GRANDFATHER PARADOX PARTIALLY RESOLVED
You know the classic time-travel paradox popularized in “Back to the Future” where losing one’s ancestor results in one no longer existing in current time. Well, a resolution has been forthcoming, at least partially.
A 16 Dec 2019 article by reporter Sean Martin appearing in Express, time travel could be more feasible than previously thought as experts have established an answer to the many paradoxes associated with traveling into the past. For example, if M-Superstring Theory (“The Multiverse”) is true — and quantum mechanically it certainly appears so — changing the past would pinch off a new time line universe where the change would be played out, but the original unchanged time line in which the time traveler exists/existed would continue as already determined. Astrophysicist and dark matter expert Geraint Lewis at the University of Sydney: “What time travel means here is stepping between…histories—that’s even freakier. At some level it doesn’t even feel like time travel anymore, because what’s the point of going back and killing Hitler if the second world war still plays out in the universe you’re from?” So, not only would one need to time travel, but to experience the results of a change, one would have to choose to “move” oneself into one of an infinite number of alternate universes. How to choose when you don’t know each universe’s outcome?
Okay, that’s one theory. The premise for the above is based on the Butterfly Effect, suggesting that even the smallest change back in the timeline could have a huge effect on the current timeline. A newer theory espoused independently by physicist Germain Tobar of the University of Queensland believes, based on his calculations, that the space-time continuum would essentially correct itself to avoid any potential paradoxes. “What the calculations reveal is that timeline curves – bends in the timeline which were predicted by Einstein – would run close enough together that the Universe would be altered in such a way that it would be barely noticeable.” For me, the key phrase is “barely noticeable.” That means it would be noticeable, perhaps a momentary shimmer-shift with something, maybe that silver pen becoming plastic. Or the silver pen becoming phantom. Or the silver pen becoming a ticking neutron bomb. Or maybe just the silver pen becoming plastic, then phantom and finally a ticking neutron bomb. Whatever. “Barely noticeable” but not necessarily insignificant in terms of effect.
I prefer the idea that the universe attempts to “heal itself” (leaving a scar perhaps?) but that’s very anthropormorphic, and I doubt the universe is such. Better would be the idea that we humans, filled with hubris, are really a unique mistake in the otherwise “mostly” predetermined evolution. How about you?
The Edge of Madness
A 16 Dec 2019 article by reporter Sean Martin appearing in Express, time travel could be more feasible than previously thought as experts have established an answer to the many paradoxes associated with traveling into the past. For example, if M-Superstring Theory (“The Multiverse”) is true — and quantum mechanically it certainly appears so — changing the past would pinch off a new time line universe where the change would be played out, but the original unchanged time line in which the time traveler exists/existed would continue as already determined. Astrophysicist and dark matter expert Geraint Lewis at the University of Sydney: “What time travel means here is stepping between…histories—that’s even freakier. At some level it doesn’t even feel like time travel anymore, because what’s the point of going back and killing Hitler if the second world war still plays out in the universe you’re from?” So, not only would one need to time travel, but to experience the results of a change, one would have to choose to “move” oneself into one of an infinite number of alternate universes. How to choose when you don’t know each universe’s outcome?
Okay, that’s one theory. The premise for the above is based on the Butterfly Effect, suggesting that even the smallest change back in the timeline could have a huge effect on the current timeline. A newer theory espoused independently by physicist Germain Tobar of the University of Queensland believes, based on his calculations, that the space-time continuum would essentially correct itself to avoid any potential paradoxes. “What the calculations reveal is that timeline curves – bends in the timeline which were predicted by Einstein – would run close enough together that the Universe would be altered in such a way that it would be barely noticeable.” For me, the key phrase is “barely noticeable.” That means it would be noticeable, perhaps a momentary shimmer-shift with something, maybe that silver pen becoming plastic. Or the silver pen becoming phantom. Or the silver pen becoming a ticking neutron bomb. Or maybe just the silver pen becoming plastic, then phantom and finally a ticking neutron bomb. Whatever. “Barely noticeable” but not necessarily insignificant in terms of effect.
I prefer the idea that the universe attempts to “heal itself” (leaving a scar perhaps?) but that’s very anthropormorphic, and I doubt the universe is such. Better would be the idea that we humans, filled with hubris, are really a unique mistake in the otherwise “mostly” predetermined evolution. How about you?
The Edge of Madness
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