Would We Know If Time Travel Was Real? | Unveiled

Would We Know if Time Travel Was Real?

If you could go anywhere in all the world, where would you choose? And how about anywhere in all of time? The basic gist of time travel has long been a sci-fi dream… and, if the invention of it were ever announced, then it would surely signify a true “before and after” moment in our history. A monumental day, beyond which all our lives will have changed forever. But actually, when you think about it, might that day have already passed without us realizing it?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; would we know if time travel was real?

At its simplest, time travel is a means to get from A to B… only A and B are at separate points not in space but along a timeline. And, in a sense, we’re always time traveling into the future, because that’s just how time functions from our perspective. Right now, you’re here listening to me finish this sentence. And now you’re here listening to me finish this one. In just the last few seconds, we’ve all moved forward. And now we’re even further forward, again. And so on, and so on, such is life. If you could find a way to move forward at incredibly high speeds relative to your surroundings, then you should – theoretically – be able to jump further ahead in time than just the usual rate. And this is traveling to the future.

Backwards time travel is notoriously a lot trickier to unpick… and, in fact, while most concede that forwards travel might be possible, many think that backwards travel may never be. Because how do you reverse through everything that’s already happened? How could it ever physically occur that you could relive the same day, week or even lifetime, over and over again? Well, actually, one way in which it might be possible is if you were to a) prove the multiverse and b) break into the multiverse, to move around it at will. In a reality where you have multiple realities ready for you to just dip in and out of, then you can – to a certain degree – revisit the past and therefore travel back in time. Clearly, though, the whole “mastering the multiverse” thing doesn’t exactly come easy, meaning this version of time travel isn’t accessible for everyone.

But rather than losing ourselves at the first hurdle, in the physical impossibilities of it all, let’s imagine that, incredibly, there is a way to travel in time. We might not feel as though we have it at our disposal right now, but somewhere out there it is possible… and therefore it might just as well exist in our own lives. And so, the many, many paradoxes come into play. The grandfather paradox is the most famous, asking what would happen if you went back in time and killed off your own family line, thereby making it impossible for you to be born… and thereby making it impossible for you to time travel back to kill off your family line to begin with. The bootstrap or predestination paradox is another favorite, exploring the temporal tanglement that could occur if ever an event in the past were to rely on an event in the future in order to ensure that it happens (or happened) at all. For example, what if a technology only ever gets invented because a traveller from the future plants it back in the past, at the time when history says it first appears? Who, then, invents that technology? The traveler only has it because they’ve lived at a time after its invention… but then it only gets invented because that traveler drops it back in time. It’s a head scratcher, but it’s also (in some ways) quite difficult to prove that that exact situation has never happened before.

And here lies the wider crux of the problem, as could any one person really tell if they had ever encountered a time traveler in their lives? Sure, if someone came up to you in the street and said, “Hi, I’m a traveler from the year five thousand” you are likely to remember them. But instinct perhaps also dictates that you’d immediately dismiss their claim, as well. And, before long, your conversation with them just gets chalked up alongside everything else that happens in your life, as a past experience. In another scenario, the traveler isn’t quite so brazen and doesn’t reveal their true nature, at all. Again, though, how would you figure that they were really operating at the fourth dimension? And, ultimately, no matter the traveler’s personal strategy or philosophy, in whatever way they impact you… it all, inevitably, happens in your past. And so, it quickly becomes just the “way things are”, leaving you little reason to ever question any prior event. Because, from your perspective, it just happened… and you’re here now to remember it.

It's a conundrum wrapped up in what some call the Fermi paradox of time. We’ve discussed the regular Fermi paradox before now. Relating to the search for extraterrestrial life, it says; if all indications are that ET life must exist, then where are all the aliens? We so far haven’t found any, so are we to then assume that aliens, in fact, don’t exist? The Fermi paradox of time is a little different, as there are perhaps fewer indications that time travel is possible… compared to the indications that aliens are out there. But, regardless, the final part still rings true: if time travel is to ever take place, at any point in history or the future, then where are all the time travelers? Despite various claims, no one has been unanimously confirmed as having “come from the future” just yet. The moment that happens, of course, we’d all suddenly understand that time travel is real… but before that happens, we’ll, naturally, never know.

It's a thought that leads into another consideration; if a time traveler were on Earth (in our present) but they were also choosing not to reveal themselves, then what would be the reason for that? In one scenario, they’re bound by strict laws from their own time, preventing them from blowing the cover of their own time travel program. In another, there are some that know about them today (perhaps governments or other powerful groups) and it’s actually them that are forcing the travelers into secrecy. Failing that, a time traveler might simply realize that it’s in their best interests if they keep their power hidden… realizing that, by operating as if in the shadows, they can wield a wider and stronger influence over life on Earth – for better or worse. If you were a traveler, what would your tactics be? Tell the world about it, or try your best to blend into the background?

All in all, it’s easy to see how the invention of time travel – if it is ever possible – could go one of two ways. Either it’s that monumental day mentioned at the top of this video, beyond which all our lives are changed forever by a global news event and the start of a new age for human civilization… or, it’s something altogether quieter. A breakthrough made behind closed doors and then heavily controlled from therein out, in a bid to prevent chaos from setting in… or in a bid by a select few to take control of an entire reality. Are we still waiting for it to happen, or are we just pawns in a game that – by definition – goes on forever, and has been going on for always?

It’s not as though you should really doubt any of your time until now; and it pays to remember that science so far tells us that – unless we’re factoring in a manipulable multiverse, as well – time travel still isn’t possible. Although, of course, that’s perhaps exactly what they would say, isn’t it? And that’s how it might be argued that we may never truly know if time travel is real.