Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagTime travel

exoplanets-or-extrasolar-planets-with-stars-on-background-nebula-3d-illustration-stockpack-adobe-stock
Exoplanets or Extrasolar planets with stars on background nebula, 3D illustration
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News
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January 14, 2023
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The Search for Extraterrestrial Life 18

We are starting to find more different kinds of exoplanets and an unexpected source of water on Mars
News
January 14, 2023
7

In our universe: Time travel? “How a Rotating Universe Makes Time Travel Possible” At Universe Today, Stony Brook astrophysicist Paul Sutter notes that mathematical philosopher Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) wrote a model for Albert Einstein (1879–1955) of a universe that allows time travel into the past: “Gödel constructed a relatively simple and artificial model universe to prove his point. This universe is rotating and contains only one ingredient. That ingredient is a negative cosmological constant that resists the centrifugal force of the rotation to keep the universe static. / Gödel found that if you follow a particular path in this rotating universe you can end up in your own past. ” (January 11, 2023) Our universe, as it happens, is not Read More ›

time-in-space-3d-rendering-illustration-stockpack-adobe-stock
Time in space. 3d rendering illustration
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post
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News
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December 24, 2022
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Physics
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Did Physicists Open a Portal to Extra Time Dimension, as Claimed?

That’s the way the story reads at Scientific American. But experimental physicist Rob Sheldon says not so fast…
News
December 24, 2022
7
Physics

This story was #8 in 2022 at Mind Matters News in terms of reader numbers. As we approach the New Year, we are rerunning the top ten Mind Matters News stories of 2022, based on reader interest. Here’s #8, from our news division, for those of us who wonder how best to interpret science news at the cutting edge: “Did physicists open a portal to an extra time dimension, as claimed?: An experimental physicist explains. (August 6, 2022) At Scientific American, we were told last month: “Physicists have devised a mind-bending error-correction technique that could dramatically boost the performance of quantum computers”: “It is very exciting to see this unusual phase of matter realized in an actual experiment, especially because the mathematical description Read More ›

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Time concept. Hi-res digitally generated image.
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
November 26, 2022
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Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
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The Orville: The Moral Conundrums of Time Travel, Part 1

What if killing a person’s past wipes out a whole family?
Gary Varner
November 26, 2022
6
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

The last two episodes I’ve discussed of Orville, Season 3, have delved into popular political issues that allowed the writers’ bias to damage the plot. This episode, Part 6, does something worse. It may not seem like a big deal, at first. But let me explain why this episode is terrible from a standpoint that goes beyond the writing. Yes, the writing is bad but that’s par for the course with this show. However, it’s one thing to prattle on about political issues that are in vogue. But it’s another matter entirely to murder a family, and defend the decision, and in so doing, try to establish a set of priorities that are, to say the least, unwholesome. Writers describe Read More ›

time-in-space-3d-rendering-illustration-stockpack-adobe-stock
Time in space. 3d rendering illustration
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post
Author
News
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August 6, 2022
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Physics
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Did Physicists Open a Portal to Extra Time Dimension, As Claimed?

That’s the way the story reads at Scientific American. But experimental physicist Rob Sheldon says not so fast…
News
August 6, 2022
6
Physics

At Scientific American, we were told last month: “Physicists have devised a mind-bending error-correction technique that could dramatically boost the performance of quantum computers”: “It is very exciting to see this unusual phase of matter realized in an actual experiment, especially because the mathematical description is based on a theoretical ‘extra’ time dimension,” says team member Philipp Dumitrescu, who was at the Flatiron Institute in New York City when the experiments were carried out. A paper describing the work was published in Nature on July 20. Opening a portal to an extra time dimension—even just a theoretical one—sounds thrilling, but it was not the physicists’ original plan. “We were very much motivated to see what new types of phases could Read More ›

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Twisted watch face representing the infinite time spiral
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post
Author
News
Date
June 19, 2022
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Philosophy, Physics, Relationships
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Can the Future Reach Back and Affect the Past?

