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My theory of time

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I'm no physicist but I have a theory which I've been thinking over the last few days about time. I'd love to hear what you guys think about it and if it's similar to any existing theories.

It all started when I had the idea that time was like walking behind a pencil drawing a line, you can look back and thee the line drawn behind you, see the line being drawn by the pencil and guess where the pencil is going but what if the line splits every time there's an event that has different outcomes and if the line has kept splitting from when the pencil starred to draw then the time line would look like a sort of tree starting from the origin point aka the big bang and every time an event occurs with multiple outcomes the tree grows a branch for every outcome the branches grow more branches which grow more branches. this would mean that our time line is just one many and that alternate time lines where events have turned out differently and if we went further across the tree we would find time lines which are very different to our own.

then I started to think about time travel as you do and i thought that it'd be far more complicated then just moving forwards and backwards in time (assuming that time travel in such a manner is possible) because you would have to navigate through the different branches of time to get back to the line you left from.

also the sheer fact that you set foot in the past would create a whole new branch in which you could do whatever you want as long as you knew how to navigate back to your own time line so you could go back in time and kill your grandfather because the fact of you being in that time would cause it to branch off so you wouldn't be killing your grandfather but the grandfather of an alternate version of yourself.

Now I'm thinking that a tree has roots so could there be an opposite time line growing away from ours?

I don't know if someone's already thought of this but it does eliminate the occurrences of paradoxes and could explain the existence of a parallel universe if mankind was ever to encounter one.

@lovetothink,

Many worlds interpretation has similarities. Each event branches the world into several worlds, each world containing one of the possible outcomes of the event.

@Bones-O,

Very similar, or exactly the same. (see link below) But if there are infinite universes, then that means that an added universe would mean that there are a countable amount of universes. And that would also mean that time is two dimentional, 1 for just time, and 2 for what universe or "branch".

HowStuffWorks "Time Travel Problems"

@lovetothink,

lovetothink;64997 wrote:

I don't know if someone's already thought of this but it does eliminate the occurrences of paradoxes and could explain the existence of a parallel universe if mankind was ever to encounter one.

How about all of that "no time" that you spend when you are asleep. It is very strange state.

Rich

@lovetothink,

lovetothink;64997 wrote:

I'm no physicist but I have a theory which I've been thinking over the last few days about time. I'd love to hear what you guys think about it and if it's similar to any existing theories.

It all started when I had the idea that time was like walking behind a pencil drawing a line, you can look back and thee the line drawn behind you, see the line being drawn by the pencil and guess where the pencil is going but what if the line splits every time there's an event that has different outcomes and if the line has kept splitting from when the pencil starred to draw then the time line would look like a sort of tree starting from the origin point aka the big bang and every time an event occurs with multiple outcomes the tree grows a branch for every outcome the branches grow more branches which grow more branches. this would mean that our time line is just one many and that alternate time lines where events have turned out differently and if we went further across the tree we would find time lines which are very different to our own.

then I started to think about time travel as you do and i thought that it'd be far more complicated then just moving forwards and backwards in time (assuming that time travel in such a manner is possible) because you would have to navigate through the different branches of time to get back to the line you left from.

also the sheer fact that you set foot in the past would create a whole new branch in which you could do whatever you want as long as you knew how to navigate back to your own time line so you could go back in time and kill your grandfather because the fact of you being in that time would cause it to branch off so you wouldn't be killing your grandfather but the grandfather of an alternate version of yourself.

Now I'm thinking that a tree has roots so could there be an opposite time line growing away from ours?

I don't know if someone's already thought of this but it does eliminate the occurrences of paradoxes and could explain the existence of a parallel universe if mankind was ever to encounter one.

Interesting. And I agree mostly. But what about this idea about different outcomes? How would that be possible?
If you slip a bowling ball, it's going to fall to the ground. There's no outcome in which this physical system will act differently, for example that the bowling ball falls upwards. And it's the same with all other physical systems. Millions of molecules interacting is far more complicated than a bowling ball falling, but it's still a physical system, there is no possibility for different outcomes - no way for the line to split.

@EmperorNero,

Well first off Time is very interesting. We can explain it to the most furtherest depths imaginable. The reason being is, we created it. The concept of "time" is actually quite primitive with early man recognizing that their were repeated cycles of natural events which could be used to measure the duration of other events. Nowhere in the physical universe can you find time. Where can you see its causes and effects? We say its infinite, its always been there. But infinity says there is no start or end, it will go on forever. Well first off, if it isn't created and has no start, then how does it come into existence in the first place? It doesn't, time has never existed physically, only in our mind, well hey we need it, psychologically, Im not doubting that for one second, but in this universe it does not exist. The only way we can time travel is in our dreams. Just think about it.

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