Albert Einstein

All of a sudden the physics of spacetime has become the main thing on everyones’ minds. It is worded differently in each case, but it always boils down to something like this: “If only I could break the space-time continuum by a few hours, I could see the winning numbers in time to play them.”

Perhaps you literally want a crystal ball for viewing, or maybe you’ll just pay a psychic. I figure any psychic who saw the numbers wouldn’t sell them for a few bucks, so even if the idea of a psychic makes sense, the “PLOTLINE” loses believability. Some people make deals with their deity, some with their devil. And some just wish that they could violate the “Prime Directive” long enough to use advanced technology to win the lottery. The winnings could then be used to fund the research to develop the advanced technology in the first place. Now that makes sense!

There are really three fascinating questions raised by all of this. The first is one for the Professor, “Is it possible to travel through time, or at least to send a message back a few hours?” The other two questions fascinate the professor, for they are about intriguing aspects of human nature. Why do people need to convince themselves that there are special ways around the sheer-chance aspect of buying a ticket, and why do people focus on such materialistic wealth to begin with?

Einstein would appreciate the freedom a large reserve of cash would provide. With it one could do their thinking without having to waste tiime in order to feed their stomachs, and without having to be beholden to a benefactor. However, 355 Million dollars goes a bit beyond this. You could buy a lot of things to complicate your life, which would detract from the truest joy, intellectual discovery. In the end it becomes so much to live with and so little to live for. The Professor reminded me, “The banal goals of human strivings–possesions, superficial success, luxury — have always seemed contemptible to me.” I pointed out that most people not only can’t soar to the heights of intellectual discovery he routinely experienced, few can even grasp the joy of it. I added that many people judge themselves by their success, and success is most often defined by money. In a certain way, winning 355 Million justifies their existence as valuable people. Of course Albert retorted that I should tell them “Try to become not a man of success, but a man of value.”

Well 355 million is a lot of value. And there might be a connection between this and the answer to the next question. 100s of miliions of people buy tickets and pray to god to win, then by chance, sooner or later, someone wins. He or she now not only has money, to him/her this is now proof of god’s love. They have value to god! Their winning is also proof of god’s existence. The 100s of millions of losers somehow don’t prove god doesn’t exist, nor does this indicate they aren’t each God’s one and only favorite.

If God wants to use the lottery to prove God exists, God should simply arrange just once for eveybody who asks for divine intervention to win. Of course then every ticket would pay back less than it cost and God would have a lot of disgruntled believers to deal with.

As for the big question, the physics of it all. Time is an illusion, but it saves us from the confusion of having everything happen at once. Time is a physical dimension similar to the other 3 obvious spatial dimensions, and although we can’t steer through it as directly, there is no reason it can’t be travelled any which way. In that sense it is possible. On the other hand, is there any way that actually could work? There are many possibilities, and many reasons that might prevent each, or at least make each highly impractical. In that sense, it might be impossible. I’d continue, but it’s time to see if my own attempt at bridging the gap by a few hours has paid off…