I get that people just refer to them as time machines, but they’re actually space-time vehicles.
Before your first journey, you calibrate it to a reference point (mine already had Earth mapped out, with a gravity well depth monitor as a fail-safe) so that you lock your target coordinates in space and time.
But no, it’s not teleportation. You’re still just travelling to your destination, you just get there as quick as you want and without the need to be disintegrated.
TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
What sort of universal reference frame do you seem to be assuming? All location is relative to other things, and keeping your location relative to, say, the Earth would be a lot more convenient that making it relative to some arbitrary star or something.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Op thinks the universe is built with some inherently absolute positioning method. Thanks for writing this
TommySoda@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
But if you’re in a moving car and “pop” back a few seconds while the car doesn’t you won’t be in the car anymore. If it worked more like rewinding a video you wouldn’t need to do much, but I’m assuming OP means literally going “poof” and now you’re back in time. If that’s the case, you would still need to know how Earth is moving through spacetime. If you don’t know your relativistic relationship to the Earth and every other object in the universe then how would you know where you are or your own relativity compared to the Earth?
Dave@lemmy.nz 3 weeks ago
Their point is that (as per relatively), all movement is relative to something. So if the earth moved away then you must be measuring in relation to some other reference point. There is no absolute positioning system. So when you say the earth is moving, what is it moving in relation to? And why did you pick that reference point instead of having a time machine that uses earth itself as a reference point?
7uWqKj@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Exactly, and due to earth’s rotation you don’t even need the car.
half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Use the time and space machine on a ruler and send it back in time a pico second, then a millisecond, then a thousand, then a second, then a minute. You just have to calibrate with measurements first.
fubbernuckin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
I’m using the microwave background as a reference
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
I tried, but then it started blinking.
kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The microwave background is like a rainbow. When you move, it appears to move. You’re always at the “center” of it.
TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Lol, that’s omnipresent