Artificial Intelligence and Time Travel

A rather sumptuous belief that one could travel through time does not elude the promises of artificial intelligence. Albeit the position remaining a theory largely based on suppositions, there might be convincing insights that suggest its possibility. However, one must first be clear on what they mean by time travel. Time travel could mean three things, one of which is usually discarded; moving with the natural span of time as in the present, travelling into the future, or travelling into the past which is what most people mean when they say ‘time travel’.

Travelling into the future might seem the most illogical because there is no future without the will of the present. So, saying one travelled into the future could be like saying they entered into a void. Interestingly, the theories of Physics do not entirely undermine the possibility of time travel into the future, in fact, they do the near opposite. According to Professor William A. Hiscock of Montana State University, US;

If one were to depart from the earth in a spaceship that could accelerate continuously at a comfortable one g (an acceleration that would produce a force equal to the gravity at the earth’s surface), one would begin to approach the speed of light relative to the earth within about a year. As the ship continued to accelerate, it would come ever closer to the speed of light, and its clocks would appear to run at an ever slower rate relative to the earth. Under such circumstances, a round trip to the center of our galaxy and back to the earth — a distance of some 60,000 light-years — could be completed in only a little more than 40 years of ship time. Upon arriving back at the earth, the astronaut would be only 40 years older, while 60,000 years would have passed on the earth. Note that there is no ‘twin paradox’, because it is unambiguous that the space traveler has felt the constant acceleration for 40 years, while a hypothetical twin left behind on a spaceship circling the earth has not.

Time travel to the past could be possible as far as whether one could really create a mechanism that can tweak the laws of nature to allow for the expansion of microscopic wormholes, which theoretical Physicists report to be ubiquitous, being a billion of billion times smaller than an electron (the radius of an electron is 2.82e–15 m — only one millimetre would fit about 1 billion electrons assuming there is no repulsion).

To engineer a mechanism that can power this is the greatest challenge of the subject, but fortunately, artificial intelligence does not totally rely on mechanics. Although we might not be able to go into the future or the past ourselves, artificial intelligence could possibly do it on our behalf without yet building a spaceship for it, but just substantial tonnes of heavy information and enough memory to manage the process. The insinuation is simple, artificial intelligence predictions, although are just predictions, could fetch us insights from the future or from the past. Like the popular Indian movie “Krrish 2008”, Siddanth Arya didn’t have to go into the future physically, he only had to inquire of it from the artificial intelligence time machine that his prisoner, Dr Rohit Mehra built, and the consistent prediction begot his reality in the end. With just enough data surrounding events and circumstances of a specimen and its real-life encounters in all ramifications, a super-intelligent model will go nigh accurate in predicting the events to be expected of its future, and it would be easier for the same model to calculate the most possible story of the past based on the present situation of that specimen. Our world could be that specimen, we could make it our country, or a person — the underlying theory is that time travel is practically possible with artificial intelligence in years later that we might not be able to tell for sure. However, the error remains that the achievement will never meet the scientific method to be approved as a confirmed law because predictions do not produce facts but inferential ideas, and since we can’t really make the travel ourselves, there won’t be any way to affirm the accuracy of this prediction. That leaves the power of artificial intelligence as a time traveller non-trustworthy although it proves experimental in contrast to mechanical experiments that Physicists haven’t been able to actualize in centuries.

Needless to say, if the theoretical demonstration of William A. Hiscock, and of my friend, Daniella who encouraged me to write about this topic becomes mechanically achievable, that is, if we could solve the engineering problems of the trip; the required amount of energy, assuming a perfect conversion of mass into energy is greater than the mass of the earth, then nothing in the known laws of Physics would prevent time travel [into the future], and artificial intelligence, still with its predictive adroitness, will be indispensable in calculating the life-span of the machinery and the likelihood of it failing, apart from other uses that are directly related to the trip and the travellers.

Time travel officially remains a theory, regardless of the piles of occurrences in sci-fi movies that have become many people’s journal of the development in science. After decades of critical studies and experiments, perhaps the biggest surprise is that it is not obvious that the laws of Physics forbid time travel, whilst their support remains hanging without complete clues. Thus, the truth of this subject remains a question until scientists develop a theory of quantum gravity adequate enough to explain the global geometry of space-time and whether it could allow the reverse propagation of closed timelike curves.

This article is majorly a product of my colloquy with a science-enthusiastic friend, Daniella Omolayole, who has a faithful interest in the development of science and technology, especially as seen in the movies. We discuss a lot of suppositions and theories surrounding sci-fi movies and of course, we also share how intriguing they appear. Our consolidation about the movie ‘See You Yesterday, 2019’ was one of the pieces that soared the need to put up this article. A lot of people believe time travel is practically possible for humans, movies make us enjoy the supposed actuality, but while science also believes it’s possible, scientists continue in their attempt to prove this true or false. And if it happens to occur, artificial intelligence will be a great piece in its manifestation.

While it seems the Maker of our universe intentionally designed nature to not allow humans or other concrete entities to travel to and fro time, we know it is theoretically possible even though achieving it in practice remains a fiction.

Peter Michael
University of Lagos, Nigeria

SGC GI: Robotocs/IoT/AI