Poll: Time Paradox

[arc101]

I like to think that straight forward time travel is impossible but that are many time-streams that you can switch between. Thus going back in time wouldn't change your timestream other than the fact that you are no longer in it. Of course that means you can seriously f**k up another timestream without worry but finding you way back to your own would be near impossible. At best you could arrive back in one that resembels your original home.

You couldn't mess up a time stream anyway because arrival would have already happened in the time streams past (if your in the present, and my god this gets confusing after a while)

 

[necromanzer52]

You cannot change time, as you going back to change something actually would create the future in which you exist, because time fits together like a jigsaw and cannot be changed.
I believe the notion of creating paradoxes cannot happen because anything you do in the past would not change the future in anyway, because the past has happened, and your arrival would have already happened, in the time you aimed for, and any changes you could have made would have made the world you were born into, and thus you cannot go back and change it, because anything you would do would be cause of the events now.
Also, the notion of time travel in itself is unfeasible for the future, as we would be constantly be visited, through history, by people, and this has not happened, so i can deduce that time travel is not possible.

What he said.

I agree. The past is set in stone and any time travel there has already happened.

 

[uncle-ellis]

You would go back to a parralal time-line with you time line intact someweare but you could never reach it.

 

[Simriel]

Anything where something tries to change the past cannot work, as if you change anything that you have knowledge of, then you would already know about it and any knowledge that you had because something else happened in the event's place would be erased, so if you DO invent a time machine and go back in an attempt to 'change time' you are doomed to failure. (Basically anything you do if you go back in time simply contributes towards the current present, so you cannot change time.)

This is untrue. There are dozens of theories on Temporal Causality, and as such it would be almost impossible to pinpoint what would happen short of actually travelling back in time, and finding out for yourself.

 

[Captain Blackout]

I choose not to believe in time travel of any sort(including prophecy) because it invalidates free will. If it is possible to travel from future to past, or even just to view the future, then the future has already happened, and is even more inevitable than paper burning in fire. Of course, I may believe in free will precisely because the course of history is already set in stone, but if that's the case it doesn't matter what I think because it's all predetermined anyway.

Pre-determination does not invalidate free will. The future may well be set in stone, but if so, it is because of the choices we will make freely.

Speaking of paradoxes...how do you figure we have a choice if the choices are already made? That's like the Ford advertisement that the Model T comes in any color you want, as long as it's black.

Not quite. The Model T example proposes that other options don't exist.

Tomorrow I may have any number of things for breakfast. I will probably have frosted flakes. Let's say I will. If someone went into the future, saw my breakfast, wrote it down on a piece of paper and left it for me to find the paper and my choice will always agree. It will still be my choice. The truth of the statement "you had frosted flakes" on the paper is made so by what I did.

Think about it: How many "choices" do you make where you would have done the same thing presented with the same options every time? Blackjack is a great example. Against a dealer's 6 I will always split double 8s. It's my choice, but I'll do it every time. How many more choices in your life are like this? For most people, almost all of them.

The exercise of free will is a complex process. Often we have made our choices long before they are actualized. We choose what kind of person we want to be, and then our day to day 'choices' are pre-programmed responses to our original choice.

Which means I now have a problem. In my first post I said that causality is not what it seems. In this post I invoke causality of choice to show how 'free will' is often pre-determined and to help explain how free-will and a knowable future are unrelated.

For a big f'ing cookie, just what is my philosophical stance?

 

[Zamn]

I'm inclined to think the various paradoxes associated with backward time travel suggest that it's impossible, at least on a large scale.

 

[Fingerprint]

This may (or may not) clear things up...

Watch from about 1.50 to about 2.15 ish

Spoiler: Lister explains: Killing their future selves.

 

[UnwishedGunz]

Anything where something tries to change the past cannot work, as if you change anything that you have knowledge of, then you would already know about it and any knowledge that you had because something else happened in the event's place would be erased, so if you DO invent a time machine and go back in an attempt to 'change time' you are doomed to failure. (Basically anything you do if you go back in time simply contributes towards the current present, so you cannot change time.)

theres a theory about time and and space and all that jazz its that when you go back in time your not going in your time line your going in another demention

anything having to do with time always goes into a different demention for example "your in a dinner your sitting at your table waiting for someone to take your order while your waiting you see two glasses in front of you a glass of water and a glass of orange juice (or anything you would like to drink its an example) the moment you reach the the glass of orange juice the universe splits in two and in the other demention you grab the cup of water."

and thats what i think

 

[Jamous]

Anything where something tries to change the past cannot work, as if you change anything that you have knowledge of, then you would already know about it and any knowledge that you had because something else happened in the event's place would be erased, so if you DO invent a time machine and go back in an attempt to 'change time' you are doomed to failure. (Basically anything you do if you go back in time simply contributes towards the current present, so you cannot change time.)

theres a theory about time and and space and all that jazz its that when you go back in time your not going in your time line your going in another demention

anything having to do with time always goes into a different demention for example "your in a dinner your sitting at your table waiting for someone to take your order while your waiting you see two glasses in front of you a glass of water and a glass of orange juice (or anything you would like to drink its an example) the moment you reach the the glass of orange juice the universe splits in two and in the other demention you grab the cup of water."

and thats what i think

Each choice partitions the universe further. That's probably a good theory.

