Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Day 27 : Temporal Paradox

A temporal paradox, time paradox, or time travel paradox is a paradox, an apparent contradiction, or a logical contradiction that is associated with the idea of time and time travel.

And this is something that has been around for as long as we've had science fiction. Some of the best grossing movies of all time are based on time travel. Most of them end up the same way. How all our attempts to change the present only causes the past to repeat itself. Take 11.22.63 for example, both the book and the new TV show. It is like a cautionary tale for any nerd who dreams of travelling to the past and change it. It does have an brilliant ending though, will make you weep.

Time travel does that all the time apparently. Every single story they've written around it has ended with mourning and bitter disappointment. Including this week's Game of Thrones episode, which has got everyone weeping rivers of tears.



There is thing called causal loop. Doctor Who goes on and on about it a bunch of times. It is inevitable. You see your present is built by your past. So if you go to the past and change something to benefit your future, the present as you knew it doesn't exist any more. It becomes something else, something unforeseen. There are a lot different variations of this, the grandfather paradox, Novikov self-consistency principle. I confess I've only spent a little over a weekend on them. But I think I have learnt enough to say this much, this is way too complicated. There is no real way to just go in change what we want to and not mess shit up. 

Damn. That episode though. right in the guts. I remember right from the beginning in both books and show, everyone asking why Hodor used that one word for everything. Now we know. Because this wise-ass Bran went back in time used his mind of the past to get to his mind in the present to execute his will. Well the needle got stuck at 'Hold the door' which became Hodor, the only word the kid would ever know. And this is how people would know him in future, including Bran.

Paradox.

Your past crafts your present which is a stepping stone into your future. Things has to go through a series of specific sequence of events and actions. That is how things got to way things are now, and how things will turn in the future. Even a little deviation in those events are going to change a lot of things as we know it. People are trying to figure out a way out of this loop for ages. No progress yet. End of story.


There. We have just solved Time Travel. Pfft.

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