If you went back in time and killed your grandfather, what would happen?

[Ashley.]

:shrug:

[Mystic Mock]

Well you would cease to exist if your Grandfather and Grandmother haven't had your parent yet.

[Northern Monkey]

You obviously would'nt exist.Have you never seen Back To The Future?

[MTVN]

Didn't Futurama solve this one a few years ago, you just have to sleep with your Grandmother to ensure that you still exist

[lostalex]

If you went back in time it would be a different universe. so it's true that you would never be born in that timeline, but it wouldn't affect the timeline you came from at all. There are tons of different parallel universes and timelines.

[Northern Monkey]

I think it may one day be possible to travel in time into the future when we have the tech to travel fast enough.Traveling back in time though i highly highly highly doubt could be done ever.

[user104658]

Ahh the grandfather paradox. "But if you never existed then you didn't kill him, so he lived, so you do exist, so you could kill him."

There are really only three options here:

#1 Multiverse theory. This is essentially how "Terminator time travel" works according to the most recent, most crappy film and many other Sci fi stories. Basically, each decision creates a new timeline but doesn't erase the old one. So, you in timeline A go back and kill your grandfather in timeline A, creating timeline B where everything is different. However, timeline A still exists in parallel and so you (being from timeline A) still exist. This is the least problematic time travel variation.

Option #2 The future is erased as soon as you travel back. Nothing past the point of arrival ever happened and you and anything you brought back are now an "anomaly". Your actions now create the new future. Killing your grandfather doesn't do anything, because that future is gone but you are still "from there". Sort of like a copy and paste, I suppose.

Option #3 Time travel is impossible because, if it were possible, it would be happening constantly (because infinity) meaning that there is no such thing as reality at all. Reality would be in a blender.

Option #4 the grandfather paradox is alive and well but no one has discovered time travel YET. As soon as someone does, they go back in time, any tiny change they make disrupts the future (doesn't need to be as severe as killing an ancestor - the butterfly effect suggests that a no number of tiny alterations might stop you from existing, stop time travel being invented, change future motivations etc.) and then the paradox activates and the universe implodes from that point onwards. Luckily, the first person to discover it didn't travel back as far as 2015 in human years.

[lostalex]

I think it may one day be possible to travel in time into the future when we have the tech to travel fast enough.Traveling back in time though i highly highly highly doubt could be done ever.

Even if time travel to the past was possible, it would only be possible to travel back into the past once the machine was invented. The machine would have to be invented and then stay on constantly, then people from the future where the machine continues to exist would bring you back.

But there's no way to ever go back to the past before humans, or to any time in the past before that machine existed.

[Calderyon]

Well, since he is my father´s father, if he is killed, my father wouldn´t exist, meaning i probably wouldn´t exist either.

[lostalex]

Well, since he is my father´s father, if he is killed, my father wouldn´t exist, meaning i probably wouldn´t exist either.

not necessarily, maybe your father has already been born and continues to exist, so killing your grandfather wouldn't change anything.

Is your grandfather still alive? if you killed him tomorrow would you cease to exist?

[Northern Monkey]

Even if time travel to the past was possible, it would only be possible to travel back into the past once the machine was invented. The machine would have to be invented and then stay on constantly, then people from the future where the machine continues to exist would bring you back.

But there's no way to ever go back to the past before humans, or to any time in the past before that machine existed.But what if it was a machine like the Back To The Future car that comes with you on your journey?Your theory is more like the Terminator/Twelve Monkeys time machine where you travel to the same machine at different points in time.

[user104658]

I think it may one day be possible to travel in time into the future when we have the tech to travel fast enough.Traveling back in time though i highly highly highly doubt could be done ever.
Surely that's hypothetically possible through cryo though? If it's "perfect". You freeze yourself, the world goes on as normal around you for however long, then in 200 years someone wakes you up. You're the same age as you were, you were unaware of the passage of time so you feel like you were only asleep for minutes. Isn't that effectively "time travelling to the future"? And as above, you obviously can't go back.

[user104658]

OMG sleeping is mini time travel :omgno:

[Northern Monkey]

not necessarily, maybe your father has already been born and continues to exist, so killing your grandfather wouldn't change anything.

