X-Message-Number: 20544 Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 06:55:44 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #20541 - #20543 Hi everyone! So Yvan notices the possibility of time travel. I would add that with the right restrictions, it wouldn't even violate relativity. I did a brief discussion of it in an article I wrote for ANALOG some years ago. Imagine 2 places moving at different velocities. If the velocities are close enough, then travel between those 2 locations can be fast enough to seem almost instantaneous to both parties. Other people at other places, moving at a fast velocity in relation to the first two, would see this passage as a passage into the past in one direction, and a very rapid passage into the future in the other direction. And given that the connection exists only between these two places, no causality problems occur. With a bit more work you can work out that a network of connections will have the same effect. "velocity" in the whole network is lowered the faster one element of it moves relative to the others; if that element moves fast enough, it's barely above the speed of light c. In the 8 November SCIENCE (298(2002), 1166-1167) there is an interesting discussion of one way to reconcile quantum theory with relativity. Basically it assumes that space consists of lots of small space bits (quantum sized) tied together in (guess what!) a network. I was only speculating in my ANALOG article, but perhaps it might lead someplace real. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20544