at least I'd be stuck in London in the 70s
as opposed to alone on an island in the late 1700s
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 15:56, 2 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

if you went to the future, there would probably
be time machine repair shops
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 15:57, Reply)

my friend once upset me by pointing out that if anyone had ever invented a time travel machine
then we would know about it because they would have come back and told us.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 15:58, Reply)

not necessarily
there is a possiblility that any time machine could only work during the time of it's own existence (like Sam Becket only traveling in his own lifetime.

Alternatively, you could argue that they have taken a non interference policy and/or anyone who said they time traveled has been sectioned
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 16:01, Reply)

Or you could need another time machine,
Like a receiver. It could be a bit like a telephone. Pointless until someone else has one as well.
(Applebite Uh! A cow!, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 16:06, Reply)

If you invent one
then it exists in all times afterwards and would therefore be the receiver/sender

Some guy called Mallet was trying to make one with lasers or something. There was the outside chance that when he turned it on, he would get a 'message' from the future
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 16:08, Reply)

This is making my head hurt now.
But you wouldn't be able to come back to a time when there were none, which is why no one has turned up from the future to show off their new time machine.

That's terrifying! I take it he didn't manage it?
(Applebite Uh! A cow!, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 16:14, Reply)

i don't know
the theory went that he could send individual atoms, not sure it's a finished project, yet
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 16:17, Reply)

this is why time travel on TV shows
makes me angry, it always raises more questions than it answers. Especially when the TV show is Futurama.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 16:17, Reply)

well a lot of it depends on how you understand (or represent in fiction) time itself

( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 16:18, Reply)

that's true
I wouldn't believe anyone who said that
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 16:14, Reply)

if I had a time machine
I wouldn't go round telling everyone. that'd spoil the fun.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 16:07, Reply)

yeah I really didn't think that through

( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 15:57, Reply)