Poll: The Time Travel Parardox

[Cocamaster]

Answer #1 is called the Novikov self-consistency principle.

Basically, it says time paradoxes can't exist because, in very simple terms any localized changes you made would ether not affect your posibility of time travel (going back in time to place a letter on the moon that won't be discovered until after you return from your trip) or make travel completelly impossible (going back in time with the intent of killing yourself).

Someone mentioned Terminator and the imposibility of the machines to kill John Connor due to this problem. It's even worse than that. The Terminator series EXISTS in a paradox: John Connor only exists because the machines sent a Terminator to prevent his birth.

As for traveling in time being impossible, and only multiverse theory making it possible, that's not quiet right. There a places in OUR universe where time can go backwards; they are called black holes. Also, by bending space you can effectivelly travel back in time, too.

 

[Macgyvercas]

I say Theory 2 as it sounds much like the "Back to the Future" logic

Also sounds like Doctor Who logic.

OPTION 2 FTW!

 

[grimsprice]

I'm pretty sure the universe is self-correcting. You could try to go back in time and kill yourself, but you would fail, because you would be stuck in an infinite loop of alive and dead. Since the universe doesn't allow a Schroedinger's Cat-esque existence, you wouldn't be able to change anything, even if you did, your actions would eventually cause what you were trying to stop in the first place.

I like theory one, makes the most sense. because if you didn't go back in time then you would have never changed the past to make yourself not go back in time which means you do.

What if you went back and killed yourself for the 'change'. Would you find it impossible, would you keep failing, what if you brought a nuke capable of blowing up the earth, would it break? There are things you can do that would change the future no matter what. How do you explain what happens then?

Killing your past self is no different from suicide. Therefore, if you are having suicidal thoughts, and then endeavor to kill yourself, you are still going back in time to cause your suicide in the first place, which is still in-line with your original intent. See? The universe is self-correcting.

Congratulations, you psycho-analysed a person who goes back in time. You still haven't actually said what happens when you kill your past self, or any of your 'true' ancestors (I said true to keep you from saying that maybe that wasn't your ancestor).

 

[martianman]

My theory #4 is that time travel is only possible by physically(or otherwise) moving all particles of matter and photons of energy (and such) back to the states that they occupied at the time you wish to go to (except of course yourself). It is a truly herculean task, but it results in no paradox, no alternate universe, and no split timeline (in reality, you didn't really go back in time, you just made back in time happen again)

My #5 is that there are an infinite number of parallel universes, some of which are our universe, except in a state that existed however long ago you desire. Time travel would be simply inserting yourself into one of these universes.

Yes, I agree with this as an alternate to 2.

 

[Cargando]

It is wrong to think of time as a straight line, using an analogy put put forward by Stephen Hawking, think of it like a railway complete with sidings, parts that double back and dead ends.

If you kill your father, the past will stay the same, but your father will still be dead in the future.

 

[hermes]

well, interestingly, i am more of the "Dragon Ball Z" view, where you can travel back, you can change things, but if you go forth again you end up in "your" future, where you never went back, creating 2 separate versions of your universe

Yeah... That one is the least confusing one. The other ones had some nasty ways of dealing with the grandfather paradox. Alfred Bester wrote a story called "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" with a similar theory.

According to that story, each thing in the universe has his own timeline, meaning that if you go back in time and killed your own parent, the only thing that would be affected are your atoms, and the rest of the universe (or at least, a relatively small part of it) would remain the same. History would just tell someone go and killed somebody (your father) and the atoms that form your body would rearrange into something else. People that got to do that would exist in some sort of bodyless limbo outside of time.

But, as Hawkings once said... the proof that time-travel is imposible is that we are not overrunned by tourists from the future

 

[HentMas]

But, as Hawkings once said... the proof that time-travel is imposible is that we are not overrunned by tourists from the future

well... if i lived in a future where there are no wars, no hunger and no problems whatsoever, why would i want to go back to a time where wars were still fought and diseases run free??, i would be terrified!

but thats just me!

 

[hermes]

But, as Hawkings once said... the proof that time-travel is imposible is that we are not overrunned by tourists from the future

well... if i lived in a future where there are no wars, no hunger and no problems whatsoever, why would i want to go back to a time where wars were still fought and diseases run free??, i would be terrified!
but thats just me!

Same reason someone would create a theme park full of dinosaurs, or climb the highes mountain in the world: sense of adventure... Don't tell me you wouldn't like to see Pompeya if there were some guarantees for your safety.