Have We ALREADY Built a Time Machine??

Unveiled

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00:00Time travel has been a staple of science fiction for generations, but could it be more than

00:05just a fantasy?

00:07This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question, have we already

00:10built a time machine?

00:14Do you need the big questions answered?

00:16Are you constantly curious?

00:18Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?

00:21And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!

00:23There's just no stopping technology.

00:26Like it, love it, loathe it, or fear it.

00:28It's an unstoppable fact of human existence that new technologies keep on coming.

00:33And in the 20th century, we saw just how quickly that can change the world.

00:39Revolutionary transport, terrifying weapons, the space age, the computer age, the radio,

00:44the TV, and the internet all have served to shape today's world.

00:48Right now, we're seemingly on the cusp of any number of further tech developments, with

00:53our near future set to be freshly guided by things like artificial intelligence, synthetic

00:59biology, and the end of aging.

01:02There are those who feel hopeful, and those who feel scared.

01:05But ultimately, technology doesn't really care that much either way.

01:09In amongst all the contemporary buzz, however, it might be argued that time travel is one

01:15speculative technology that apparently hasn't enjoyed the spotlight of late.

01:19Yes, it's still ever-present in books and films, and it still ranks as one of the most

01:24wished-for superpowers out there… but the needle doesn't appear to have been moved

01:28all that much.

01:29At least, not in the mainstream.

01:32Nevertheless, and given all of the other one-time fictional technologies that have now been

01:37realised in real life, isn't it about time we saw this one as well?

01:42Or at least some significant developments towards it?

01:45The relative hush over time travel tech in recent times could be easily explainable by

01:49the fact that it isn't possible.

01:52But for some, if the world has gone a little quiet on the subject, it's only really because

01:57we already have all that we need.

02:00What better place to start than at CERN's Large Hadron Collider?

02:05As the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, it has been a magnet for panicked

02:09predictions and wide-ranging conspiracy theories over the years.

02:13In the early days, between 2008 and 2010, most of the whispered talk and rumour centred

02:19on the seeming possibility that the LHC would one day generate a black hole on Earth, thereby

02:25killing us all in an instant.

02:27So far, that hasn't happened… but amongst all the doomsday prophecies, there has also

02:31been a constant murmuring of possible time travel.

02:35The LHC may never be a time machine in the traditional sense, but there are theories

02:40to suggest that it might inadvertently become one.

02:43Buried deep beneath the Franco-Swiss border in Europe, it is of course famous for smashing

02:48subatomic particles together at near-light speeds.

02:51The conditions inside the LHC are simply unlike anything else on Earth.

02:56And the most famous discovery made via the LHC so far is that of the Higgs Boson, otherwise

03:02known as the God Particle, an elementary particle responsible for imbuing everything else with

03:07mass.

03:08To time travel enthusiasts, though, the real holy grail is the Higgs Singlet.

03:13This is an until-now hypothetical particle that, if real, could enable its manipulators

03:18to send messages forward and backwards in time.

03:22It's said that the Higgs Singlet should operate in such a way so that it can move

03:26in and out of a fabled fifth dimension, to allow time travel within itself.

03:31Importantly, even if the Singlet were to exist, and indeed were it to be discovered, then

03:36most predictions are that it wouldn't then enable a human being to move around in time.

03:41Instead, it might grant a human access to the past and future as though remotely.

03:47Or it might in some way be able to present a human in the present with key information

03:52about the past and future.

03:54Right now, it's all a little murky.

03:56But for the rest of the world watching on, what's significant is the same might have

04:00once been said about the Higgs Boson.

04:02The naysayers may have asked, how could a particle achieve mass from nothing?

04:07But the LHC delivered proof that it can.

04:10For many, it's only a matter of time before a similar breakthrough is made in relation

04:15to time travel.

04:16It's not as though the Large Hadron Collider is the end-all, be-all, though.

04:20In fact, in terms of the quest for time travel, particle accelerators in general are only

04:25a relatively recent avenue of research.

04:28There have been more proposals put forward, particularly in the second half of the twentieth

04:32century.

04:33In 1974, the American physicist and cosmologist Frank Tipler proposed a working mathematical

04:40solution for time travel within Einstein's General Relativity Framework.

