General Overview:

Time, which is the ongoing sequence of events taking place, is still yet to be understood in terms of where it came from, its existence (or it is just an agreed construct that governs our lives). Can we go back in the past or go far into the future? What governs the movement/flow of time and how do we perceive time. Many people puzzle over these questions and answers are still yet to be found. This summary paper of the quantum physics of time puts forward a theoretical foundation in which the prodigy of time can be presented in a proper way. I am going to describe the nature of time, and explain how we can achieve to travel in time.

Intro If a time traveler, sitting in his time machine on the surface of Earth, were to journey just one day into the past or the future, and unless equipped with a space suit, space capsule, and life support, he would die in just a few minutes. Earth, and our solar system are in motion, with Earth having a solar orbital speed of 108,000 km/h (~70,000 mph) and our solar system a speed of 720,000 km/h (450,000 mph) as it circles the Milky Way galaxy. If a time traveler stepped into a time machine in Harare, London, or New York, and then set out for the future, he would find himself alone in space millions of miles in front of this planet as it orbits through the cosmos. If absent protective life-support or a space capsule, the time traveler would quickly be reduced to a lifeless corpse. Even if one were to survive safely ensconced inside a time-space ship, there is the prospect of premature aging; the need to overcome life-threatening g-forces; the “Rip Van Winkle Effect;” miniaturization and the transformation to a state of negative energy and negative mass upon traveling at superluminal speeds into the past; and the alteration of every moment of space time as one journeys through it such that one may travel to “a” past or “a” future” but not “the” past or “the” future. For example, as dictated by quantum mechanics and the “Copenhagen” and “Many Worlds” interpretations of quantum physics (Bohr, 1934, 1963; Dewitt 1971; Everett 1956, 1957; Heisenberg 1958), if a time traveler journeys 100 years to the future he/she will come in contact with and affect and alter the quantum composition of every moment of space-time leading to that future such that the future becomes a different future by his passage to it. If that future is not altered by his journey to it, then that future must have already existed and his journey to it must have occurred in that future before he journeyed to it. The basic tenants of quantum mechanics and the “Copenhagen” and “Many Worlds” interpretations, indicate there may be multiple futures, those which may be altered and those which are not; an assemble of infinite futures which may or may not be altered by events leading to those futures. Conversely, if a time traveler living in the year 2050 journeys 100 years into the past to 1950, each past (local) moment of that entire 100 years of space-time will become altered by the passage through it. “The” past becomes “a” past shaped by the passage of the time traveler who comes in contact with every moment leading to that past. If that past and every moment leading backwards in time are not altered, then this is because he always journeyed to that past, which is part of the past record. Therefore he must have journeyed to the past before he journeyed to it. If a time traveler journeys 100 years into the long ago and then decides to stay there, then the past becomes the “present.” As that “present” from the moment of his arrival in 1950 progresses forwards 100 years, day by day year by year, to the future date and time when the time traveler was born, and then continuing to the date he left on his journey in 2050, he will leave again for the past which will, for him and all those living at that time, will be the “present.” And as 100 years from his day of arrival in 1950 go by, day by day, year by year, leading to the day of his birth and that same future time traveling date in 2050, he will leave again for the past, and then again and again and again such that an infinite number of time travelers might arrive simultaneously in “a” or “the” past or separately in multiple altered pasts which are infinite in number.

