5 ms·

Ask HN: Will YC ever fund a time travel startup?

14 points by baron816 10y ago

masonic 10y ago
They already did, back in 2023. [EDIT}: I meant they will in 2023. Maybe. We can't possibly tell, of course.
urs2102 10y ago
What would be the closest parallel to not just YC, but any venture backed idea which you would you say is similar to 'chasing the impossible'? I think that would expand the scope of a question like this. Functional quantum computing comes to mind, but I can't think of too many examples...
- krapp 10y ago
  Cryogenics, IMO.
- tedmiston 10y ago
  Funding a startup whose goal is to break out of, assuming we are in one, a simulation.
  - BorisMelnik 10y ago
    if that were the case, it would suck if we got rebooted or worse case had a fatal kernel issue. Imagine its like that old device in the TV show "lost" sitting in a tower for 20 years being played over and over again. It works fine until someone touches it, then blam!
- gspetr 10y ago
  Immortality (or at least agelessness).
- balazsdavid987 10y ago
  perpetual motion and free energy
- wirddin 10y ago
  Like Peter Thiel has invested in an anti-ageing solution? http://www.livemint.com/Science/MxP4L2VV7teq4141X49u1I/Can-we-stop-ageing-and-live-forever.html http://www.livemint.com/Science/MxP4L2VV7teq4141X49u1I/Can-w...
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DrNuke 10y ago
Blue sky research may well be funded by govs for military purposes, other than universities employing phd students.
nostrademons 10y ago
If they funded one, and it succeeded, it would've already happened, so no.
- stephancoral 10y ago
  Not true at all. It could very well be that when you time travel you go to another version or branch of that space-time brane. Or perhaps the past you visit is purely holographic and read-only in the causal sense.
  - nostrademons 10y ago
    Out of all the branches of the space-time continuum, what's the chance that we are on the original one? Either we are improbably exceptional, or time travel is never invented. (This is the same argument as the "we are probably in a simulation", BTW.) And if the past you visit is read-only, then you've invented history, not time-travel.
    - Arizhel 10y ago
      >Out of all the branches of the space-time continuum, what's the chance that we are on the original one? None, because there's an infinite number of branches. And every time someone travels back in time, it creates a new branch. What'd be interesting is to do an experiment to disprove this: invent a time machine that allows traveling both backwards and forwards in time. Use it to send two people back in time. Person A goes first, and the person B warps back to a time an hour later in the same place, and tells person A a secret. Then person B comes back, then person A comes back an hour later. Have person A repeat the secret, and see if they met each other in the past. With a new universe created every time someone goes back in time, will person B go back to the same new universe that was created when person A went back in time, or will they go back to the original universe that person A tried to go back to, and which still exists without person A which would change the course of history there? Does person B create a new universe? Will person A have met person B, and will they have seen person B go back to the future before them?
    - 10y ago
nrdwavexe 10y ago
time travel is a film trope, so if your question is "will YC ever get bored enough to start filming" then I suspect the answer is "almost certainly" since pg seems like a guy who really wants to be famous but can't quite get there.
joeclark77 10y ago
IMHO if reverse time travel were possible, we'd be up to our ears in tourists from the future already, so it's not. However maybe forward time travel (faster than usual I mean) could be possible. But... how would it make any money? As soon as you've delivered the service, the deadbeat customer may not be back in town to pay his bill for decades or centuries! And 30-day jumps just seems silly.
- gxespino 10y ago
  Not necessarily. Consider: https://www.quora.com/Why-are-people-from-the-future-not-time-traveling-to-our-period/answer/Yishan-Wong?srid=3dKC https://www.quora.com/Why-are-people-from-the-future-not-tim...
- mindcrime 10y ago
  we'd be up to our ears in tourists from the future already, so it's not. How do you know we aren't? Are you assuming they would wear a sign saying "TIME TRAVELER FROM THE FUTURE HERE" or something? Or walk up to random people and say "Excuse me, I'm from 2077, and I just got here, and could you tell me how to get to the Smithsonian"? I imagine if time travelers from the future were here, they'd be careful to be very discrete to avoid outing themselves. Or to avoid causing a paradox by accidentally changing something.
- BorisMelnik 10y ago
  it'll be powered by bitcoin and crowdsourced, so if you skimp out on your bill, you aren't allowed to come back.
id122015 10y ago
The problem with time travel is that when a single person can do it than we can all do it. And none of us will get ahead. Every time a startup tries to predict the stock market, they are investing in a time travel startup. And that's why they say the market is efficient - no one can predict when the next crash will come.

