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00:00Time travel has been a staple of science fiction for generations, but could it be more than
00:05just a fantasy?
00:07This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question, have we already
00:10built a time machine?
00:14Do you need the big questions answered?
00:16Are you constantly curious?
00:18Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
00:21And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
00:23There's just no stopping technology.
00:26Like it, love it, loathe it, or fear it.
00:28It's an unstoppable fact of human existence that new technologies keep on coming.
00:33And in the 20th century, we saw just how quickly that can change the world.
00:39Revolutionary transport, terrifying weapons, the space age, the computer age, the radio,
00:44the TV, and the internet all have served to shape today's world.
00:48Right now, we're seemingly on the cusp of any number of further tech developments, with
00:53our near future set to be freshly guided by things like artificial intelligence, synthetic
00:59biology, and the end of aging.
01:02There are those who feel hopeful, and those who feel scared.
01:05But ultimately, technology doesn't really care that much either way.
01:09In amongst all the contemporary buzz, however, it might be argued that time travel is one
01:15speculative technology that apparently hasn't enjoyed the spotlight of late.
01:19Yes, it's still ever-present in books and films, and it still ranks as one of the most
01:24wished-for superpowers out thereā¦ but the needle doesn't appear to have been moved
01:28all that much.
01:29At least, not in the mainstream.
01:32Nevertheless, and given all of the other one-time fictional technologies that have now been
01:37realised in real life, isn't it about time we saw this one as well?
01:42Or at least some significant developments towards it?
01:45The relative hush over time travel tech in recent times could be easily explainable by
01:49the fact that it isn't possible.
01:52But for some, if the world has gone a little quiet on the subject, it's only really because
01:57we already have all that we need.
02:00What better place to start than at CERN's Large Hadron Collider?
02:05As the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, it has been a magnet for panicked
02:09predictions and wide-ranging conspiracy theories over the years.
02:13In the early days, between 2008 and 2010, most of the whispered talk and rumour centred
02:19on the seeming possibility that the LHC would one day generate a black hole on Earth, thereby
02:25killing us all in an instant.
02:27So far, that hasn't happenedā¦ but amongst all the doomsday prophecies, there has also
02:31been a constant murmuring of possible time travel.
02:35The LHC may never be a time machine in the traditional sense, but there are theories
02:40to suggest that it might inadvertently become one.
02:43Buried deep beneath the Franco-Swiss border in Europe, it is of course famous for smashing
02:48subatomic particles together at near-light speeds.
02:51The conditions inside the LHC are simply unlike anything else on Earth.
02:56And the most famous discovery made via the LHC so far is that of the Higgs Boson, otherwise
03:02known as the God Particle, an elementary particle responsible for imbuing everything else with
03:07mass.
03:08To time travel enthusiasts, though, the real holy grail is the Higgs Singlet.
03:13This is an until-now hypothetical particle that, if real, could enable its manipulators
03:18to send messages forward and backwards in time.
03:22It's said that the Higgs Singlet should operate in such a way so that it can move
03:26in and out of a fabled fifth dimension, to allow time travel within itself.
03:31Importantly, even if the Singlet were to exist, and indeed were it to be discovered, then
03:36most predictions are that it wouldn't then enable a human being to move around in time.
03:41Instead, it might grant a human access to the past and future as though remotely.
03:47Or it might in some way be able to present a human in the present with key information
03:52about the past and future.
03:54Right now, it's all a little murky.
03:56But for the rest of the world watching on, what's significant is the same might have
04:00once been said about the Higgs Boson.
04:02The naysayers may have asked, how could a particle achieve mass from nothing?
04:07But the LHC delivered proof that it can.
04:10For many, it's only a matter of time before a similar breakthrough is made in relation
04:15to time travel.
04:16It's not as though the Large Hadron Collider is the end-all, be-all, though.
04:20In fact, in terms of the quest for time travel, particle accelerators in general are only
04:25a relatively recent avenue of research.
04:28There have been more proposals put forward, particularly in the second half of the twentieth
04:32century.
04:33In 1974, the American physicist and cosmologist Frank Tipler proposed a working mathematical
04:40solution for time travel within Einstein's General Relativity Framework.
