Time Travel and Physics of the Impossible

This meetup group was originally developed to explore the meaning, possibilities and potential of time travel. Many books, movies and TV shows have been created, such as The Time Tunnel and The Time Machine, with fascinating and often absurd notions of how time travel can take place. However, can time travel even exist? If so, what is the potential for mankind?

Together with time travel there are many other fascinating physical "impossibilities" such as teleportation, faster than light travel, perpetual motion machines, etc., but are they really impossible?

The physicist Michio Kaku's classifies physical impossibilities into three categories:

- Class I Impossibilities: Technologies that are impossible today but that do not violate the known laws of physics. The may be possible in this century, or perhaps the next, in modified form. They include teleportation, antimatter engines, certain forms of telepathy, psychokinesis, and invisibility.

- Class II Impossibilities: Technologies that sit at the very edge of our understanding of the physical world. If they are possible at all, they may be realized on a scale of millennia to millions of years in the future. They include time machines, the possibility of hyperspace travel, and travel through wormholes.

- Class III Impossibilities: Technologies that violate the known laws of physics. If they turn out to be possible, they would represent a fundamental shift in our understanding of physics. Kaku's includes in his book only two class III impossibilities: Perpetual Motion Machines, and Precognition.

The goal of our group is to discuss in what degree what we consider today to be "impossible" may some day become possible, and what its implications would be.

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Recent Meetups

April 20, 2011 at 6:00 PM, 20 Physics Enthusiasts attended
Parallel Universes, Lawrence Krauss
They rated it 5.001 (1 ratings)

Lawrence Krauss on Parallel Universes Illinois Science Council is partnering with the Chicago Public Library and the "One Book, One Chicago" program to connect... Learn more
February 7, 2010 at 1:30 PM, 4 Physics Enthusiasts attended
Physics of the Impossible
They rated it 5.001 (1 ratings)

In his book "Physics of the Impossible", Prof. Michio Kaku qualifies Time Travel as a class II impossibility, together with Faster than Light and Parallel Universes. In... Learn more
December 13, 2009 at 7:30 PM, 3 Physics Enthusiasts attended
Joint Meetup: Holiday Celebration
They rated it 4.502 (2 ratings)

“
I attended primarily to meet the organizers of the Time Travel Meetup. ...

—Steve Bellinger

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Very interesting meeting!

—Miguel A
August 19, 2009 at 6:30 PM, 4 Physics Enthusiasts attended
Movie: Time Traveler's Wife
They rated it 4.001 (1 ratings)

I thought seeing this movie would spark our creative juices to push this group forward. Please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu8lYr0kf7g to see the official... Learn more
June 27, 2009 at 12:00 PM, 9 Physics Enthusiasts attended
Lecture by Renowned Northwestern Professor
They rated it 5.004 (4 ratings)

“
Great and very enlightening lecture!

—Miguel A

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I am excited about having participated in such lecture. His knowledge on the matter exceeded my expectations.

—Silvia

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What's new

New Member

Jimmy joined
Tuesday at 8:48 PM

"I am a geologist and want to explore the limits of science"
New Member

Retroneon joined
January 30 at 3:26 AM

"Hi!"
New Discussion

Miguel A started Event cloaking device.
January 26 at 5:09 PM

"About a year ago a team of researchers showed how to cloak an event in spacetime using metamaterials with sophisticated properties...."

Read more…
New Member

Wei Xuan joined
January 19 at 1:49 AM

"I like physics! And I am interested in Time Travel since I was young."
New Member

keto joined
November 28, 2011 at 12:07 PM

"I love physics and I love to learn."
New Member

Aiko Igarashi joined
November 21, 2011 at 10:22 AM

"hi, i've always been interested in time travel after reading h.g. wells. also interested in teleportation after watching star trek."
New Member

Saudade joined
November 14, 2011 at 5:22 PM
New Member

Eric Weimer joined
November 10, 2011 at 8:30 AM
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E Liu joined
November 8, 2011 at 7:15 PM
New Member

Danabug joined
November 7, 2011 at 5:32 PM

"Physics befuddles me. I want to love it, but I don't understand it. And yet I work in the tech industry and fully understand technical concepts pretty easily. Hoping that by soaking up peer learning that it will finally all make sense..."