Credits and Contact Information
In the spring semesters, 2004-2008, I (John Carroll) taught an honors seminar on the philosophical paradoxes of time travel at NC State University. As part of their course work, students were sometimes given the option to create a web page exploring one of the issues central to the course. The goal was that over time, through their work and with guidance from me, we would create a website on time travel. The thought was that such a website would be of use to students who take the honors seminar (or my metaphysics course) and also be of interest to philosophically curious websurfers. In the Fall of 2005, a small group of honors students began making the website a reality, drawing from some of the best webpages created in the earlier classes. In the Spring of 2007, another small group of students continued to develop the site. In Spring and Summer, 2008, still more work was done.
All the students in all these classes have contributed either through their work on their projects or through participation in the class discussions. To date, special credit is due Allyson Hutchinson for bringing together the original layout for the site, the introductory page, and the pages on the self-visitation paradox, the physics of forward time travel, the nowhere argument and the grandfather paradox. Jason Wong's class project on the physics of forward time travel required very little revision before including it in the site. Ian Willard helped on the layout and put substantial work into the page on the nowhere argument. Jennifer Carter drafted the introductory page drawing from Hayley Dawson's class project. Projects by Kayde Little (Grandfather), Matthew Rakow (Grandfather), Nathan Price (Self-Visitation), Christopher Nattkemper (Self-Visitation), Kelsey Ryan (Nowhere), and Catherine Gensel (Nowhere) provided the foundation for these various topic pages
Sam Harward put together several drafts of the page on multidimensional time. Sam also worked closely with me in my attempt to enrich Meiland's model of multidimensional time. Alex Belt added the animation to the multidimensional time page and the section on whether time travel in multidimensional time is truly time travel. Caroline Bateman drafted the More-Sites page and the Must-See-Movies page. Sam, Allyson, and Diana Tysinger were all recent and valuable consultants on all aspects of the website. Tyler Barry (Multidimensional), and Korey Hite (Multidimensional) provided the foundation for these topic pages.
There was a homework exercise on double occupancy assigned in Spring 2008 about how to understand a passage in Le Poidevin’s paper, a passage that I found difficult. One of the best class discussions I have ever been part of led to projects on double occupancy by Daniel Ellis, Daniel Farrell, David Fenwick, Supun Koralalage, Jennifer Leaf, Brandon Moore, and Jeffrey Vohlers; several with helpful animated graphs, several with excellent text. Some suggested a novel and plausible solution to the problem at hand. Among those doing the very best projects on double occupancy, Daniel Ellis and Brandon Moore had the time and interest to work with me during the summer of 2008 to produce the current page. I did much more writing on this page than on any of the others. Daniel, Brandon and I are considering conferences or other outlets for dissemination of this work. Alex Belt’s technical work was a huge help on the current animations.
Scott Watkins, formerly of NC State's Learning Technology Service and a former metaphysics student, is responsible for the current layout of the site, and is currently our official web guru. He has been incredibly generous with his web knowledge and abilities, as well as contributing much philosophical insight in discussions with me and others, especially on multidimensional time. Lisa Fiedor, currently of Learning Technology Service at NC State, has been a source of advice on web-related matters almost from the start of the project. Ann Rives and Ken Peters have provided proof reading and fun chats about the site; any lingering typos are my fault for fussing with stuff after they cleaned up this draft.
Movie poster images came from impawards.com, and the clock image in the banner was obtained from commons.wikimedia.org. All animations are original contributions to this site.
To cite a page from this website, use the following format, replacing "page title" with the title of the appropriate page:
"Page Title." A Time Travel Website. December 5, 2008. Ed. John W. Carroll. <http://www4.ncsu.edu/~carroll/time_travel/pagetitle.html>.
Example:
"The Double-Occupancy Problem." A Time Travel Website. November 29, 2008. Ed. John W. Carroll. <http://www4.ncsu.edu/~carroll/time_travel/double.html>.
The website is a largely a work by my students. I have been closely involved by virtue of being the one to expose the students to the metaphysics of time travel, by virtue of providing substantial editorial guidance, and by writing with them as some of the pages have become more ambitious. I think you will find that it is extraordinary work. As I said about another student-created resource on time travel, I recommend the website to other philosophy students, to professional philosophers looking for a class resource, and to anyone who just enjoys thinking carefully about time travel.
I hold the copyright and take responsibility for any errors, philosophical or otherwise. This seemed the most appropriate approach given my role in the development of the website and that the web authors move on and new ones join in. It was made clear at the outset to all concerned that, in the event that there is the opportunity for money to be made from the website, I would see to it that any proceeds would be directed back to NC State University in some manner that directly benefits students. You are welcome to recommend this website to others but I ask that the site only be used for academic purposes. We welcome comments and criticisms.
Enjoy!
John
John W. Carroll, Professor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy and Religion
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8103
carroll@unity.ncsu.edu