Physicists invent flux capacitor

[Doctor Q]

Who could resist a headline like this one from last week?

Physicists invent flux capacitor to break time-reversal symmetry​

Here's a further explanation.

Unfortunately, these results from researchers in Australia and Switzerland are about the property of T-symmetry, not about time travel. Still, it's one more step on the road to practical quantum computing.

 

[Reverend Benny]

Great Scott!

 

[Goatllama]

This is very cool. Thank you for sharing!

 

[scottrngr]

Did they fall and hit their head on the toilet when they discovered this?

 

[GGJstudios]

Did they fall and hit their head on the toilet when they discovered this?

If they did, that would explain why it didn't work for time travel. For it to work, they should have been standing on a toilet, hanging a clock, and then fall and hit their head on a sink.

 

[borgranta]

It is only a matter of time.

 

[dirtylilhobo]

I think they’re outta time..

 

[Doctor Q]

It is only a matter of time.

I think they’re outta time..

This MacRumors discussion put those theories to the test.

 

[PracticalMac]

Whoa. This is heavy.

 

[GGJstudios]

Whoa. This is heavy.

There's that word again. "Heavy." Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?

 

[960design]

I noticed Buckaroo Banzai's jet truck had a flux capacitor years before Back to the Future's Delorian. How about that for time travel?

 

[GGJstudios]

I noticed Buckaroo Banzai's jet truck had a flux capacitor years before Back to the Future's Delorian. How about that for time travel?

Are you sure you're not thinking about the oscillation overthruster, which was used for moving though solid matter? Banzai and Dr. Hikita were not involved with a flux capacitor or time travel.

 

[960design]

Are you sure you're not thinking about the oscillation overthruster, which was used for moving though solid matter? Banzai and Dr. Hikita were not involved with a flux capacitor or time travel.

Yes! In Banzai it was called the oscillation overthruster. In Back to the Future it was the flux capacitor. Same device, different functionality. In line with the 'flux capacitor' the scientist quoted by the OP, same device different functionality.

The time travel part was the flux capacitor making it to an earlier vehicle in the same spot. A bit of a nod to BB from the director of Back to the Future, I would imagine.

 

[GGJstudios]

A bit of a nod to BB from the director of Back to the Future, I would imagine.

You're absolutely correct! Neil Canton was a producer and Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown) was an actor in both films. From iMDB:

Producer Neil Canton offered the role of Doc Brown to Christopher Lloyd after having worked together on The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984). Lloyd originally turned it down, but changed his mind after his wife convinced him to take the role. He improvised some of his lines.

Interesting!

 

[Doctor Q]

It is only a matter of time.

Here's another mind-bending news story:

Reversing cause and effect is no trouble for quantum computers​

Modelling a system when time is running backwards is like trying to infer a cause from an effect. We are used to finding that more difficult than predicting an effect from a cause. In everyday life, understanding what will happen next is easier if you know what just happened, and what happened before that.

James Crutchfield and John Mahoney teamed up with the CQT researchers to find out whether quantum mechanics changes the situation. They found that it did. A quantum model forced to emulate the process in reverse-time will always outperform a classical model modelling the process in forward-time.​

I'm sorry that I didn't report this news to you before it happened but, being a non-quantum person, I was stuck in forward-moving time.

 

[960design]

I'm sorry that I didn't report this news to you before it happened but, being a non-quantum person, I was stuck in forward-moving time.

Epic

 

[Randall2018]

Here's another mind-bending news story:

Reversing cause and effect is no trouble for quantum computers​

Modelling a system when time is running backwards is like trying to infer a cause from an effect. We are used to finding that more difficult than predicting an effect from a cause. In everyday life, understanding what will happen next is easier if you know what just happened, and what happened before that.

James Crutchfield and John Mahoney teamed up with the CQT researchers to find out whether quantum mechanics changes the situation. They found that it did. A quantum model forced to emulate the process in reverse-time will always outperform a classical model modelling the process in forward-time.​

I'm sorry that I didn't report this news to you before it happened but, being a non-quantum person, I was stuck in forward-moving time.

Well that’s pretty cool

 

[Ivabign]

If they did, that would explain why it didn't work for time travel. For it to work, they should have been standing on a toilet, hanging a clock, and then fall and hit their head on a sink.

That already happened - we are just waiting for the money to be spent to realize the dream!

 

[blkjedi954]

There's that word again. "Heavy." Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?

Earth doesn’t pull, it warps space time and you are inclined to move to earths center do to such curvature...

 

[GGJstudios]

Earth doesn’t pull, it warps space time and you are inclined to move to earths center do to such curvature...

That sounds like a warped point of view!