Gen. Clark’s goal: Time travel

Proclaiming his “faith” in science, retired Gen. Wesley Clark has revealed his desire for humans to achieve time travel.

The newest candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination told the faithful in New Hampshire over the weekend he wants to work for the day when people will be able to travel faster than the speed of light, Wired News reports.

“We need a vision of how we’re going to move humanity ahead, and then we need to harness science to do it,” Clark told a group of about 50 people in Newcastle, N.H., according to the newssite.

Continued Clark: “I still believe in e=mc?, but I can’t believe that in all of human history, we’ll never ever be able to go beyond the speed of light to reach where we want to go. I happen to believe that mankind can do it ”

Clark claims he has argued with physicists about the probability of time travel, but that despite opposition, he just has to “believe it,” adding, “It’s my only faith-based initiative,” Wired reports.

Gary Melnick, a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told the newssite Clark’s faith in the possibility of faster-than-light, or FTL, travel was “probably based more on his imagination than on physics.”

Evidence suggests FTL travel is impossible, Melnick said.

“Even if Clark becomes president, I doubt it would be within his powers to repeal the powers of physics,” Melnick told Wired.

Clark made the futuristic comments at the end of a question-and-answer session in which he addressed issues of space exploration and NASA.

“Some goals may take a lifetime to reach,” he said, according to the report. “We need to set those goals now. We need to re-dedicate ourselves to science, engineering and technology in this country.”

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Editor’s note: Since publishing the original story in Wired about Clark’s
interest in time travel, the writer of the article, Brian S. McWilliams, has
informed WorldNetDaily his “faulty understanding of physics” led him to
report the candidate hoped to work toward time travel when in fact he
mentioned only the desire to travel faster than the speed of light. While
some experts have said traveling faster than light implies time travel,
Clark did not specifically profess an interest in it.