1238
You fools. (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by [M] to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] 12 points 1 year ago (5 children)

This raises an interesting question: if some time traveler really did tamper with things, what would the evidence look like? Is there anything that could have only happened with knowledge from a now defunct timeline?

Then there's the horror that it is actually happening and this is somebody's idea of a repaired timeline.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    I don't think there ever could be observable evidence of a changed timeline. Especially nothing stupid like Marty slowly fading out of existence in Back to the Future.

    But tbh, I'm not sure going into the past to change something is actually possible in most cases without creating some sort of time paradox. Interacting with the future shouldn't cause any problems, but the past is probably set in stone. After all, if I went back in time to assassinate hitler, there is no reason for future me to go back in time to kill hitler since he was already killed, causing hitler to never get assassinated. And on and on it loops.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Ignoring space for a moment, it depends whether you see time as a single - linear - dimension, or as a set of n dimensions.

    If time can only exist as a single dimension, then yes, we'd have a paradox.

    If time is two-(or more)-dimensional, then you'd just step into a parallel timeline/dimension for every change made, forsaking the old timeline Steins' Gate-style.

    Obviously, 2+ dimensional time cannot be proven, so it's just a fun thought experiment. It's not entirely unlike the hypothetical 4th dimension of space - which would leave space-time with 4 dimensions of space and one of time.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    If you take the interpretation of the Participatory Anthropic Universe (that we in the present brought the past into being through consensus observation/recollection), then you in the present will maybe have some loose memories associated to how the world used to be, but everyone else who still exists will have their memories overridden with the events you set in place. BackToTheFuture-style.

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