Temporal paradox
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| - | '''Time''' is a component of a [[measurement|measuring system]] used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects. Time has been a major subject of [[religion]], [[philosophy]], and [[science]], but defining time in a non-controversial manner applicable to all fields of study has consistently eluded the greatest scholars. | + | '''Temporal paradox''' (also known as '''time paradox''' and '''time travel paradox''') is a [[theoretical]] [[paradox]]ical situation that happens because of time travel. A time traveler goes to the past, and does something that would prevent him from time travel in the first place. If he does not go back in time, he does not do anything that would prevent his traveling to the past, so time travel would be possible for him. However, if he goes back in time and does something that would prevent the time travel, he will not go back in time. Thus each possibility seems to imply its own negation - a type of logical paradox. |
| - | ==Time travel== | + | |
| - | :''[[Time travel in fiction]], [[Grandfather paradox]]'' | + | |
| - | Time travel is the concept of moving backwards and/or forwards to different points in time, in a manner analogous to moving through [[space]], and different from the normal "flow" of time to an earthbound observer. In this view, all points in time (including future times) "persist" in some way. Time travel has been a [[plot device]] in [[fiction]] since the 19th century. Traveling backwards in time has never been verified, presents many theoretic problems, and may be an impossibility. Any technological device, whether fictional or hypothetical, that is used to achieve time travel is known as a [[Time travel|time machine]]. | + | |
| - | A central problem with time travel to the past is the violation of [[causality]]; should an effect precede its cause, it would give rise to the possibility of a [[temporal paradox]]. Some interpretations of time travel resolve this by accepting the possibility of travel between [[Many-worlds interpretation|branch points]], [[Multiverse|parallel realities]], or [[universe]]s. | + | A typical example of this kind is the [[grandfather paradox]], where a person goes back in time to kill their grandfather before he had any biological descendant. If they succeed, one of their parents would never exist and they themselves would never exist either. This would make it impossible for them to go back in time in the first place, making them unable to kill their grandfather, who would continue to produce offspring and restart the situation. But if they fail, their grandfather would be alive and produce offspring, one of whom would eventually conceive the time traveler and the whole scenario would start over. |
| - | Another solution to the problem of causality-based temporal paradoxes is that such paradoxes cannot arise simply because they have not arisen. As illustrated in numerous works of fiction, [[free will]] either ceases to exist in the past or the outcomes of such decisions are predetermined. As such, it would not be possible to enact the [[grandfather paradox]] because it is a historical fact that your grandfather was not killed before his child (your parent) was conceived. This view doesn't simply hold that history is an unchangeable constant, but that any change made by a hypothetical future time traveler would already have happened in his or her past, resulting in the reality that the traveler moves from. More elaboration on this view can be found in the [[Novikov self-consistency principle]]. | + | == See also == |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==See also== | + | |
| - | * [[Term (time)]] | + | |
| - | * [[Father Time]] | + | |
| - | * [[Horology]] | + | |
| - | * [[Kairos]] | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ===Books=== | + | |
| - | * ''[[A Brief History of Time]]'' by [[Stephen Hawking]] | + | |
| - | * ''[[About Time (book)|About Time]]'' by [[Paul Davies]] | + | |
| - | * ''[[An Experiment with Time]]'' by [[J. W. Dunne]] | + | |
| - | * ''[[Einstein's Dreams]]'' by [[Alan Lightman]] | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ===Organizations=== | + | |
| - | ''Leading scholarly organizations for researchers on the history and technology of time and timekeeping'' | + | |
| - | * [[Antiquarian Horological Society]] – AHS (United Kingdom) | + | |
| - | * [[Chronometrophilia]] (Switzerland) | + | |
| - | * [[Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie]] – DGC (Germany) | + | |
| - | * [[National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors]] - NAWCC (United States of America) | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ===Miscellaneous arts and sciences=== | + | |
| - | * [[Anachronistic]] | + | |
| - | * [[Date and time notation by country]] | + | |
| - | * [[List of cycles]] | + | |
| - | * [[Network Time Protocol]] (NTP) | + | |
| - | * [[Nonlinear (arts)]] | + | |
| - | * [[Philosophy of physics]] | + | |
| - | * [[Rate (mathematics)]] | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ===Miscellaneous units of time=== | + | |
| - | * [[Fiscal year]] | + | |
| - | * [[Half-life]] | + | |
| - | * [[Hexadecimal time]] | + | |
| - | * [[Season]] | + | |
| - | * [[Tithi]] | + | |
| - | * [[Unix epoch]] | + | |
| + | *[[Bootstrap paradox]] | ||
| + | *[[Causality]] | ||
| + | *[[Chaos theory]] | ||
| + | *[[Cosmic censorship hypothesis]] | ||
| + | *[[Time loop]] | ||
| + | *[[Grandfather paradox]] | ||
| + | *[[Predestination paradox]] | ||
| + | *[[Retrocausality]] | ||
| + | *[[Science fiction]] | ||
| + | *[[Time travel]] | ||
| + | *[[Wormhole]] | ||
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Revision as of 17:58, 2 May 2012
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Temporal paradox (also known as time paradox and time travel paradox) is a theoretical paradoxical situation that happens because of time travel. A time traveler goes to the past, and does something that would prevent him from time travel in the first place. If he does not go back in time, he does not do anything that would prevent his traveling to the past, so time travel would be possible for him. However, if he goes back in time and does something that would prevent the time travel, he will not go back in time. Thus each possibility seems to imply its own negation - a type of logical paradox.
A typical example of this kind is the grandfather paradox, where a person goes back in time to kill their grandfather before he had any biological descendant. If they succeed, one of their parents would never exist and they themselves would never exist either. This would make it impossible for them to go back in time in the first place, making them unable to kill their grandfather, who would continue to produce offspring and restart the situation. But if they fail, their grandfather would be alive and produce offspring, one of whom would eventually conceive the time traveler and the whole scenario would start over.
See also
- Bootstrap paradox
- Causality
- Chaos theory
- Cosmic censorship hypothesis
- Time loop
- Grandfather paradox
- Predestination paradox
- Retrocausality
- Science fiction
- Time travel
- Wormhole
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Temporal paradox" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
