Useful Time Travel Is Impossible. But Fun to Think About.

Useful Time Travel Is Impossible. But Fun to Think About.

The folks at Kurzgesagt have done a few time travel videos now, but this one is notable for its concise, intuitive explanation and visualization of our constant speed through spacetime (special relativity).

Everything in our universe moves at the speed of light through four dimensional spacetime. Your speed through spacetime is the sum of your separate speeds through time and space. It is impossible for you to stay still. Even if you are not moving through space dimensions, you are moving through the time dimension, blasting face first into the future.

You can slow down in the time dimension, by moving faster through the space dimensions but in total, you will always move at the speed of light through spacetime.

And you can “trade” moving through space for moving through time: “Move faster through space, go slower in time. Move slower through space, go faster in time.” Or as a commenter put it:

Your speed is constant. So the faster you move through the space dimensions, the slower you move through the time dimension, and vice versa.

Not sure this textual explanation makes as much sense as the visualization in the video, so maybe just watch that? Oh, and check out the sources for the video.