Is your grandfather still alive? if you killed him tomorrow would you cease to exist?Maybe as TS said.Your grandfather still does exist because by traveling through time you have just created an alternate reality?

[Northern Monkey]

Surely that's hypothetically possible through cryo though? If it's "perfect". You freeze yourself, the world goes on as normal around you for however long, then in 200 years someone wakes you up. You're the same age as you were, you were unaware of the passage of time so you feel like you were only asleep for minutes. Isn't that effectively "time travelling to the future"? And as above, you obviously can't go back.

But really you were still there travelling through time at the same rate as everybody else.You were just frozen.Even if you don't physically age.You were still there with everybody else.

[lostalex]

What if the time machine has a glitch and you end up just constantly being taken back in time just a split second like when a CD get's stuck and starts making that annoying sound... does that mean you can live forever?... the same split second for all eternity.

[user104658]

But really you were still there travelling through time at the same rate as everybody else.You were just frozen.Even if you don't physically age.You were still there with everybody else.
Yes but there's no obvious difference between the two for the "traveller", so would that matter? Let's say "jumping forward" in a time machine costs ten times as much as freezing yourself for the same amount of time... Would there be any reason to do it the more expensive way?

[Northern Monkey]

Yes but there's no obvious difference between the two for the "traveller", so would that matter? Let's say "jumping forward" in a time machine costs ten times as much as freezing yourself for the same amount of time... Would there be any reason to do it the more expensive way?

Well no.It's a cool idea.But you would'nt actually be travelling through time faster than anyone else would you?

[lostalex]

Did you watch Interstellar?

[user104658]

Did you watch Interstellar?
The "time travel" in interstellar is (effectively) the same principle... The characters don't travel through time more quickly than anyone else, everyone else just keeps aging and time moves on around them while they are "frozen" (moving very, very slowly in relativity to those outside the time distortion)

[kirklancaster]

Ahh the grandfather paradox. "But if you never existed then you didn't kill him, so he lived, so you do exist, so you could kill him."

There are really only three options here:

#1 Multiverse theory. This is essentially how "Terminator time travel" works according to the most recent, most crappy film and many other Sci fi stories. Basically, each decision creates a new timeline but doesn't erase the old one. So, you in timeline A go back and kill your grandfather in timeline A, creating timeline B where everything is different. However, timeline A still exists in parallel and so you (being from timeline A) still exist. This is the least problematic time travel variation.

Option #2 The future is erased as soon as you travel back. Nothing past the point of arrival ever happened and you and anything you brought back are now an "anomaly". Your actions now create the new future. Killing your grandfather doesn't do anything, because that future is gone but you are still "from there". Sort of like a copy and paste, I suppose.

Option #3 Time travel is impossible because, if it were possible, it would be happening constantly (because infinity) meaning that there is no such thing as reality at all. Reality would be in a blender.

Option #4 the grandfather paradox is alive and well but no one has discovered time travel YET. As soon as someone does, they go back in time, any tiny change they make disrupts the future (doesn't need to be as severe as killing an ancestor - the butterfly effect suggests that a no number of tiny alterations might stop you from existing, stop time travel being invented, change future motivations etc.) and then the paradox activates and the universe implodes from that point onwards. Luckily, the first person to discover it didn't travel back as far as 2015 in human years.

:clap1::clap1::clap1: This excellent post actually says all that I was going to post, and a hell of a lot more. So no more to be said really.

[Northern Monkey]

Did you watch Interstellar?

Yes!That was a very clever film.Really enjoyed it.

[Northern Monkey]

There really is no 'right' time in the universe is there?Everything in the universe travels at its own time frame depending on the speed it's traveling.If an object is in close proximity to another object(like us to the sun and the sun to the galaxy) etc then it travels faster due to its orbit and the faster an object travels then the slower time around it goes.Is that right?That's my basic understanding.

Also add on top of that the fact that everything is traveling through space.The galaxy's etc which also has an effect on time.

Time really is relative.

