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Thoran · 10-14-2002, 04:23 PM

Yes it does, and I tend to think it's a reasonable way to avoid the Time Paradox that they're always so worried about in Star Trek.

I'm leaning towards the theory that time is linear, thus if you could go back in time (which may be possible) you would NOT be able to do anything to change time as it exists today... because your actions in the past would have been a part of the timeline.

The most often used Paradox is the "go back and kill your father" paradox. Well my solution is that you simply COULD NOT kill your father... no matter how hard you tried to go back to get him, you would fail. The reason your failure would be guaranteed is because it already happened and he didn't die, pretty simple. Even if you hadn't gone back yet, your actions in the past are already commited to the timeline, and therefore fixed.

Sounds like a reasonable theory, but it's the second order effects that tend to give you a headache. One example would be what if you found out in THIS timeline that you will sometime in the future go back in time and do something. Well until you go back you are guaranteed not to die (no mattter what you do)... and what if you happen to know exactly how old you are when you went back, and resolve to NOT go back... well SOMETHING then is going to change your mind... because it's already in the past that you WILL go. Tends to bring up lots of questions about Free Will and such... and lead you down the road towards a preordained timeline where our actions... EVEN IN THE FUTURE... are already determined.

(in my best Johnny Bravo voice) "Wiggy!"

Now with regards to how I percieve time (a different question imo), I tend to think of it like a guy with hiccups. A lot of time goes by without much action... then all of a sudden your entire life convulses due to something (good or bad). If you survive the hic... well then you get another period of quiet as your reward. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I also think that we as humans tend to reinvent ourselves after particularly traumatic hiccups. If I WERE to go back in time and meet the 22 year old myslef... I would have very little in common with the guy. The intersting question that poses is with regards to memory. All our memories are filtered through the personality that we have TODAY... so in a way they're automatically a distortion of what actually happened. It's probable that you would describe an event TOTALLY different 10 years later... even if you remembered it exactly the same.

Alright, time for a break... I'm getting dizzy. [img]smile.gif[/img]

10-14-2002, 04:23 PM	#6
Thoran Galvatron Join Date: January 10, 2002 Location: Upstate NY Age: 57 Posts: 2,109	Yes it does, and I tend to think it's a reasonable way to avoid the Time Paradox that they're always so worried about in Star Trek. I'm leaning towards the theory that time is linear, thus if you could go back in time (which may be possible) you would NOT be able to do anything to change time as it exists today... because your actions in the past would have been a part of the timeline. The most often used Paradox is the "go back and kill your father" paradox. Well my solution is that you simply COULD NOT kill your father... no matter how hard you tried to go back to get him, you would fail. The reason your failure would be guaranteed is because it already happened and he didn't die, pretty simple. Even if you hadn't gone back yet, your actions in the past are already commited to the timeline, and therefore fixed. Sounds like a reasonable theory, but it's the second order effects that tend to give you a headache. One example would be what if you found out in THIS timeline that you will sometime in the future go back in time and do something. Well until you go back you are guaranteed not to die (no mattter what you do)... and what if you happen to know exactly how old you are when you went back, and resolve to NOT go back... well SOMETHING then is going to change your mind... because it's already in the past that you WILL go. Tends to bring up lots of questions about Free Will and such... and lead you down the road towards a preordained timeline where our actions... EVEN IN THE FUTURE... are already determined. (in my best Johnny Bravo voice) "Wiggy!" Now with regards to how I percieve time (a different question imo), I tend to think of it like a guy with hiccups. A lot of time goes by without much action... then all of a sudden your entire life convulses due to something (good or bad). If you survive the hic... well then you get another period of quiet as your reward. [img]smile.gif[/img] I also think that we as humans tend to reinvent ourselves after particularly traumatic hiccups. If I WERE to go back in time and meet the 22 year old myslef... I would have very little in common with the guy. The intersting question that poses is with regards to memory. All our memories are filtered through the personality that we have TODAY... so in a way they're automatically a distortion of what actually happened. It's probable that you would describe an event TOTALLY different 10 years later... even if you remembered it exactly the same. Alright, time for a break... I'm getting dizzy. [img]smile.gif[/img]