QI - Time travel

[deadeaded]

Do phones really use piezoelectric crystals? I thought it would be something more complicated.

[arun3q]

really ......i loved it

[UphamE]

But what if you shoot your grandfather after the birth of your mother or father (depending on which grandfather it is)?

[memyselfandmusic29]

that Rob Brydon knows a lot about science.

[Anton6871]

if time travel was/is possible, then we have always had time travel, see the paradox?

[soundslave]

@Anton6871 not true, If the time travelling device could only go forward.

[gerardwhytelads]

that whole thing about killing your grandfather, you could just wait until your Father was born then kill your grandfather, BOOM...

[TeddyFunHa]

Never thought about how a telephone exactly works llz xD

[memyselfandmusic29]

my head hurts.

[cptmuska]

amazingly smart

[andysim232]

There was a time traveler who visted earth. His name was Jesus,.

[fistfulofknowledge]

1 Person believes in atrology

[PhilWithCoffee]

Wait a sec, isn't that picture they used at about 1:58 from that crappy movie Danger Diabolik? No time traveling in that movie, but John Phillip Law was encased in gold at the end wearing that ridiculous outfit.

[jfcwtfusernames]

holy moly! ben miller is a quantum physicist... 

[laminator69er]

I may have used ben miller's description of how a telephone works in my physics coursework, got a decent grade too :p

[Laurelindo]

I love how we are pretty much forced to learn English since like first grade in Sweden, this allows me to enjoy these QI videos with no effort at all. XD

[Draenix572]

If Time Travel is ever possible, why hasn't anyone come back to this time to tell us that it is possible?

[funkkyzenzei]

@Draenix572

Why would they?

[ShoeUnited]

@Draenix572 As they mentioned, it is likely that your point of departure into the past cannot exceed any point of the creation of the device that can transport you. There's other theories (alternate dimensions, gamma radiation, gravitational collapse, inordinate cost of generating enough energy to sustain a wormhole, future socio-politi-ethical problems). Feel free to research.

[RachelHurdWood4ever2]

@Draenix572 well nobody would believe them lol

[TheBd27]

i will now attempt to time travel....

[TheBd27]

it worked!!!

[Shift4chizzle]

its real we've done it

[tealsuki]

I keep looking at that starfield background, and I expected to see Colin Baker's face appear... (think the 6th Doctor Who intro)

[Angdharagh]

This is what happens when I talk about physics to my bass player... it's also what happens when my bass player talks to me about cooking.!

[MashkaZelandiashi]

Not to show off, but the phone explanation made sense.

[plstrom]

that is futurology witch isn't very far from astrology... ha! what now ? :)

[joiskyhigh]

I love watching people much cleverer than myself talk about things they are passionate about.

[sauceykat]

If time travelling is possible, the first time travel episode would be not people going back in time but INFORMATION, such as perhaps a video or audio broadcast or data. That's my little pseudohypothesis.

[UrbanSkaternotreally]

all of the douches there need to shut the FUCK UP and let the man speak!

[RyRyBassline]

Pause at 4:43.

That picture looks awfully familiar to the one on Mock The Week where Frankie Boyle describes it "Because they've built a giant black hole machine in Switzerland. They might of learned a few interesting things about protons, but I would add, I dont give a fuck!"

[nofatchxplzthx]

ill travel into the future, message me tomorrow and ill reply back to you

[zaitesushion]

Phwoar Ben Miller just got ten times hotter with that matter-of-fact and quiet display of intelligence.

[TMTours]

I've seen this before, proving time travel is indeed possible!

[animenagai]

The grandfather paradox can actually be solved with parallel theories of time. So when right before your grandfather dies, time splits into 2 paths, one where he dies and another where he does not. You are only changing the future in the sense that you are directing traffic to the path in which he dies, but that other path, the future where he doesn't die, still exists. No paradox. I should know, my office-mate passed his bars and quit being a lawyer to write a thesis on time-travel ;)

[wubs23]

@animenagai true, but are you then going back in time, or simply creating a parralel present?

