From: shobaki@gummo.cse.ogi.edu (Khaldoun Shobaki)
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.astro,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Fossil Paradox (was: Structure of Time)
Date: 12 Aug 92 20:21:59 GMT
Article-I.D.: ogicse.41256
Distribution: world
Organization: Oregon Graduate Institute - Computer Science & Engineering

In article <1992Aug12.164703.4068@wdl.loral.com> mab@wdl39.wdl.loral.com (Mark A Biggar) writes:
>In article <1992Aug12.091957.14414@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> cpyy@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes:
>
>I've heard this called the "fixed point" theory of why ther are no vistors
>from the future.  Now all we have to do is show that the sheaf of universes
>where noone every get around to inventing time travel is an stable 
>attractor and we're done.
>
>--
>Mark Biggar
>mab@wdl1.wdl.loral.com

Well, I'm no physicist, yet....but that is going to be my major, so I 
am going to take a whack at this one...

First a bit of set-up:

The situation: 	-Fred lives in the year 1992 (call this PRESENT #1)
		-Fred goes into the past of PRESENT #1 and kills his father
		 (call the past of PRESENT #1 PAST #1)
		
What will happen (I think ;-)):

		At the exact moment when Fred kills his father, he will be,
		in effect creating a new reality (call the point where his
		father dies PAST #2, with a corresponding PRESENT #2)
		So, in PRESENT #2, there is no Fred, or Fred's dad, since
		Fred's dad is dead in PAST #2.  Unfortunately for Fred, he 
		cannot go to PRESENT #2 since he cannot exist there, so Fred
		can only return to PRESENT #1, or some permutation of PRESENT
		#1.  This would mean that if it IS possible to travel in time,
		that even if you change a point in your past, that altered 
		past does not take effect for you, since by changing it, you 
		have created a new reality/universe.  Now if it you COULD move
		"up" a time/space permutation that you create...

I basically have alot of trouble accepting time travel if it has to fit within
our current understanding of the Universe.  Some of the things that bug me 
about it are:

-If you move anything back in time, then you are in effect creating new matter,
 and altering the Universe's total matter content...which is currently a no-no

-Also, the movement of ANYTHING through time will create a paradox, since all
 matter is in existance somewhere all the time. eg If i went back 2 billion
 years, the matter in my body may be part of an asteroid, a puddle, and a
 breeze....

I guess this could all be explained by the infinite reality idea, since any 
irregular movement between times would just create a new reality with more mass
etc....

I probably just confused the subject more than I helped anything, but hey,
thats my job ;-)

-Kal

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