We know that time is relative to the
observer in order to keep the principle, which is that light shall always
travel at a constant speed. Relatively, yes, this means that travelling to the
future of another observer is possible, by travelling at speeds closer to the
speed of light, or by experiencing lower gravity. However, what I will deny is
that travelling to the past is, according to our current understanding of
physical laws, impossible, as time flows according to entropy.
Entropy might be a new concept to
us. It is a measure of energy over temperature, which may define how “chaotic”
the state of matter is in; the larger the entropy, the more disorderly it is.
According to the second law of thermodynamics (which we sadly skipped in
class), any system will tend toward higher entropy. Entropy can only increase,
and there is no known way to revert a system into a more orderly state. An easy
example is that you cannot un-mix a homogenous sugar solution.
That said, time itself might be
called as imaginary, a method to explain this system that tend toward higher
entropy. There is only now, and a span of time between events, where the
direction of this time, in definition, is whichever direction the system is
heading toward higher entropy. This provides a clear direction of time, as
entropy cannot lower.
One may argue that time travel may
not happen, for the simple reason that time is merely an illusion, a concept
connected with entropy. However, by only using the current definition of time,
it may not move “backward”, as a system will always increase in entropy, and
thus time travel backward may not happen.
Sources
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