04:44His idea involved an infinitely long cylinder spinning along its longitudinal axis, which

04:50would theoretically warp spacetime around it due to its immense gravity.

04:55Anyone orbiting this structure, known as a Tipler Cylinder, fast enough could then find

05:00themselves propelled along what's known as a closed timelike curve.

05:05This is essentially a path through spacetime that loops back on itself, potentially allowing

05:10any object that moves along it to visit their own past or future, depending on direction.

05:16The one thing that lets it down is it's extremely, even impossibly, impractical.

05:23Building an infinite structure is simply beyond our capabilities, and could very well always

05:28be so.

05:29But, nevertheless, Tipler's hypothetical creation is proof that time travel is at least theoretically

05:35possible.

05:36Elsewhere, Ronald Mallett's time machine is perhaps one of the most famous examples

05:40out there.

05:41Mallett is a professor, primarily based at the University of Connecticut, since 1975,

05:47who has dedicated his career to developing what he believes could be a practical method

05:51for temporal displacement.

05:53It's based on the possibility that rotating lasers might again create closed timelike

05:59curves, similar in concept to Tipler's core idea, but on a smaller scale.

06:04Mallett's vision differs in that he proposes using the circulating light beams of ring

06:09lasers to generate the conditions necessary for time travel.

06:12In theory, this should be a lot more doable than Tipler's infinite cylinder.

06:17Once more, Mallett claims that his sums are grounded in the work of Albert Einstein, saying

06:22that as per Einstein's equations, his setup should bend and drag time and space enough

06:28to enable information to be sent back and forth from the past to the present to the

06:33future.

06:34As it is, Mallett's approach has somewhat divided the field, especially as there's

06:38precious little by way of reliable, experimental verification to show that any of it is actually

06:43possible.

06:44On the other hand, his thoughts have generated excitement over the years, purely because

06:50they would lean toward a more workable and practical time machine, if they ever did deliver

06:54meaningful results.

06:56Finally, though, and to another of the most promising time travel pitches so far in modern

07:01history, the Alcubierre Drive.

07:05Proposed by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994, it's another theoretical concept.

07:11But supporters for it argue that it's a.

07:13much more achievable than Tipler's vision, and b.

07:17much more fleshed out than Mallett's.

07:19Alcubierre suggested that by manipulating space-time, it might be possible to create

07:24a warp bubble that allows faster-than-light travel, without breaking any of the laws of

07:29physics, locally.

07:31The Alcubierre Drive works on the principle of contracting space ahead of an object while

07:35expanding space behind it.

07:38By doing so, the object inside the warp bubble formed as a result, which could for example

07:43be a spaceship, would effectively be riding a wave of distorted space-time.

07:49Key concepts such as Einstein's theory of relativity remain in place, but the vehicle

07:53fitted with the drive should, in theory, be able to travel at light speed or faster-than-light

07:59speed all the same.

08:01Just as with Tipler's and Mallett's, there's some heady science involved.

08:05But reports are that there have been prototypes made of the Alcubierre Drive specifically.

08:11Perhaps it, then, really is the most promising of the three.

08:15For now, the sad truth is that we clearly do not have a mainstream time machine on Earth.

08:21A model or method that's available to everyone.

08:24There is nothing by way of a universally known process to move through the dimension of time.

08:29If there were, if time machines were widely used, then the world would surely be a very

08:34different place.

08:36But could it be that that's exactly why time travel might never be revealed, even if it

08:40were possible?

08:42On the one hand, some theorists claim that this technology, more than any other in the

08:47history of humankind, would be kept under wraps by those who wield it.

08:51On the other hand, time travel by its nature should be almost impossible to contain.

08:56So, what's your verdict?

08:58Does it exist?

08:59And if so, which of the Tipler Cylinder, the Mallett Time Machine, and the Alcubierre Drive

09:06is the most likely to be making it happen?

09:09Or actually, is the real heart of the matter to be found underground on the European continent,

09:15somewhere in the tunnels of the Large Hadron Collider?

09:19What do you think?

09:20Is there anything we missed?

09:21Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you

09:25subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.

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