3 ms·
There's a small explanation here of what he meant: http://www.robertgraboyes.com/writings_files/Bank%20at%20the%20End.htm http://www.robertgraboyes.com/writings
by Locke1689 17y ago
There's a small explanation here of what he meant: http://www.robertgraboyes.com/writings_files/Bank%20at%20the%20End.htm http://www.robertgraboyes.com/writings_files/Bank%20at%20the.... His point definitely seems to be more intelligible after reading that article, but he seems to have a very limited definition of time travel. First, it must allow travel both ways. Second, one must be able to change the past. Third, the changed past must be the same as our past (Think of each new time travel instance as a new stack frame, with the stack variables being history. If one were to go back in time and change the past, one could create a new "stack frame" that leaves the history intact in its own timeline.)
However, one doesn't need a rather weak economic argument for the impossibility of time travel -- analyzing a light cone shows that causality will break down at speeds greater than that of light. Thus, traveling greater than the speed of light is equivalent to time travel. Using the Lorentz factor, we can trivially derive the fact that achieving a speed greater than that of light for a particle with finite mass requires an infinite amount of energy -- thus, time travel is impossible (assuming Einstein's Theory of Relativity is correct, which we are pretty damn certain about).
- GavinB 17y agoIt's odd that an economist wouldn't mention transaction costs in his model at all. If the cost of time travel is extremely high, it wouldn't be worth it to travel back in time for economic purposes. It's also possible that those with time travel ability choose not to alter the past for any of a number of reasons. Further, by the point at which time travel is developed, money may not have any importance. Yet another possibility is that our future may include a point of complete economic collapse in which all current banks cease to exist. There are plenty of good arguments against time travel, but Graboyes's isn't as successful as he would like it to be.