What Is Time Travel Paradox?
If the great scientist Stephen Hawking was afraid of anything, it was the Time Travel Paradox. Stephen Hawking was afraid that a time traveler from the future might travel to our era and destroy our world. Stephen Hawking believed that time travel is possible, and time travel can be done in all three periods: past, present, and future. But Stephen Hawking believed that time travel into the past could destroy the world. If someone time travels into the past for just one minute, that too can put the world in danger. Now you will say, what will happen if you go back in time for just one minute? So, Stephen Hawking explains it with an example.
Kill Yourself Paradox
To understand the time travel paradox, we need to understand this ‘Kill Yourself Paradox’. Suppose there is a crazy scientist who is experimenting on time travel. He wants to know if he goes to the past and tampers with things, will it have any effect on the present. That crazy scientist made a time machine that can take him back only 1 minute in time. That scientist goes back 1 minute in time and sees himself. As soon as he sees himself, he shoots his past self and kills himself. Now what will be its effect on the present? In the present, its effect will be that he died just a minute before time travel. But the question arises: who killed him? Now you will say that he himself went back 1 minute and shot himself. But here again a question arises: If he had died 1 minute before time travel, then how can he time travel now? If he cannot time travel at all, then how can he go back 1 minute and shoot himself? If he did not shoot himself, then how did he die? Who was it that killed him?
Our universe works on some principles. The universe has its own rules, which cannot be broken. For any event to happen in the universe, there must be some reason. No event can happen without a reason. Similarly, things cannot be changed by time travelling to the past, because if we do any tampering by time travelling to the past, we will break the rules of the universe. And it is not possible for us to break the rules of the universe. If this becomes possible, then this world will be in danger.
Grandfather Paradox
Now we come back to our previous question: who was the one who killed that crazy scientist? Actually, in this scenario, you must be understanding one thing: that the scientist has died, that is, the event has happened, but what is the reason for that event? It is not clear. As I said earlier, the rule of this universe is that for any event to happen, there must be some reason. This is called ‘Cause and Effect’. Going back in time gives birth to the effect, but its cause ends. This situation is like the ‘Grandfather Paradox’. For example, if you time travel and go to the era when your grandfather was a child and you kill him, then you will give birth to an effect without any cause. This means that if your grandfather died in childhood, then your father should not have been born. When your father was not born, then how can you be born? And if you were never born, then who was the one who killed your grandfather? Now you must be wondering that if things cannot be changed by going back in time, then is it possible to time travel to the past?
Hawking’s Time Traveller Party
The same question came to Stephen Hawking’s mind, and to know the answer to this, he did a strange experiment. He decided to invite all the time travellers coming from the future. Stephen Hawking organised a party in which invitations were sent to time travellers coming from the future. His experiment was such that Stephen Hawking got the food items prepared on the table and gave 12 o’clock time to all the time travellers to come to the party. But the funny thing was that he organised the party but did not send invitations to anyone before the party. There were only a few moments left for the party to start. Stephen Hawking’s eyes were fixed on the ticking of the clock and on the door, from where the time travellers had to come in. As soon as it was exactly 12:00, Stephen Hawking looked towards the door. Some time passed, but no one came to his party. When the party was over, Stephen Hawking printed invitation cards to invite the time travellers and circulated them on the internet, etc. Stephen Hawking’s party invitation is still out today. You can see this invitation from Stephen Hawking on your screen, which has the coordinates of the party location, date, and time. If you can travel to the past by time, then the great scientist Stephen Hawking is waiting for you. Do attend his party.
Predestination Paradox
According to the grandfather paradox, it is not possible to go back in time. Even if we go back in time, we cannot change the things there. And if we try to change things, we will remain trapped in that loop of time. The events that we try to change, we will become the means to cause those events to happen. Meaning, we cannot do any tampering with this timeline. If we do so, then time itself will make us pawns to cause that event to happen. This concept is explained better in the ‘Predestination Paradox’. Let’s understand this with an example: Suppose your friend is driving at a very high speed. Suddenly he gets distracted, and his car collides with a tree, causing his death. When you learn about this accident, you feel very sad. Fortunately, you have a time machine with which you can travel back in time. You think, why not go back in time and save your friend? You reach the same time and place in the time machine where your friend is about to have an accident. You see that your friend is driving very fast, and you signal him to stop. Your friend looks at you, but the speed of the car is so fast that, due to distraction, his car hits a tree and he dies. Now you feel even more sad because this time your friend died because of you. You again think of trying once more and going back in time to save him. You reach the same place, but this time you see that your second form is already there, and he is also trying to save your friend. Your friend is coming towards you very fast, and your first form is shouting loudly to stop him. You realise that if your friend hears the voice of your first form, he will get distracted, and he will again hit the car into the tree. So, you run to silence your first form. But in the meantime, your friend’s attention turns towards you, and this time too, his attention is diverted. The car collides with a tree, and he meets with an accident. Predestination paradox means that an event that is already certain cannot be changed. And that event will happen only because of you. In this way you get stuck in a time loop, and any attempt to make any change fails.
Why no one came to Hawking’s Party?
Friends, time travel paradox sounds easy, but in reality it is very difficult. But there is a theory of ‘multiverse’, through which these paradoxes of time travel can be resolved and time can also be tampered with by going to the past. Let’s go back to Stephen Hawking’s party once again. Stephen Hawking had organised a party for time travellers, but no time travellers came to that party. Why? Different reasons are given behind this:
- The first reason could be that time travel will never be possible, due to which no one reached Stephen Hawking’s party.
- The second reason could be that when the time machine will be made in the future, by then Stephen Hawking’s invitation will have been destroyed, due to which the time travellers of the future will not know about the party.
- The third reason could be that humans may not be able to survive for long in the future. It is possible that humans may have been wiped out due to some natural disaster or world war, due to which there was no opportunity to make a time machine in the future.
- The fourth reason could be that perhaps a time machine can only travel towards the future, not the past.
- The fifth reason could be that time travellers are afraid of the time travel paradox, and so they deliberately decided not to come to Stephen Hawking’s party.
- The sixth reason could be that all the time travellers came to Stephen Hawking’s party, and they also attended the party, but that reality started on a new timeline, which you can call the multiverse. Whatever the reason, Stephen Hawking’s party is proof that perhaps a time machine has not been made in the future yet.
Conclusion
In conclusion, time travel paradox arise from potential contradictions and inconsistencies that arise when past or future events are altered. The most notable of these paradoxes is the ‘Grandfather paradox’, where a time traveler’s past actions can prevent their own existence from happening.
Time travel paradox is still a topic of conjecture, mostly controlled by the laws of physics, such as Einstein’s theory of relativity, which permits the idea of time dilation, even though theoretical models like multiverse theory and Novikov’s self-consistency principle try to address these paradoxes. The time travel paradox remain intriguing thought puzzles that test our knowledge of time, causality, and the cosmos, but there is currently no empirical evidence to support the possibility of time travel.
nice