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Mmm.. Time machine.

jpost.com — According to a new theoretical model developed by Israeli scientists, time travel just might be possible. The answer of course, is in a shape of a donut.

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  • veeshy, on 10/10/2007, -3/+73i thought time didn't exist?
    • Authustian, on 10/10/2007, -2/+14It's relative.
    • Oronar, on 10/10/2007, -3/+24Lunchtime doubly so.
    • Gabberwok, on 10/10/2007, -3/+7You don't need time to explain quantum mechanics. This guy is describing something that is strictly general relativity, curved space-time etc. You can come up with a mathematical equation for all sorts of wacky space-time geometries, but that doesn't mean they're physically possible and certainly not that they're stable.
    • pushmouse, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Of course time exists. Time is natures way of stopping everything from happening all at once.
      • Scynet, on 10/10/2007, -6/+1Eh? Things don't happen all at once because nature is about action and consequence. Action and reaction. It progresses constantly through the forces affecting between particles. Time has nothing to do with it.
        • bIuebonics, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4yea, just to clue you in: action and consequence relies on an action coming BEFORE a consequence...
      • Darkseit, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2I like the way pushmouse explains it better. its the way god woulda done it, right?
      • 0xbadfood, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1You're not thinking fourth dimensionally. Maybe everything does happen all at once, but you just don't perceive it that way.
        • CanadaMan87, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Now you're thinking with Portals™.
      • rodrigo74, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1@pushmouse: That's a circular argument.
      • NerdyNinja, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2@ scynet -

        Actually, causality has never been proven. It's something that we've inferred and probably understand, but at least extremely difficult if not impossible to prove.
        • bIuebonics, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3o_O most theories and ideas are never actually proven, they're just supported by observable evidence.
        • NerdyNinja, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Yeah, but in science and math we take the base assumptions for granted. Causality is debated by philosophers though, so what I meant was that there's no argument that can be made that doesn't have an equally valid counter argument. Causality is slightly more complicated than a measurement or area calculation, though.
    • Blah_Blah_Blah, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3time is just a man-made invention
      • HBNDonut, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5It is a measurement.
      • bIuebonics, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7time exists outside of man's involvement. the scales in which we measure time, however, are completely our doing.
    • imeddy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Correct. Time is a measurement of change.
    • TexanPsycho, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Time is a counting system with meaning attached to it.
  • steger, on 10/10/2007, -0/+16It's all in the mind you know.
    • CReyes4182, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster, drank Piña Coladas. At sunset we made love like sea otters. That was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day over and over and over...
  • andrewcsayer, on 10/10/2007, -2/+87Wait a minute Doc, are you telling me - you made a time machinne....out of a doughnut?
    • WaltDismal, on 10/10/2007, -6/+5He's Israeli. He was inspired by a bagel. Hey, if Israel gets a time machine, will they go back and not kill Christ?
      • rhabd0mancer, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5No, they'll go back and kill him again.
        • VanillaStarfish, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0If they go back and bring Christ here, this could be the 'second coming' the Bible talks about.
    • Darkseit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Does this remind anyone of that Simpspons episode where Homer is partying with Steven Hawking who say to him at the end "Homer I am quite intrigued over your idea of a doughnut shaped universe"?
    • NecroSexy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I was actually thinking of Homer simply drooling over the mere thought of a doughnut.
    • estacado, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6They stole the idea from Quantum Leap.
    • NerdyNinja, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5You're not thinking 4th dimensionally, Marty! The flux capacitor!
    • matrixbandit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Jesus Christ, it's called a TORUS. I thought this was digg for ***** sake, not youtube.
    • mwmccullough, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It'll take 1.21 GigaSprinkles! Do you know how much power it would take to create that?
  • ButtonMonkey, on 10/10/2007, -13/+13I traveled forward in time. This story hits the front page on Monday.
    • oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/10/2007, -6/+1wow, the digg comment system more wonko then usual.
      • HBNDonut, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3THAN, NOT THEN!
        THAN, NOT THEN!
        THAN, NOT THEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    • oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/10/2007, -6/+1-
    • sarianrogue, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9He's right. It's 12:14 Monday where I am and it just hit the front page like 5 minutes ago. I'm scared.
  • oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/10/2007, -4/+20today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday.
  • Rogpog777, on 10/10/2007, -12/+1I always knew it could be possible to travel forward in time (there are people, who spend their lives in space, who are a few minutes older than they would be here) but travel back in time.....

    Even if it was possible....*in raspy voice* the consequences could be....disastrous.

    We could very well cause a paradox that would unravel our very universe...

