this post was submitted on 26 May 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 118 points 3 months ago (8 children)

There's an innumerable number of reasons no one showed up, only one of which is that backwards time travel isn't possible.

[–] [email protected] 92 points 3 months ago (2 children)

One of which is that Stephen Hawking threw a lousy party.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The other one is that most people haven't herd of it, so I doubt the knowledge of this party will travel that far into the future.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Someone who put work and effort into developing time travel will have heard of it. Unless it happened after a complete destruction and rebuild of civilization or two.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Maybe Stephen Hawking sent hate mail to future humans so now they don't attend his party out of spite.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

It came out in the future that he was a real meanie and no one likes him anymore.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

He wrote that one paper that called time travellers nerds. No one forgives him for that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

All the emails that arrived in the future turned into gel bananas, so they didn't get the memom

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Or it was developed by aliens who don’t care about human history.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

This makes me think of the red dwarf episode where they find a Time Machine 3 million years into deep space, and use it to go back to the 15th century. They get disappointed and think it failed because they are still in deep space, and Kryten says no, it worked, we are now in 15th century deep space.

They then work out that you need both a Time Machine and an instant space travel machine like the holly hop drive. Especially since everything in the universe is moving.

And so, like, aliens might very well care but can’t find the right intersection of time and space to actually get there. :)

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago

Take that back!!

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago

We're in one of the unlucky few possible resulting timelines in which no one showed. My friend from timeline 3f-1933847.12b told me that their party is still going. Every few hours more travelers turn up with a fresh keg, and whatever their generation's party drug is.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's by far the most plausible but sure, if you ignore Ockham's razor, sure, it's only one of many explanations

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

More plausible than there being rules around time travel that involve not attending parties? I think not.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

One such possibility is that you can only travel to times where the device you're using to do so exists.

More like a time gate than an H.G. Wells-style machine, but still a workable model.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Tbf the important question is: assuming that backwards time travel is possible, will people attempt to the party. And there I would say, unlikely. And while I think backwards time travel is very implausible, the experiment itself proves nothing

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I thought in your original reply you were saying the most plausible thing was that there must be no time travel. This reply suggests otherwise, which I agree with.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I still do not believe in time travel so I think the most plausible thing is there is no time travel. But assuming time travel was possible, there would still be no one on the party. This doesn't prove it but neither do I need any proof

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Maybe future people knew about his supposed ties to Epstein and didn't want to show up...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Exactly, they'd know a lot more accurately what happened too, which raises another point as to why no one comes back here - imagine gong somewhere that you know horrible things are happening to children but you can't say anything or save them because of the timeline..

Even if in the unlikely event Hawking didn't know about it talking to him and not saying 'that friend of yours epstine is a bad dude' would be unbearable.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

For example maybe you need a working time machine at your destination, such that the earliest point possible to travel to is the moment the first time machine was switched on.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

One of them that no one made a backup of the past.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I mean, maybe people did show up. Maybe he never told anyone else due to the implications.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

News of his attendance at someone else's party made all future time travelers give him a wide berth.