When you look in the mirror you are actually seeing yourself, " As You Were ". . .

Ever think about it? It takes a certain amount of time for the light to travel to the mirror & back again. . . However minute, it still can be measured.

I propose that if you could construct a device that could reflect light over huge mirrors at great distances, therefore equating to huge amounts of time, then you should be able to stand in front of it-

Then leave-

Go live your life-

Get married & have children-

Then someday bring your grandchildren to a mirror that would produce the original image of yourself from decades before. . . Wouldn't that be the coolest thing?

BUT-

If you could do that-

Then wouldn't it also be possible to construct a similar device that had the capability to send your present image accross a different path back to the originating source, but utilizing a different mirror scheme that incorporated less mirrors located much closer together, exponentially decreasing the distance, and therefore delivering your " image of the future ", to the past?

Wouldn't that be the coolest thing???

Is my model flawed? If so, Why? Thanx in advance for your input-

I put this in skunk works for a reason. . .

2PacSade-

spelling

[edit on 7-8-2007 by 2PacSade]

That is cool, ive never thought of that.

You kinda lost me on the last part though.

this immediately brought to mind a short story I read a while back about a fictional invention called slow glass, not quite mirrors I know, but with the same outcome you are imagining here.

here's a link to

Light of Other Days
by Bob Shaw

www.scifi.com...

it's quite a good read, and I've often thought that if ever we were to time travel as such, it wouldn't be physically, but more a case of manipulating light to view the past somehow. Of course, we can kind of do this with video, but I do like the idea of actually seeing the images of yesteryear as if they really were brand new and happening right in front of you.


[edit on 7-8-2007 by pantha]

Thats why we have video cameras lol, nice idea thou, but way to complicated for such a simple thing, record yourself, then show it, later in your life.

Edit: sorry didnt read the last part, now thats something a camera cant do lol.
Would I like to see my future self? hmmm I dont know.


[edit on 7-8-2007 by _Phoenix_]

Wait a minute, explain that again, with the mirror?

Originally posted by earth2
That is cool, ive never thought of that.

You kinda lost me on the last part though.

I'm just envisioning that if you could somehow cut the distance back to the originating mirror to a fraction of a percent of the distance with respect to the original journey. . .You would in essence, " fold space ", and go back in time?

I envision the hardest part would be to construct the initial path over huge distances?

It would be much easier to shorten the distance back would it not?

2PacSade-

Originally posted by swimmer
Wait a minute, explain that again, with the mirror?

In a nutshell. . .

If you could send an image back in a fraction of the time that it took to get there then wouldn't you be decreasing the distance & therefore be going backward in time with respect to the point of origin? TIME, is relative to one's vantage point is it not?

2PacSade-

a reply to: 2PacSade

Sorry for replying to a really old post, but I have nothing else to do.

I am not quite sure I understood the explanation about being able to see your future self, or time travel, but let's think about it logically.

A mirror reflects light, but that light has to hit something first, before it hits the mirror, and only then the mirror can send the photons as a coherent image anywhere.

So you'd have to do your 'living your life' between the photons bouncing off of your face and them hitting the mirror, or possibly between them bouncing off the mirror and starting to travel towards your eyes.

Kind of useless thought experiment, as you can't really slow down photons that way, but I am sure you can do some kind of similar tricks in higher realms, where you can control light and other things like that better. However, CAMERAS have been invented, as mentioned, that do capture light and 'freeze frame' them to the position they were at a given moment.

You can't really time travel this way, because all you are doing is altering the speed of photons and making them travel distances before hitting something. How is that going to create any 'time travel' for you?

The whole idea that if you travel at the speed of light, time seems to stop, simply comes from the thought that if you and the photons travel at the same speed, the new photons will never reach you, as you keep seeing the same photons, so it seems like time stops - or if you are slightly slower, you see time go in slow motion, as those photons arrive at your eyes at an abnormally slow speed, because you're basically running away from them, so they reach you very slowly.

The reason we see anything move is because new photons arrive at our eye, that contain the new image or 'frame', so to say.

I don't see actual time travel just by manipulating photons or having huge mirrors, and you can't see into the future this way, either.