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| Doctor Who's Tardis from the hit show |
Stephen Hawking claims time travel is impossible. Since then, scientists alike explore time travel’s many facets and discover more to time travel than traveling from one point in time to another. When our mind travels from one place to another, or when we daydream, our minds displace with time. Though imaginative, it can be said that this is a way one travels through time. Doctor Who, television’s most celebrated time traveling show, stretches millions’ minds when one pushes possible limits. Though Doctor Who cannot support the theory of time travel itself, the BBC’s ability to play with the possibilities encourages mankind to do the same whether in science, art or individuals’ goals. Curiosity in something we know little about inspires others to discover new opportunities, for not accepting time travel as true but challenging it influences mankind’s motivation and intellect.
Phil Dowe’s curiosity led him to understand time travel’s possibilities, which suggests that pushing the scientific limits caters to the mind’s creativity. He argues that though he has not seen someone travel from one point in their life to another, it is possible to travel between places when we daydream or dream during the night (1). Similarly, the producers of Doctor Who looked towards curiosity to stretch science’s limits. In the show, they created a new time travel world for the doctor himself, and the audience absorbs this imagination and saves it for later (2). Through his own curiosity and research, Dowe was able to create something that everyone assumed false as a possibility. Whether there is evidence or not, both Doctor Who and Dowe have not proved Hawking’s theory false but rather added onto the possibilities of a scientific advancement that was always considered false. The additions and specializations of knowledge increase the intelligence of our world, and it starts with curiosity.
Peter Riggs denies entertainment the ability to play with the theories of time travel because he proclaims it isn’t possible, and allowing mankind to think it exists is a disservice. The disservice gives false hope, and this in turn is not helpful or efficient for movement forward. His argument parallels the Grandfather Paradox; if a person could time travel, they could go back in time and kill their younger self. They currently exist though, so how would they have killed themselves (4)? He accepted this paradox as true, and thus does not allow any interpretations of it. While thinking about this abstract concept, he disapproves anyone, including the producers of Doctor Who, who allow other to think of time travel as a possibility in our lifestyles because any mention of it is “not taken seriously” and “somewhat bizarre” (4). The Nature article suggests that though evidence does not currently exist, seeing science bent and warped facilitates new scientific advances, so seeing them in the media is in fact beneficial.
If a man is brave enough to challenge the laws of science, his influence will be seen not just in the sciences of the future, but the arts, humanities and the history books. Time travel’s exploration has already been seen in the arts such as Doctor Who and The Time Traveler’s Wife, but this arsenal will continue to grow. Without looking at scientific advances from another angle, everything we currently know will be the only information in the world. When Phil Dowe thought of spatial travel as a form of time travel, it was a new theory in the science world, but his works have been seen in the arts, humanities and now the history books. Peter Riggs was no doubt recognized for his work in the sciences, but he simply gave his own reasoning for a theory that has already existed. When one challenges something so passionately, the result is seen, understood and absorbed in multiple mediums of relative education.
Interest in time travel has facilitated the introduction of new scientific theories not just in the science world but the arts and humanities. Without challenging theories that mankind has previously understood as false, we wouldn’t see the overlap of arts and humanities like we see in Doctor Who. It is men like Phil Dowe who defy odds and inspire others to do the same that we learn how everything fits together.
1. Dowe, Phil. "The Case for Time Travel." Journals.cambridge.org. N.p., 8 Sept. 2000. Web. 03 Feb. 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3751943
2. Lewis, Davis. "The Paradoxes of Time Travel." JSTOR.com. University of Illinois Press, n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20009616
3. "Playful Paradoxes." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 3 Feb. 2014. http://www.nature.com/news/playful-paradoxes-1.14046
4. Riggs, Peter J. "The Principal Paradox of Time Travel." - Riggs. Wiley Online Library, 17 Dec. 2002. Web. 03 Feb. 2014. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/1467-9329.00026/asset/1467-9329.00026.pdf;jsessionid=B33C72042A1B1883A8E37210B48D78F3.f04t03?v=1&t=hsxfygfd&s=f10aed05dd0a7280fe28d399a7666108e4174924
5. Suddendorf, Thomas, and Michael C. Corballis. "Mental Time Travel and the Evolution of the Human Mind." Cogprints.org. N.p., 11 Mar. 2011. Web. 03 Feb. 2014. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9204544
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