Neha Shahzad

Research into time travel

Before the twentieth century, scientists and philosophers rarely investigated time travel, but now it
is an exciting and deeply studied topic. There are investigations into travel to the future and travel to
the past, although travel to the past is more problematical and receives more attention. There are
also investigations of the logical possibility of time travel, the physical possibility of time travel, and
the technological practicality of time travel. The most attention is paid to time travel that is
consistent with current physical theory such as Einstein's general theory of relativity. In science,
different models of the cosmos and the laws of nature governing the universe imply different
possibilities for time travel. So, theories about time travel have changed radically as the dominant
cosmological theories have evolved from classical, Newtonian conceptions to modern, relativistic
and quantum mechanical conceptions. Philosophers were quick to note some of the implications of
the new physics for venerable issues in metaphysics: the nature of time, causation and personal
identity, to name just a few.

The concept of time travel by mechanical means was first popularized in H. G. Wells' 1895 story, The
Time Machine. In general, time travel stories focus on the consequences of traveling into the past or
the future. The central premise for time travel stories oftentimes involves changing history, either
intentionally or by accident, and how altering the past changes the future and creates an altered
present or future for the time traveller when they return home. Some time travel stories focus solely
on the paradoxes and alternate timelines that come with time travel, rather than time traveling
itself. These stories often provide some sort of social commentary as time travel provides a
"necessary distancing effect" that allows science fiction to address contemporary issues in
metaphorical ways.

Time travel in modern fiction is sometimes achieved by space and time warps, stemming from the
scientific theory of general relativity. Stories of time travel from antiquity often featured time travel
into the future through a time slip brought on by traveling or sleeping, or in other cases, time travel
into the past through supernatural means, for example brought on by angels or spirits.

Going back to the past has long troubled some because of the so-called "grandfather paradox",
where a time traveller kills his grandfather as a child, resulting in his father not being born and,
consequently, his not being born which, in turn, would prevent him going back to kill his
grandfather.

But that does not stop the dreamers dreaming and the boffins deliberating. As H.G. Wells said: "Man
can go up against gravitation in a balloon, so why should he not hope that, ultimately, he may be
able to stop or accelerate his drift along the Time-Dimension, or even turnabout and travel the other
way?"