The Great Uncle Paradigm

Discussion in 'Physics & Math' started by Contemplation, Feb 20, 2023.

  1. Contemplation Registered Senior Member

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    Einstein claimed that the Grandfather Paradox was not solvable, and it meant that time travel to the past was actually impossible.

    It may in fact be the case that it is impossible, even if time travel is possible. What if there was a work around to this problem. What if instead of attempting to kill your own grandfather, you attempted to kill your great uncle or some other random stranger whom you have never met?

    It seems to stand to reason that someone should be able to accomplish that goal. What if you never met your great uncle? If you never met, then changing the past in this way wouldn’t have much of an effect on the present state of things.

    We live our day to day lives going to sleep each night and waking up every morning as if the past really didn’t influence us much at all. We are creatures of habit, and we begin to develop daily routines depending on our current situation.

    What if one year your great uncle decided to send you a birthday card with a check in it? Would this change things? I believe it would. In this case, you would no longer be able to kill your great uncle. Then what if you decided to send yourself the same birthday card with the same amount of money written on the check with his own handwriting? It starts to seem more likely that you would then be able to kill him.

    Then it appears as though your ability to be able to travel back in time to kill your great uncle depends on what decisions you end up making about your future.
     
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  3. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    This paradox has nothing to do with it being a grandfather rather than a great uncle or having met him or not. It's the butterfly effect applied to a little more specific case.

    You can't change the past without it changing the present. Sure it's a clearer scenario when you picture a grandfather, who would then no have a daughter who would then not have you but the concept is the same via any change.

    Then again, all this is obvious, isn't it?
     
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  5. Contemplation Registered Senior Member

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    Who actually does anything based on wind currents? The Butterfly Effect is real uncommon and very unlikely to occur, but if it sent a house flying on top of you like the witch in the Wizard of Oz, then it would clearly create a paradox.

    A weatherman may end up having more difficulty changing things in time than the average person, if it was at all possible. Most of the time, the person would only experience a very slight change in the motions of the air. It would most likely go unnoticed.

    If this change in the air molecules went unnoticed, then it wouldn’t have much of any chance of preventing the same series of events from recurring through time.
     
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  7. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

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    Wind patterns effect weather, and weather can have an effect on your life. I'll give you an example from real life. Years ago,( in the '90s) I worked a swing-shift and had a long commute home. One night there was a train crash involving two trains that threw cars onto the nearby freeway. I drove through that section of freeway on my commute home, and on this night had passed it just minutes prior to the crash.
    The accident was put down to one of the trains missing a caution light due to fog. If wind patterns had been just slightly different, no fog, no crash. Or, in my case, maybe it could have been just a bit thicker, causing me to drive a bit slower, so that I arrived at that point of the freeway when the crash occurred and was hit and killed by one of those tossed railway cars.
     

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