The Art and Science of Time Travel | MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

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Class Information

Mechanics

Fall | Graduate | 12 Units | Prereq: 8.02 and 18.02

Explores time travel and other physical paradoxes—black holes, wormholes, and the multiverse—in the contexts of human narrative and contemporary scientific understanding. Instruction provided in the fundamental science of time travel in relativity and quantum mechanics. Students read and view classic time travel narratives in visual art and in film, and construct their own original time travel narratives. Limited to 20.

Instructor Information

Seth Lloyd (Fall)

Professor

Interest Areas

Quantum information: quantum computation and quantum communications
Quantum control and measurement: quantum limits to control and sensing
Complex systems: characterizing and controlling complex systems

Michele Reilly (Fall)

Lecturer

Interest Areas

Time, causality, and the computational structure of spacetime. Extensions of Shannon's work to quantum communication, cosmology, and error correction.
Development of scalable quantum memories (q-RAM) and engineering input/output systems needed to build full-scale quantum computers.
Physics enabling secure information infrastructure through crypto-secured decentralized data transmission.