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CHAPTER 10 WORMHOLES AND TIME TRAVEL
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The last chapter discussed why we see time go forward:
why disorder1 increases and why we remember the past butnot the future. Time was treated as if it were a straight railwayline on which one could only go one way or the other.
But what if the railway line had loops and branches so thata train could keep going forward but come back to a station ithad already passed? In other words, might it be possible forsomeone to travel into the future or the past?
H. G. Wells in The Time Machine explored these possibilitiesas have countless2 other writers of science fiction. Yet many ofthe ideas of science fiction, like submarines and travel to themoon, have become matters of science fact. So what are theprospects for time travel?
The first indication that the laws of physics might really allowpeople to travel in time came in 1949 when Kurt Godeldiscovered a new space-time allowed by general relativity. Godelwas a mathematician3 who was famous for proving that it isimpossible to prove all true statements, even if you limityourself to trying to prove all the true statements in a subjectas apparently4 cut and dried as arithmetic. Like the uncertaintyprinciple, Godel’s incompleteness theorem may be a fundamentallimitation on our ability to understand and predict the universe,but so far at least it hasn’t seemed to be an obstacle in oursearch for a complete unified6 theory.
Godel got to know about general relativity when he andEinstein spent their later years at the Institute for AdvancedStudy in Princeton. His space-time had the curious propertythat the whole universe was rotating. One might ask: “Rotatingwith respect to what?” The answer is that distant matter wouldbe rotating with respect to directions that little tops orgyroscopes point in.
This had the side effect that it would be possible forsomeone to go off in a rocket ship and return to earth beforehe set out. This property really upset Einstein, who hadthought that general relativity wouldn’t allow time travel.
However, given Einstein’s record of ill-founded opposition7 togravitational
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1
disorder
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| n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调 | |
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countless
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| adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
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mathematician
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| n.数学家 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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uncertainty
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| n.易变,靠不住,不确知,不确定的事物 | |
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unified
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| (unify 的过去式和过去分词); 统一的; 统一标准的; 一元化的 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对,敌对 | |
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collapse
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| vi.累倒;昏倒;倒塌;塌陷 | |
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strings
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| n.弦 | |
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warp
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| vt.弄歪,使翘曲,使不正常,歪曲,使有偏见 | |
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warped
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| adj.反常的;乖戾的;(变)弯曲的;变形的v.弄弯,变歪( warp的过去式和过去分词 );使(行为等)不合情理,使乖戾, | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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galaxy
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| n.星系;银河系;一群(杰出或著名的人物) | |
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consolation
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| n.安慰,慰问 | |
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paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法;自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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vice
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| n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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density
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| n.密集,密度,浓度 | |
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overdrawn
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| 透支( overdraw的过去分词 ); (overdraw的过去分词) | |
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densities
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| 密集( density的名词复数 ); 稠密; 密度(固体、液体或气体单位体积的质量); 密度(磁盘存贮数据的可用空间) | |
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annihilate
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| v.使无效;毁灭;取消 | |
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wavelength
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| n.波长 | |
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wavelengths
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| n.波长( wavelength的名词复数 );具有相同的/不同的思路;合拍;不合拍 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点;饰章;羽冠;vt.达到顶点;vi.形成浪尖 | |
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crests
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| v.到达山顶(或浪峰)( crest的第三人称单数 );到达洪峰,达到顶点 | |
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resonant
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| adj.(声音)洪亮的,共鸣的 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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radically
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| ad.根本地,本质地 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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paradoxes
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| n.似非而是的隽语,看似矛盾而实际却可能正确的说法( paradox的名词复数 );用于语言文学中的上述隽语;有矛盾特点的人[事物,情况] | |
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constraint
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| n.(on)约束,限制;限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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microscopic
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| adj.微小的,细微的,极小的,显微的 | |
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annihilates
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| n.(彻底)消灭( annihilate的名词复数 );使无效;废止;彻底击溃v.(彻底)消灭( annihilate的第三人称单数 );使无效;废止;彻底击溃 | |
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Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置;机构,结构 | |
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emission
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| n.发出物,散发物;发出,散发 | |
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Nazis
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| n.(德国的)纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 );纳粹主义 | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测,猜测 | |
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conspire
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| v.密谋,(事件等)巧合,共同导致 | |
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