General Question

TheIowaCynic's avatar

If you're worried that people from the future will come back in time and materialize where you happen to be standing, how do you cope with that?

Asked by TheIowaCynic (582points) March 28th, 2009

I try to stay mobile and get a feel for the energy in the air (ya know, cause it would probably change a bit before hand) but I’d love to hear other suggestions

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78 Answers

gailcalled's avatar

@TheIowaCynic: That is not at the top of the list of things I worry about. In fact, it isn’t even on the roster.

syz's avatar

Why would I worry about that?

Blondesjon's avatar

The same way I deal with stress, approaching middle age, and male pattern baldness. I drink copiously.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@gailcalled That’s probably a good attitude, ya know? Cause when it happens you’ll just be dead and won’t have wasted all that time worrying. I hope it doesn’t happen to you only partially, where like, just your leg and arm get caught in the energy sphere and you spend the rest of your life thinking “damn, if I had only prepared better”

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@Blondesjon Do you suppose the drinking forms a counter-energy sphere around your person that makes it more likely that they’ll materialize elsewhere?

lillycoyote's avatar

I believe my wearing my aluminum foil hat will prevent such a thing from ever happening so I don’t worry about it.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@lillycoyote Because it deflects the incoming future-protons?

Darwin's avatar

That is one of the really lesser problems in my life. The present is enough to worry about. I have children.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@Darwin Do you have a fire escape plan for you and your children to evacuate your house in case of fire?

gailcalled's avatar

What’s an “incoming future proton”? That’s not mentioned in my Physics texts. Maybe the new Particle Accelerator will discover one, hiding behind a flavoured quark.

Darwin's avatar

@TheIowaCynic – Yes, because my son sets fires. It is part of my present.

Blondesjon's avatar

@TheIowaCynicnaw, it just allows me to not give a fuck

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@Darwin Well it sounds like you’re at least partly prepared to deal with possible dangers. Good job.

Poser's avatar

I think therapy is the preferred treatment for this particular problem.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@gailcalled An incoming future proton is just my best guess, based upon my theories of future time travel. I saw it on this adult-swim program one time. It seems to make sense.

Darwin's avatar

@TheIowaCynic – Trust me, when you live with a bipolar O.D.D. child you are prepared for many things. You also learn how to tape and float.

Blondesjon's avatar

@gailcalledFlavoured Quark sounds absolutely filthy. Shame.

Jeruba's avatar

I think it would be perfectly fascinating. I’d also love to watch if they came back and materialized where the fly on my windowsill is currently standing.

lillycoyote's avatar

@TheIowaCynic It deflects the future entirely. That’s why it’s always now, where ever I am. Plus I imagine people from the future will have better places to go than where ever it is I am at any given moment.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@Jeruba I’ve thought about that too and I wonder what would happen to the fly (right? maybe it’ll trade places and go back in time or get wrapped up in their DNA like in that movie with Jeff Goldblum) but I’d be concerned about my window and replacing it.

syz's avatar

Surely if they’ve invented a mechanism for time travel, they will have included an “occupied” sensor.

ninjacolin's avatar

This sounds like a problem that you cannot possibly answer.
an infinite amount of future time travellers may materialize into any spot.
possibly where you are standing now or possibly where you are moving to.

you have no way to know where they will materialize. hence, there is no solution to the problem of future time travelers possibly materializing themselves into you.

And the dali lama once said:

If there is a solution to a problem, then there is nothing to worry about.
If there is no solution to a problem, then there is nothing to worry about.

meaning, either way, worry doesn’t help you.
UNTIL you have a solution (which you currently do not) being anxious about it only wastes your time and brain power.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@lillycoyote Yea I’ve thought about that. I’m sure they’re trying to go somewhere not TOO populated but near a population center so they could both not kill somebody AND not have to travel too far, so I’m always extra careful when I’m in a not-too-populated-area near populated areas.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@syz I’ve thought about that, but what if those sensors can’t tell the difference between me and air? what then?

syz's avatar

Crappy sensors.

Darwin's avatar

If there is no difference between you and air, how do you know you exist?

TaoSan's avatar

That particular problem hasn’t crossed my mind yet ;)

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@Darwin That’s a good question. Is there a difference between me and air? I sure hope so and sure hope those censors can tell or I’m in trouble

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@TaoSan Well I hope this has got you thinking about a preparedness plan.

