How do you time travel to the future in real life?

The Unremarkable, Unstoppable Journey: Time Travel to the Future

Were all time travelers. Not in the flashy, wormhole-jumping, paradoxes-creating sense of science fiction, but in a far more mundane, yet undeniably real way. Every second that ticks by propels us inexorably into the future, at a consistent rate of one second per second. This might seem anticlimactic, a far cry from the exciting narratives dominating popular culture, but its the fundamental truth of our temporal existence.

While the notion of leaping decades or centuries ahead remains firmly in the realm of fantasy (for now), subtle variations in the experience of time, dictated by the principles of Einsteins theory of special and general relativity, allow for a minuscule, but demonstrably real, acceleration of our journey into the future. These variations, however, arent about hopping into a time machine; theyre about manipulating the very fabric of spacetime itself, albeit in incredibly small ways.

Special relativity, arguably the most famous element of Einsteins work, introduces the concept of time dilation. This principle states that time passes slower for objects moving at high speeds relative to a stationary observer. The faster an object moves, the slower time passes for it compared to a slower-moving or stationary observer. The effect is minuscule at everyday speeds, utterly imperceptible to our senses. Driving a car, flying on a plane, even orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station – these activities result in only the tiniest fraction of a seconds difference in time experienced compared to a person on the ground.

To significantly alter the passage of time through speed would require velocities approaching the speed of light. At such speeds, the time dilation effect becomes pronounced. Imagine a spacecraft traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of light for a prolonged period. For the astronauts on board, the journey might feel like a few years, but upon returning to Earth, they would find that significantly more time had elapsed for those who remained behind. This is not science fiction; its a well-established and experimentally verified prediction of relativity. Atomic clocks flown on high-speed jets have confirmed this time dilation, although the differences were incredibly small.

General relativity adds another layer of complexity. It postulates that time is affected by gravity; stronger gravitational fields cause time to slow down. This means that time passes slightly slower at sea level than it does on a mountaintop. Again, the difference is minuscule, far too small to be noticed in daily life. However, the effect is more significant in environments with extremely strong gravitational fields, such as those found near black holes. Near such celestial behemoths, the difference in the passage of time between an observer far away and one closer to the black hole could be substantial.

So, how do we time travel to the future in real life? We do it constantly, at a rate of one second per second. While we cannot currently manipulate the effects of special and general relativity to achieve dramatic leaps into the future, we subtly and continuously experience these relativistic effects, slowly but surely moving forward in time, our personal clocks ticking ever so slightly faster or slower depending on our speed and proximity to gravitational forces. The futuristic journey is always underway, even if its a journey we undertake without fanfare, one second at a time.