Researchers say that only elementary particles can really time travel but there is another way…
News
June 19, 2022
7
Philosophy, Physics, Relationships

If the future influenced the past, that would be retrocausality. As Victor Bhaura puts it, Retrocausality means that, when an experimenter chooses the measurement setting with which to measure a particle, that decision can influence the properties of that particle (or another one) in the past, even before the experimenter made their choice. In other words, a decision made in the present can influence something in the past. Victor Bhaura, “Retrocausality — Future Influences Past Information Before Occurrence Of An Event” at Medium (June 8, 2022) Bhaura reminds us of a limerick called “Relativity” from 1923: There was a young lady named BrightWhose speed was far faster than light;She set out one dayIn a relative wayAnd returned on the previous Read More ›

time-travel-machine-surreal-steampunk-technology-stockpack-adobe-stock
Time travel machine. Surreal steampunk technology
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News
Date
December 4, 2021
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Are We Tethered To Our Time Despite Time Travel?— Sci-fi Saturday

A very short film about a girl on a mission to save her mother raises a profound philosophical question
News
December 4, 2021
25

“Tethers” (2021) at DUST by Matthew Steele Finley (uploaded at DUST November 24, 2021, 5:22 min) A woman travels in time to save another woman’s life but the risk could be far reaching for her own reality. Review: “Don’t kill your mother or anything,” the time travel technician (Larry Herring) warns Anna (Abigail Williams), as she prepares to travel back to prevent a tragedy set maybe thirty years ago in an upper middle class home. Not too many spoilers but Anna must attempt to persuade her future mother Rachel (Alicia Kelley) not to marry her father — a man whom she knows (the way the future knows the past) is not good for her mother. Sshe shows her mom the Read More ›

time-travel-machine-surreal-steampunk-technology-stockpack-adobe-stock
Time travel machine. Surreal steampunk technology
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post
Author
News
Date
November 6, 2021
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Arts & Culture, Science
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Can a Man Go Back and Fix His Past? — Sci-Fi Saturday

It turns out that the old man calling from 2120 doesn’t just want to give his younger self advice; he wants to change the past to prevent tragedy
News
November 6, 2021
23
Arts & Culture, Science

“Hey, it’s me” (2020) at DUST by Mark Sposato & Courtney Sposato (October 11, 2021), 11:11 min. A selfish man tries to alter his destiny when he receives an ominous phone call from his future self. Review: Year 2120 and a sick and unhappy old man (Cedric Cannon) wants to go back and talk to his past self (RJ Brown). The past self, in 2030, is young and swinging and already has the neon telephone that can do that — as he shows his “date.” And then the phone rings and it’s his old man. That is, himself as a sick old man (120 years old)… And he has only seven minutes with him. No more spoilers. The story revolves Read More ›

time-flies-stockpack-adobe-stock
Time flies
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post
Author
News
Date
October 23, 2021
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Arts & Culture, Philosophy, Science
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A Man in Dire Need Contacts His Unborn Grandson — Sci-Fi Saturday

The grandson “gets the mail” and sends back something from the future, via a mysterious mailbox, that gives the felons a considerable surprise
News
October 23, 2021
22
Arts & Culture, Philosophy, Science

“Mailbox” at DUST by Louis Yin (October 15, 2021, 17:00 min) An American Chinese immigrant makes contact with his grandson in the future via a mailbox. Together they have to deal with their mutual enemies. Review: Based on Yanan Wang’s short story, “The Post man,” the story begins in New York City in 1946, where Chinese immigrants are oppressed by a criminal landlord. The gritty, authentically period tale begins to revolve around an old mailbox that turns out not to be time bound. Not a spoiler: Bo (William Yuekun Wu) can mail things to the future. His grandson (whose life appears to have only somewhat improved by being two generations on… ) can, however, help by mailing back stuff from Read More ›

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white and black table clock
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Author
News
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June 5, 2021
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Arts & Culture
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If It’s Real, It Must Be Endured. – Sci-Fi Saturday

“It’s Okay?”, using futurist technology, takes a woman back through her time with someone she loves.
News
June 5, 2021
13
Arts & Culture

