boabys time travel paradox (a little confusion i thought up)

this is something i was thinking about the other day, it blew my mind and made me laugh... ill post it here, its kind of a chain of questions which unexpectedly led me to a great little paradox!

boabys paradox - from my brain and chat to my friend the other night

i decided, im going to give my whole life to the reaserch and discovery or time travel, and come back in 5 minutes time to shake hands with myself.

i waited 5 minutes, and nothing happened, i waited another 5 minutes and still nothing happened.

i guess i was a bad physicist, or that time travel is not possible, or i have got my calculations slightly off and ended up in the wrong time.

but, did me not coming back in time stop me becoming a physicist, because i have proof that as a physicist i will never reach my goal of time travel.

Has my poor time calculations , poor physics or just the thought that i have already failed at physics so dont need to try stopped me traveling in time. (or even just becoming a physicist)

(these questions just seem to repeat after here, or be pretty much the same as previous questions i asked myself.)

answers on a postcard please... what has stopped me potentialy being a physicist and traveling in time, as i 100% know i have already failed at this in the future as i have not shook hands with myself.

[edit on 26-2-2010 by boaby_phet]

makes you think that a future you exists? Perhaps the future is a blank slate, waiting to be overwritten by the advancing present time. If this is so, a future you or a future anything won't ever exist, at least not until the present reaches the time in question. Ok, so your future physicist self cannot go back in time because time hasn't reached the future yet. Get it? I don't know if I'm explaining this as clear as I can.

Think of it like this. Time is a mountain. The bottom is the past. The top is the future. You are climbing the mountain, and you represent the present. To time travel backwards in this analogy, you must first climb the mountain. Starting at the bottom, you climb all the way to the top. Then you jump down and bam, time travel! Now, could you have jumped down if YOU were still at the bottom? Does that make any sense?

Maybe you got very close in your older years...and then the reptilian space-agents had the NWO wack you in your sleep the day before you were about to become the first time traveler.

Hey...you never know.

PS-Some people on ATS are aliens...

Maybe you did come back and shake hands with yourself but it all happened so fast you (both) missed it.



Try it again with a high fps video camera to try and record it.

[edit on 26/2/2010 by nerbot]

Originally posted by fleetlord
makes you think that a future you exists? Perhaps the future is a blank slate, waiting to be overwritten by the advancing present time. If this is so, a future you or a future anything won't ever exist, at least not until the present reaches the time in question. Ok, so your future physicist self cannot go back in time because time hasn't reached the future yet. Get it? I don't know if I'm explaining this as clear as I can.

Think of it like this. Time is a mountain. The bottom is the past. The top is the future. You are climbing the mountain, and you represent the present. To time travel backwards in this analogy, you must first climb the mountain. Starting at the bottom, you climb all the way to the top. Then you jump down and bam, time travel! Now, could you have jumped down if YOU were still at the bottom? Does that make any sense?

I remember a great philosopher once saying, "Always in motion, the future is"

reply to post by Paladin327


hehehe thats a nice line, was the philosopher george lucas?

even if it is , its a good line! and totally true.

this paradox got me thinking on another line similar to this, basicly, if you believe in fate then timetravel is pointless ... i need to think about this one again, i have forgot the point of it... im still confused to wether im going to be a crap physicist, or wether me knowing im not going to travel in time has stopped me trying.

reply to post by boaby_phet


Nice try, but you did, in fact, come back and shake hands with yourself.

Admit it.

Here's a nice article about time travel