Quotation? (time travel's strongest counterargument)

Tue Sep 10 23:32:44 UTC 2013

Chi Trib has an isolated quotation credited to Hawking in 1992 with no
information about where or when it was said or written.

Date: Jan 28, 1992
Newspaper: Chicago Tribune
Article: EVENING. People. QUOTES OF THE DAY.
Database: ProQuest

[Begin excerpt]
ENGLISH PHYSICIST STEPHEN HAWKING: "The best evidence we have that
time travel is not possible, and never will be, is that we have not
been invaded by hordes of tourists from the future."
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 6:51 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Quotation? (time travel's strongest counterargument)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A news report in Science suggests that a version of the quotation
> about future tourists might have appeared in Hawking's paper on the
> "Chronology protection conjecture" in 1992 which was published in
> Physics Review D, I think. But I cannot download the paper to check.
> (See cite further below.)
>
> Alternatively, the quotation appeared in a draft of the paper, or
> Hawking may have simply spoken the words.
>
> If someone reading this message is interested and can access the paper
> I think it is worth checking.
>
> Note that 1992 is after "Brief History of Time" was first published.
>
> Journal: Science
> Date: Apr. 10, 1992
> Title: Could a Pair of Cosmic Strings Open a Route Into the Past?
> Author: John Travis
> Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science
> Datebase: JSTOR
> http://www.jstor.org/stable/2876979
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> In an effort to prohibit time machines of any design, Hawking  has
> just  completed a manuscript, called "The Chronology Protection
> Conjecture," arguing that the laws of physics forbid closed timelike
> curves. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Hawking cites as "strong empirical
> evidence" for his conjecture the fact that "we have not been invaded
> by hordes of tourists from the future."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Here is the cite for the Chronology protection conjecture
>
> Chronology protection conjecture
> Phys. Rev. D 46, 603–611 (1992)
> http://prd.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v46/i2/p603_1
>
> On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 6:17 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Quotation? (time travel's strongest counterargument)
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Here are some raw GB matches that show a quotation Hawking may have
>> written or said. But I haven't found solid evidence yet:
>>
>> Engineering & Science - Volume 55 - Page 21
>> books.google.com/books?id=kylIAQAAIAAJ
>> 1991 - Snippet view - More editions
>> But the best evidence we have that time travel is not possible and
>> never will be, is that we have not been invaded by hordes of tourists
>> from the future. means that a tiny change in the initial situation can
>> lead to change in the subsequent ...
>>
>> Nonlinear problems in relativity and cosmology - Page 184
>> books.google.com/books?id=HJhFAAAAYAAJ
>> J. Robert Buchler, Steven Detweiler, James R. Ipser - 1991 -
>> Snippet view - More editions
>> ... of physics will always prevent the creation of CTCs.5 He has also
>> suggested (half facetiously) that "there is strong experimental
>> evidence in favour of this conjecture in the fact we have not been
>> invaded by hordes of tourists from the future."
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 5:34 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
>> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: Quotation? (time travel's strongest counterargument)
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Joel: Here is a preliminary comment. This is an old question/paradox
>>> in science fiction. But finding the matching phrasing might be
>>> difficult.
>>>
>>> The quotation is not mentioned on the main Wikiquote page for Hawking
>>> (nor the Talk page). However, the excerpt below could be transformed
>>> into the quotation.
>>>
>>> Title: A Brief History of Time
>>> Author: Stephen Hawking
>>> Date: 1998, First published in 1988
>>>
>>> http://books.google.com/books?id=oZhagX6UWOMC&q=overrun#v=snippet&
>>>
>>> [Begin excerpt]
>>> This might explain why we have not yet been overrun by tourists from
>>> the future, but it would not avoid the problems that would arise if
>>> one were able to go back and change history.
>>> [End excerpt]
>>>
>>> Here is an instance where the quotation was attributed to Hawking by 2004
>>>
>>> Peridocal: Popular Science
>>> Date: Feb 2004
>>>
>>> http://books.google.com/books?id=rdCPa_yGqF0C&q=overrun#v=snippet&
>>>
>>> [Begin excerpt]
>>> His most famous science-fiction-writer-befuddling question: If time
>>> travel is possible, why haven't we been overrun by tourists from the
>>> future?
>>> [End excerpt]
>>>
>>> Garson
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 4:51 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>>> Subject:      Quotation? (time travel's strongest counterargument)
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> I apologize for asking the list -- I don't do quotations, and don't
>>>> own the reference books.
>>>>
>>>> Who first said "if time travel were possible, we would have been
>>>> overrun by tourists from the future by now."  Stephen Hawking, or someone else?
>>>>
>>>> Joel
>>>>
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>>>
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>
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