leckert said:
Proven by theories. Not by emperical data.
Now I wish I remember where the heck it is, but I'm pretty sure it was either BBC or CNN.
There was an experiment using two atomic clocks and a supersonic jet. One clock is aboard the jet, and the other grounded. The jet travelled around the world twice in supersonic speed, and when it came back, the clock on the jet is xxxxth-seconds *slower* than the one that's stationary.
This is consistent with Einstein's theory of relativity - time moves slower in a moving object when observed from a stationary point (I know I'm simplifying things a little, but this is a forum post, and my car is nearly finished with its servicing, so I need to go soon).
Now we know supersonic jets are *nowhere* near the speed of light. Given what we have, and since there is a time difference in time after the experiment, all one needs to do an extrapolate it to lightspeed to imagine what will happen.
When we achieve lightspeed, it may be possible to stay inside a lightspeed vehicle, use it to travel in stupendous speeds for maybe a year, and step out from the vehicle to find the world thousands of years in the future from whence we left.
Now let's repeat after me: CONJECTURE!!!
ds