Time Travel "Negative Hypothesis"

[Guest]

I have mentioned in another posting here that I cannot think of any time travel situation (forward or back) that does not eventually lead to some form of possible paradox. I use this as a sort of "negative hypothesis" that time travel is impossible.

As a serious scientist, albeit an amateur at this, I love good methodology where hypotheses can be shot down. So...

Can anyone think of a time travel scenario where there is NO possibility for a paradox to arise? i.e. - Can someone "prove" my negative hypothesis wrong?

I certainly hope so. If not, I'll have to assume it (time travel) can't be done.

Lee

 

[Guest]

Lee, remember that just about any time paradox can be magically explained away with the miracle of quantum mechanics (i.e. alternate timelines). Do what you will while travelling in time. It will NOT affect you or your timeline. You're just affecting someone else's timeline.

Of course, that could get some people in the alternate timeline very mad at you. But if they can't find you, they can't hurt you.

Mop

 

[Guest]

Re:Re:Time Travel "Negative Hypothesis"

Yes, I understand.

My "negative hypothesis" actually does not apply in this case since it is not really time "travel" per se. At least in the classic sense.

It is this old fasioned idea of someone or something actually "going" to some "when", past or future, that is in itself paradoxical.

See my Apr. 13 response to Attwood above. He refers to Multiversity as something in a more spiritual sense than I. Relying on belief for it to actually be so. In this sense, no paradox could occur, but then as I said to him, this is not really time "travel". It seems to be more of a "timeline" options concept based on random choice and in no way truly controlled. If I understand him correctly.

My Multiverse paradox is based on the ability of man to control his movement thru the various dimensions via some as yet unknown "invention" if you will. In this case, I stand by the Star Trek "Holodeck" analogy since anyone who could, would, including come "here/now" and we would know it. A dimensional application of the old linear argument that time travellers from the future would already be here. In fact, in this case, I can imagine THAT scenario getting out of hand rather quickly and eventually leading to a veritable cascade of paradoxes. (And we used to think LINEAR time travel was enigmatic!)

Thank you for the response.