OK I'm going nuts over this whole time travel theory thing in all these threads! So I googled Stephen Hawking and got his email address. For everybody's review I have composed this message to him..

"Dr. Hawking,

I have a quick question for you. I know you're a busy man and I don't expect an answer right away or at all so I understand.. The question I have is not exactly in line with real life physics but theroies on time travel that the various writers use in the entertainment business.

I am a fan of this new NBC TV show Heroes.. In this show, we have a man who has the ability to time travel.. Personally I think when you add time travel to anything entertainment you're asking for trouble if it's not done right..

Well back to my question. This time traveler basically was not able to prevent a murder so he goes back in time to save her. From what you know about how Hollywood depicts time travel in their theories, could he actually save this person from being killed?

The members of http://www.9thwonders.com/boards message boards would greatly appreciate your opinion and advice.

By the way you were great on the Simpsons! :-) And I think you'd be an excellent guest star on this show as well. Especially teaching this time traveller how it's done!

Thank you again for your time in this simple matter. Take care.."

You can see I buttered him up a little at the end to see if he responds.. I'll let you all know if he responds and what he says...

Let's put this to rest NOW!

unfortunately, this is not hawking's field of expertise.

He's a physicist isn't he? Why wouldn't he know..

Besides he's smarter than all of us.. It's worth a shot.

this isn't physics. it's quantum physics, technically it's theoretical quantum physics. the man you need to mail is Carl Sagan, but he died in 1996.

Why are we arguing about this? I already sent the message.

If he calls me a ****** I will still post it so everybody can laugh..

Here's his bio:

"Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 (300 years after the death of Galileo) in Oxford, England. His parents' house was in north London, but during the second world war Oxford was considered a safer place to have babies. When he was eight, his family moved to St Albans, a town about 20 miles north of London. At eleven Stephen went to St Albans School, and then on to University College, Oxford, his father's old college. Stephen wanted to do Mathematics, although his father would have preferred medicine. Mathematics was not available at University College, so he did Physics instead. After three years and not very much work he was awarded a first class honours degree in Natural Science.

Stephen then went on to Cambridge to do research in Cosmology, there being no-one working in that area in Oxford at the time. His supervisor was Denis Sciama, although he had hoped to get Fred Hoyle who was working in Cambridge. After gaining his Ph.D. he became first a Research Fellow, and later on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. After leaving the Institute of Astronomy in 1973 Stephen came to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and since 1979 has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. The chair was founded in 1663 with money left in the will of the Reverend Henry Lucas, who had been the Member of Parliament for the University. It was first held by Isaac Barrow, and then in 1669 by Isaac Newton.

Stephen Hawking has worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. With Roger Penrose he showed that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results indicated it was necessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory, the other great Scientific development of the first half of the 20th Century. One consequence of such a unification that he discovered was that black holes should not be completely black, but should emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear. Another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. This would imply that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.

His many publications include The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime with G F R Ellis, General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, with W Israel, and 300 Years of Gravity, with W Israel. Stephen Hawking has three popular books published; his best seller A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays and most recently in 2001, The Universe in a Nutshell. There are .pdf and .ps versions of his full publication list.

Professor Hawking has twelve honorary degrees, was awarded the CBE in 1982, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1989. He is the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes and is a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Stephen Hawking continues to combine family life (he has three children and one grandchild), and his research into theoretical physics together with an extensive programme of travel and public lectures. "

Maybe he's not qualified to flip freaking burgers but it sounds like he can talk on the subject of TV time travel...

i am aware of his work all too well. if you seriously want a response i'll PM you a number.

since the pic change i have no idea what the writers are trying to do.

The reason why I did this was twofold..

One - I'm getting dizzy from reading pages of posts from armchair geniuses and I have no idea of their credentials.. In the words of ando - their talking out their ******.

Two - I'm at work and bored..

None of this is a big deal.. Just something to talk about..

Just in case it comes up, I'm well aware of my intelligence level or lack thereof. I'm a computer guy and know nothing about science. It just seemed like a funny thing to do.

as I said, if he responds and how he responds whether positive or negative I'll post..

But hey if you guys are buddies feel free to drop the question next time you hook up for a nice game of scrabble.. Doesn't matter to me..

I did miss that. My apoligies..

steve2112, you must have missed amolion's announcement that he has a phd in "theoretical quantum theory" with a specific focus on "virtual time travel" (which he proved). He told us he has been a consultant on matters of time travel on various TV shows.

So there is your "expert". Good luck.