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Time Travel Paradox

wendell borton

On her 30th birthday, a woman who wishes to build a time machine is visited by a future version of herself. This future self explains to her that she should not worry about designing the time machine, as she has done it in the future. The woman receives the schematics from her future self and starts building the time machine. Time passes until she finally completes the time machine. She then uses it to travel back in time to her 30th birthday, where she gives the schematics to her past self.
So it responsible for designing it in the first place?

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Spook_ie

There are billions, probably billions of billions of time machines in the world.

Every time you use a mirror you are in fact looking at the past, if the mirror was far enough away you could watch dinosaurs roam the earth

somuj

Time is a concept created by humans. There is no past or future. Energy is just continually changing from one state to another .

Brendan Flowers

Karl Stein wrote: »

Is that the film where your man has his head transplanted onto a fly, and the fly's head was transplanted onto the man?

Out of Africa?

REXER

Jawgap wrote: »

Bet you she wrecked the clutch on it.......

Surely you mean the "foot rest".

the groutch

wendell borton wrote: »

On her 30th birthday, a woman who wishes to build a time machine is visited by a future version of herself. This future self explains to her that she should not worry about designing the time machine, as she has done it in the future. The woman receives the schematics from her future self and starts building the time machine. Time passes until she finally completes the time machine. She then uses it to travel back in time to her 30th birthday, where she gives the schematics to her past self.
So it responsible for designing it in the first place?

can we please get copying and pasting of stuff from Facetwit banned?

Gulliver

Spook_ie wrote: »

There are billions, probably billions of billions of time machines in the world.

Every time you use a mirror you are in fact looking at the past, if the mirror was far enough away you could watch dinosaurs roam the earth

I call shenanigans. I stood 9 foot away from my mirror (against the wall, no less) and didn't see any dinosaurs. :pac:

ShowMeTheCash

Gulliver wrote: »

I call shenanigans. I stood 9 foot away from my mirror (against the wall, no less) and didn't see any dinosaurs. :pac:

I tried something similar with my neighbour she did not look any younger!

danrua01

Karl Stein wrote: »

Is that the film where your man has his head transplanted onto a fly, and the fly's head was transplanted onto the man?

Out of Africa?

[Deleted User]

http://static.fjcdn.com/large/pictures/e6/26/e626a3_2407749.gif

jimgoose

cerastes wrote: »

And travelling forwards isnt? I mean huge leaps into the distance, not gradually minute by minute.

It's all the one. It just so happens that humans are fitted with one forward crawler gear. I have it on good authority that dogs - particularly Labradors - know a lot more than they're letting on.

diomed

Was it a large off-road 4x4 type time-travel machine for bringing the kids to school yesterday?

cerastes

srsly78 wrote: »

All explained in this film: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_%28film%29

this sounds like a brilliant film, Im going to seek it out, I dont suppose its available in Xtra vision?

[Deleted User]

cerastes wrote: »

this sounds like a brilliant film, Im going to seek it out, I dont suppose its available in Xtra vision?

If you travel back ten years to when they still existed, then yes

FunLover18

wendell borton wrote:

Never mind the state the flux capacitor is in after her.

no way a woman would ever get up to 88 miles per hour

Tazio

I've a cat in a box at home... he's been there for 5 years.. .I don't know if he's dead or alive.. I don't want to observe.. because then it'll be definite.. dam this thread!

cerastes

Deleted User wrote: »

If you travel back ten years to when they still existed, then yes

I thought this was some kind of spoiler and referring to the film,
if you're referring to xtra vision, then didnt they only go out of business last year? then again, Ive no idea what time you are from and I suspect you've let it slip you are actually from the future, so boards must be acting as some kind of a conduit, I'm sure its quite possible you didnt realise this.
Could you by chance pm me the numbers for the lottery this week (here at my time), everything from Friday the 12/12/14 till say the following Monday.
If you give me your name and address in my time I'll split the winnings with you, obviously its not in my interest to do anything nefarious otherwise you'll never be able to send me the numbers, and probably best if I just secretly gift you the money now in my time, tomorrow in your time when you awake you'll be rich, as soon as you forward those numbers on.

Lets not concern ourselves about the consequences of ripping the space time continuum a new one, we'll probably be in different realities by then.

silverharp

there is no paradox , either time travel in reverse is not possible or its possible but it creates a different timeline in a different universe

ShowMeTheCash

silverharp wrote: »

there is no paradox , either time travel in reverse is not possible or its possible but it creates a different timeline in a different universe

Well there it is... Solved.. Phewww that one was really starting to bug me!

Spook_ie

Gulliver wrote: »

I call shenanigans. I stood 9 foot away from my mirror (against the wall, no less) and didn't see any dinosaurs. :pac:

ShowMeTheCash wrote: »

I tried something similar with my neighbour she did not look any younger!