Time is relative to the observer (Einstein 1905a,b,c, 1906, 1961). Since there are innumerable observers, there is no universal “past, present, future” which are infinite in number and all of which are in motion. There is more than one “present” and this is because time is not the same everywhere for everyone, and differs depending on gravity, acceleration, frames of reference, relative to the observer (Einstein 1907, 1910, 1961). Time is relative and there is no universal past. No universal future. And no universal now. The “past” in another galaxy overlaps with the “present” on Earth. The “present” in another galaxy will not be experienced on Earth until the future. Time is like the weather. The weather is different in Beijing versus Berlin, and so is time. The greater the distance between two locations, the greater the differences in time, and this is because time is linked to locations in space and time-space is in motion (Einstein 1961). According to Einstein’s theorems of relativity (Einstein 1905a,b,c, 1907, 1910, 1961), the past, present and future overlap and exist simultaneously but in different distant locations in the dimension known as space-time, and as such “The distinction between past, present and future is only an illusion” (Einstein 1955). Quantum physics, the Uncertainty Principle, the “Many Worlds” interpretation of quantum physics, and what Einstein (1930) called “spooky action at a distance” all call into question the causal distinctions between past, present and future. Time is perceived. Time is experienced. Even eye-witnesses to a crime can’t agree on what they saw, heard, or experienced (Haber & Haber, 2000; Megreya & Burton 2008); though the can all agree that they saw, heard, or experienced something, and the same is true of time. Time is “something,” it exists, and therefore it must have energy and a wave function which is entangled with motion, movement, the observer, and the quantum continuum which encompasses space-time. Time has a fluid consistency. Innumerable futures and pasts exist simultaneously albeit in different locations within space-time all of which are in motion. Observers located in New York, Shanghai, Tokyo, Paris, Mexico City, and on other planets in distant galaxies, are also in motion, as planets spin and orbit the sun, the sun orbits the galaxy, and galaxies move about in the universe. Observers, regardless of what planet, solar system, or in what galaxy they reside, are continually moving though space-time and are continually coming into contact with different times. Observers, planets, and galaxies, like time, also exist in space-time, albeit in different distant locations, and all is relative. Earth orbits around the sun in a curve. This solar system has a curvature and its motion follows a curving path as it orbits this galaxy. Likewise, space-time is curved and light and time follow that curvature (Einstein 1915a,b, 1961; Gödel 1949a,b). All is in motion and has velocity, but because of this curvature, one may travel in a circle and arrive where they began; and the same is true of time. Time is a circle (Gödel 1949a,b). The past leads to the future and the future can lead to the past. Space-time, because of the different mass and gravities of distant planets and galaxies, is not just curved, but warped. Gravity and space-time are linked to motion. Therefore, increases in velocity and gravity can not only curve but shrink space-time (Einstein 1905c, 1915a,b; Einstein et al. 1923; Lorentz 1892). Just as two chairs sitting on opposite ends of a carpet can be brought closer

together if the carpet is scrunched together and folds up and over itself, distant planets and galaxies, and the present and the future, can be brought closer together by the gravity, acceleration, and the curvature, shrinkage, and folding up of space-time (Einstein 1961). If mass and gravity are sufficiently powerful, space-time doesn’t just warp, but may rip, and holes may be punched into the fabric of space-time (Parker & Toms 2009; Ohanian & Ruffini 2013; Thorne & Hawking 1995). These rips and holes which are created by immense gravity and extreme curvatures create passageways which tunnel between these folded up space-time layers. Theoretically (Thorne & Hawking 1995), if a Time-Traveler entered and journeyed through these holes, he may quickly voyage from one distant location to another, from one galaxy to another, and from the present to the future, or to the past or even an parallel universe at velocities faster than the speed of light. Any time traveler who hopes to visit the future must accelerate toward but remain below light speed. As velocity increases, the distance between the present and the future contracts, and the future arrives more quickly, relative to those left behind. However, those who seek the past must break the cosmic speed limit, for it is only at velocities in excess of light speed that time flows backward and with it, consciousness and memory. And like memory, the past decays. Time is relative to the observer and the experience of the past, future and the “present” are shaped and affected by distance, gravity, acceleration, consciousness, our mood, our surroundings, speeding up under conditions of pleasure and slowing down and sometimes splitting apart or even running backwards under conditions of fear and terror (Joseph 1996, 2010a). Acceleration contracts space-time causing it to speed up or slow down, depending on the location and frame of reference of the observers (Einstein 1905c, 1961; Einstein et al. 1923; Lorentz 1892, 1905). Consciousness, too, can accelerate, particularly under conditions terror, in which case, time slows down and there may be a splitting of consciousness (Joseph 1996, 2010a). Although those with no understanding of consciousness, biology or neurophysiology, might dismiss these alterations of time as “mental distortions,” relativity and quantum physics demonstrates otherwise. “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S relativity.” -Einstein The “future” and the “past” are shaped and affected by consciousness which can effect events just by observing them; as illustrated by “entanglement” and Heisenberg’s well established Uncertainty Principle (Heisenberg 1927). Consciousness is entangled with the quantum continuum. Consciousness of the “present” could also be likened to an “event horizon” with the future flowing toward it at an accelerated rate approaching light speed, and the past continuing beyond it at velocities increasingly above the speed of light. The “event horizon” of consciousness, like the “event horizon” of a supermassive black hole, is the “eternal now;” consciousness at the speed of light. And then there is dream-time where past, present, future and the three dimensions of space may be juxtaposed simultaneously as a gestalt and where minutes and hours are only a few seconds in duration (Joseph 1996, 2011a).

Dream-time, and dream-consciousness, do not obey the laws of classical physics or Einstein’s laws of relativity, but the quantum laws of “Multiple Worlds” and quantum physics. Space-time is conceptualized as the 4th dimension (Einstein 1961). However, instead of a fourdimensional universe, three of space and one of space-time, there may be six dimensions, three of space, and three of time; i.e. space-time, conscious-time, and dream-time with all three time dimensions subject to contraction and dilation independent of each other. Compared with the 10, 11 or more dimensions of “string” and super-string theory (Kaku 1999; Polchinski 1998), six dimensions may be a conservative estimate. These are just some of the conundrums of time travel .