Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claim to have developed a new theoretical model that allows messages to be sent back in time. The research is based on ideas from quantum physics and the general theory of relativity.
The work is also inspired by the film Interstellar by director Christopher Nolan, in which Matthew McConaughey’s character sends information to the past via a watch.
The theory is based on the concept of so-called “closed time-like curves” – hypothetical trajectories in space-time that allow a return to the past.
According to the general theory of relativity, such structures are mathematically possible. The problem is that creating them would require a huge amount of energy and seems practically impossible.
However, researchers are considering an alternative approach through quantum entanglement. This is a phenomenon in which two particles remain connected regardless of the distance between them.
Some physicists have suggested that such a connection could be explained by the exchange of information back in time between particles. Although the idea remains controversial, Seth Lloyd’s team at MIT used entangled photons in an experiment in 2010 to simulate a quantum version of a closed time-like curve.
Now, the scientists propose a new model in which the communication channel is “noisy” and unstable, like a bad telephone connection. Their analysis shows that even in the presence of interference, messages to the past can be more reliable than standard communication in the normal direction of time.
The team explains this by the fact that the sender already remembers how the message was received in the past and can optimize the way it is encoded.
According to one of the authors of the study, Kaiyuan Ji, it was the scene from Interstellar that inspired the idea.
“The father remembers how his daughter reads his future message, so he can instruct himself on how best to encode it,” he explains.
However, scientists admit that practical time travel or real communication with the past does not seem possible for now.
According to physicist Andreas Winter of the University of Cologne, there is no known mechanism that would allow such communication in the real world.
However, the researchers believe that the model could have practical value in developing more efficient communication systems and methods for transmitting information over noisy channels.
Illustrative photo: pexels-marek-pavlik-1929759405-37269544