Silly boys, you needed a sledgehammer to knock the wall down as you obviously weren't far enough away. doh!

but for those of you wondering how,

light travels at a constant speed, if your mirror was 186,000 miles away it would take the light 2 seconds to travel there and back, therefore the image in the mirror would be 2 secs ago, a glimpse in the past of what you were doing 2 seconds ago

cerastes

silverharp wrote: »

there is no paradox , either time travel in reverse is not possible or its possible but it creates a different timeline in a different universe

If it creates a different timeline in a different universe, what happens the old one? from my reading of the Primer example,

those that witnessed someone get into the box in their timeline subsequently saw them comatose in their timeline

Ok I think I answered that myself, so it seems different timelines go on, in different places/universes/wherever but

someone that travelled through time cannot exist in the new timeline, only, the person that exited the box/entered the new timeline, is apparently not the same physical being that got into the/a box and left the old timeline? as that person is comatose in the original timeline, but the new incarnation that exited the box seem to be able to exist at the same time as their previous incarnation at an earlier time, but who is also a different same person because they are in a different timeline/universe. I was wondering how the two people could exist in the same timeline, but after the point which the first person gets into the box (even assuming that happens in the now alternate timeline) means they die and both of them only exist for the time until the original person in the timeline gets into the box, does it matter which of them gets into the box? does this create a new alternate 3rd timeline? and then continue on? is there a finite limit to the amount of realities/universes that can fit into, whatever they fit into?
What happens if there is some event/accident where the box is damaged before this occurs? or the person who appeared out of the box intentionally or accidentally kills the person who was meant to get into the box? or they decide or are persuaded not to get into it?

Time travel isnt possible for people in the way suggested, not yet anyway and if it ever is I think that would wrap things up, if it were possible it would be too confusing for us to understand, Im suprised that Doc didnt kill Marty or vica versa in Back to the Future. Even Biff would have being doing a service to all if he destroyed the delorean after he stole the almanac.

UCDVet

silverharp wrote: »

there is no paradox , either time travel in reverse is not possible or its possible but it creates a different timeline in a different universe

There is a 3rd possibility; filmakers love it, but I personally find the idea revolting. Time Travel as portrayed in films like Harry Potter and Interstellar.

There is only one timeline. Time travel doesn't create a different universe. There is no 'free will' all time travel that is going to happen, happens and causality is all mucked up.

So, in Harry Potter, Harry gets saved by future him in the beginning of the movie. Towards the end of the movie, he goes back in time and saves himself. Normal cause and effect is broken - he never could have lived long enough to go back in time, without future him saving him. Same deal with Interstellar - humans couldn't have survived without future humans creating the wormhole, which couldn't have happened, unless humans survived.

One timeline, where the effects of all time travel is always there.

I don't know if it is scientifically possible....but it's very common in film because well, it's lazy.

MonkieSocks

If you could go back 24 Hrs......would all the people who have Died in those 24 Hrs be alive, as in DEAD Person now or then ALIVE :eek:

SeanW

wendell borton wrote: »

On her 30th birthday, a woman who wishes to build a time machine is visited by a future version of herself. This future self explains to her that she should not worry about designing the time machine, as she has done it in the future. The woman receives the schematics from her future self and starts building the time machine. Time passes until she finally completes the time machine. She then uses it to travel back in time to her 30th birthday, where she gives the schematics to her past self.
So it responsible for designing it in the first place?

Well, if the ShirtStorm is anything to go by, the inventor would have been a man and the woman's role would be to assemble a baying mob of shrieking hags to call him a sexist pig for some inane, bizarre and trivial reason. :rolleyes: j/k.

But leaving the sex of the inventor out of it, I expect that the time travel would follow Star Trek rules: i.e. the timeline remains the prime timeline until it is altered, after which the events no longer on the prime timeline would become an alternate timeline. Not quite the same as having never happened, but not having happened either.

So: person sets out to invent time machine. X years later they succeed. Inventor then goes back in time to give the schematics and theory to their younger self, perhaps make other changes, e.g. to warn someone of some great catastrophe like 9/11, prevent a war, or perhaps something less idealistic (the inventor would be human after all). At that point, everything that otherwise would have occured in the prime timeline is relegated to an alternate timeline, and the changes are committed to the prime timeline. Inlcuding the actual invention of the time machine.

UCDVet

wendell borton wrote: »

On her 30th birthday, a woman who wishes to build a time machine is visited by a future version of herself. This future self explains to her that she should not worry about designing the time machine, as she has done it in the future. The woman receives the schematics from her future self and starts building the time machine. Time passes until she finally completes the time machine. She then uses it to travel back in time to her 30th birthday, where she gives the schematics to her past self.
So it responsible for designing it in the first place?

Depends on the model of time travel being used.

This explains it nicely:
http://i.imgur.com/bc8Du.jpg

ShowMeTheCash

Spook_ie wrote: »

Silly boys, you needed a sledgehammer to knock the wall down as you obviously weren't far enough away. doh!

but for those of you wondering how,

light travels at a constant speed, if your mirror was 186,000 miles away it would take the light 2 seconds to travel there and back, therefore the image in the mirror would be 2 secs ago, a glimpse in the past of what you were doing 2 seconds ago

Well you are right and wrong.

Yes if you put a mirror far enough away you effectively are looking at something in the past, but that is no different than say looking directly at a star, a lot of the stars you are looking at are 1000s (and more) of light years away. Or looking at the sun I think it takes 8mins? 12mins something like that.

If you had a mirror far enough away you would not be able to see the dinosaurs.... Why??? Because the mirror would have to have been there millions and millions of years ago to reflect the imager in the first place

Putting a mirror in space 1 million light years away (assuming we had a magic telescope that could see it) would take 1 million light years x 2.

So we will see something in 2 million years