Real Time Analysis II
In a previous post I discussed what I think is the most basic concept in time travel. This is the idea that you can not change the timeline. Here are the basic implications of that statement:
1) There is only one timeline which is the result of a totally deterministic universe.
2) All past, present, and future events can not be changed.
3) Any attempts to change the known past or future will result in failure.
This means that if I try to go back in time and prevent myself from being born, I am destined to fail. But if time travel is possible, what's to prevent people from trying? If time travel into the past is possible, one of the following must be true:
1) People will voluntarily decide never to interfere with the known timeline.
2) People's attempts to change the known timeline will meet with failure.
3) The time travel mechanism used to travel into the past will not allow for these changes somehow.
Let's say I want to travel in the past one day and have a conversation with myself. Since I know this did not happen yesterday, I know I will fail somehow in trying to accomplish this. But what's to realistically stop me from doing it? Since it's impossible for me to succeed, something must go wrong:
1) I die before I'm able to talk with myself.
2) Something physically blocks me from approaching myself.
3) The means I am using to time travel malfunctions or breaks.
So why must one of these things happen? Let's say I succeed in talking to myself in the past. Now the timeline is changed (which I already said is impossible), but furthermore, I'd have no inspiration to actually go back and talk with myself in the first place, which would produce the original timeline. These two timelines could oscillate back and forth, each one producing the other. But I've already stated that there is only one timeline, so this meta-stable oscillation must settle into one timeline that doesn't change (more on this later). There is also a hidden stability problem whenever you try to interact with yourself.
If the time travel mechanism is unreliable and only has a probability of success, scenario 3 above is most likely to occur. So, if you try to go back in the past and once you get there you change the timeline, you will not be allowed to go back in the first place and the time travel mechanism will malfunction.
1) There is only one timeline which is the result of a totally deterministic universe.
2) All past, present, and future events can not be changed.
3) Any attempts to change the known past or future will result in failure.
This means that if I try to go back in time and prevent myself from being born, I am destined to fail. But if time travel is possible, what's to prevent people from trying? If time travel into the past is possible, one of the following must be true:
1) People will voluntarily decide never to interfere with the known timeline.
2) People's attempts to change the known timeline will meet with failure.
3) The time travel mechanism used to travel into the past will not allow for these changes somehow.
Let's say I want to travel in the past one day and have a conversation with myself. Since I know this did not happen yesterday, I know I will fail somehow in trying to accomplish this. But what's to realistically stop me from doing it? Since it's impossible for me to succeed, something must go wrong:
1) I die before I'm able to talk with myself.
2) Something physically blocks me from approaching myself.
3) The means I am using to time travel malfunctions or breaks.
So why must one of these things happen? Let's say I succeed in talking to myself in the past. Now the timeline is changed (which I already said is impossible), but furthermore, I'd have no inspiration to actually go back and talk with myself in the first place, which would produce the original timeline. These two timelines could oscillate back and forth, each one producing the other. But I've already stated that there is only one timeline, so this meta-stable oscillation must settle into one timeline that doesn't change (more on this later). There is also a hidden stability problem whenever you try to interact with yourself.
If the time travel mechanism is unreliable and only has a probability of success, scenario 3 above is most likely to occur. So, if you try to go back in the past and once you get there you change the timeline, you will not be allowed to go back in the first place and the time travel mechanism will malfunction.
posted by flowbeus at 4:58 PM
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