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Well the obvious time paradox would prevent them from taking this approach. By destroying their own future they would never come back to save it. There must be

Well the obvious time paradox would prevent them from taking this approach. By destroying their own future they would never come back to save it. There must be another explanation.

webmaven 10y ago
If you assume the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, no paradox would be created. Merely time-travelling at all forks off a brand new universe with it's own future from that point on. That said, you do lose the drama surrounding the possibility of "destroying the future" via making gross (killing Hitler) or subtle ("butterfly effect") changes, as none of the consequences ever affect the universe you travelled from (other than the fact that you've left, never to return).
jraedisch 10y ago
Just assume that every jump back in time is also a jump into a parallel universe and you don't have a paradox.
- arviewer 10y ago
  Then what would it help to do such a thing?
  - aleeds 10y ago
    I dunno... maybe saving a whole worlds worth of lives...
  - freehunter 10y ago
    Experience is subjective. If you teleport to another location you're not the same person you were before you left, you're a similar set of molecules reconstructed in the same fashion. In all actuality, "you" died and another "you" took your place. But to you and everyone around you, it seems like nothing has changed, so you carry on with your life. Likewise, if you travel back in time and change the future, you're not helping the people in the future you left, you're helping the people in the past avoid that future. But to you, it looks the same. It looks just like the past you're familiar with, and it develops into some semblance of the future you were expecting. So for all intents and purposes, from a subjective viewpoint you're avoiding the paradox and helping your ancestors. It doesn't matter if the people you left are still suffering, subjectively they don't exist anymore.
    - hfsktr 10y ago
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBkBS4O3yvY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBkBS4O3yvY - 1 minute time machine. Sounds like what you are saying.
      - thefalcon 10y ago
        Incredibly relevant. Also entertaining. Thanks.
    - Nadya 10y ago
      This is the exact explanation used in the anime Steins;Gate. Okabe (the main character) is capable of 'moving timelines' which is treated as jumping between different parallel worlds. He leaves his friends behind in a world where WW3 breaks out over world powers fighting over research for a working time machine. In a way, he is leaving his friends to die in a post-apocalyptic WW3...but that doesn't matter because he's saving them in his 'current' timeline. The other worlds, from his perspective, "don't exist" anymore. >In all actuality, "you" died and another "you" took your place. But to you and everyone around you, it seems like nothing has changed, so you carry on with your life. In the show they call this power "Reading Steiner" when he "replaces himself" in a new timeline. Since he is capable of remembering what happened in the other timelines (nobody else does - as from their perspective these other timelines never existed). Time travel is fun to think about. :P
    - clort 10y ago
      In the Star Trek universe, where the matter is converted to information, transmitted and then converted to matter, then your statement may be true. But, in other universes where the matter is actually translated in a dimension then it will not be. Also, we don't actually know what "you" is and whether it would be included in the Star Trek mechanism. My point really, is that there are varying fictional universes but in ours, we don't currently have a way to do teleportation. So, as you say, experience is subjective.
      - allenz 10y ago
        If we accept physicalism i.e. that the world just consists of the physical, then the two methods should be identical except for a possible time delay.
  - jraedisch 10y ago
    If you stay in the "new" past, you can just enjoy the fruits of your labor. If you jump back to the future by conventional means, like hibernation/cryogenic sleep, you will wake up in the same changed universe, including altered versions of the loved ones you left behind (if you are lucky [or unlucky if they change in a bad way]). If you jump back into the old universe, nothing will have changed – so that is pretty much the only place you should stay away from. There won't be a future where people knowingly will have experienced the results of your heroic deeds, which might be sad to some, but you can just tell/try to convince them of what good you did. Maybe take some videos or other proof.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
TeMPOraL 10y ago
There are countless workarounds for that explored in fiction, pick any you like.
- jerf 10y ago
  qntm on time travel models: https://qntm.org/models https://qntm.org/models
celticninja 10y ago
They must be maintaining some form of communication with their future and results are being reported back to our time. So there must have been some sort of flying drone rebellion forming so they had to be stopped from existing.
wpietri 10y ago
The most common out here is that sending something back in time breaks causal links for the thing you send.

