i am going to say right off the bat that i am a college student and i am by no means, an expert or even very knowlegable on time travel. i took a course in physics in which my professor spoke of time travel briefly when talking about traveling close to the speed of light. my question for you all is this...it seems people think that traveling into the past would be a huge problem because it may affect the future. but have you all thought about if someone traveled into the future that it just might disrupt someone else's past that hasn't yet been born? hope i didn't lose anyone on that...if i traveled into the future, could i disrupt your great great great great grandaughter/son's life? someone let me know if i am making any sense /ttiforum/images/graemlins/smile.gif
consequences of time travel
- Thread starter jlh0525
- Start date
Disrupting the past of some future person won't result in a logical paradox...
The classic time travel paradox goes like this:
If you go back in time and kill your grandpa before your father was born, then you were never born. This leaves us with a sticky logical problem, for if you never existed, you would not be there to pull the trigger on gramps in the past.
If, on the other hand, you kill the would-be grandpa of some future person and prevent him from being born, there is no paradox. This person would simple never exist, which poses no logical problem because it is you - not him - who performed the murderous deed.
As a side note: Even the classic "grandfather paradox" doesn't prove time travel is impossible. There may be ways to eliminate the paradox, depending on your exact view of what time really is.
The classic time travel paradox goes like this:
If you go back in time and kill your grandpa before your father was born, then you were never born. This leaves us with a sticky logical problem, for if you never existed, you would not be there to pull the trigger on gramps in the past.
If, on the other hand, you kill the would-be grandpa of some future person and prevent him from being born, there is no paradox. This person would simple never exist, which poses no logical problem because it is you - not him - who performed the murderous deed.
As a side note: Even the classic "grandfather paradox" doesn't prove time travel is impossible. There may be ways to eliminate the paradox, depending on your exact view of what time really is.
Malcolm
Chrono Cadet
Unfortunately going back and killing someone always seems to force a paradox. Eg, me going back to kill Jesus when he is born, well i couldn't because I wouldn't know who he was, so I wouldn't kill him, but i must have known who he was to decide to go back and kill him. But if i did then I couldn't have known who he was, so i didn't kill him, but know i do because he was alive then, and i know who he is, but if i go back to kill him and succeed how could I if I don't know who he is, because I wouldn't then know who he is.
Brain bleeding yet?
Go to the future, less chance of a paradox. (I hope)
Brain bleeding yet?
Go to the future, less chance of a paradox. (I hope)