    Couldn't help the BttF reference, I wanted to be the one post to stray away from it.....
    • ctrlfreak13, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3It's not particularly dangerous at all to travel forward in time in the manner you mention (a.k.a. the "twin paradox"), there's no harm in simply traveling very very fast relative to earth (hence its origin from Einstein's Theory of Relativity); it's just a matter of actually moving at speeds near the speed of light. Safer I think than trying to create conditions in which space and time would "bend back over itself"....
  • theysayjump, on 10/10/2007, -3/+24Say goodbye to regret and hello to Dinosaurs.
    • 0xbadfood, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Say hello to strong AI and our new machine overlords. They had to take over eventually, and combine the future's AI software with today's ability to stick a computer in a time loop and calculate forever.
    • akaii, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I got an impression, from what doc said, that you need some sort of a "receiver" for this to work.. i.e. if we build this receiver today, in the future days, time travel back in time will be possible no further back than today.

      "But don't pack your bags and get ready to go dinosaur-hunting yet. "We, however," he cautions, "could not return to previous ages because our predecessors did not create this infrastructure for us.""
      • akaii, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Which means that the creation of this machine will be inevitable, since you can not go back in time to prevent this machine from being created.
  • nVoy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+38Professor Farnsworth: By Tuesday it'll be Thursday. By Wednesday, it'll be August. And by Thursday, it'll be the end of existence as we know it!
  • sLydE, on 10/10/2007, -2/+46GREAT SCOTT!!!
  • idc5, on 10/10/2007, -6/+5mmm... donuts...
  • AFJon, on 10/10/2007, -5/+51"I find your theory of a donut shaped Universe quite intriguing. I just may have to steal it"
    -Stephen Hawking to Homer Simpson
    • mikesbaker, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8Your theory of a donut-shaped universe is intriguing, Homer. I may have to steal it

      /the right quote
  • archlich, on 10/10/2007, -9/+18"Your idea of a donut-shaped universe intrigues me Homer; I may have to steal it" - Stephen Hawkings episode AABF18
  • SantaClauz, on 10/10/2007, -4/+7Haven't we ALWAYS said that time travel "just might be possible"?
  • muffins, on 10/10/2007, -1/+18How come we think we're always the current time? If time travel backwards is possible then how come no one has come to us?
    • skyfire1, on 10/10/2007, -1/+18Because 2007 sucks ass/
    • ctrlfreak13, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Because if you actually read the article you would realize that you can't travel back in time to a point before the time loop was actually created.
      • MonkeyFit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9So basically, it's like setting a restore point for the universe.
        • HBNDonut, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Yes, it's like saving your progress in a video game.
    • 30thElement, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1well, you can go back, you just cant go to your own time. to go back to before the loop was created would trap you in that timeline.
    • mastercheif, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3Jesus is Black.
    • novask, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14$5 says Bill Gates is a bum from the future.
    • TraumaDrama, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Because they waiting for Bush to go away.
  • venom8599, on 10/10/2007, -5/+12Buried for lack of a flux capacitor. Who are these "scientists" trying to pull one over on?
  • DeFex, on 10/10/2007, -9/+109am: go back and tell them not to kill that jesus guy.
    10am : go back and patent the wheel and fire.
    12pm: lunch
    • natdrat00, on 10/10/2007, -0/+112:01pm : Trick friend to pay for lunch to get it free.
    • HBNDonut, on 10/10/2007, -0/+21pm: ?????
      2pm: Profit!
  • titlesaysitall, on 10/10/2007, -4/+68Diggers! I arrive from the future! You will never be laid!
    • Tobark, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7I just went back in time and had sex with your mom before you were born so , who's your daddy?
  • ricree, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Does anyone know the citation for the paper this article is about?
    • ricree, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Ah, found it.

      Formation of closed timelike curves in a composite vacuum/dust asymptotically flat spacetime
      Amos Ori
      Department of Physics, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000, Israel
      Phys. Rev. D 76, 044002 (2007) (14 pages)
    • derjames, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1There is another paper from him about time machines at Physical Review- Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 021101 (2005)
      ' A Class of Time-Machine Solutions with a Compact Vacuum Core'
  • CatsAreGods, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back! Turn back!
  • Paktu, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16Donuts. Is there anything they can't do?
  • mikesbaker, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2C
  • blorc, on 10/10/2007, -1/+20Does it worry anyone else that someone named Ori is experimenting with time travel?

    /badnerdjoke
    • Icebird, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Only if his name used to be Yuri.
    • TiMMY8765, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3this will be the plot to one of the upcoming movies
    • abyssknight, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Indeed.
    • silent, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Hallowed are the Ori...

      ( maybe we can go back in time write out the ori plotline )
  • Hayaemsay, on 10/10/2007, -0/+22So why did you come to the Future?
    I wanted to meet Shakespeare, I figured time was cicular so...
    Nope, straight line.
  • sayuwantarevolu, on 10/10/2007, -10/+1Guy just out of cryo-chamber: I wanted to meet Shakespeare, I thought time was sickle-shaped
    Fry: Nope, straight line.
  • benitojuarez, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14Hallowed are the Ori, is there anything they cant do?
  • NiGHTSChao, on 10/10/2007, -1/+25Buried

    Everyone knows time travel is only possible in a delorean
  • Gabberwok, on 10/10/2007, -0/+16Wasn't there a digg about the Dolorean coming back a few days ago?
  • eldridgea, on 10/10/2007, -2/+20The proper conditions he requires are twofold.
    1.) 1.21 Jiggawatts.
    2.) 88 MPH
    • D3koy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Delorean?
    • jooaakim, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Jiggawatts?! Gigawatts!
      • ozydingo, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2Not according to how the Doc pronounced it
        • bIuebonics, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2actually, "Giga" is properly pronounced "Jiga"... starting the word with a hard g is fairly recent and not considered the preferred pronunciation.
    • MonkeyFit, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Gigawatts, is the correct spelling.
    • MarkTaiwan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Diggawatts?
  • Tardeaux, on 10/10/2007, -2/+20I'm pretty sure these Israeli scientists actually intended their model to be BAGEL shaped.
  • migmel, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Anyone else find it ominous that his name is Ori?



