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If only this happened...[repost] (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by Zealex

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[–]myrden 2 points3 points ago

Can't happen, it would lead to a circular time paradox, which goes like this, I want to go back in time to kill Adolf Hitler, but when I go back to kill Hitler I effectively stop him from ever having caused the holocaust, this means that I never had any reason to go back and kill him, and because I never had any reason to go back and kill him, I never went back and killed him, and because I never killed him then he did exist and I did have a reason to kill him, because I did have a reason to kill him I went back and killed him. See where the problem is? This is one of the biggest problems with time travel, because the slightest change can cause a butterfly effect, then it's almost impossible to go back without problems, unless you accept the premise that time is an illusion made by the human mind to organize the universe, than all you need to do is alter your perception of time to travel without consequences.

[–]larpas 1 point2 points ago

I thought of this problem when I was about five.

[–]Soporus 0 points1 point ago

That assumes that the time stream you travel back to is within the same universe as the one you live in. No one's done this, obviously, but in traveling back in time and altering events, you may end up creating an alternate universe in which you killed Adolf Hitler, while the other universe where you never did still exists.

[–]myrden 0 points1 point ago

This assumes that one would avoid returning to the originating time space, if one did not return to the originating time space, then this is entirely possible.

[–]Anon3mous1 0 points1 point ago

Assuming not alternate reality based time travel.

[–]MrKequc 0 points1 point ago*

False. After travelling back in time and Killing Hitler you are assuming that you will travel back to the time space you originated. This would be the cause of any possible theoretical paradoxes and is something you don't just get to do without qualification.

You are skipping the step where you travel back to the time you came from. It is a separate step. For instance. If you were to travel into the future right now you would see a future that occurs with you having traveled into the future x years ago. But also, given your stated circumstances a future in which Hitler is dead since you went back in time and killed him.

Assuming justifiably that you travel forward in time within altered time space.

It is impossible to think that you could travel back to the time space that you originated. If you did, it would be one where you of course did not kill Hitler.

So either way, no paradox.

[–]myrden 0 points1 point ago

This is exactly what I was explaining, if one traveled back to the original time space that one originated from then one would never have killed Hitler, and if you returned to your original time space once, then you'd keep returning to your original time space, hence the circular paradox, but there are multiple other time paradox's that apply to this situation, I was simply demonstrating one of the more well known of these paradox's.

[–]MrKequc 0 points1 point ago

Pah, that is not what you were explaining. I retorted what you were saying and explained how there is not a paradox. Even if time travel some day becomes possible!

Closer to a paradox would be something like this: You travel back in time and kill Hitler, suddenly you are living in a universe in which someone appeared out of the future, killed Hitler with a laser, then disappeared again. Presumably then there would be a worldwide effort to control time travel and when you arrived again in the future it is possible that you would immediately be arrested or caged or asked questions (made to write a book?)

Possibly time travel is so closely monitored in your current universe that you would have been entirely prevented from traveling back in time at all! Now that's a possible paradox. But it is at this point that you have to consider that you did travel back in time, so therefore you must exist in a universe in which that happened. Therefore no paradox.

[–]myrden -1 points0 points ago

But you are assuming that my machine can travel through just time but change the continuum that I'm traveling upon, the machine can't travel outside of it's original parameters, however if I could tap into the ability to travel through time contained within the human brain, then I could travel to a different continuum, but if I'm using a machine to do the time traveling, then this machine must already be able to travel out of the current continuum and still travel in time.

[–]WickedMystic 2 points3 points ago

It did...

[–]oozles 1 point2 points ago

Then we've have to deal with fuckers who thought Jesus was saved by an angel, with good reason too.

[–]grayziehobbes 1 point2 points ago

The Terminator totally has a handful of Jesus ass there. That's hot.

[–]Zealex[S] 1 point2 points ago

quite the grip on dat ass eh?

[–]grayziehobbes 0 points1 point ago

I can't tell if Jesus is into it though. The Terminator seems indifferent.

[–]PelagiustheMad -1 points0 points ago

You are now reading this in Arnold's voice.

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