14 points by baron816 10y ago

They already did, back in 2023. [EDIT}: I meant they will in 2023. Maybe. We can't possibly tell, of course.

What would be the closest parallel to not just YC, but any venture backed idea which you would you say is similar to 'chasing the impossible'? I think that would expand the scope of a question like this. Functional quantum computing comes to mind, but I can't think of too many examples...

krapp 10y ago
Cryogenics, IMO.
tedmiston 10y ago
Funding a startup whose goal is to break out of, assuming we are in one, a simulation.
- BorisMelnik 10y ago
  if that were the case, it would suck if we got rebooted or worse case had a fatal kernel issue. Imagine its like that old device in the TV show "lost" sitting in a tower for 20 years being played over and over again. It works fine until someone touches it, then blam!
gspetr 10y ago
Immortality (or at least agelessness).
balazsdavid987 10y ago
perpetual motion and free energy
wirddin 10y ago
Like Peter Thiel has invested in an anti-ageing solution? http://www.livemint.com/Science/MxP4L2VV7teq4141X49u1I/Can-we-stop-ageing-and-live-forever.html http://www.livemint.com/Science/MxP4L2VV7teq4141X49u1I/Can-w...

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DrNuke 10y ago

Blue sky research may well be funded by govs for military purposes, other than universities employing phd students.

nostrademons 10y ago

If they funded one, and it succeeded, it would've already happened, so no.

stephancoral 10y ago
Not true at all. It could very well be that when you time travel you go to another version or branch of that space-time brane. Or perhaps the past you visit is purely holographic and read-only in the causal sense.
- nostrademons 10y ago
  Out of all the branches of the space-time continuum, what's the chance that we are on the original one? Either we are improbably exceptional, or time travel is never invented. (This is the same argument as the "we are probably in a simulation", BTW.) And if the past you visit is read-only, then you've invented history, not time-travel.
  - Arizhel 10y ago
    >Out of all the branches of the space-time continuum, what's the chance that we are on the original one? None, because there's an infinite number of branches. And every time someone travels back in time, it creates a new branch. What'd be interesting is to do an experiment to disprove this: invent a time machine that allows traveling both backwards and forwards in time. Use it to send two people back in time. Person A goes first, and the person B warps back to a time an hour later in the same place, and tells person A a secret. Then person B comes back, then person A comes back an hour later. Have person A repeat the secret, and see if they met each other in the past. With a new universe created every time someone goes back in time, will person B go back to the same new universe that was created when person A went back in time, or will they go back to the original universe that person A tried to go back to, and which still exists without person A which would change the course of history there? Does person B create a new universe? Will person A have met person B, and will they have seen person B go back to the future before them?
  - 10y ago

nrdwavexe 10y ago

time travel is a film trope, so if your question is "will YC ever get bored enough to start filming" then I suspect the answer is "almost certainly" since pg seems like a guy who really wants to be famous but can't quite get there.

joeclark77 10y ago

IMHO if reverse time travel were possible, we'd be up to our ears in tourists from the future already, so it's not. However maybe forward time travel (faster than usual I mean) could be possible. But... how would it make any money? As soon as you've delivered the service, the deadbeat customer may not be back in town to pay his bill for decades or centuries! And 30-day jumps just seems silly.

gxespino 10y ago
Not necessarily. Consider: https://www.quora.com/Why-are-people-from-the-future-not-time-traveling-to-our-period/answer/Yishan-Wong?srid=3dKC https://www.quora.com/Why-are-people-from-the-future-not-tim...
mindcrime 10y ago
we'd be up to our ears in tourists from the future already, so it's not. How do you know we aren't? Are you assuming they would wear a sign saying "TIME TRAVELER FROM THE FUTURE HERE" or something? Or walk up to random people and say "Excuse me, I'm from 2077, and I just got here, and could you tell me how to get to the Smithsonian"? I imagine if time travelers from the future were here, they'd be careful to be very discrete to avoid outing themselves. Or to avoid causing a paradox by accidentally changing something.
BorisMelnik 10y ago
it'll be powered by bitcoin and crowdsourced, so if you skimp out on your bill, you aren't allowed to come back.

id122015 10y ago

The problem with time travel is that when a single person can do it than we can all do it. And none of us will get ahead. Every time a startup tries to predict the stock market, they are investing in a time travel startup. And that's why they say the market is efficient - no one can predict when the next crash will come.