Does being in the past implies changing the past?

Question

Now the question is not wether or not backward time travel is possible, the question is:
Hypothetically, Suppose backward time travel were possible. Some say just the fact you are in the past implies changing it. But others believe it does not imply changing it. See this following link and say wether you agree or not. It is about a debate, and one fo the persons say that being in the past doesn´t mean you will change it.
www.sfu.ca/philosophy/swartz/time_travel1.htm

Answer 1

I guess the simplest way to think about it is :
starting from the present 2007 you travel to the past 1990. Everything you change there with your own free will WILL (100% sure) affect the people you meet there, right. As time passes by events go differently thanks to you, and so on and so on... and if you travel into the future from 1990 into 2007 (or just live normally for 17years) you'll get into 2007 the way it is thanks to changes you made. BUT....
but the people you left here in 2007 when you first went into 1990 will have no way of feeling any change due to your travel. in other words even if you made this beautifull machine and went back to change the present, there`s nothing you can do to prevent what is here and now. Instead you can try and create your furure.

Answer 2

Robert Heinlein dealt with this logical problem by eliminating the paradox. I have always thought that his solution logically eliminates free will. I feel as though I am able to make a decision without being required to decide in one way. If I could travel to the past then I would only be able to do what the second me had done in the past. The actions of the second me are already part of that persons past. The only way out of this seems to be the concept that there are an infinite number of realities. All possible different actions are happening in an infinite number of different realities.

Answer 3

Being in the past does change the past, because as it stands now, you weren't in the past (or if we are talking about the recent past, within your lifetime, then there weren't 2 of you.) So even though your mere presence in the universe of 1776 might not make what you would consider important changes in history, it is clearly a change from the 1776 where you weren't there.

Answer 4

If you could travel back in time, then your simple presence obviously is a difference. You have affected causality in some shape or form. Whether or not any significant change to the future that you would notice occurs depends on what kind of causality changes your presense creates.

Answer 5

you cannot change the past, once the water washes under the proverbial bridge, it is gone forever. we can only learn from the past and hopefully avoid making the same mistakes over and over. in reality, everything we do is in the past, for by the time our brains process the information, time has adavanced forward, even if only a few microseconds. the present is a fleeting moment in time.

Answer 6

There is a possibility for you being right: you travel to your OWN past, and everything is repeated as it was in your past life. It means of course that we can travel only to our own past, and that we lose automatically the memories of our present.

Answer 7

well being in the past i think does imply on changing it because you lived through it so u no the out come of it. you also know the harm or good it can bring

Answer 8

In phenomena of motion the past is irreversable. All you can say is Great or Im sorry.

Answer 9

It depends on how far back you go. It will definitely change the future

Answer 10

yes you could go back but you cant change anything that would in the present prevent you from going back in time as they would negate each other.