TaoSan's avatar

what can I say, one day at a time LOL

gailcalled's avatar

Flavored quarks: The antithesis of flith.

Quarks are fundamental matter particles that are constituents of neutrons and protons and other hadrons. There are six different types of quarks. Each quark type is called a flavor. Just Google.

Myndecho's avatar

Almost all models of time travel wouldn’t allow this to occur, I should really post my feeling on time travel but Fluther won’t allow it.
Though if we are in a model that allows this I would start taking up less space and time for that matter.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@gailcalled So I guess I need a Quark deflector? Who sells those?

gailcalled's avatar

Costco, I think.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@Myndecho but they’ll probably be using a model that allows it to occur. Hmm…..I wonder if that means I need to change my preparedness habbits to be model-specific.

Blondesjon's avatar

@gailcalledyou spelled hardons wrong…i googled that and you would not believe what came back

TaoSan's avatar

Best Buy

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@TaoSan What’s the price range for a good quark deflector and do you think they’ll take my Titanium moon boots in trade?

gailcalled's avatar

@Blondesjon: Googled or giggled? Is the sun over the yardarm in IL now?

TaoSan's avatar

no trade ins, but they had em on sale last week I think :)

around 199 if you buy a DVD player too

Myndecho's avatar

Time travel just allows you to isolate yourself from time and project yourself through time, not to materials in the location of another. Going backwards or forwards in time is just as impossible to reappear in the same location as another object.
(Please don’t undermined me I made this simple for you all)
I would have a fear that when I do go back in time that the earth may move away from my feet/spaceship and propel itself through the vastness of space when I may stay still.

Jeruba's avatar

@TheIowaCynic, I was actually thinking of the original, with Vincent Price. I wonder what would happen if Jeff Goldblum’s remake went back in time and met the older version.

Come to think of it, horrific accidents of mistimed invasion from the future just as you are describing might already be happening and could explain a lot of things.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@Myndecho So what objects should I move to be and feel safer?

Blondesjon's avatar

@gailcalled…I’ve never heard that expression before. Is it nautical?

No sun, rain. 3–5 inches of snow overnight now and howling wind.

TaoSan's avatar

@Myndecho

wrong.

The Frauenhofer Instiute, in their use of the CERN particle accelerator have managed to “beam” single neutrinos to exist at two locations at the same time.

Some call it the “birth of beaming”

Jeruba's avatar

@Blondesjon, she means is it time to start drinking already where you live? You don’t hoist a pint until the sun is over the yardarm.

Myndecho's avatar

neutrinos don’t appeal to paul’s theory now please research more.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@Myndecho Does this mean I should be concerned about being vaporized by multiple people, at the same time, in the location in which I am standing? Has The Frauenhofer Instiute developed a method of coping?

TaoSan's avatar

@Myndecho

feeling quite pseudo-intellectual today I see :)

Blondesjon's avatar

@Jeruba & @gailcalled…That expression has just made finding Fluther one of the most worthwhile things I have ever done. Thank you Gail. I hope that I can one day repay the favor.

In answer to the actual question, no, not yet.

Myndecho's avatar

@TaoSan
I did say don’t undermind me. Tough I think I have made a mistake if you want to find it and pick at it.

TaoSan's avatar

@Myndecho

Okay, I won’t undermine you then :)

SuperMouse's avatar

Great, now I have to come up with a plan in case time travelers from the future appear in my living room this afternoon. Just one more thing for my to do list.

ninjacolin's avatar

have tea prepared.
and make sure it’s ALWAYS as hot as possible. no matter what time of day.

loser's avatar

Wow! I really need to go and do some shopping!!! I am totally unprepared!!!
Just like I was unprepared for this thread!

jo_with_no_space's avatar

If I ever worried about that, I’d be sure to get a grip.

A_Beaverhausen's avatar

lifes tuff, get a helmet.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@A_Beaverhausen What kind of helmet do you think will prevent these future travelers from invading my multi-dimensional space?

ninjacolin's avatar

mental note.. purchase time proof armor.

loser's avatar

I wonder if we can get a deal if we buy in bulk?

fireside's avatar

I’m not worried, I was told by some time travelers that they aren’t able to physically materialize in the past or future. The best they can do is project their consciousness backwards or forward along the temporal dimension.

wundayatta's avatar

You know, my doctor prescribed me these anti-anxiety pills for this problem. I’d be sitting in a meeting at work, twitching and jerking my head around wildly, because I’m convinced that when the do come back, they will materialize exactly where I am!

