If you have somebody who's brilliant and highly creative with a different point of view than you have, and a very different intellectual background, great things can happen.
Kip ThorneRead
Whether you can go back in time is held in the grip of the law of quantum gravity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the possibility of traveling back in time is determined by the principles of quantum gravity.
Kip Thorne's quote reflects on the complex relationship between time travel and the laws of physics, specifically quantum gravity. It implies that our ability to move backward in time is not just a matter of imagination or science fiction, but rather is constrained by fundamental physical laws that govern the universe. This underscores the importance of understanding the universe's rules as we explore profound concepts such as time travel.
Themes
TimeQuantum GravityPhysicsTime TravelUniverse
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on time travel theories, you could use this quote to highlight the scientific constraints involved.
More from Kip Thorne
All quotes βI think that the future of the human race is to spread through the universe, and now is the time that we should be laying the foundations for that.
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'Closed timelike curve' is the jargon for time travel. It means you go out, come back and meet yourself in the past.
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If you think that the distance from the Earth to the nearest planet where we could live comfortably... is being, like, from New York to Australia... what we've achieved so far, in going to the moon, that's about two-and-a-half inches. So that's the challenge.
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A big misconception is that a black hole is made of matter that has just been compacted to a very small size. That's not true. A black hole is made from warped space and time.
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If you go down through the horizon of a black hole, at the center you don't find a tunnel that leads you to some other place in the universe.
Kip ThorneRead
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