 

[UnwishedGunz]

Anything where something tries to change the past cannot work, as if you change anything that you have knowledge of, then you would already know about it and any knowledge that you had because something else happened in the event's place would be erased, so if you DO invent a time machine and go back in an attempt to 'change time' you are doomed to failure. (Basically anything you do if you go back in time simply contributes towards the current present, so you cannot change time.)

theres a theory about time and and space and all that jazz its that when you go back in time your not going in your time line your going in another demention

anything having to do with time always goes into a different demention for example "your in a dinner your sitting at your table waiting for someone to take your order while your waiting you see two glasses in front of you a glass of water and a glass of orange juice (or anything you would like to drink its an example) the moment you reach the the glass of orange juice the universe splits in two and in the other demention you grab the cup of water."

and thats what i think

Each choice partitions the universe further. That's probably a good theory.

yes i know...i came up with it

 

[jasoncyrus]

Indeed, 3 way split tends to work well for my understanding. One where you did the action another where you did not, (and in the case of killing your ancestors) a constant repeating loop of existence and non existence.

 

[Cubilone]

As I understand it, there can be no such thing as a time-paradox. If you consider the 10 dimension theory that talks about 3 dimensions of time etc (look it up on the net, it's interesting) you should understand the concept of dimensional splits, how the roll of a dice or a decision may create several different dimensions in which the roll of a dice came another number, you took a different decision and so on. Basic quantum theory.

Well, I believe that if you go back your own timeline split and kill your parents, you shall create a different split firing off from that event and will never be able to go back to your original timeline. However you should be able to exist since you were born in the timeline that your parents DIDN'T die. And so you should be able to continue your existance in the parent-free world, implications included.

I hope it makes sense for you guys.

 

[RetiarySword]

You can't travel back in time, only forward. You need a black hole for that. This is all theory anyway.

Take that Dr Who

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

They proved it in Back to the Future. So yea, you're right.

When this baby hits 88mph, you're gonna see some serious shit.

 

[atol]

Anything where something tries to change the past cannot work, as if you change anything that you have knowledge of, then you would already know about it and any knowledge that you had because something else happened in the event's place would be erased, so if you DO invent a time machine and go back in an attempt to 'change time' you are doomed to failure. (Basically anything you do if you go back in time simply contributes towards the current present, so you cannot change time.)

This doesn't even explain a paradox. You're saying that one can't change the past because the moment it would be changed then one's memory of the previous alternate timeline would be erased. Uh, from that one would still have changed history, even if one doesn't remember. No paradox. No failure, you know, apart from the thread... and the poll.

 

[messy]

The paradigm I like to use is this:

If you go back in time, the point you back to is now the present, and everything is essentially 'rerolled', and effectively you just 'appear' out of nowhere. If you go back into the future, there's no spot waiting for you.

So, if Marty from Back to the Future goes back to 1955 in the time machine, there he is with a time machine. If his parents get together or not, he doesn't fade. He's just there. If they have a son and name him Marty, this second Marty will exist separately of the first, and will not be a clone. If the first Marty goes back to the future, there will be another Marty there, one who is a different person with his own life story.

I like this paradigm because it ditches paradoxes (which I loathe). Causality is cut the moment the jump through time backwards is made.

The only problem with this is the whole conservation of energy, by going back in time you'll suddenly introduce all the energy in your body (thermal, chemical) to this new time zone. And since the amount of energy in the universe remains constant and you can't create it (that's my understanding anyway) so going back in time shouldn't work.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

Once I saw the title for some reason a voice echoed in my head: "Snake? Snake?! SNAAAKE!".

Anyways, I believe that a time paradox is something that could in fact happen. The world does not run on predetermined tracks. Time is like a river. Cut the flow in one place and direct it somewhere else and you get a river set in a completely new direction. If nothing else, think how stupid those films and games based on time paradoxes would feel if it was not possible

 

[cleverlymadeup]

it's impossible, simply put because there are situations where it will make the situation impossible, ie being your own mother and father

however there are a few theories and the most likely one is where you split off into another dimension as that would make sense or you create a new dimension that goes back in time but you couldn't return to your own dimension with those changes being instated

there is also the idea if you change the past, as long as the correct people are there, the same events will transpire or very close to what should have happened

 

[Sindre1]

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect. . . but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it is more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly. . . timey-wimey. . . stuff.

 

[Veylon]

The paradigm I like to use is this:

If you go back in time, the point you back to is now the present, and everything is essentially 'rerolled', and effectively you just 'appear' out of nowhere. If you go back into the future, there's no spot waiting for you.

So, if Marty from Back to the Future goes back to 1955 in the time machine, there he is with a time machine. If his parents get together or not, he doesn't fade. He's just there. If they have a son and name him Marty, this second Marty will exist separately of the first, and will not be a clone. If the first Marty goes back to the future, there will be another Marty there, one who is a different person with his own life story.

I like this paradigm because it ditches paradoxes (which I loathe). Causality is cut the moment the jump through time backwards is made.

The only problem with this is the whole conservation of energy, by going back in time you'll suddenly introduce all the energy in your body (thermal, chemical) to this new time zone. And since the amount of energy in the universe remains constant and you can't create it (that's my understanding anyway) so going back in time shouldn't work.

Truth. I don't accept time travel as possible. If I did, this is the system I would use, because it involves the fewest additional changes.