a master because he created worlds that were eerily familiar. Using a device that has evolved from a touch-tone-looking telephone into a mini computer in less than 20 years seems like the best way to fit the object into the story.


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## OurJud (Jun 26, 2013)

FleshEater said:


> Stick with the cell phone idea. Phillip K. Dick was a master because he created worlds that were eerily familiar. Using a device that has evolved from a touch-tone-looking telephone into a mini computer in less than 20 years seems like the best way to fit the object into the story.



Thanks, FleshEater. I'd kind of settled on something that looked like the memory-eraser from the MiB films, but you might just have something. Stick with my instincts, etc.


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## FleshEater (Jun 26, 2013)

Exactly. 

Plus, the cell phone idea has a nice nostalgic feel to it, reminding me a little of Quantum Leap. Didn't the white suit guy use a big honkin portable phone or remote control? I vaguely remember that show from my childhood, so excuse my ignorance, ha-ha!


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## Lewdog (Jun 26, 2013)

On the television show "Quantum Leap," "Sam" doesn't use any device to travel through time.  He started in a time travel machine, but after the first 'jump' he continues to jump through time without anything other than the guidance of his friend "Al" and the computer system named "Ziggy."  You should check out a few episodes of it if you have no watched.  

"Oh boy..."


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## ToBeInspired (Jul 17, 2013)

I always found the thought of a payphone being an entertaining way to time-travel. With how the cord runs in an electrical current it would fit with the idea of a being a conduit for a black hole. Think Matrix. Most would not know the science behind the issue, but many know that black holes are believed to potentially have the ability to make time travel possible. 

It hardly matters what you use for means of time travel. If you have an interesting method people will be interested. I do find the phone to be a good means of time travel. Smartphones especially since you can enter a location and time. An exact latitude and longitude even. A timer to send you back automatically regardless of whether the phone is in your possession or not. You lose the phone - pop back in 20 hours exactly with the phone back in your hand... or at least in your vicinity.
Example -
Disposable Camera:
You look into the eye piece and wind the wheel causing you to go back in to time in the area you are currently viewing. When you snap the picture it takes you immediately back to the area you originally traveled from. This allows your story the possibility of being in a dangerous area, or situation, and reverting back to a safe place like say... the characters housing.


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## Greimour (Jul 20, 2013)

Seems this thread is done, but my two cents:

*In Doctor Who*; River Song uses an item on her wrist. Not a watch, but it's called a TVM - Time Vortex Manipulator.

*Bernards Watch: Bernard's Watch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia* He used a pocket watch. Childrens TV - he could stop or rewind time by change the time displayed on his watch.

Point is: You can use anything, as long as you give it plausibility. I remember a show called "The Queens Nose" that was a fifty-pence piece, if you rubbed the nose it would grant your wish. Magic, Time Travel and unknown... you only have to give it a fancy name or relate it in some way to something plausible and it just gets accepted.


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## words (Jul 26, 2013)

Leyline said:


> Time travel is utterly ridiculous from a scientific perspective, as most of the Hard SF folks who've written it admit. So, don't worry about it. It's a lovely narrative device, so design your time machine on lovely narrative terms.



Disagree. Science documents only what is reproducible at the present. 

Sure there are problems in physics "reversing" the arrow of time, such as the concept of entropy reversal, but of course entropy reversal is a bulk concept, not a localised one. So that provided something else increases in entropy, then reduction of entropy of another object is clearly not defying physics.

Physics is getting stranger: conceiving of multiverses, wormholes, and the concept of times coexisting in effect as different places in a universe of more dimensions. Relativity highlights the fact that different observers have different perceptions of time passing and if two bodies meet again following different velocity profiles, they have aged differently.So the conceiving of time travel is not beyond the pale.  There is a presumption that time is slowed or suspended in black holes, and that multiple times coexist at a single place at the singularity.

So - leaping ahead in what might be: if the "theory of everything proponents" are right, then magnetics can indeed distort space time, perhaps to the point of creating wormholes between times and places,  and the essence of extreme magnetism is superconducting materials in tubular form, so that currents spinning around the periphery create immense fields which distort space and time. Only material limitations are getting in the way. If UFOs are real, and the evidence is overwhelming and the propulsion characteristics are what they are reported to have, it could be they too are using magnetics to distort space in order to "move".

