Time Becomes A Loop

Finally...I finished reading the book "Time Traveller" by Dr. Ron Mallett. I'm not a theoretical physicist, and I don't pretend to know the faintest about theoretical physics, quantum physics, or Einstein's general and specific theories of relativity. However, Dr. Mallett is a renowned theoretical physicist and full professor at the University of Connecticut. I became interested in him and his book after hearing about his story on the weekly NPR radio show, "This American Life" (which, if you've never heard, you really need to check it out - it's available as a free weekly podcast on iTunes). The story, in a nutshell, goes like this. In 1955, Dr. Mallett was 12 years old and his father suddenly died from a massive heart attack. His father was a great teacher, friend, and mentor to young Ron and the death greatly impacted his life, almost for the worst. Almost, that is, until one day he picked a comic book version of H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine". From that point on he was determined, no driven, to one day build a time machine so that he could travel back prior to that fateful day in 1955 and warn his father of his impending doom so that he could make provisions in his health to prevent it. This story, all of it true, is about Dr. Mallett's climb up the academic ladder, enduring racial prejudice (he's African-American) and self-doubt and depression along the way. It is also an explanation, in layman's terms, of the theories of relativity and universal forces and how, theoretically, they make time travel into the past a very real potential reality. All of this is totally captivating and has gotten me thinking about things on a much broader spectrum lately. So much that the next book I want to dive into is Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", which I thought I would never have the patience or will to read. At the present time, Dr. Mallett is collaborating with an experimental physicist to create a rudimentary time machine that will be able to transmit communications through time. From my understanding of his explanation of everything, time travel will only be possible into the past, and it will be possible to only transmit signals (and maybe eventually physical matter when they can build a large enough mechanism) to a point in time no sooner than when the unit is turned on. So, for example, if we had a time machine built today, May 26, 2008, which has the capacity to transmit humans, people in the future would only be able to travel as far back into the past as today. Wrap your mind around that one, will ya!

In a related story, I finally got around to watching "The Last Mimzy" today which I tivoed back in February. It is about time travel, in a way, in that a future generation of earthlings transmits a highly-developed artificial life form in the shape of a small stuffed bunny back in time in the hopes of obtaining some shred of human goodness to bring back to the future to save mankind. From what, it never really elaborates on. In the process, the story's heroes a little girl and her slightly older brother gain supernatural powers from the bunny, Mimzy, along with a host of other cool "toys" that were sent from the future. The story has such a great concept, which really showed so much promise in the first half of the film, but just totally runs out of steam by the end. It could have been so much more than it was in terms of story and character development. Even some of the dialogue was awkward and overacted. This is one of those movies that I really, really wanted to like, but ended up being a real disappointment. If only they could take it back and redo it! ...That's what time machines are for, right?

I have some other news that I'm not sure is appropriate to post on my blog, but I'm still trying to figure out how to handle it mentally and emotionally so maybe it's best if I talk about it. My uncle and cousin, on my dad's side, who live in Nurenberg, Germany were vacationing in Italy last week with my aunt and my cousin's wife. My cousin (41yo) went swimming in the ocean, got caught in a riptide, panicked and called to my uncle for help. My uncle swam to him in an attempt to save him and both ended up drowning. Somehow, it still doesn't seem like it's true to me. Especially since my cousin is a body builder - he won in his weight class at the 1998 Mr. Universe. It just doesn't make sense. I'm contemplating whether or not I should fly to Nurenberg to be with family. My mom thinks it would be best to wait until later after the funeral when my aunt will be in a little bit more of a state of mind to accept visitors. I haven't seen her since my dental school graduation in 1996. Not sure what to do.