Time Travel with Lasers

[Wolfgang]

This is not a discussion on whether or not such a thing is possible, so save such comments for your own seperate topic.

We have a chamber of gas which makes light that travels through it to move faster then normal. On one side of the chamber, we have a tigger. On the other side, we have a laser gun.

If the laser is shot, it will reach the trigger before it was pressed and destroy it. So... if we shoot the laser gun to destroy the trigger, what will happen? Will the gun never fire? Will both the destruction of the trigger and the firing of the gun happen? Have fun and explain your conclusions.

 

[Grathea]

Err, no it won't.
Sure, light moves faster through certain substances. But it's still NOT INSTANTANEOUS - it still moves at a finite speed which limits it, albeit a speed somewhat faster than that which we normally see it move at.
So, in answer to your question - yes, the gun will fire. Fast as light may be, it still doesn't take negative time to travel somewhere - that's just silly.
I think you're making a mistake and mixing up relativity and time travel.

 

[mawk]

this was locked before the server move on the grounds that "hypothetical paradoxes =/= debate" or something like that, and I agree.

if you want to bring up the subject of a grandfather paradox, just use the grandfather paradox itself. far as anyone's aware, a laser can't cross a given distance in a negative amount of time, so it's not like it's any more feasible than going into the past and killing your grandfather before your father's conceived.

still wouldn't be good symposium material, though.