[GS315ish]

@animenagai bahahahahahaha gotta love second hand smarts. you can use a toothbrush and a vacuum cleaner to travel through time.I should know, my mates, uncles, cousins dog ate a golf shoe, quit drinking out of the toilet and wrote a thesis on quantum mechanics and time travel. bahahahahaa

[kriss430]

Ben Miller is great.

[Apocalyptium]

Is this the episode that Rob and Ben kiss each other?

[Tjune84]

@Apocalyptium yep

[pravkdey]

dude the guys to Stephen's left are like....weird twins O_.

[CrestalMyth]

In response to "where are all the time travellers?" - temporal prime directive.

[jin455]

ben miller i s brilliant, my fav episode.

[GarrettInShadows]

I had no idea Ben Miller was so well educated.

[glitteraddict44]

"Astronomy or astrology?"

"OHHH STOP IT."

xD

[TheDrakaan]

Wish I knew as much as ben miller about physics Q_Q

[poppasmurfsdad]

Ben Miller (comedian) Studied at Cambridge, he studied a PhD in Quantum Physics, his research was entitled "Novel quantum effects in low-temperature quasi-zero dimensional mesoscopic electron systems".

Before completing his PhD, he abandoned it to concentrate on a career in comedy. His a very clever bloke.

[RikMayallAddict]

See, if Stephen fry started talking about the Fermi paradox, everyone would be listening intently, but because it's Ben Miller they don't care -_-

[MrHypnofan]

Are those guys brothers? As an American, I am not familiar with either.

[BFBCFTW]

@MrHypnofan No, they just look very alike.

[FootballFan579]

I love Ben Miller :D

[BritishDanny30]

prime example of the mediocre attacking excellence!! the stupid ridiculing the intelligent. This is the world we live in!!

[TheSobek]

@BritishDanny30 That might be something of an exaggeration. I think the panelists have a genuine respect for intelligence and knowledge which is, after all, the subject of the show but they're sending it up because explanations of extremely complicated theories of quantum mechanics don't make for ideal material in what is partly a comedy show without some comedy.

[BigMisterApple]

timetravel is pretty much impossible because of the grandfather paradox, so unless you'd bring other dimensions into it, timetravel in itself is impossible.. If you'd go back into time to do something, that means you already did it in the future, thus you dont need to go back in time and do it because you already did it, but because you didnt go back to do it, you never did it in the first place.. so however you look at it, timetravel without other dimensions is impossible..

Cheers..

[izy51]

@BigMisterApple yeah grandfather paradox always pissed me off but its how fry became his own grandfather in futurama using the grandfather paradox

[thedaddyff85]

build two time travel machines from now then the future you can always come back to this point....... because the second one is already here.....yes?

[LogicalStatements1]

I just finished watching the video and Fry pretty much said what i said in my previous comment , lol.

[LogicalStatements1]

I remember watching a program that stated it would only be possible to travel back in time to the point of where the first time machine was invented , so that would explain why we have seen no time travelers.

[tominator999]

There's an easy way to see if time travel is possible. If it's created in the future, I'm gonna say to myself to come back to this exact time and interrupt what I'm ty

[Poscopic]

@tominator999 Good idea I'll do the same thi

[poptya]

@tominator999 Except that if the theory that you can only travel back in time to the second the first time machine is switched on is true, that wont work.

[TwoDrPeppers]

@tominator999 You make very funny joke sir.

[MrFitzonic]

@tominator999

I don't think you pulled off an ontological paradox joke that well.

[CoolInMyOwnWay]

@tominator999 I will do the sam- HOLY CRAP WHO ARE YOU

[wubs23]

@tominator999 assuming you are alive when that happens, and it's allowed for you to go back to that time, and you remember.. etc..

[WakingLife55]

@tominator999 That's assuming that time travel will be possible within your lifetime.

