Twighlight
Quantum Scribe
It is often supposed that different timelines are one way of getting round the paradox of hopping into a time machine and going back in time and shooting your own parents before you are born...which clearly didn't happen.
Instead, you go back in time and shoot the parents of some hapless version of you in another timeline. Time violation avoided. Phew ! Can breath a sigh of relief.....and of course Titor is allowed to ramble on about '2.5% divergences' and spin a good yarn.
But hold on. A little further investigation reveals that all one actually does is move from one insoluble paradox to another.
Timelines are based on many worlds / multiverse interpretations of quantum physics and cosmology. The recent WMAP images of CBR demonstrate that on the largest scale space is essentially flat....a very strong indicator that it is infinite.
That means infinite timelines. An infinite number of 'you' sitting there in an infinite number of parallel universes.
Now let's return to you getting into the time machine to shoot your parents. There's an infinite number of other 'you' all doing it too ! So...as the only criteria of time travel is that one travels to a different timeline to one's own.......what's to stop one of the OTHER 'you' in another timeline travelling back into YOUR past and shooting YOUR parents ??
'Ah'...I hear you say. Surely there's a bunch of reserved timelines for the shooting. Which might seem like sense, but actually that would mean the entire timeline from now to zilch is fixed and 'pre-exists' ( which would mean we cannot change our future so no point Titor predicting it ).
Otherwise.....at the exact moment in the past prior to you arriving to shoot your parents in another timeline..any of the other versions of you could arrive back in your timeline and shoot your own parents...as at that moment in time all such timelines are equal in such respect. There is absolutely no reason why your own timeline should not have been a target. Indeed, with an infinite number of other 'you' out there...it's a certainty !
There is only one way out of this. The total pre-existence of the entirety of every timeline. Bye bye free will. Indeed, time travel is logically impossible without such determinism.
Instead, you go back in time and shoot the parents of some hapless version of you in another timeline. Time violation avoided. Phew ! Can breath a sigh of relief.....and of course Titor is allowed to ramble on about '2.5% divergences' and spin a good yarn.
But hold on. A little further investigation reveals that all one actually does is move from one insoluble paradox to another.
Timelines are based on many worlds / multiverse interpretations of quantum physics and cosmology. The recent WMAP images of CBR demonstrate that on the largest scale space is essentially flat....a very strong indicator that it is infinite.
That means infinite timelines. An infinite number of 'you' sitting there in an infinite number of parallel universes.
Now let's return to you getting into the time machine to shoot your parents. There's an infinite number of other 'you' all doing it too ! So...as the only criteria of time travel is that one travels to a different timeline to one's own.......what's to stop one of the OTHER 'you' in another timeline travelling back into YOUR past and shooting YOUR parents ??
'Ah'...I hear you say. Surely there's a bunch of reserved timelines for the shooting. Which might seem like sense, but actually that would mean the entire timeline from now to zilch is fixed and 'pre-exists' ( which would mean we cannot change our future so no point Titor predicting it ).
Otherwise.....at the exact moment in the past prior to you arriving to shoot your parents in another timeline..any of the other versions of you could arrive back in your timeline and shoot your own parents...as at that moment in time all such timelines are equal in such respect. There is absolutely no reason why your own timeline should not have been a target. Indeed, with an infinite number of other 'you' out there...it's a certainty !
There is only one way out of this. The total pre-existence of the entirety of every timeline. Bye bye free will. Indeed, time travel is logically impossible without such determinism.