Why is our worldline so special?

Timmy G

Timmy G

Member
Messages
167
Why is our worldline so special?

But I've found another paradox on JT story: if he told the truth (wars, nukes etc) then it means he will become VERY famous next years. And if he will be so famous, he should have known about himself before leaving 2036.
Click to expand...

Perhaps " John Titor " wasn't his real name. Maybe JT is famous in the future, but what's it matter when the name doesn't match up to the guy who actually started all this?

...... just a thought.
 
J

Judge Bean

Senior Member
Messages
1,257
Why is our worldline so special?

Originally posted by Timmy G@Oct 31 2004, 07:12 AM
But I've found another paradox on JT story: if he told the truth (wars, nukes etc) then it means he will become VERY famous next years. And if he will be so famous, he should have known about himself before leaving 2036.
Click to expand...

Perhaps " John Titor " wasn't his real name. Maybe JT is famous in the future, but what's it matter when the name doesn't match up to the guy who actually started all this?

...... just a thought.
​
Click to expand...


I don't find anything in the Titor text that shows that he wasn't famous in 2036 or in 2005, but it wouldn't matter anyway, since he wouldn't have been famous until he made his trip through time, and, having made the trip, he would have changed 2036 to include his "new" fame.
 
J

JediStryker

Member
Messages
255
Why is our worldline so special?

There is a solution to all this, and I think that it explains many of time travel's paradoxes and why they could never occur.

I am going to explain this the best way I can with crude character-drawings, so please bear with me. I am sure this idea has been posited before, but I have never heard it explained this way so I will submit it anyway. In this example, this is the first instance of time travel ever in history (or the future!), so please bear with me.

Alright, first we'll start at the beginning of time. Whether you believe this to be about 6000 years ago or 600 billion years ago, time was just a straight, no-nonsense line:


Time (not the magazine)
(Start) __________________________________________ (Future -- Is there an end?)


Now, for us to accept that time travel is possible from future to past, we must also accept that the time line already has extended to that future. Whether this means that time already exists in all places at once, or that we are actually existing in the past and not the present (or future!) or what have you, is not important. What is important is that we must accept that a person from the future exists and is about to use a working time machine to visit us from the future. (And perhaps to take the time and chat with us on our message board!)

So our little traveler hops into his time machine and with his little microsingularity breaks all physical laws and barriers and begins a harrowing journey through time.



(Start)__________________________________________(Future)
(Present)----------------------------------------/ (time traveler)


Wow! A real time traveler in our present. But wait. Now we have a problem. What if this guy's singularity accidentally killed his mother and father on their first date!? Great Scott! The timeline is instantly vaporized, and we all are doomed to the todash and their infernal chimes.

Unless...time itself had a way of compensating for this, as Stephen Hawking insists that it must. For a long time his insistance was that time travel was impossible simply because of the paradox inherint in such a trip. Now, though, even he accepts the possibility that time travel may indeed be a possibility. So what does nature do to protect itself?

It creates a NEW timeline! From the instant that the time traveler hit the "present", his actions created a new timeline, exactly the same as the original except for his existence.


(Start)___________________________________________(Future of the ORIGINAL timeline)
\______________________________________
(Start of NEW timeline) (Future of NEW timeline)

Holy crap. This guy, by the simple (lol) act of traveling back in time, has created a COMPLETELY NEW TIMELINE. What incredible power! But wait a second...isn't it the ORIGINAL timeline that sent him back in time? What the heck is in it for them.

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. They will never see their time traveler again. Thus, the usefulness of time travel is ZIP, ZERO, NADA for the people sending the time traveler away. The only ones who benefit are those existing in the NEW timeline. Weird, huh?

But wait. If the time traveler from the ORIGINAL timeline went to a new one, surely the odds are that a time traveler from another timeline would visit ours.

NO! These time travelers are not hopping between EXISTING timelines. THEY ARE CREATING NEW ONES!

So what does this mean for the original timeline? They will NEVER see a time traveler that they have sent back into the past again, and thus time travel is a completely useless technology for them.

Now, what would happen if this time traveler in the original timeline went even further back than before to get past the point he created the new timeline to get back to the original one.


(Start)________________________________________(Future of the ORIGINAL timeline)
\ \___________________________(Future of SECOND timeline)
\____________________________________(Future of NEW timeline)

Dammit. All he did was create a new, third timeline. Now, not only has he created two new timelines, he cannot get back to either the original or the second timeline.

Now, he can travel FORWARD along the same timeline. He can get to the future of the third timeline, because going into the future does not ALTER an already existing timeline.

What this means for each timeline however, is that they can have only ONE person who has traveled into the past existing in that timeline. If someone from the THIRD timeline were to travel back in time...


(Start)________________________________________(Future of the ORIGINAL timeline)
\ \___________________________(Future of SECOND timeline)
\____________________________________(Future of THIRD timeline)
\_____________________________(Future of NEW timeline)

Time travel would be absolutely useless to whatever timeline created the time machine in the first place.

This is my theory. Thanks for reading.
 
A

Alyxavior

Member
Messages
241
Why is our worldline so special?

Well..if he's not famous then....we're sure creating the timeline to make him so...then again...maybe it will be "infamous" and not "famous"

*wink*
 
J

JediStryker

Member
Messages
255
Why is our worldline so special?

He's only famous in this timeline. Or any timelines created off of this one. In the original timeline, he disappeared in 2035 and was never heard from again.
 
J

Judge Bean

Senior Member
Messages
1,257
Why is our worldline so special?

Originally posted by JediStryker@Nov 4 2004, 09:11 PM
He's only famous in this timeline. Or any timelines created off of this one. In the original timeline, he disappeared in 2035 and was never heard from again.
​
Click to expand...


This I think is exactly right.

When we get to 2036, they will look back and see that someone named Titor made the claim of being from 2036, but they will be no more able to verify his story than we are.
 

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