[Ashley.]

[Mystic Mock]

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

[waterhog]

Originally Posted by Mystic Mock

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...

[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

[Ashley.]

Originally Posted by 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

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

[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.

[Ramsay]

Originally Posted by 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.

Pretty much what i've always thought also.

[Samuel.]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[Ashley.]

Originally Posted by Samuel.

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.

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by Ashley.

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
This reality may just be one of many.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Samuel.

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.

[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.

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by lostalex

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

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.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Northern Monkey

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]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

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?

[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.

[kirklancaster]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

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.

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.

[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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by lostalex

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?