Stephen Hawking, the world’s most famous theoretical physicist, says time travel is possible. Unfortunately, Hawking’s theory would negate the possibility of both Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine and Superman’s nifty trick of flying around the earth counterclockwise to go back in time.
Fox News has the timely details:
Preparing for the debut of his Discovery documentary, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, which screens next week, Hawking said he believed humans could travel millions of years into the future and repopulate their devastated planet.
Hawking said once spaceships were built that could fly faster than the speed of light, a day on board would be equivalent to a year on Earth. That’s because — according to Einstein — as objects accelerate through space, time slows down around them.
Which also means that Hawking’s theory only applies to moving forwards through time.
Moving backwards is impossible, Hawking says, because it “violates a fundamental rule that cause comes before effect.”
If moving backwards through time was possible, a person could shoot their former selves.
“I believe things cannot make themselves impossible,” Hawking said.
If Hawking is correct, please sign us up for the first rocket leaving for January 21, 2013, the day when Barack Obama’s successor is inaugurated.
H/T: FoxNews.com
