Do you think that being able to travel back in time would have dramatic consequences on the future ?

Question

Like going back in time and shooting Hitler, then maybe someone worse would have taken his place, or the world would be over-populated. I know it sounds awful, but doesn't everything happen for a reason ?

Hey, I'm just as bored as you are, so maybe that's just a good way to kill time.

Answer 1

because the whole universe is governed by the law of cause and consequence, anything that happens 1 micro second ago is the reason that our now is in such a state.

So, everything is linked and is a reason for something else.

To your main question, i really think even a small change in the past, like giving 5 cents to a little kid would have a a huge impact to our NOW. Because that small change leads to another change and compounded over the years to give a totally different set of cause and consequence.

Do i make sense? Or do i sound stupid.

Answer 2

This is not possible without the elimination of the time factor
and turning flesh and bone into anti-matter, but if we were
able to overcome these physical obstacles, with the knowledge
of the future which is from the returned date to the present,
I have no doubt that this would chance many things. As you
say, Hitler and their likes would not have come to power but,
rather, would be interned into a lunatic asylum, as would
other prominent figures. We would be able to change the
future and eliminate religious and ethnic disputes but, even
so, there would still be a challenge for political power which
is necessary for decision taking. Complete and absolute
differences can never be eliminated, only smoothed down
somewhat, since the right of expressing an opposite opinion
will always exist, this is a golden rule amongst us. Absolute
equality is an impossible dream or maybe even hell, where
all minds would be fried down by a lobotomy. But then, who
would have a leading mind to take decisions? The complete
lack of a basic understanding could only result in absolute
chaos, much worse than at the present time. Even animals
have their habits which substitute rules and laws, where
they protect their own species and reject others. Is this not
discrimination? Of course it is, and always will be. Where is
the line of somewhere in between. It will exist, but there will
always be those with a contrary opinion, therefore some
rule to monitor the extent of such contrary opinions must
also exist which brings us back to where we started.

Answer 3

Your question assumes some form of determinism, the idea of a grand plan being played out and directed by a greater determination and that, of course, has to be nonsense. There is always a drift towards grandiosity in these kind of speculations, it's a little like those sad people who are convinced that they have experienced a previous life, they hardly ever describe themselves as having been a toilet cleaner, they were always someone of influence. The questions about time travel always speculate upon dramatic changes but, how, for instance does one get to Germany, obtain a weapon, and overcome one's natural distaste for murder? Most people, I think, would go back just far enough to get shares in Microsoft when they were first floated so that they could change their own micro future.

Answer 4

Sure everything happens for a reason. I am glad you couldn't go back in time. Think about this. A man goes back in time. He kills Hitler. That sounds great. But then he decides to take Hitlers place and who is to stop him. He has already changed the course of history. Maybe he decides he doesn't like...umm..lets say...Lutherans (no I have nothing against Lutherans.) Since he already knew what Hitler was able to do, he changes things a bit and finds better ways to kill them. Instead of killing 6 million people, he finds a way to kill 1 Billion people. He knew what mistakes not to make. He finds a way to poison people at home instead of in a concentration camp.
Ok, maybe thats a little far fetched..but hey, I am bored too....

Answer 5

I don't think it's possible to change history through time travel, but that doesn't mean that the travel is itself impossible. I might go back in time and fulfil history rather than alter it. For instance, suppose I was to go back and shoot JFK. There would be no paradox, for JFK was shot in our own timeline too.

On the other hand, as far as I know, no history tells of anyone having already travelled from the future. If we were to commute through time, we would either need to be sworn to secrecy or to create/visit a period of time where the existence of time-travel had/will become well known.

Answer 6

The best way to kill time is to pretend to be dead, but this option is least dramatic and dead boring. Therefore, I cannot assure you the cure for your boredom along this way. For that purpose you will have to keep thinking obliquely about all things awfully impossible. For example I believe that most of us live either in the past of our future, or in the future of our past all just for the fun of it. We seldom try to live in the present moment. Think about this!

When living in the past of our future, we can foresee things to come all the time. That in fact we continuously do. We keep changing our future from its past – our present, as it keeps unfolding shaping our lives. We ride upon our aspirations, ambitions and hopes. We make ourselves constantly for what we are for our future. If this were not the case we would not achieve anything, or accomplish anything through planning and strenuous efforts. We most intuitively keep carving up our selves from an otherwise unformed and unshaped marble stone of existence.

When we do all this, we realise that the change is essential to all things in our physical world. And that Time is a manifestation of this. Things in our observation grow, decay, rust, age and undergo transformations. Sometimes the processes of change in matter and matter related notions are fast and sometimes they are very slow but they are always there. Time is a relative and not absolute - time is because the in the nature of things there is change; nothing will permanently be what it has ever been.

Surprisingly but most truth fully you are but the best that the past of entire existence could have produced. Anything more or less than what has already been as the past and you run a definite risk of simply not being you. Any small difference anywhere in the past and you as you are no more; or you would not have been you having this desire to make that difference that would in turn might have caused you to be what you are not - there is always danger in knowing. Does this all make sense to you? If not may be you would like to read again, for there is a perfect sense in there. Or alternatively you can take my advice and try to live in the past of you future it is more authoritative state to be, forget Hitler you can be both good and powerful in the present that is facing up to you future.

Answer 7

It would depend on how far back you went, and your definition of the future - assuming you mean a few hundred years, going back 30 years wouldn't do much, whereas if you were to go back a few million years, mostly everything would be different.

It would be impossible to go back in time and kill someone though. How would you, or anyone, know how evil Hitler was if you shot him before World War I?

Answer 8

Obviously if you change the outcome of an event the resulting circumstances change as well. Changing one thing has a domino effect: like giving hitlers dad a box of condoms, no hitler, no nazi party, no war..maybe! We can't possibly know the outcome as another hitler (Maybe worse, if that's possible) could have been born instead and won the war then wiped out who ever he chose unopposed.

Answer 9

While I agree with this in essence, there is only one reason I would go back in time, and that is to change the way we have all treated the environment. Take what we know now, and use that to keep our planet healthy, instead of the mess it is in now.

Maybe then we will have a planet that will live on, instead of watching it die slowly now.

Answer 10

pass. but i do think that if you went back in time and changed your own past it would have consequences on the future...lol....seriously tho im with you on this one i think everything happens for a reason...in our own lives and in other peoples aswell. You dont have to apologise either for your comment i think it is a very valid and interesting 1.....something to think about when im lying awake at 4 in the morning cuz my daughter is an insomniac lol