[Northern Monkey]

The "time travel" in interstellar is (effectively) the same principle... The characters don't travel through time more quickly than anyone else, everyone else just keeps aging and time moves on around them while they are "frozen" (moving very, very slowly in relativity to those outside the time distortion)
Is'nt there a part in Interstellar where one of them stays on the ship and a team go down to the surface of a planet but because the planet is so close to a black hole time travels much faster for them.When they get back up to the ship the guy who stayed behind has aged like 20 years or something?

[Ashley.]

Well, since he is my father´s father, if he is killed, my father wouldn´t exist, meaning i probably wouldn´t exist either.

But if you didn't exist then who killed your grandfather? :shrug:

[user104658]

Is'nt there a part in Interstellar where one of them stays on the ship and a team go down to the surface of a planet but because the planet is so close to a black hole time travels much faster for them.When they get back up to the ship the guy who stayed behind has aged like 20 years or something?


Yeah time distortions are a huge part of the film, there's that one and also another involving the black hole at the end that passes another 50 or 60 years or something so that the guy is still the same age at the end of the film when he gets home but his daughter is 90+ and they've built space stations and loads of other tech using the information he managed to send to them

[Calderyon]

not necessarily, maybe your father has already been born and continues to exist, so killing your grandfather wouldn't change anything.

Is your grandfather still alive? if you killed him tomorrow would you cease to exist?

I presumed she meant, that my grandfather was killed, before my father had been conceived by my grandfather and -mother.

[Northern Monkey]

Yeah time distortions are a huge part of the film, there's that one and also another involving the black hole at the end that passes another 50 or 60 years or something so that the guy is still the same age at the end of the film when he gets home but his daughter is 90+ and they've built space stations and loads of other tech using the information he managed to send to them

Oh yeah!He meets his daughter again on a space station and she's really old

[Ashley.]

I presumed she meant, that my grandfather was killed, before my father had been conceived by my grandfather and -mother.

But it's a paradox, isn't it?

You kill your grandfather, so you cease to exist, so then nobody could've killed your grandfather. So is your grandfather still alive? :shrug: That's what this thread is for :laugh:

[Ashley.]

Didn't Futurama solve this one a few years ago, you just have to sleep with your Grandmother to ensure that you still exist

:laugh:

I don't think it can be solved unless someone actually did it.

[waterhog]

Well you would cease to exist if your Grandfather and Grandmother haven't had your parent yet.


I was going to say this - well done mock.


I did do biology but I flunked it.

[Ammi]

...nothing would change surely...you would just be there thinking about going back in time to kill your grandfather..if you actually went back and killed him then you wouldn't exist so he would still be alive and you do exist but are unable to go back../if that makes sense...I'm not even sure it does to me...

[lostalex]

There really is no 'right' time in the universe is there?Everything in the universe travels at its own time frame depending on the speed it's traveling.If an object is in close proximity to another object(like us to the sun and the sun to the galaxy) etc then it travels faster due to its orbit and the faster an object travels then the slower time around it goes.Is that right?That's my basic understanding.

Also add on top of that the fact that everything is traveling through space.The galaxy's etc which also has an effect on time.

Time really is relative.

this is the best explanation i think.

the only way to travel back in time would be to travel faster than the expansion of the universe itself, because the only real measure of time is how quickly;y the universe is expanding, but you can never travel so quickly towards the center of the universe that you could see the beginning of the universe, because it's already happened. The beginning of the universe has already happened, and really we are just watching the consequences of that at varying speeds.

[lostalex]

also there is the idea of re-incarnation...if re-incarnation is real then you would still exist no matter who your grandfather was, because your soul would still be put into a body, it's not about genetics if you believe in re-incarnation.

[Northern Monkey]

this is the best explanation i think.

the only way to travel back in time would be to travel faster than the expansion of the universe itself, because the only real measure of time is how quickly;y the universe is expanding, but you can never travel so quickly towards the center of the universe that you could see the beginning of the universe, because it's already happened. The beginning of the universe has already happened, and really we are just watching the consequences of that at varying speeds.Well yeah that sounds logical.Except there are theories that if you could bend time like folding a piece of paper then maybe instead of following the piece of paper(time) round the bend you could travel directly between the two sides(points in time),Maybe by going through a worm hole(if they exist) bypassing the bend(the timeline) and traveling back to a point that has already happened(the past).
I think it's unlikely to ever be possible but who am i?

