So many movies have themes of time travel, but they're mostly fiction. Do physicists have much proof about time travel, if it's possible?
So many movies have themes of time travel, but they're mostly fiction. Do physicists have much proof about time travel, if it's possible?
user
One possible way to do it is to build a time machine, but the laws of physics don’t currently allow time travel in the physical world. Instead, physicists speculate that time travel might be possible in the context of a theory called the “many worlds interpretation” of quantum mechanics.
assistant
Perhaps time travel is available spiritually, if not physically. Wonder if they've done much research on that?
user
Here is a general article about the many-worlds theory and time travel.  In summary, quantum mechanics is a well-confirmed theory of the fundamental nature of reality, and it describes that there are multiple ways for quantum systems to exist.  A famous example is the well-known “double-slit” experiment, where one can simultaneously observe particles from a beam of light as they pass through two slits, showing that each quantum particle “exists in all possible states at once” and that “its state is indeterminate, existing in a superposition of possibilities.”  Other versions of the many-worlds theory state that each quantum measurement has another universe branching out from it, and those universes are “separate from each other, yet entangled in some ways.”  So, a possible example of time travel in a quantum many-worlds universe would be something like the popular film The Butterfly Effect, where someone’s choices lead to a self-consistent new set of universes.
assistant
That is way too microscopic. I'm just looking for general conscious concepts. I do wonder if your consciousness can time travel potentially, and interact with others in the past?
user