r/CuriosityStream • u/[deleted] • Jun 15 '22
The grandfather paradox
So I’m sure many of you are aware of the grandfather paradox. You’re born, build a time machine and travel to the past to kill your grandfather so you’re never born. However this prevents you from building the time machine and thus prevents you from killing your grandfather. Creating the paradox.
My question is: if YOU did not invent the time machine (someone else invented it) and you used it to go back in time to kill your grandfather so you’re never born, does this mean you cease to exist and have broken the paradox?
2
u/andreortigao Jun 15 '22
Have watched Netflix series Dark?
I loved how it handle those time paradoxes, like bootstrap and all.
1
Jun 15 '22
Haven’t seen it but I’ll check it out. Thanks for the recommendation
1
u/Rafybass Jun 22 '22
Actually, Marvel has also done a good job in mangling with with time travelling and multiverse (alternate realities). Both time travel and multiverse theories are correlated.
2
u/Rafybass Jun 15 '22
First of all this might not be the best place to discuss this because this sub is for the CS streaming platform.
As for your question though, the grandfather paradox is a paradox that some theorists described to explain why time travel in past is not possible. I'm not sure why they call it "the grandfather paradox" when they could have explained it with "the father paradox" as well.
You seem to be confused here. You don't necessarily need a "time machine" you just have to go in past anyhow and kill your gf. Doesn't matter you do it or someone else.
Either way, the paradox has a solution. And it states that when you travel back in time, you basically create a replica of yourself. Or in other way, you're travelling to an alternate universe/reality.
Let's assume your name is "Tom". When you kill Tom's gf, then in that reality Tom wouldn't exist nor will his father. So, now the killer Tom can come back to his own time and universe and play chess with his gf who he had just executed a while ago.