[Ramsay]

If you went back in time it would be a different universe. so it's true that you would never be born in that timeline, but it wouldn't affect the timeline you came from at all. There are tons of different parallel universes and timelines.

Pretty much what i've always thought also.

[Samuel.]

If you went back in time it would be a different universe. so it's true that you would never be born in that timeline, but it wouldn't affect the timeline you came from at all. There are tons of different parallel universes and timelines.

This.

I don't believe there are already existing parallel timelines though, but I believe the first to travel backwards in time would effectively create one. But then, who knows if it's already happened and this is a parallel timeline?

I don't believe it's possible anyway.

[Crimson Dynamo]

you cant go back in time is the actual answer

[Kizzy]

If the concept of time shifts and slips in space and time/dimensions are so acceptable then why not the idea of shuffling off the mortal coil... to another when we die?

[Ashley.]

This.

I don't believe there are already existing parallel timelines though, but I believe the first to travel backwards in time would effectively create one. But then, who knows if it's already happened and this is a parallel timeline?

I don't believe it's possible anyway.

It's an interesting thought though. One little change made 200 years ago could affect us today. It's the reason why I'm glad time travel doesn't exist.

[BBfanUSA]

Personally I believe in the multiverse theory because you'd could be creating a time paradox by killing your grandfather, if he died before your parent was conceived, then you would cease to exist, therefore you're unable to kill your grandfather, thus bringing him back to life

[Crimson Dynamo]

If the concept of time shifts and slips in space and time/dimensions are so acceptable then why not the idea of shuffling off the mortal coil... to another when we die?

kizzy when you die nothing is going to happen, stop reaching :joker:

[Northern Monkey]

It's an interesting thought though. One little change made 200 years ago could affect us today. It's the reason why I'm glad time travel doesn't exist.
But how do you know it does'nt exist?It might already have happened:laugh:
This reality may just be one of many.

[Jessica.]

You can't guess anything exists unless there is proof to be honest. You can hope all you want but factually it doesn't exist. :)

[Livia]

Y'all need to watch The Butterfly Effect.

[arista]

[If you went back in time and killed your grandfather, what would happen?]


We are unable to travel back in time
but with high powered faster travel
we will jump ahead in time

[Jamie89]

I suppose if you go back to kill your grandfather before you were born, then by definition of the scenario where you are in the past, you are already living in a world where it is possible to exist without having been born. And so killing him shouldn't make any difference to you in terms of the 'if he's dead you would never be born' problem. If you catch my drift?

Alternatively if you want to kill your grandfather AND travel through time without igniting the grandfather paradox, you could just travel to last week and kill him (assuming he was alive last week).

[bots]

Its pretty clear really, if its possible to travel back in time, it can only be within your own time line and therefore you can only go back to the point you were born, making it impossible to have killed your grandfather before you were born. Time only has relevance after the point you existed, it didn't exist before then.

[user104658]

This.

I don't believe there are already existing parallel timelines though, but I believe the first to travel backwards in time would effectively create one. But then, who knows if it's already happened and this is a parallel timeline?

I don't believe it's possible anyway.

If time travel is possible though, the very concepts of "already" and "first" are meaningless, because the existence of time travel means that time is not linear. If it can happen, it has happened, and it has always happened.

Again - unless, of course, time travel was first invented in say the year 3020... And they went back to the year 2867... And that activated a paradox that completely screwed up space time. In which case we might coast along until 2867 and then POP the whole universe collapses in on itself. :joker:

[user104658]

Y'all need to watch The Butterfly Effect.
D: No one needs to watch The Butterfly Effect, it's awful!

Plus irrelevant to the grandfather paradox because in the Butterfly Effect rules you timetravel within your own consciousness and so (in that example) the furthest back you could go is being a fetus. I guess you could maybe hang yourself on the umbilical cord as a sort of self-abortion...

[Johnnyuk123]

you cant go back in time is the actual answer

erm... have you not watched Groundhog Day? :nono:

:joker: