But it plays off the growing sense that turning back the clock might be theoretically possible after all.
To wrap the book’s plot in plausibility, Crichton refers to real-life developments in quantum computing, quantum teleportation and cosmology.īoth book and movie downplay the fact that it would take the energy of several galaxies, godlike information-processing power and inconceivably good luck even to begin to do the things described. This time machine works by breaking down an object - say, an actor like “Timeline” heartthrob Paul Walker - into a complete quantum mechanical description, then teleporting that description through a tiny wormhole in the space-time continuum. “If I had a choice between a five-minute lecture on quantum physics and a 3,000-pound horse charging down on someone, I’d choose the horse.”Ĭrichton’s novel, which credits Nahin’s work in its bibliography, provides much more about the physics behind the flashes. “I don’t go to a time-travel movie myself to be educated.
Paul Nahin, a University of New Hampshire engineering professor who literally wrote the book on time travel in physics and popular culture, isn’t surprised that the movie pays relatively scant attention to the scientific details. The technological explanation takes up only a couple of minutes, just as the dino-cloning explanation did in “Jurassic Park.” When the machine revs up, all you see are flashes of light and pained looks on the faces of the time travelers.
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