ESSAY: Compare and contrast Wells's and Einstein's ideas on space and time.

The desire to know what the future holds is not new. From the oracles of ancient Rome to Rip Van Winkle, different cultures seek different venues for "telling" or "exploring" time other than the present. One of the earliest examples where a person was transported through time via a machine was H.G. Wells's The Time Machine in 1895. In this early science fiction novel, the Time Traveller experiences for an extended duration the year 802,701 and briefly travels to the time when the Earth is dying. Scientists today continue to study the concept of time and time travel. Until about 100 years ago most people believed time was absolute and linear; however, Einstein and his successors have shown that time is relative. What difference does this concept of relativity make? Does it support or contradict Wells's idea of time travel?

In order to make these judgments, Wells's proposition for time travel must be clearly defined. In his book, a dinner party among intellectuals provides the scene for which the Time Traveller proselytizes on the idea of time. He presents the idea that time is the fourth dimension, and, just like forward/back, left/right, up/down, one may travel back and forth along the dimension. Even though gravity may pull you down, there are ways in which gravity is defied and upward travel is possible. In the same way, time pulls in a certain way, but it is possible to overcome the pull. Wells's ideas are very Newtonian in the sense that they imply that there is an absolute time. The Time Traveller is able to move back and forth along this continuum, but time cannot be affected or changed by his movement. Wells also makes it clear that movement along length, width, depth, and time can be done independently. The Time Traveller is able to remain in one location in terms of length, width, and depth, while moving along the fourth dimension.

In contrast, Einstein shows that time cannot be separated from space. In fact, time is relative to the motion of the observer. That is, something that is moving will experience a slower time relative to a stationary surrounding; time changes with motion. Furthermore, according to Einstein, time travel could exist. However, unlike Wells, the time traveller would have to move through at least another dimension. What Einstein's theory implies is that a person moving close to the speed of light through space could travel, for example, for a year. When he or she returned to Earth after that year, the people that had remained on Earth would have experienced ten years. In this way, the person would have traveled to the future. However, there is an implication that the time traveller would not be able to return back to the time at which he or she left. Furthermore, in order to travel at such a high speed, a lot of energy would be requiredóan aspect not explored explicitly in The Time Machine. What is only mentioned by the Time Traveller is that the feeling of moving through time is similar to travelling at high speeds and that there are special crystals which provide the means for moving at such a speed. At this present day, however, the idea seems rather impractical.

While Einstein's theory supports the idea of time travel, Wells, writing ten years before Einstein's work was published, bases his prediction on a physics that would soon be drastically reconsidered. Who knows whether a new physics will be able to create a way for future time travellers to visit both the future and the past? Physicists studying wormholes, bridges to a different time and location in the universe, are still working with this present-day mystery. If only we could travel to the future to find out how they finally figure it out!
 
 
 
 

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