Let's time travel, shall we?

[grimorian]

One way to get past the paradox might be that once an event is changed in the past, the future is erased. But that would also cause the older protagonist to fade away as well... Unless he found a way to fix himself to a point in time in the future, (which if you can manage to time travel, shouldn't be so hard) then once that time was re-written, he'd be back in his home time, with all the changes that occurred from his intervening with his younger self. He'd just kind of be in a stasis until time caught up with him again.


I have a short story I wrote a few years ago that dealt with time travel... In my case though, I went with the fact that time, as we know it, doesn't really exist. Technically, there are no real days, weeks, years, etc... We live in the here and now and that's it. Basically, the main protagonist wanted to go back in time to prevent the death of his wife.

Using the date of her death as a reference point in time, created a one way machine to travel light speeds backwards... And in a very twilight zone-ish twist, he does indeed manage to go back to the point in the earths time that would be perceived as 1979, but there was nothing there. Since "time" doesn't freeze, once something happens in the past, it's over and done with, and we move on. So he was indeed in 1979, but everybody had already moved on so the world was empty.

I might have to post it sometime if anyone's interested.

 

[Yog-Sothoth]

^That actually sounds like a very interesting story, reminds me a bit of Langoliers. You should post it at the critique.

Anyway, those are just a couple of my thoughts on the subject. I know they arent very well put together, or even fully formed. I apologize if it's no help at all.

I understood it, and thanks!

And Yog, Timecop was only one example of a story setup-and I didn't say it was a good one. All I suggested was that if he chose to follow through with ITS physics, not to have physical contact between the two selves.

That's the thing; the older version becomes a sort of a "big brother" to the younger version, and teaches him many skills, so there is physical contact in the form of combat training and typical human expressions such as a "high-five, or a hug etc, things that a big brother would do.

Will try to read more on this.

I was going to say something, but then I see Chris has made a better reply than I ever could. In that case, you are writing Fantasy and not Science-Fiction. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with that, in fact, you could go on and write anything which followed you 'own' set of rules, and no one could fault you, ever!

I wouldn't go that far, I intend to keep it realistic.

However, I'd still urge you that for some kind of consistency, you need to either stick to a 'Linear' idea of Time, or the 'Many Universes' idea. Swapping between the two when it suits (which TV shows frequently do) is something I hate.

I'm sorry to disappoint you friend; right now in my story "Time" is a incorporeal being that has imposed on time-travellers across the Universe the Novikov principle, which is a pre-condition to being allowed to travel through time, since there is the belief that no one can meddle with time. The protagonist in my story however right before the destruction of Earth discovers through a Physicist, that Time's imposed law isn't set in stone and the future guy is capable of changing the past and shape a new future, if he wishes so.("Many worlds" comes into play)

Because the older version's future is obliterated, he is considered death by time, and left alone to complete his mission, therefore he is "timeless" in a way. Eventually at the end of the story Time begins to feel changes in a specific timeline and seeks to correct it. He finds the Future guy there with the latter proclaiming he has honored the pre-condition, a suspicious Time however believes he is the anomaly he felt earlier and transports him back to his own timeline; the now destroyed pieces of Earth.

The regeneration of his hand will be explained in this way:

--

"Sir, earlier when you helped me against the Sabatine fighter, I noticed you had a metallic hand, what happened to it?"

"Listen kid, I represent an older version of you from a different timeline, any physical changes on you are immediately apparent on me, because of the future timezone I represent. Since you never lost your hand, the current timezone's natural reaction was to regenerate my hand because of my presence here."

--

I'm sure there is a hole somewhere in this explanation, but the important thing is that it sounds plausible.

Hey Yog,

A further idea just came to me- remembering First Contact, the Enterprise isn't effected by temporal changes because they're caught in the Borg's temporal wake when they time travel. Perhaps some kind of temporal shielding might be useful? However, then you have to deal with several other issues that arise, in that the shielded would effectively not exist as they would be existing outside of time.

Good stuff, I have alot of reading(and watching) to do on this subject.

 

[Boneman]

And of course you could revisit Doc Brown's explanation of parallel time flows in Back To The Future part 2, where he's chalking on the board - essentially the kid who had his hand cut off would still exist somewhere temporally in a different time flow, but your hero could end up with his hand back on again in his own time flow...

Good luck with it, Yog, you've got us all interested...

 

[GreenKidx]

Hey, Yog. Your tale has piqued my interest. Can't wait to read it. In my opinion your explanation sounds fine. I would, as a reader, accept that future guy was both accepted and recognized by time when he travels backwards, because time would register his molecular make up and merely consider him an extension of THAT times physical self. If time is sentient in your world, then space can be as well. And sp'ace can keep the secret that there are really two people in that one time not the one time believes. This would allow both heroes to live and touch in one period in time. Another side effect means that any and all physical changes happen to both. To enhance this method you can have the future hero de-aging and the young hero swiftly aging trying to reach a center point age.

 

[Yog-Sothoth]

Boneman, the Back To The Future films are classics, I recently bought the boxset, watched the first one, will get to the remaining ones probably in the weekend, or next week. Let's see what the Doc cooked up on the board.

Greenkidx,well said, that's what the story is evolving into the more I research the subject. I really like your answer to the "two beings of the same kind can't exist in the same time and space" problem, very helpful!

Thanks for the support, I intend to post a part of the story at the critique one day when I have made enough contributions, though this might take some time as whatever free time I have, I spend it more on writing my stories than surfing forums. Also when the time comes I might experiment with a few other stories first.