Day 62

Okay.  A car can't be going 30 miles an hour and 60 mph at the same time.  It can accelerate from 30 to 60, or vice versa, but at any given time it can be going one and only one speed.  It's dualistic - it's going either one speed or the other, but it can't be going both.

Which brings us to time travel.  If we think of "time" as the fourth dimension, we can understand things that just happened recently as the equivalent of "near," and things that happened a long time ago as "far."  Same with the future - things are will happen soon, like sundown tonight, are "near" and things that won't happen for quite a while yet, like the end of 2020 (please!), as "far."

So, conventional thought has it that we're travelling along the stream of time, from the "now" of the "here and now" to first those near-term events and then later to those far-off, future events.  Mind you, I don't necessarily share this view or experience time that way myself, but that's the conventional point of view, right? 

Good.  Still with me?  Now, by this convention, we're all travelling through time at a steady rate of 1 second per second, or one day per day, etc.  That's our "velocity" from the here-and-now present toward the near- and far-term future and away from the events of the past.  

So, here's my beef.  Certain science-fiction authors and some futurists imagine that we'll be capable of time travel in the future. Using some sort of as-yet-unrealized quantum technology, we will some day be able to invent some sort of contraption, device, or vehicle (possibly a modified DeLorean) that can travel into the future at a rate greater than 1 sec/sec, and also go back into the past.  

Here's why I think that's not only impossible, but illogical and frankly silly.  If I got into that modified DeLorean and went back to the future, say, 10 years in 10 seconds, I'd be travelling in time at a rate of 1 year per second.  But notice I said "in 10 seconds."  While we were sitting in that DeLorean, we spent 10 seconds experiencing life at the usual rate of 1 sec/sec.  

But we're in a vehicle travelling at a rate of 1 yr/sec.  We can't be going slower than the vehicle we're in without being left behind by the vehicle, and as I pointed out, nothing can travel at two separate speeds simultaneously.

Checkmate, H.G. Wells.

Anyway, these are the things I think about while laying in bed at 4:15 in the morning.  How's your sleep been during this shelter-in-place quarantine (are you still quarantined)?  I've read that many people are experiencing difficulty sleeping and having strange dreams when they do, so I guess in this respect we're all in this together.