relative time travel

Jeff Wilson · 14 May 2011, 05:33 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Sat, 14 May 2011 00:33:42 -0500
Subject: (urth) relative time travel
Message-ID: <4DCE1436.2090802 at io.com>

 > See? I suppose this is why I get confused when they talk about travel in
 > > a wormhole being Time-travel. I got lost after your first sentence.
Let me try the train analogy. I'll number the steps for reference. You 
guys that already know this will see that I have abstracted numerous 
distracting features out of this account.

1. Each day, a train 600,000 km long (two light seconds) traveling north
at 90% light speed pulls through a station 600,000 long without slowing.

2. This is being observed by an oppressed native from a very large
distance off to one side. One day he notices the train has two new mail 
agents stationed at each end.

2. A hook at the head of the train picks up a bag of outgoing mail from
the station. At the same time, the native observes a bag of incoming mail
being picked off by a hook at the entrance of the station platform, and
the station clock calls it 12:00:00 .

4. The native observes the light of the pick-up event travel from the
front of the train toward the back of the train; they meet just a bit
south of the middle of the platform just a bit over a second later. The
station clock reads 12:00:01.

5. Later, the native observes the light from the drop=off event at the
back reach the front of the train far north of the station. The station
clock reads 12:00:20.

6. The mail agent at the front of the train sees the pickup happen, then
drop-off happen much later.

7.The mail agent at the rear of the train sees the drop-off happen, then
the pick-up happen a short time later.

8. The rookie mail agents meet for lunch in the dining car in the middle 
of the train and compare notes of their first day on the high-speed 
train. At first, each one thinks their mail transfer happened first, but...

9. ...allowing for the light-lag, the agent at the read admits the one 
at the front must have happened about a second earlier than his so it's 
light could travel for two seconds and arrive a second afterward.

10. The agent at the front insists that it his transfer must have been 
more like 18 seconds ahead, because he saw the other transfer 20 seconds 
later, and the length of the train only accounts for two seconds.

11 The next day, the oppressed native calls on some pagan OT being for 
the power to travel instantaneously, and synchronizes his watch with the
station clock, after accounting for the time for light to travel to his
position.

13. From his distant position, at 12:00:00, he travels instantly to the
mail car at the front of the train and attacks the mail agent, felling 
him instantly. He then looks toward the rear of the train, and sees the 
other mail agent busy and distracted with the business of getting his 
mail bag ready to be snagged by a hook at the "next" station.

14. The oppressed native instantly travels to the rear of the train, and 
even allowing for a couple of seconds of light lag, as he arrives, he 
sees the second mail agent is still getting his bag ready. The oppressed 
native attacks and kills him, too.

15. The victorious native exults for a while but then, fearing the train 
may stop at this "next" station, travels instantly back to his original 
obersvation position.

16. He arrives, unnoticed by "another" oppressed native who is intent on 
a wristwatch and subsequently disappears in a puff of Molochian prayer.

17. Puzzled but not knowing how to investigate the "other" native's 
appearance, the native enjoys a victory beverage while waiting for the 
light of his triumph to arrive. He does a spittake when he sees himself 
attack the rear-end mail agent *before* the train reaches *this* 
station, and then *later* sees the front-end agent slain just as the 
front of the train emerges - in the reverse order of how he recalls the 
events.

More clear?

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

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