I was watching the 4400 last night. It was the episode where Mya gets re-taken and (possibly) sent back to a time before she was taken the first time. The reason behind this was because the 4400 hadn't done enough to change the future, and thus the fate, of all of humanity.
So my question is this. Can you change the past to affect the future? I was thinking about this, and it will probably not come out as well when typed out. If you want to change the present/future, so you go back in time to "change" something. Wouldn't that action of going back in time already have been a part of the current time line? Thus actually contributing to the current/future outcome?
Question about time travel. (possible 4400 spoilers)
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Patrick Degan
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Essentially, yes.Max wrote:If you want to change the present/future, so you go back in time to "change" something. Wouldn't that action of going back in time already have been a part of the current time line? Thus actually contributing to the current/future outcome?
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People pray so that God won't crush them like bugs.
—Dr. Gregory House
Oil an emergency?! It's about time, Brigadier, that the leaders of this planet of yours realised that to remain dependent upon a mineral slime simply doesn't make sense.
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—Abraham Lincoln
People pray so that God won't crush them like bugs.
—Dr. Gregory House
Oil an emergency?! It's about time, Brigadier, that the leaders of this planet of yours realised that to remain dependent upon a mineral slime simply doesn't make sense.
—The Doctor "Terror Of The Zygons" (1975)
I think it would largely depend on the structure of time and how it would deal with these paradoxes that you mention.
The universe could prevent any sort of past time travel whatsoever, in order to keep itself logically sound. So it would be impossible to travel backwards in time (as attempting it would kill you), or you would be unable to interact with anything in the past, or as Patrick Degan said, everything you do inevitably leads to the future you remember.
Alternatively, the act of time travel could create a separate timeline where you can significantly alter the future. You still have originated in your own timeline, so even if you prevent your birth in the new timeline you have created, this doesn't result in a paradox. This interpretation, however, doesn't make much sense in the 4400 situation you describe; there would still be a timeline (the original one) where the 4400's efforts were insufficient, making this effort relatively pointless.
I can't think of any possible way that you (an object from a very particular future) can enter the past and be able to change anything (on the same timeline), as this would affect the existence of the you that traveled into the past.
The universe could prevent any sort of past time travel whatsoever, in order to keep itself logically sound. So it would be impossible to travel backwards in time (as attempting it would kill you), or you would be unable to interact with anything in the past, or as Patrick Degan said, everything you do inevitably leads to the future you remember.
Alternatively, the act of time travel could create a separate timeline where you can significantly alter the future. You still have originated in your own timeline, so even if you prevent your birth in the new timeline you have created, this doesn't result in a paradox. This interpretation, however, doesn't make much sense in the 4400 situation you describe; there would still be a timeline (the original one) where the 4400's efforts were insufficient, making this effort relatively pointless.
I can't think of any possible way that you (an object from a very particular future) can enter the past and be able to change anything (on the same timeline), as this would affect the existence of the you that traveled into the past.
*beats chest*
Scifi has shown a variety of time travel types. In some series, the timeline is a single time loop like Futurama. Thats how Fry became his own grandfather (don't ask). In other series, the timeline is actualy part of the multiverse and each jump is a jump into an alternate universe which is at a different time (Stargate). And some series seem to show a combination of the two (Star Trek).
"If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, pound on the law. If neither is on your side, pound on the table."
"The captain claimed our people violated a 4,000 year old treaty forbidding us to develop hyperspace technology. Extermination of our planet was the consequence. The subject did not survive interrogation."
"The captain claimed our people violated a 4,000 year old treaty forbidding us to develop hyperspace technology. Extermination of our planet was the consequence. The subject did not survive interrogation."
Yeah, I prefer to think that if time travel were possible, then it would remain within our universe, but already be a part of 'history', which of course essentially means that fate exists, since all events including you travelling through time exist already and thus anything you do in the past would already have been a part of the events in your history- and thus a predetermined future must be laid out ahead of you to lead to the departure event again and so on. It makes it all much simpler without worrying about alternate realities and paradoxes as a result.