In the 1978 Superman movie starring Christopher Reeve, there is a scene where Loise Lane dies. Superman is distraught that with all of his powers, he still arrived too late and could not save her. So he decides to fly around the Earth so fast that he actually reverses it's rotation temporarily, causing time itself to reverse. He then flies back down to meet Loise before her accident, altering her course and saving her life. He does this against the decree of his father who told him he wasn't to interfere with Earth's history.
Although this is a very compelling scene, it's not at all realistic. But it does cause one to contemplate profound concepts as to what time is and is not.
If I ask you what time it is, you might tell me it's noon. Noon means "midday." AKA "the middle of the day." But what determines the dividing line between the first half of the day and the second? The sun. When the sun is at its halfway point in the sky, that is literally the middle of daylight. So 12:00pm or NOON is really just another way of describing the sun's halfway point between its journey from horizon to horizon. Therefore, our time-number-system is based upon the movements and positioning of the sun.
But this gets a bit more complex when we assume we are somewhere such as the North pole, where the sun is NEVER 90 degrees overhead or -90 below. A "day" can be far longer than a night, and vice-versa in places like this. The very path the sun travels is constantly shifting latitude/longitude, according to the ecliptic - making it difficult to pinpoint the observable "middle of the day" in some locations. So the only true "rise" and "set" we can all universally point to with regard to the sun is revealed by observing the ecliptic.
The wavy line cutting roughly through the center of the image above is called the ecliptic. It represents the sun's position at a given point throughout it's 365 observable rotations around our planet. The highest point is called the Tropic of Cancer [Summer] and the lowest point is the Tropic of Capricorn [Winter]. So as long as our time-number system exists within these 365 rotations, we can almost arbitrarily apply it any way we want, according to where we live.
There is a very practical reason for the ancients to have been interested in this information, because being able to predict the sun's movements was/is directly related to crop yield and survival in general. Understanding the sun's cycles let farmers know when the best time was to plant and when to expect harvest. Allocating animals and personalities to 12 phases [each 30 degrees] of the sun's position in the ecliptic seems like an engaging way to join one's conscious mind and very being to the changing of the seasons. Kind of like the way myths and tales are passed down, but which contain useful - perhaps even vital knowledge for future generations.
"TIME TRAVEL"
Now because time is merely a numerical system of measuring the sun's pattern/position in relation to our planet - the idea that one could "travel through time" doesn't seem to have any logical basis. How can one physically "travel through" a number system? A person can no more travel through time than they could travel through Pi or Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It's an abstract concept that has been popularized by film and science fiction novels, mostly for entertainment purposes. But there are theories and stories out there of course.
In the TV Series "Outlander," the main character travels to different times in history by touching magic stones, somewhat similar to those found at Stonehenge. I suppose if one had the powers of GOD, the world could be instantly re-created in every exact way to a previous moment in history. But nothing short of god-like powers could accomplish this. One would have to perfectly replicate the entirety of reality down to the cellular level. Let me illustrate what I mean in a simpler way...
Imagine a room which represents the entire world we live in. In this room, a glass of water is being filled slowly, starting at 6am on a given date. Let this glass being filled represent every thing and every activity occuring on earth during that period. Once the cup is full, it represents everything and every activity happening on planet earth at midnight on that particular day and year. It is a living "snapshot" of that moment.
Since we have reduced reality down to such a simple level, we can now IMAGINE ourselves pouring the water out and setting the glass down exactly in the same spot - and now the entirety of the earth and all of its activities appear exactly as they did at 6am. We just "traveled back in time." In other words, if I had god-like powers, and I could revert everything you see back to the exact state it was 100 years ago, what would be the difference between your conception of "time travel" and your experience at that moment? None.
"Time is the promise, delivered with stunning consistency" - Queensryche "The Whisper"
The problem with the "Superman model," is that it treats time as if it is a "force" which can be reversed. But the movement of the sun and planets are not subject to our mathematical formulas, it's the other way around. The formulas are merely our (often flawed) ways of describing what THEY do. So Time itself isn't really a tangeable thing which exists, it merely describes the movement of THINGS, which exist. Therefore, time travel is not a real concept. What it seems to be referring to in actuality, is the ability to exist within a previous or future arrangement of the entire universe - which is obviously impossible even for Superman. Unless he could perhaps fly faster than speed of light?
"His [Einstein's] idea was that, theoretically, the closer we come to traveling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), the more time would appear to slow down for us from the perspective of someone who, in relation to us, was not moving. He called the slowing of time due to motion time dilation."
In the film "Maverick," Tom Cruise's character attempts to go Mach 10, nearly annihalating his plane in the process. According to Google, that's about 7,672.69 mph. The idea that one might be able to travel 186,000 miles per second becomes pretty absurd when we just consider the sheer physical impossibility of it. So we've basically hit the same brick wall. Yeah, maybe there is a speed which is faster than pecieved time, but achieving that level of acceleration would require god-like powers.
Perhaps we should just accept the advice of Superman's father Jor-El and not attempt to interfere with our own history. Maybe we just aren't the "super-men" we like to imagine ourselves as being. Maybe "time travel" falls into similar territory as DNA manipulation, or mankind's quest to give birth to A.I. There can be a fine line between innovation which benefits humanity and simple hubris. We'd be wise to percieve the difference.
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