Time travel.

[M'rk son of Mogh]

A problem I have had with time travel stories recently is where the time machine moves through time but not space but they forget that the earth is not a static location. It moves all the time. When Marty went back to 1955 he shouldn't have ended up at that farm. He should have wound up in the cold vacuum of space.

No, because they are traveling through the time/SPACE continuum. Time and space are inseparably linked.

But the location they started out at moved so the same space at a different time would be the vacuum of space and not the planet.

So you seriously think a device SO complex it can enable travel through time wouldn't, in all of the equations and variables presented, consider to adjust for the movement in space as well? Really?

 

[Checkmate]

So you seriously think a device SO complex it can enable travel through time wouldn't, in all of the equations and variables presented, consider to adjust for the movement in space as well? Really?

If the device (and the time in which the device originated) didn't have FTL capabilities, then yes. I would seriously think that. Since, you know, the universe itself is moving at ridiculously fast speeds, not to mention the galaxies expanding in that universe, the stars spinning in those galaxies expanding in that universe, the planets orbiting those stars spinning in those galaxies expanding in that universe, and the rotation of those planets oribiting those stars spinning in those galaxies expanding in that universe.

I seriously doubt inertia (or whatever the proper term is) would carry through the time shift. Or that the time machine would have any way in Hell of adjusting your inertia to match it. Especially since, again, that would require ridiculously unimaginable FTL capabilities.

 

[ProtoAvatar]

So you seriously think a device SO complex it can enable travel through time wouldn't, in all of the equations and variables presented, consider to adjust for the movement in space as well? Really?

If the device (and the time in which the device originated) didn't have FTL capabilities, then yes. I would seriously think that. Since, you know, the universe itself is moving at ridiculously fast speeds, not to mention the galaxies expanding in that universe, the stars spinning in those galaxies expanding in that universe, the planets orbiting those stars spinning in those galaxies expanding in that universe, and the rotation of those planets oribiting those stars spinning in those galaxies expanding in that universe.

I seriously doubt inertia (or whatever the proper term is) would carry through the time shift. Or that the time machine would have any way in Hell of adjusting your inertia to match it. Especially since, again, that would require ridiculously unimaginable FTL capabilities.

Checkmate, we are talking about a device that enables travel back in time.
FTL capabilities are implicit in this device. Consider:
You travel to Alpha Centauri the old fashioned way and then you travel back into the past so that the entire trip only took 1 second = FTL.

Someone smart enough to build a time machine is more than smart enough to fine tune it to send you where you want, too.

 

[Checkmate]

Let's put it this way.

If you have the capabilities to produce FTL speeds of that magnitude -- we're talking faster than anything ever seen in Trek; effectively being able to be anywhere in the universe in the blink of an eye with pin point accuracy -- time travel would be a far distant secondary concern and development from that technology. And considering it's a technology you'd have to develop first (otherwise you do wind up in the vacuum of space or worse even with a minimal time jump), it's pretty goofy every single time it's portrayed that way.

Doesn't mean I don't enjoy time travel stories. But trying to argue that it's not completely illogical and, arguably, the largest hurdle to overcome for building a time machine is pretty silly.

 

[ProtoAvatar]

Let's put it this way.

If you have the capabilities to produce FTL speeds of that magnitude -- we're talking faster than anything ever seen in Trek; effectively being able to be anywhere in the universe in the blink of an eye with pin point accuracy -- time travel would be a far distant secondary concern and development from that technology. And considering it's a technology you'd have to develop first (otherwise you do wind up in the vacuum of space or worse even with a minimal time jump), it's pretty goofy every single time it's portrayed that way.

Doesn't mean I don't enjoy time travel stories. But trying to argue that it's not completely illogical and, arguably, the largest hurdle to overcome for building a time machine is pretty silly.

Checkmate, as I said, time travel into the past IMPLIES FTL speeds of such magnitude; when you reach your destination, you simply travel back in time to the moment you started your journey.

You see, "being able to be anywhere in the universe in the blink of an eye with pin point accuracy" is a "far distant secondary concern and development from" time travel technology, NOT the other way around.