Want to travel back in time?  You might be able to – but not in your own timeline.  Excerpt:

If there really are multiple, interacting universes, then it would be possible for time travellers to visit Earth, and every imaginable scenario would be played out in a parallel universe at some point.

The team’s ‘Many Interacting Worlds Theory’ provides a whole new perspective on the ideas underpinning quantum theory, a notoriously complex strand of physics.

Professor Wiseman said: “The idea of parallel universes in quantum mechanics has been around since 1957.

“In the well-known ‘Many-Worlds Interpretation’, each universe branches into a bunch of new universes every time a quantum measurement is made.

“All possibilities are therefore realised – in some universes the dinosaur-killing asteroid missed Earth. In others, Australia was colonised by the Portuguese.

“But critics question the reality of these other universes, since they do not influence our universe at all.

“On this score, our ‘Many Interacting Worlds’ approach is completely different, as its name implies.”

Translating theory into engineering, now that’s the fly in the ointment.  But what if you could make it work?  You could go back in time with no worries about the butterfly effect; the bug you step on in the Oligocene would only affect the future in some other parallel universe, not ours.

So the possibility for a great business opportunity exists – safaris.  Wealthy tyros would pay serious bucks to go back and hunt a bull T-rex, or a Smilodon, or an Imperial Mammoth.  You could go farther afield and offer trips to the Permian to hunt a trophy Gorgonopsid, or a Dimetrodon.

And how about the fishing?  Imagine a great deep-sea adventure fishing for Megalodon.  (You’re gonna need a bigger boat.)

We certainly won’t see this in my lifetime; hell, certainly not in my grandkid’s lifetimes.  But it’s a fun little imagination exercise; see Clifford Slimak’s novel Mastodonia for an example.  Fun stuff.

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