One of the interesting aspects of the idea that elementary particles are twists in a field is how it impacts the idea that we can travel to a past time via a wormhole. The existence of wormholes is possible because the math of general relativity allows deformation of spacetime in such a way that past points in time are reachable via a path normal to our spacetime. This path could be constructed via a wormhole formed from a black hole or other gravitating object rotating at extreme speeds.
However, I make a prediction that if you do that, you will be disappointed. Barring disintegrating forces disrupting your travel plans through the wormhole, the unitary vector rotation theory, hypothesis, whatever you want to call it, says you will find nothing there. You can prove that the wormhole truly has taken you to the desired point in your past, you can ensure that time dependent spatial translation has not displaced the expected destination in spacetime–but you won’t find anything there, certainly no copy of you from the past. It’s not that rules of general relativity prevent you from talking to your past you, it’s that there really won’t be anything there!
While spacetime theory (special relativity) shows the interchangeability of space and time depending on properties of the observer (in particular, velocity), and general relativity shows how time deforms in the presence of nearby mass-energy objects, there is an additional property of the time dimension that constrains where an object will reside. This might be called an “activation layer” that exists in four dimensions (R3 + T) and can be thought of as a three-dimensional “plane” sweeping through spacetime. This activation layer is why we don’t experience all times at the same time.
Interstellar tries to say there is a place where an observer will see all objects and their relative interactions at all times–but this cannot be the whole truth. What actually would be seen is something akin to the watching the flame of a burning fuse move along the path of the fuse–objects only appear within the activation layer sweeping through the time dimension. Outside of that layer, spacetime reverts to a stable background state. Indeed, while this is one of the fundamental principles of the unitary vector rotation theory, the fact that an observer can only be aware of one and only one three dimensional layer of our four dimensional spacetime means that any theory has to have some variation of this activation layer in time. Indeed, this activation layer is a fundamental requirement for consciousness, but that’s a subject for another post.
So–if you travel in time via a wormhole, yes, you should be able to go to where you were in the past, but you won’t be able to send or receive communication to your past self–you won’t be there! Sorry, Kip! It doesn’t work that way! This activation layer will not be there anymore. The activation layer where you are now, but no longer in the past.
There should be a thought experiment that will prove this. Suppose you are on earth, and there is a strong gravitationally lensing blackhole some safe distance away, such that actions on earth curve back to earth for observation. Let’s say this distance is one light year away. Suppose there also is a nearby (to earth) wormhole connecting directly to your location on earth two years in your past. Now, on earth, you pulse a flashlight. Now you will have to wait two years before the gravitational lensing allows you to see the pulse of light. But wait! Would you also see a flash two years later through the wormhole?
I predict, no, you won’t. The black hole will lense the flash two years later because the *image* takes two years to travel to you. But the wormhole will show an image of what is there two years in the past along the time dimension, when the activation layer is long gone. You won’t see anything there.
Agemoz
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