Efficacy of Time Travel

by John Mackay 400 words

Time is a value that references a point in the ‘condition of being’ that is existence.¹ In other words, time is a value that references a past, present or future condition of being. In short, time is not of material existence, but an abstract and often arbitrary point of reference to existence.

Travelling back in time is symbolic of turning-back, with perfect precision, every transformation of existence to the point one wishes to return to. However, this demands having perfect knowing of the position and momentum of the sum-total of existence one desires returning to. However, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle calls into question perfect knowing of position and momentum observing that:

...the more precisely the location [of an electron] is determined, the less precisely the [momentum] is known and vice versa; (Heisenberg, W. 1927)

Essentially, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is telling us that it is impossible to have perfect knowing of the position and momentum of even a single composite particle, such as an electron, let alone every composite and elementary particle in existence, for which such knowledge would be neccessary, even assuming you could return the ‘condition of being’ that is existence back to a previous condition. Simply put, we cannot restore a previous condition of being if we do not have perfect knowing of that condition to begin with. Thus, to return to a previous existence (colloq. time-travel) is not only improbable it is, according to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, impossible. Were it possible, the idea of returning the entirety of existence to a previous condition would leave it to play out exactly as it had previously, rendering time travel as nothing more than an existential loop.

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