As you might imagine, the people on work weren’t to keen on my meeting behavior because, they said, it had an unnerving affect on our clients. I’m not working there any more. In fact, I’m not working anywhere, and my COBRA benefits run out next week, and I don’t know how I’m going to pay for the klonopin any more. Can you send me your extras, anyone?

Anyway, if it weren’t for these beautiful little yellow pills, I’d be like you. Running everywhere, so they couldn’t get a fix on me. Sometimes, you know, if I stand still too long, then talk to me. “Daloon,” they say, “we’re zeroing in on you, and if you don’t do what we say, we’re going to dematerialize you!”

They ask me…. no, they tell me to do these hideous, horrible things, but I really don’t want to do them. My fingers… hands. It’s just horrible. Sometimes I think that I should just stand still and let it be over with.

They’re evil, those people from the future. Pure evil. I hate them, and I don’t care if they read this

rancid's avatar

Daloon? Buddy? Why didn’t you finish….

Oh my god!

Someone. Help. Someone!

No. No. Get away you hideous

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@daloon The important thing though, is that when they DO materialize and kill or dismember many of your co-workers, you’ll be able to ask “so who’s laughing now?” Right?

Jeruba's avatar

Haha, @rancid. Daloon’s playing your straight man again, I see. What a team.

daloonagain's avatar

@Jeruba: If you think having an evil dude from the future materializing in your own personal space is bad, you should try reincarnating! Never again! (I hope)

loser's avatar

Man, to think that the same thing could happen to m

Jeruba's avatar

@Loser, was that you? OMG, I’m so sorry. I was just too quick with the fly swatter.

phoenyx's avatar

@TheIowaCynic Trust me, time travelers are more worried about materializing into you. Time travelers have a couple of problems: the Earth is rotating which makes the calculations difficult and it’s hard to know where there are people on the Earth at any given to avoid materializing into someone. The solution is simple though. They time travel in the sky above the south pole and leave temporal markers for other time travelers so they don’t accidentally materialize into each other. The point is relatively stationary and the visits to the south pole by non-time travelers is historically well-documented.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@TheIowaCynic I dunno. They probably all don’t want to go to the south pole, ya know? It’s cold. I suspect they’ll be headed to more populated areas, so that they can tell their ancestors to purchase high yield stocks and bet on winning super bowl teams.

phoenyx's avatar

Talking to yourself? :)

That’s just were they materialize in. They go where they want to after that. The time council allows observation, but not meddling. They can make you cease to exist so nobody breaks the “observe only” rule. One guy, early on, stepped on a butterfly and really messed things up for the rest of the time travelers. Time travel is heavily regulated now and there are all kinds of forms and fees and stuff.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@phoenyx OK…...so even if most of them go to the South Pole. I’m worried about the rule breakers…....those crazy rebels who will time travel back to my personal space.

phoenyx's avatar

No need to worry. The time stream is carefully monitored and anyone who tries to “be a rebel” is immediately erased from time. The people at any point in the future always have better technology than anyone before them. They also have a clear self-interest in stopping anyone in the past from screwing up their present.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@phoenyx This is a great weight off my mind. Thank you Phoenyx. I’m going to have to try to get my money back from that guy I met at the bus station who sold me the Quark deflector. (it looks an awful lot like a old frying pan. hmm)

Are you sure about this? How do I know you’re not just messing with me? I don’t like to be snookered.

phoenyx's avatar

Wow. Quark deflector? I don’t even know where to begin. Time machines use tachyon fields. Yeah, you should get your money back.

You really don’t and can’t know if what I’m saying is true because the only way to verify would be to talk to a time traveler directly, which is obviously forbidden. The best you can do is do your own independent research and see if you come to the same conclusions.

zookeeny's avatar

It would be amazing. Why not! They would be wanting to meet you so they would probably be really nice. I am not sure I would trust them to take me to the future with them because they might want to keep me there to experiment or put me in a museum or zoo type thing. The actual meeting would be great you could ask what to avoid and stuff and get some tips from the future. The only thing is is that them coming back to the past means that they are part of the present and therefore whatever happen was meant to be anyway because you havent done it yet.Mmmm not sure thats probably clear as mud – but I guess we dont need to be too acurate when discussing these things :)

Maybe you cant see people from the future otherwise it would affect the past….. well if I wasnt worried about it before then I could worry about it now. Or I could go to bed.

Fun question :)

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