Poll: The Time Travel Parardox

[Michael S. Azrael]

This conundrum has long been plaguing me, what would happen if I were to time travel and try to alter history. There are three main beliefs about what would happen:

One: If I went back and time and tried to alter something I would fail, as in the future I would have already done this and history aas we know would be the result. Basic the first theory is even if I go back in time there is nothing I can do to change it, as it has already happen and what I have done in an attempt to change it has already been attempted by my future, time traveling self.

Two: If I went back and time and tried to alter something I would succeed, creating a completely new time line and forever altering history.

Three: The Universe would be destory by the improbability of it.

What do you think would happen?

(I know it says paradox in the title, but The Time Travel Paradox sounds alot better than the Thime Travel Conundrum)

 

[Timotei]

And then there is the Time Machine concept which is just silly.

Cookie for reference.

 

[Blackadder51]

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

 

[TeaBaggin]

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.

 

[Ibanez887]

And then there is the Time Machine concept which is just silly.

Cookie for reference.

Is it South Park? I swear I heard it in an episode before
And to the OP, the first one makes the most sense, as time knows all

 

[saxist01]

we'll never travel back in time, otherwise we'd have met these people already. We might POSSIBLY travel to different universes that are currently set in our past. (multi-verse theories) In that case we could change anything we wanted without fear of repercussions.

EDIT: We could travel FORWARD in time.

 

[jpoon]

I picked number 1, just seems like that's the way it would be if the universe didn't implode or something random like that.

 

[grimsprice]

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?

 

[TeaBaggin]

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?

I could try to explain that, but then you would have to explain to my wife why there are chunks of my brain splattered around the room.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

 

[Shadow Law]

All I know is that Time travel is, and forever will be impossible, because Hitler is still in existence.

 

[The_Healer]

Well until we somehow manage to design a time machine, we will never know.

Wouldn't be surprised if in trying we opened a black hole and destroyed earth though. I'm all for off-planet testing.

 

[moose49408]

I ascribe to something along the lines of theory 2. When you alter history, you're not really altering your history. You're creating an entirely separate "universe" with a different Time Line.

All I know is that Time travel is, and forever will be impossible, because Hitler is still in existence.

Not necessarily. If my theory is correct, we simply occupy the original universe of Hitler's existence and rise to power. Think about it, there has to be at least one universe where this happens, and that will never change in that particular universe. You can create a new one, where he didn't exist, but you can't change the one we're in now.

 

[gbemery]

What about a fourth theory , and lets take the old you go back and try to kill your grandfather paradox version. Say you go back and kill your grandfather, but then your dad or mother wouldn't be born (depending on which grandfather your killed), and therefore you wouldn't have been born. So in essence you couldn't have gone back in time and killed your grandfather. So lets say the theory is you doom everyone to a repeating loop where you go back in time, kill your grandfather, but since when you kill him you automatically weren't born then poof he lives yet again, just in time see you kill him yet again because you still had the thought of "hey, I am going to go back in time and kill my own grandfather".

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Or a variation of theory 2, you travel back in time, change stuff, create alternate timeline, but the future you came from (and subsequently return to) remains unchanged.

 

[kotorfan04]

I am going to go with the time Y. It is a lot like theory two, but if you go back and time and lets say shoot a high ranking political figure. (Not endorsing it.) Then you would flash forward to future without that person but the world you came from would still exist. You would create multiple dimensions. Sorry takes a while to explain.

 

[Ridonculous_Ninja]

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.

Terminator is lame once you realise that the machines can never assassinate John Connor for the simple reason that they would not have to send an assassin and as such would never kill him prompting the sending of an assassin.

The only way to not break the universe is to fail. TAKE THAT SKYNET!

What about a fourth theory , and lets take the old you go back and try to kill your grandfather paradox version. Say you go back and kill your grandfather, but then your dad or mother wouldn't be born (depending on which grandfather your killed), and therefore you wouldn't have been born. So in essence you couldn't have gone back in time and killed your grandfather. So lets say the theory is you doom everyone to a repeating loop where you go back in time, kill your grandfather, but since when you kill him you automatically weren't born then poof he lives yet again, just in time see you kill him yet again because you still had the thought of "hey, I am going to go back in time and kill my own grandfather".

Futurama, time loop fixes itself, someone else becomes your grandfather, or your grandfather was never actually your grandfather to begin with and no harm was done. Everything went according to plan. (theory 1 is this)

 

[HentMas]

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

 

[Kamehapa]

Well, the way I see it it is most likely either option one, which means all of time is already bent and that in the future you MUST at some point go into the past to do the thing you were predestined to do, or option 4 where it just creates another parallel universe the second you travel back int time... kinda like in Dragonball Z except that if you traveled forward you would travel into the current future not the one that existed before the change, unless you had a method for swapping multiverses as well, but doing that would also create yet another parallel universe.

Although I also believe that if option 4 is the case, that the very interactions of atoms creates billions of multiverses every second, so choosing the correct multiverse might be challenging. Although I suppose following that logic, you would also end up going into multiple different multiverses, because each multiverse could select a different multiverse. and on the return trip... Ya.. the amount of parrallel bodies flinging themselves back and forth between worlds would mean that sooner or later some people would be sent to the same world... or on inside eachother... Ya, the more I think about this the more likely it seems that this theory wouldn't work.