Well the obvious time paradox would prevent them from taking this approach. By destroying their own future they would never come back to save it. There must be another explanation.

webmaven 10y ago

If you assume the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, no paradox would be created. Merely time-travelling at all forks off a brand new universe with it's own future from that point on. That said, you do lose the drama surrounding the possibility of "destroying the future" via making gross (killing Hitler) or subtle ("butterfly effect") changes, as none of the consequences ever affect the universe you travelled from (other than the fact that you've left, never to return).

jraedisch 10y ago

Just assume that every jump back in time is also a jump into a parallel universe and you don't have a paradox.

arviewer 10y ago
Then what would it help to do such a thing?
- aleeds 10y ago
  I dunno... maybe saving a whole worlds worth of lives...
- freehunter 10y ago
  Experience is subjective. If you teleport to another location you're not the same person you were before you left, you're a similar set of molecules reconstructed in the same fashion. In all actuality, "you" died and another "you" took your place. But to you and everyone around you, it seems like nothing has changed, so you carry on with your life. Likewise, if you travel back in time and change the future, you're not helping the people in the future you left, you're helping the people in the past avoid that future. But to you, it looks the same. It looks just like the past you're familiar with, and it develops into some semblance of the future you were expecting. So for all intents and purposes, from a subjective viewpoint you're avoiding the paradox and helping your ancestors. It doesn't matter if the people you left are still suffering, subjectively they don't exist anymore.
  - hfsktr 10y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBkBS4O3yvY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBkBS4O3yvY - 1 minute time machine. Sounds like what you are saying.
    - thefalcon 10y ago
      Incredibly relevant. Also entertaining. Thanks.
  - Nadya 10y ago
    This is the exact explanation used in the anime Steins;Gate. Okabe (the main character) is capable of 'moving timelines' which is treated as jumping between different parallel worlds. He leaves his friends behind in a world where WW3 breaks out over world powers fighting over research for a working time machine. In a way, he is leaving his friends to die in a post-apocalyptic WW3...but that doesn't matter because he's saving them in his 'current' timeline. The other worlds, from his perspective, "don't exist" anymore. >In all actuality, "you" died and another "you" took your place. But to you and everyone around you, it seems like nothing has changed, so you carry on with your life. In the show they call this power "Reading Steiner" when he "replaces himself" in a new timeline. Since he is capable of remembering what happened in the other timelines (nobody else does - as from their perspective these other timelines never existed). Time travel is fun to think about. :P
  - clort 10y ago
    In the Star Trek universe, where the matter is converted to information, transmitted and then converted to matter, then your statement may be true. But, in other universes where the matter is actually translated in a dimension then it will not be. Also, we don't actually know what "you" is and whether it would be included in the Star Trek mechanism. My point really, is that there are varying fictional universes but in ours, we don't currently have a way to do teleportation. So, as you say, experience is subjective.
    - allenz 10y ago
      If we accept physicalism i.e. that the world just consists of the physical, then the two methods should be identical except for a possible time delay.
- jraedisch 10y ago
  If you stay in the "new" past, you can just enjoy the fruits of your labor. If you jump back to the future by conventional means, like hibernation/cryogenic sleep, you will wake up in the same changed universe, including altered versions of the loved ones you left behind (if you are lucky [or unlucky if they change in a bad way]). If you jump back into the old universe, nothing will have changed – so that is pretty much the only place you should stay away from. There won't be a future where people knowingly will have experienced the results of your heroic deeds, which might be sad to some, but you can just tell/try to convince them of what good you did. Maybe take some videos or other proof.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

TeMPOraL 10y ago

There are countless workarounds for that explored in fiction, pick any you like.

jerf 10y ago
qntm on time travel models: https://qntm.org/models https://qntm.org/models

celticninja 10y ago

They must be maintaining some form of communication with their future and results are being reported back to our time. So there must have been some sort of flying drone rebellion forming so they had to be stopped from existing.

wpietri 10y ago

The most common out here is that sending something back in time breaks causal links for the thing you send.