what would happen because if i didnt have the technology then i couldnt distroy the machine, but if i distroyed the machine then i couldnt distroy the technology??
2006-08-04 04:53:12 · 13 answers · asked by hannah c 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
Perhaps you have already done it, that is why we no longer have the technology to time travel now.
2006-08-04 08:16:34 · answer #1 · answered by charlietooo 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
This is known as the "Grandfather Paradox."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox
It is a common plot device in science fiction. (The wiki page above has many examples.)
In the classic description (and I don't think Einstein came up with this), if you go back to kill your grandfather, you prevent your own birth, and therefore the fact that you climbed into a time machine. But in other descriptions of the paradox, you don't have to actually kill your grandfather ... basically anything you do to prevent your own birth, or you from growing up, inventing time travel, or using it, triggers the paradox.
However, there are many ways to *resolve* the paradox (i.e. an understanding of how time travel might work, where the paradox does not arise).
The best known is the "parallel universes" resolution. Basically, when you travel backwards in time, this creates a parallel universe that branches off at the time of arrival. You are then free to change the events all you want in the new branch. So you could kill your grandfather, or destroy the technology to build the machine, and then you (the time traveller) would simply be in a new timeline in which the infant-you is never born, and/or never builds or gets into a time machine ... but this is not paradoxical as the old timeline still "exists" in which you *do* use the time machine. In other words, time travel is considered travel between parallel universes.
There are many other resolutions ... see the wiki link above, and many others, for details. Just type "grandfather paradox resolution" into Google.
2006-08-04 12:47:01 · answer #2 · answered by secretsauce 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A good question. I discussed it with a bunch of mates. The debate took us to the pub and long into the night…
This is our conclusion:
Theoretically:
From August 2004 to August 2006 you are building a time machine.
In August 2006 you go back in time to August 2004, where you see yourself and the as yet unmade time machine, which you promptly destroy.
So… There would be two versions of you in 2004, with the time machine from 2006.
Confused?
You have just changed time-lines.
In your original time-line (2004-2006) you made the time machine.
You then went back and created yourself a fresh time-line by destroying the machine - so August 2004 onward would be a blank page, a new future for both you and your 2004 self.
But for YOU personally, that time between 2004 and 2006 DID exist, and so does the machine that you were building - the machine that you built.
It doesn't matter that you are in 2004, it doesn’t matter that you have destroyed the machine, because in your own past, that includes the time up to August 2006, you created that machine and used it to get to where you are, and the machine that YOU created is right there with you untouched.
After that, who knows…maybe your next question..?
Anyway, good luck building the time machine (and apologies if none of that makes sense - I have been drinking...)
2006-08-05 01:27:25 · answer #3 · answered by Innocuous pen... 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The whole paradox theory as accurately described by the answers above messes with your noggin. Although I wouldn't have a clue what would happen, I like the idea that if you cause any such paradox you end up with huge winged creatures coming out of the sky as you've torn the fabric of reality (ala Dr Who and the situation when Rose Tyler saved her dad). Enough to put anyone off meddling with the past
2006-08-04 12:56:19 · answer #4 · answered by Agatha's Mum 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Somehow the technology would still be made. Like what happened in the movie "The Time Machine". He wanted to know why he couldn't use his time machine to go back in time and save his girlfriend. Every time he saved her she would die in another way. The answer was that if she hadn't died then he would have never built the time machine, so how could he use it to save her. So no matter how many times you destroyed the technology, somehow somebody else will still invent it.
2006-08-04 12:25:27 · answer #5 · answered by the_world_is_yours44 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why go back in time. Better to get the lotto and sporting results for the next 2 years, you could clean up at the bookies.
2006-08-04 18:37:25 · answer #6 · answered by Mungo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is a paradox - often referred to as the grandfather paradox (what happens if you go back in time and kill your grandfather?) - and a reason often stated for time travel being impossible.
Some people believe that it's possible, but involves alternate realities, others that you would find it impossible to destroy the machine.
If time travel becomes possible we'll find out, but right now we can't know.
2006-08-04 12:10:00 · answer #7 · answered by kangaruth 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Einstein came up with the same question over 60 years ago only it had to do with killing your father before you were born. bust you're noggin on it as much as you like there's no right answer to this question it's impossible.
2006-08-04 12:00:40 · answer #8 · answered by peter gunn 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Can you delete a file while opening and going to its destination where it is stored? The computer wont allow. As simple as that
2006-08-04 16:10:42 · answer #9 · answered by Dheenadayalan PS 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you would be stuck. get yourself down the bookies and try and get as much money on as much as you can remember over the next 2 years that have gone by er.... i think.
2006-08-04 18:11:49 · answer #10 · answered by DAVID H 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