Journal Quote of the Day
“I now think that it’s a mistake to reject the logical (or even physical) possibility of time travel on the grounds that it cramps our style”.
(Kadri Vihvelin, “What Time Travelers Cannot Do”, in Philosophical Studies, Vol. 81, No. 2-3, March 1996, p. 317).
December 20th, 2005 at 11:26 pm
sure, I agree with the logical bit – but physical? The only reason to reject the physical impossibility of TT is because it cramps our style (unless we’re talking neutrinos and backwars causation, but that’s not really what people conventionally understand by ‘time travel’). Practically speaking, accelerating to beyond the speed of light is going to cramp your style and the style of everyone you care about.
December 21st, 2005 at 8:57 am
Haha, yeah of course. She has a very specific sort of style-cramping in mind though—namely, the style-cramping that happens when you try to kill your younger self, and all sorts of coincidences keep you from doing so. But I know what you mean—not being able to fly, and breathe underwater, and so on, cramp my style too.