• Question: if you had the opitunity to invent something what would it be ?

    Asked by marylou123 to Susan, Simon, Rachel, Lou, Dilwar on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Simon Langley-Evans

      Simon Langley-Evans answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      I would want to invent a time machine. I would use it to jump forward a short way and find out what new cures and understanding of disease have come about and then I would come back and invent them and change the world.

    • Photo: Louise Brown

      Louise Brown answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      A watch to stop time! Then I would get everything I need to do done for the day, and I’d also use it to have a little nap when I got tired!

    • Photo: Susan Skelton

      Susan Skelton answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      I would invent a super-fast spacecraft to allow us to visit other planets and learn about space. We might even find some little green friends (or enemies?!) out there….

      If we ever destroy our planet, we would have a way to move humankind to a new home on a new planet.

    • Photo: Rachel Dakin

      Rachel Dakin answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      I would invent a teleporter. I love the idea of popping to NYC for lunch and Hong Kong for dinner! It’d also mean I could have dinner with my family without travelling 4 hours each way on the train : )
      It’d also be great for science we could work with labs all around the world so easily and that would hopefully mean we’d discover new things quicker.

Comments

  • Photo: Susan

    Susan commented on :

    @Simon:
    If you would use your time machine to travel to the future to find out about the new cures, and then take the ideas back to the present to invent them, who would have invented them in the first place for you to copy the ideas from? The cures must only have existed in the future because you already invented them in the past…?? 😉

    Time travel is so confusing and makes my head hurt trying to think about the possibilities – but it’s so cool!

  • Photo: Simon

    Simon commented on :

    @Lou

    I love the idea of that watch. If only I couldn’t invent one… I wouldn’t let anyone else have a go and would make some major mischief.

  • Photo: Simon

    Simon commented on :

    @Susan
    The paradox of time travel. I think that it is almost certainly impossible in the sense that we imagine it, partly because of these paradoxes. You can let me dream though, please 😉

  • Photo: Susan

    Susan commented on :

    Dream away, Simon – it’s your invention! 😉

    I do love these thought experiments where we can think what the consequences of something like time travel might be. They are great to do because you don’t need any fancy equipment to do it – just your brain and a few minutes to think!

    Do any students have any ideas of good or bad things that might happen if we could go forward or backwards in time?