[reecester2k8]

@tominator999 if time travel was made in the future who would travel back in time and not be able to travel back to the future because when you travel to the past you can't return because the future hasn't happened yet

[YoNiQe]

@tominator999 u might die before its invented tho. There is a similar "experiment" to prove time travel into the past will never be a technology of mankind: Create an invitation to a "time traveler's party" with the date of tomorrow and see what happens :)

[RgMFn2904]

or there might be a future law set in motion state that, because of the fact that there were no time travellers in the past, you cannot travel back before a certain date. It's pretty simple.

[Danfitz2010]

@viridismonasterience exactly the same, except rather than the frequencies of your voice being changed into an electrical signal and past down copper phone cable to be turned back into voice on the other phone; your voice is turned into light energy (radio waves) and transmitted and amplified via satellites and phone masts (satellite dishes) to the other persons handset, where it is changed back into frequencies that reverberate in your ear via the phone speaker where your ear essentially decod

[viridismonasteriense]

what about mobile phones? Or is there no difference (in the principle)?

[xlRhymeSlx]

thnx for puttin it on now i can proove there has to be life out there.. and yh it is good to have someone clever on this show .. love Qi !!!!

[Szaam]

This is probably one of the most interesting QI episodes.

I feel quite for Ben Miller too. He's not arrogantly intelligent, he alwyas talks relevantly, but everyone makes out he's boring, haha.

But how travellingat the speed of light can get you somewhere in minutes when four years pass on earth, and how voltages transfer to sound is still beyond me and always will be.

[feuilletoniste]

@Szaam Isn't he delightful? So nice to have the occasional guest who, as Stephen said at the beginning of the episode, knows what they're talking about.

[Unwarranted]

@Szaam Actually, Miller sums the phone thing up pretty good. It basically works the same way as two cups and a string, where your voice is transmitted via vibrations.

[ShoeUnited]

@Szaam Rub your hands together, the vibrations cause friction, friction creates heat, your hands get warm. The faster you rub your hands together the more heat you create. It is merely a transfer of energy in one state (mechanical) into another state (heat). In a very basic sense, this is how an analog telephone used to work. I don't think I can make a simpler example.

[Chonoryokusha]

@Szaam

It's not as difficult as you think. Light comprises individual particles called photons. If you imagine a stream of photons coming from a light source and reflecting off the clock on the wall. The photons strike your eye, so you are able to see the time. Now imagine travelling directly away from the clock at the speed of light. You will be riding the same photon all the way, so from your perspective time is frozen.

See? Not so difficult.

[berniebay]

@

I think I can explain this. If you travel at 100 mph in the x direction, then all of your velocity is in that straight line. If you travel at 100mph a diagonal, you have a certain speed in the x and y direction. But, the speeds in those dimensions would be less than originally. Increase that to 3D motion, you lose speed in each direction again.

Because time is the 4th dimension, as you travel faster through space, you travel slower through time. So, you age slower.

I hope that makes sense.

[llehctimd]

@Szaam the reason why time slows when you approach the speed of light is because the speed of light is THE fastest speed univerally possible. Since this is the case, as something approaches the speed of speed, the only way for it to not exceed that speed is for time itself to slow. Thus mere minutes pass by to the thing travelling at near light speed, while hundreds or thousands of years pass for something on earth.

[pubuman]

@llehctimd Aye? What about Tachyons then?

[llehctimd]

@pubuman there's no evidence to their existence... and even if they did, that wouldnt change what I was saying above. Just add "for bradyons" to my first sentence (as that's what we are)

[ArM00geddon]

@llehctimd It's impossible to travel faster than light because time slows down if you try, not the other way around. Best explanation I've heard for it is, keeping in mind space and time are 2 components of one thing, drastically increasing your velocity through one detracts from your 'velocity' through the other. Makes sense the other way round too; If you were to (from your perspective) jump forwards 10 minutes, to everyone else you'd be completely still for 10 minutes.