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[Blargityblarg]

I can assure you that I am not, in fact, sitting on a myth.

OH GOD THEY TOOK MY PARENTS HELP M

[Lagslayer]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was under the impression that he wanted to know how I came to my conclusion.

I did, but it was the "data I've collected myself" bit that intrigued me.  Not in any way wanting to insult you (or anyone else) but it's similar to someone quoting bits of the bible to prove that dinosaurs walked alongside man.

[...]it is in accordance with all the laws of physics except those which assume time travel is possible.

What about those laws of physics which do not rule out time travel?  And you're dangerously close to saying "I don't believe it happens because, when I rule out all the theories that say that it can happen, there's nothing that says it's happening".

[...]I'm also quite reluctant to accept fresh data if I can't personally verify it.

Very laudable, but at some point I might have had to take as accepted and proven fact that the spectra of distant stars is shifted and that this means they are receding from us (or us from them, or each just receding from everything in general, obviously) if I didn't have time to make such an observation myself (trusting that the equipment that I did not scratch-build myself was working how it was supposed to, of course...).  Australia I take as a fact, despite the fact that I've never been more westerly than Pennsylvania, USA, nor more easterly than East Germany (as was), and certainly not south of the equator.

Admittedly, neither of those are quite as speculative as theories relating to the nature of the universe.  Here, we're talking about things which are into the same sort of realm (if not further, given that none of us discussing this are likely to be quite as inspired) of unknowableness as stood before Einstein while turning Maxwell's equations into the whole Relativity issue.  (To somewhat misrepresent what happened, for the sake of brevity.)  Indeed, issues regarding Relativity stood 'unproven' for a long time, at least until a certain solar eclipse, and there's still mysteries as to what it all means, but it just happens to answer certain questions in a way that agree very much with reality as we see it.  There is room for someone to posit "I think that the universe exists in a 10 dimensional membrane, because it explains something more thoroughly than all the ideas based around a mere 3 dimensions do not".  There's still room for someone else to put forward their own alternative.  (Within limits, because "God arranges it all, get over it" has very mileage in it.  It may even be true, but it explains nothing and is a dead-end explanation that brooks no further inquisitiveness on the part of man.)


BTW, I think you're thinking of CERN's Large Hadron Collider, with "the one they are afraid to use because it could blow up the Earth"... which they aren't being afraid to use, because they're using it, and even its worst enemies never suggest it will blow the Earth up.  Mostly they think it'll suck us all into a black hole of our own making.

ALICE is a group of experiments (indeed, the last two letters stand for "Combined Experiments", L=Laser?  Probably should have refreshed my memory with an on-line search, not having dealt with it for quite a while now...) based around an (IIRC) 30-odd MeV system, as opposed to the 7TeV-or-so system of the LHC, but is being used as a 'light source', rather than a particle collider, and aimed at a different set of experiments.  Most of which don't have anything to do with the large-scale nature of the universe, just like the creation of anti-matter is a small part (indeed, really a side-effect experiment) of the LHC, but still interesting to talk about (should the situation arise, although I don't think right now it does).


((Something tells me I don't do justice to the discussion with the way I've cut down my response.  Sorry.))

I am challenging time travel specifically, and everything that came from it.

I am willing to accept things after they have passed my personal tests and/or is time tested. It's gotta fit into the big picture, though. A theory can explain a lot of things, but if it's explanation is in conflict with everything else, then something is wrong, weather it be the old stuff or the new stuff. Time travel doesn't look like it fits to me.

I guess I knew less about the ALICE experiments than I thought (which I admit, wasn't all that much in the first place).

[PTTG??]

Regarding questions of usefulness:

Using the far more accurate data we now have, it should now be possible to create more accurate GPS. We now can examine gravity even more precisely, possibly finding previously invisible mineral deposits. And a better understanding of gravity may help us eventually find a connection to quantum gravity, and from that we may find useful quantum-scale tools, possibly for new kinds of quantum computing and materials.

So shut up.

[RedKing]

<snip a lot>
Australia I take as a fact, despite the fact that I've never been more westerly than Pennsylvania, USA, nor more easterly than East Germany (as was), and certainly not south of the equator.
<snip a lot more>

Bah Australia is a myth.  It's just a bunch of Brits playing a huge practical joke on the rest of the world.  Steve Erwin (sp?) was going to spill the beans and let the world know, so MI6 had to take drastic measures with an agent in a stingray costume.

*whistles innocently*

I know, right? I think they overdid it a bit, though. In their haste to ward off people who might investigate this so-called "Land Down Under" they made it sound a little over the top...I mean, dozens of species of venomous snakes *and* spiders? Huge lizards that can run on water? The platypus?? A tiny octopus that can kill a man in seconds? And the whole place is encircled at all time by ravenous sharks?

I had my suspicions when I "visited" that it was an elaborate soundstage. In fact, the top of Ayers Rock looked suspiciously similar to the supposed "lunar surface". Bet they just recycled the props from the moon landing and slapped some red paint on everything.

[Farmerbob]

Regarding questions of usefulness:

Using the far more accurate data we now have, it should now be possible to create more accurate GPS. We now can examine gravity even more precisely, possibly finding previously invisible mineral deposits. And a better understanding of gravity may help us eventually find a connection to quantum gravity, and from that we may find useful quantum-scale tools, possibly for new kinds of quantum computing and materials.

So shut up.

Hrm.  This, but nicer.

For a very long time, mechanical clocks were seen to be foppish things that only the nobility or extremely wealthy merchants might have, and they served no real purpose.  Most people ran their day based on the sun, moon, stars, & weather conditions (this would include sundials)  The time of day didn't matter at all.  Over time as more and more people started using them, they realized that they could organize better, observer more accurately, and in general add more precision to their lives.

I'd be willing to bet that one might make a very good case for portable / indoor timepieces being one of the strong roots of the industrial revolution.