“It’s Okay” at DUST by Justin Giddings and Ryan Welsh (June 3, 2021, 8:47 min) In this Black Mirror-esque tale, a couple revisit key moments of their past, only for their memories to take an unexpected turn. … Cam and Alex are a simple couple living an un-extraordinary life, when strange things suddenly start happening to them. Will they uncover the truth before they lose one other? Review: This is a remarkably well done short film. The directors are in control of their plot. If you don’t entirely understand what is happening at first, you will later. And that’s no easy task when the very proposition of the story involves bending time. The human mind is structured to understand time Read More ›

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Surrealistic image with a man lost in time, standing in a foggy street in front of huge clocks set to different times. Hour perception and time travel concept.
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News
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March 20, 2021
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Arts & Culture
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Sci-fi Saturday: Can We Live In More Than the Present Moment?

When a tech entrepreneur succeeds with time travel, he gets trapped in his own past errors
News
March 20, 2021
9
Arts & Culture

“Container” at DUST by Film Platter (February 23, 2021, 24:42) “The creator of a time machine becomes trapped inside his own creation where he must figure out the timing of his mistakes.” (Scenes of gruesome suffering so caution re kids.) In this Australian entry, time travelers need a container to isolate the effects of themselves and of time travel on the outside world. On this principle, an inventor finds a way to make time travel work — sort of. Or so he thinks. He achieves six minutes backward. But then he notices two things: The machine is continuing to count backward and there are drops of blood on the floor. He understates, “I’ve missed something here.” Then he notices he Read More ›

time-concept-hi-res-digitally-generated-image-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Time concept. Hi-res digitally generated image.
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post
Author
News
Date
December 19, 2020
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Arts & Culture, Science
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Sci-Fi Saturday Film: “Speed of Time” from DUST

A computer nerd writing a pizza delivery program discovers that his work is way more important than he, or anyone, thought
News
December 19, 2020
2
Arts & Culture, Science

From the free DUST sci-fi channel at YouTube: “Speed of Time,” 12:19 min by Russ Nickel and William J. Stribling, September 17, 2020: “Johnny Killfire (John Hennigan) must go back in time and team up with his former self (Sean Marquette) to stop the TimeBorgs from getting their hands on an app that breaks the space-time continuum by delivering pizzas into the past…before they were even ordered.” It sounds like an agreeable quarter hour. Imagine what happens when an accomplished ground warrior busts in from another time on a quiet family at the breakfast table… Unfortunately, things go downhill from there, unless the film is intended as a satire on a certain type of science fiction. Pizza delivery rips a Read More ›

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360 degree massive black hole panorama, equirectangular projection, environment map. HDRI spherical panorama. Space background with black hole and stars
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post
Author
News
Date
December 19, 2020
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Arts & Culture, Science
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Sci-Fi Saturday Film: “Alone” at DUST

Space engineer Kaya Torres, the only survivor of a black hole, contacts an “interstellar penpal” to keep her company until she dies
News
December 19, 2020
2
Arts & Culture, Science

From the free DUST sci-fi channel at YouTube: “Alone” by William Helmuth (December 3, 2020): From the Press Kit: Kaya Torres, an engineer with a sailor’s mouth and a stubborn spirit, barely escapes her research ship when calamity breaks it in half. Now she’s circling a black hole in a pod, with no one coming, no one to help. She’s alone. While figuring out what to do, Kaya starts sending messages to Hammer, a cartographer marooned on a nearby planet. And as their friendship grows, Kaya’s options slowly dwindle, until survival seems hopelessly out of reach… As Torres is “marooned on my lifepod” as the only survivor of the DSV Intrepid, she is able to contact an “interstellar penpal” to Read More ›

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Still Image from short film Dirty Machines
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post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
March 7, 2020
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Arts & Culture
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Dirty Machines: Short Time Travel Flick Exceeds Expectations

A Mind Matters Short Film Review
Adam Nieri
March 7, 2020
9
Arts & Culture

A tense soundtrack, intriguing ending, and thoughtful stylistic choices make Dirty Machines: The End of History a thoughtful exploration of a logically tricky subject. Now, if the director can just resist the temptation to get woke…

Read More ›