TED Conversations

Matt Knight

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

Can technology enable communication through time?

I was thinking the other day is technology bound by space and time like we are? I could send a text message or an email to someone hours away however they receive the text in only seconds. If our current technology could accomplish that what could we do in twenty more years.

0
Share:
progress indicator
  • thumb

    Debra Smith 200+

    • 0
    Jun 27 2012: I think of cave paintings and of books from the 14th cnetury and I think that technology (writing or painting) is doing a pretty good job of it already.
  • thumb

    Robert Winner 50+

    • +1
    Jun 24 2012: Matt we can be sure that we cannot communicat backwards. Through what means will we communicate 20 plus years from now. How can you configure a device to send a message and to what address would you send it to. All of this would mean that you have either proven or accept that there are demintions in time or at least parellal deminsions.

    I have to concur that this is not possible throught the laws of physics as we know them.

    All the best. Bob.
  • thumb

    edward long 100+

    • +2
    Jun 14 2012: All communication is" through time" because two, or more, locations are involved. The amount of time is imperceptibly small but it is there. The only way you could receive my communication simultaneously (zero time elapsed between my speaking and your hearing) is if we were in the same location, which cannot be. Technology has nothing to do with this. The arrow of Time moves from past to future, never from future to past. Simultaneous, or any, communication with your own past is not possible. Time will never be manipulated by techology. Only Truth transcends Time. Thank you for a "timely" conversation.
    • thumb

      pranoy sundar 20+

      • 0
      Jun 14 2012: Hi Edward, i agree with that communication through time is only possible from, present to future. and it would've been really fascinating if we could manipulate time with technology.
      i would like to add something here, that, if every single thing in this universe stops moving... or if we can stop the motion of every particles, then there would be no relevance for time. it would be like, time is standing still. and if we can stop the movements inside a particle/object it will be standing still in time while all other objects arround it move forward with time. now, time is still for that object...while its not for others.
      And what if we can design a technology that can stop the movements, at atomic/sub atomic or even deeper levels than that, of objects and track back their motion? wouldn't it be like reversing the time??? and if we can reverse time, why cant we communicate with the past?
      • thumb

        edward long 100+

        • 0
        Jun 14 2012: At Absolute Zero (-273.15 degrees C) all motion (change) stops. As you say, without change there is no need for a unit of measure for change. That unit of measure is Time. With no heat there is no activity, no experimentation, no communication, no Time, no Life, nothing. The Third Law of Thermodynamics says that Absolute Zero can never be reached so there will "always" (a time-associated word) be Time.
  • thumb

    Amy Robinson 500+

    • +1
    TED AttendeeTEDx OrganizerAssociate
    Jun 14 2012: Sure. By writing this question you've left a digital mark that can be accessed hours, days..years in the future!
  • thumb

    Linda Taylor 50+

    • 0
    Jun 14 2012: Mr. Knight from my old hometown:) Your idea would explain some weird texts I have been getting. I love this kind of thinking. How would you conceptualize the process?
  • thumb

    pat gilbert 50+

    • +1
    Jun 14 2012: I can communicate with the future using a post it note other than that they would have to change the laws of the physics.

  • Ed Schulte 50+

    • 0
    Jun 14 2012: The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence"

    Nikola Tesla
Showing all 9 comments