04:44His idea involved an infinitely long cylinder spinning along its longitudinal axis, which
04:50would theoretically warp spacetime around it due to its immense gravity.
04:55Anyone orbiting this structure, known as a Tipler Cylinder, fast enough could then find
05:00themselves propelled along what's known as a closed timelike curve.
05:05This is essentially a path through spacetime that loops back on itself, potentially allowing
05:10any object that moves along it to visit their own past or future, depending on direction.
05:16The one thing that lets it down is it's extremely, even impossibly, impractical.
05:23Building an infinite structure is simply beyond our capabilities, and could very well always
05:28be so.
05:29But, nevertheless, Tipler's hypothetical creation is proof that time travel is at least theoretically
05:35possible.
05:36Elsewhere, Ronald Mallett's time machine is perhaps one of the most famous examples
05:40out there.
05:41Mallett is a professor, primarily based at the University of Connecticut, since 1975,
05:47who has dedicated his career to developing what he believes could be a practical method
05:51for temporal displacement.
05:53It's based on the possibility that rotating lasers might again create closed timelike
05:59curves, similar in concept to Tipler's core idea, but on a smaller scale.
06:04Mallett's vision differs in that he proposes using the circulating light beams of ring
06:09lasers to generate the conditions necessary for time travel.
06:12In theory, this should be a lot more doable than Tipler's infinite cylinder.
06:17Once more, Mallett claims that his sums are grounded in the work of Albert Einstein, saying
06:22that as per Einstein's equations, his setup should bend and drag time and space enough
06:28to enable information to be sent back and forth from the past to the present to the
06:33future.
06:34As it is, Mallett's approach has somewhat divided the field, especially as there's
06:38precious little by way of reliable, experimental verification to show that any of it is actually
06:43possible.
06:44On the other hand, his thoughts have generated excitement over the years, purely because
06:50they would lean toward a more workable and practical time machine, if they ever did deliver
06:54meaningful results.
06:56Finally, though, and to another of the most promising time travel pitches so far in modern
07:01history, the Alcubierre Drive.
07:05Proposed by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994, it's another theoretical concept.
07:11But supporters for it argue that it's a.
07:13much more achievable than Tipler's vision, and b.
07:17much more fleshed out than Mallett's.
07:19Alcubierre suggested that by manipulating space-time, it might be possible to create
07:24a warp bubble that allows faster-than-light travel, without breaking any of the laws of
07:29physics, locally.
07:31The Alcubierre Drive works on the principle of contracting space ahead of an object while
07:35expanding space behind it.
07:38By doing so, the object inside the warp bubble formed as a result, which could for example
07:43be a spaceship, would effectively be riding a wave of distorted space-time.
07:49Key concepts such as Einstein's theory of relativity remain in place, but the vehicle
07:53fitted with the drive should, in theory, be able to travel at light speed or faster-than-light
07:59speed all the same.
08:01Just as with Tipler's and Mallett's, there's some heady science involved.
08:05But reports are that there have been prototypes made of the Alcubierre Drive specifically.
08:11Perhaps it, then, really is the most promising of the three.
08:15For now, the sad truth is that we clearly do not have a mainstream time machine on Earth.
08:21A model or method that's available to everyone.
08:24There is nothing by way of a universally known process to move through the dimension of time.
08:29If there were, if time machines were widely used, then the world would surely be a very
08:34different place.
08:36But could it be that that's exactly why time travel might never be revealed, even if it
08:40were possible?
08:42On the one hand, some theorists claim that this technology, more than any other in the
08:47history of humankind, would be kept under wraps by those who wield it.
08:51On the other hand, time travel by its nature should be almost impossible to contain.
08:56So, what's your verdict?
08:58Does it exist?
08:59And if so, which of the Tipler Cylinder, the Mallett Time Machine, and the Alcubierre Drive
09:06is the most likely to be making it happen?
09:09Or actually, is the real heart of the matter to be found underground on the European continent,
09:15somewhere in the tunnels of the Large Hadron Collider?
09:19What do you think?
09:20Is there anything we missed?
09:21Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
09:25subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.