So two thoughts for you.... first the idea of some kind of "doughnut" or "cylinder" shaped object which when activated creates near infinite magnetic field, which distorts space to the point of becoming a wormhole connecting two times or places, into which the "passenger" is sucked in one end - exiting the other in a different time and place, or a similar object used to constrain a blackhole from gobbling up its surroundings: and the "passenger" in effect jumps into his own personal black hole held neutral by fields in a container. Scary if the battery runs out and the black hole starts eating its surroundings too!. 

In principle at least, people are talking using lasers and fields to crush matter down to fusion, or beyond that to mini black holes so the above may not sound so stupid in a few millenia!

If you use that concept, and the book sells squillions of copies, I at very least want a signed copy for the idea!








,


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## OurJud (Jul 26, 2013)

words said:


> So two thoughts for you.... first the idea of some kind of "doughnut" or "cylinder" shaped object which when activated creates near infinite magnetic field, which distorts space to the point of becoming a wormhole connecting two times or places, into which the "passenger" is sucked in one end - exiting the other in a different time and place, or a similar object used to constrain a blackhole from gobbling up its surroundings: and the "passenger" in effect jumps into his own personal black hole held neutral by fields in a container. Scary if the battery runs out and the black hole starts eating its surroundings too!.
> 
> In principle at least, people are talking using lasers and fields to crush matter down to fusion, or beyond that to mini black holes so the above may not sound so stupid in a few millenia!
> 
> If you use that concept, and the book sells squillions of copies, I at very least want a signed copy for the idea!



Well, honestly! I mean, if you're going to start bringing science into this then I don't want to know :icon_cheesygrin:


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## words (Jul 26, 2013)

OurJud said:


> Well, honestly! I mean, if you're going to start bringing science into this then I don't want to know :icon_cheesygrin:



It is remarkable how close da vinci got to helicopters, Jules verne got to modern day space travel and submarines, and star trek got to some of todays devices: look hard and see iphones and ipads, they just did not have the right brand at the time!!!! - so become a modern day scienceprophetess why not?


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## Gargh (Jul 26, 2013)

You might like to look up the Sonora Aero Club and Charles Dellschau's drawings. It's slightly off topic but a superb example of a good speculative imagination at work. All sorts of conspiracy theories have been posited surrounding the society that inspired them but they are fascinating in their own right. I prefer to think they are simply a fine example of what people did before television


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## AzhureHeart (Jul 26, 2013)

I like the idea of a compass like object personally, but I also agree that there does not need to be too much focus on the time travel itself.


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## Sparktheunknown (Jul 27, 2013)

I am fooling around with a piece like this. One version involved an electromagnetic suit that allowed the matter within the suit to be ziplined through time remotely while the actual machine that facilitated the time-bending consumption of energy remained static in a lab. It was controlled by a digital interface on the wearers arm. The only downside was that it relied on positive-negative charges between one time and next, dictated by the overall magnetic field of the earth and the constantly fluctuating positive/negative vortexes on its surface. So while the user could travel through time, it wasn't exact and depended on a complex algorithm that calculated (though not without error) the time and location of a jump as closely as possible to the actual date selected. And since the suit itself was solar powered and exhausted itself regularly jumps were often days or hours apart regardless of the desire of the wearer while one spent as much time as possible in direct sunlight. So the effect was often ping-ponging through time and wasting innumerable amounts of time just getting from your jump point to the actual date and time you were shooting for.


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## Tiberius (Jul 29, 2013)

It doesn't get much more portable than a Delorean.


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## OurJud (Jul 29, 2013)

Sparktheunknown said:


> I am fooling around with a piece like this. One version involved an electromagnetic suit that allowed the matter within the suit to be ziplined through time remotely while the actual machine that facilitated the time-bending consumption of energy remained static in a lab. It was controlled by a digital interface on the wearers arm. The only downside was that it relied on positive-negative charges between one time and next, dictated by the overall magnetic field of the earth and the constantly fluctuating positive/negative vortexes on its surface. So while the user could travel through time, it wasn't exact and depended on a complex algorithm that calculated (though not without error) the time and location of a jump as closely as possible to the actual date selected. And since the suit itself was solar powered and exhausted itself regularly jumps were often days or hours apart regardless of the desire of the wearer while one spent as much time as possible in direct sunlight. So the effect was often ping-ponging through time and wasting innumerable amounts of time just getting from your jump point to the actual date and time you were shooting for.



In that time-travel is impossible and an utterly ridiculous concept, would it not be easier for the traveler to simply 'press a button'?

I've decided now, that how the time-reversal (not time-travel) works in my story is unimportant. Suffice to say it's set in a distant future and they 'have the technology to do it'.


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