    Yeah I watch the show...
  • RyeBrye, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9If it's not edible, it's a torus - not a donut.

    I learned this from the Future Me who just came to me in a phone booth at the Circle K.
    • Genady, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Ask future self about his hemoroid torus. "Sometimes a donut is a donut."
  • siqtictorn, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Anyone ever seen Primer? Sounds like the basis of the idea (in that you can only go as far back as the device has existed). It's a pretty good film. http://imdb.com/title/tt0390384/
    • demoralized, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Call me crazy but I don't think a guy with a PhD. in physics is going to base his life's work off of a movie.
    • MCDupree, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0It's a confusing film is what it is. Most confusing one I've ever seen. Heck, even reading the explanation on Wikipedia was confusing.
  • BossX, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2So.. people from the future can come visit us.. except they don't exist yet because no one has given birth to them.. riiiiiiiight. Unless we're all living in a simulation and everything has already happened?
    • NerdyNinja, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1There's a theory by some philosopher that every object that exists has some attribute that includes everything that will ever happen to it. So, when someone tips over a vase, the vase inherently knows what it should do because it already knew what being tipped over was like. Personally, I think the theory is a crap version of that thing called 'Physics', but what do I know? If that guy was right, then each person would somehow 'know' everything that would ever happen to them, which might mean that their children might already 'know' even though they don't exist yet.

      Personally, I think Time is a lot more like an infinite series of forks in the road, and we're just walking one of those paths. Well, some people walk, I try to jog. :P
  • jnagel, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4If anyone is interested in reading about how several different time travel paradoxes have been resolved, I suggest going to Barnes and Noble or someplace and reading the last few chapters of Brian Greene's excellent book "Fabric of the Cosmos"
    • bIuebonics, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1another good book that includes the concept of time travel is david deutsch's "the fabric of reality"
  • HUKI365, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5It just HAD to be the Israelis didn't it.
  • K3ITHK, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3A donut? I thought the flux capacitor was shaped more like a gamma.
    • D3koy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1or a "y" with bubbles on the ends in a box....
  • henrik.falk, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I don't think that there ever have been any problem with time going backwards. It just doesn't.
  • Jalh, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0if some day the time machine is invented, is probably that people from the future might be visiting us right now and that didn't happen yet, so the time machine won't be create
    • smackywentz, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1I call *****. You have to create the time machine first for them to have a way to visit us. Also what do you think UFOs are?
    • absolutroot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7flying objects that have yet to be identified.
  • badmephisto, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6why did they have to put the last 10 words on the second page...?!
    • ozydingo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Probably because it wasn't a human behind that decision, so it just happened that way.
    • MikeMulligan, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1So they can get another click/view for ad revenue...
  • Marlic, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Not gonna happen, simply b/c there are more ppl building nuclear bombs than time machines. So we probably going to nuke the human race to extinction first! We can go back in time to change this fact, wait we don't have a time machine yet.. right.... the paradox!!!
  • thunderclap, on 10/10/2007, -5/+2Well, since it is israelis then I guess one morning we will wake up and there will be no Iraq war, no 9/11, no Osama and no Mohammad. When can I send them some money. I am liking this world already.
  • kolobcreek, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1The germans go way to overboard on The Simpsons don't they? A donut come on.
  • nebel, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12*WARNING*: Time travel may cause Parkinson's disease.
    • MikeMulligan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Hahaha thanks...3 heads just popped over the cubicle walls next to me to see what I was laughing at...
  • spyd3rweb, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3Go back and make Bush president of a fudge packing plant instead of the United Stands
    • gbro, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1That would be one well lubricated plant.
  • Ductapemaster, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The only catch is that it requires 1.21 Jiggawatts to work...
  • darthmoonman, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top secret project. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Doctor Beckett, prematurely stepped into the Jewish Donut and vanished.
  • D3koy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9*****.....There I said it, now can we stop all the wasted energy and make commercial space travel a reality? I want to go to the ***** moon, not 1910....
  • Gadren, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9"Hitler... is out of the way."
    "Congratulations, Professor! With Hitler removed --"
    "Time will tell... Sooner or later, time will tell."
  • eyebits, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The past is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.
  • ryryindo, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0buried for being retarded.... you will never be able to stop time or travel through it any faster than we currently are.
    it's just perception
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