If a man grows up, builds a time machine, travels back in time and accidently kills himself when he's a child, would he have ever grown up and built the machine to be able to come back and kill himself?
2006-12-29 02:35:05 · 6 answers · asked by Lokii 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Given that the man is already alive and that time travels in one direction....his journey to the past is a part of time moving forward (at least the time that he knows).
By killing himself, therefore, it stands to reason that an alternate branch in time is created where he does not exist. An alternate universe is created.
Then there's the Back to The Future idea where he starts to disappear in the past....
2006-12-29 11:44:40 · answer #1 · answered by Its not me Its u 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In theory, as soon as the adult him killed the young him, the adult would disappear. But what if the child could be brought back to life, say through medical intervention. The adult would not re-appear, but the child would grow older and perhaps become the adult who built the time machine. Of course, by killing himself and then being brought back to life, his future could be altered such that he would not then grow up build the machine or would not kill himself if he did build the machine and go back in time.
2006-12-29 10:50:14 · answer #2 · answered by Rich 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not as complicated or self-contradictory as the plot of Robert Heinlein's story "All you Zombies".
Wikipedia has the very brief synopsis "the story of a person who undergoes a sex change operation, goes back in time, has sex with herself, and gives birth to herself".
2006-12-29 11:47:25 · answer #3 · answered by bh8153 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes he would, the imaginary time machine would reverse the death and he'd be back in no time to do it again.
2006-12-29 10:37:55 · answer #4 · answered by ••Mott•• 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I knew a guy who did this once. Nice guy. Kind of quiet though.
2006-12-29 12:12:28 · answer #5 · answered by Paley Pale 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
NO; your dead, you cant grow up, reference: watch "Back to the Future" all series, learn all you need to know about it. lol.
2006-12-29 10:50:18 · answer #6 · answered by sdwhippie 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