3 ms·

I only managed a BSc in Physics, although I did get to take grad-level G&R. My stance is the following: I do not care what your proposed method is for FTL, tel

I only managed a BSc in Physics, although I did get to take grad-level G&R. My stance is the following: I do not care what your proposed method is for FTL, tell me how the paradoxes allowed by closed timelike curves will be resolved. No, just bundling all of it into a black-box general AI "cosmic censor" is not sufficient, that's just an abstraction saying not to worry about it. Yes, it ruins most of our fun space opera. Oh well.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
A bunch of nonsense thought from someone who reads too much sci-fi: > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29569437 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29569437 In other words, it's perfectly ok to change the past and the universe doesn't so much self-censor as timelines always ultimately loop in some kind of meta-time back into each other. Another way to think of it is that it self-censors in the way that a delayed choice quantum eraser experiment does. The timelines which do not ultimately form part of a stable meta-loop structure destructively interfere with each other. Feel free to point out all the ways in which this is nonsense by the way. I love this sort of education through correction of ignorant armchair supposition.
ben_w 5y ago
Well, QM allows superposition and entanglement, why not just have you and your grandfather be in an entangled superposition of |alive> and |dead> corresponding to each part of the sequence in the classical eponymous paradox? That said, I read a plausible claim that a CTC would have an unstable buildup of energy in the form of the wavefunctions of virtual particles self-reinforcing, so I suspect it’s more likely that trying to build a time machine would instead result in unbounded energy, and that being a possibility is generally considered a sign that somebody made a mistake.

3 ms·

I only managed a BSc in Physics, although I did get to take grad-level G&R. My stance is the following: I do not care what your proposed method is for FTL, tel

by at_a_remove 5y ago

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
A bunch of nonsense thought from someone who reads too much sci-fi: > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29569437 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29569437 In other words, it's perfectly ok to change the past and the universe doesn't so much self-censor as timelines always ultimately loop in some kind of meta-time back into each other. Another way to think of it is that it self-censors in the way that a delayed choice quantum eraser experiment does. The timelines which do not ultimately form part of a stable meta-loop structure destructively interfere with each other. Feel free to point out all the ways in which this is nonsense by the way. I love this sort of education through correction of ignorant armchair supposition.
ben_w 5y ago
Well, QM allows superposition and entanglement, why not just have you and your grandfather be in an entangled superposition of |alive> and |dead> corresponding to each part of the sequence in the classical eponymous paradox? That said, I read a plausible claim that a CTC would have an unstable buildup of energy in the form of the wavefunctions of virtual particles self-reinforcing, so I suspect it’s more likely that trying to build a time machine would instead result in unbounded energy, and that being a possibility is generally considered a sign that somebody made a mistake.