Time travel impossible! Maybe :)
It occurred to me yesterday that time travel along the same timeline may not be possible for two reasons. I have to thrash this out in my head still but it seems as though the basic tenants of time travel follow two paths: (A) That you can time travel and interact with the timeline (B) That the timeline will prevent you from interacting.
I think that both are probably not possible for several reasons. I can only conclude this based on the recent past history and trends, but as this is my only point of comparison I think it is reasonable to make these assumptions. This does not deal with time travel which places you in another dimensional timeline – only time travel as it relates to our timeline.
Interaction with the timeline
My feeling on this is strictly to do with the human condition. Humans have shown, over our entire history, that we -must- interfere or respond if we feel that it is within our power to do so. Be it great evil or altruistic motivation, our history is so compacted with interventions/intercessions/annexes/aid…etc that it would be far from just reasonable to assume that we would continue on this path into the far future (at least 10,000 years forward). If we let history be our guide on that matter, we can assume that humans will continue to try and alter conditions to be more favorable if in their power to do so.
Taking the human condition into consideration, and then looking at simple things like development of technology on predictable exponential scales (such as Moore’s Law) one can see where it would be quite obvious for an interloper from the future to insert or guide technology that would be out of that scale. Some futurists believe that exponential laws like Moore’s Law are sustainable much farther than the conservative estimates of 2016 or so.
Now take Moore’s Law for example, one based specifically on integrated circuits (IC). It seems a bit myopic to make a point on that alone (40 years young and only based on one technology) – but one can follow the path of the creation of IC’s very clearly even before Kilby & Noyce’s work. If you look at the use of IC in technology and the replacement of vacuum tube, it is easy to see where we are going and that makes Moore’s Law possible. Every technology that we use today is based on IC – no exception that I can see except perhaps the theoretical models for quantum computing devices (and even THOSE are integrated with IC). It is very clear that this age of advancement has gained the most speed after the introduction of the IC. Even once-bare mechanical devices are controlled by IC now.
That brings me to my first point: If the most important technology of these two centuries has progressed on a predictable scale, why has an altruistically motivated person from the future not spawned a loop of technology advancement? Why are we not further along than we should be (thus pushing their own technology further along)? It seems to me that if you take the human condition into consideration, predictable growth of anything beneficial wouldn’t happen “naturally” – growth would be sporadic and unpredictable.
Again, my thoughts are not exactly well formed on this… but as I start looking into the theory of biocentrism more closely I realize that any explanation that we seek that includes us as participants MUST include the variables of our actions in those explanations – it can not be just viewed from the science alone.
Non-Interaction with the timeline
Another theory states that time travel is possible, but you would be unable to alter that timeline due to some function that would prevent temporal paradoxes. While this sounds more appealing from the observer point of view, it now creates a very sticky situation in which the Universe must maintain a checksum or CRC (to borrow another technology term) for every event that has happened and then must be able to predict if your actions will invalidate that checksum. It must then create a condition in which you can not violate the checksum that you intend to, but also do so in a way that would maintain referential integrity for other checksums.
Basically, the Universe would have to prevent you from changing history but in doing so create a series of circumstances which would not alter any other checksum. The entire timeline would have to have one giant CRC with an incalculable number of smaller CRC’s inside of it for individual actions.
I see this concept as virtually impossible because of my Universal view. If I see the Universe as an entity on its own, not being guided on a attosecond by attosecond basis, I must consider the fact that there would be no one at the wheel guiding the decision making of if something violates the checksum. In order for me to even consider it I would have to believe that the Universe itself was running a law behind the scene that would prevent these actions from happening. I find a law of that magnitude much harder to stomach than say some of the other more “simple” laws like gravity, motion or thermodynamics.
This one, obviously, rests on shakier ground in my mind because it relies on my understanding of the laws of nature and very little to do with the variable of human interaction (which can be supported by human history). It also assumes that I can comprehend the physics and nature of the Universe, which I know I can not. I do, however, think the idea is plausible if the premise is correct.
Now, one could follow a different path – one of quantum physics – where you use the ideas of something like quantum entanglement where energy is physically tied to other matter even at great distances (like photons). If this were true, and our Universe and timeline were like a giant Moebius strip or torus… I could begin to see how time travel could be possible without needing to have a “program” run to verify consistency – it would be hard set in the timeline as soon as the action was taken.
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It is all still a very new idea to me and I do not want to make a firm stand on it, but when a spark lights in your brain inside the shower and a block seems to fall into place – one should not ignore it right away. At least that is what I am telling myself 
. It is also possible that time travel IS possible in the far future before we go into heat death and that I am labeling the importance of our past 2000 years as significant enough to have someone travel back in time from 1,000,000 years in the future when time travel is possible – but you have to work with what you have, right? I have to assume that the events in the past 2000 years would be important enough for -someone- to come back here. Either to confirm Christianity, or to stop us from using the LHC or just giving their own past a bit of a bump in technology – someone would have to come back to make a deviation in time that we should perceive as being out of the ordinary considering our history.
