Solving the Assassin Paradox: A Q&A with Adrian

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In summary, the Italian driver of the neutrinos violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics by tidying up his beam along the way to Earth.
  • #1
AdrianMay
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Hi all,

I've heard it said that if I could send a message faster than light, then another inertial observer would think it was going back in time. If the message was to hire an assassin to kill me before I sent the message, we'd have a paradox.

I'd like to understand the details of this. Suppose I ask some Italian to drive a bunch of neutrinos to Mars at e.g. 2c with my suicide note. Major Tom is also driving to Mars at .99c and sees the message arrive before I sent it. But this Martian assassin can't do much to me from there. He's going to have to bounce the neutrinos back to Earth to ask one of his human friends to do it.

Tom now has a choice. If he keeps driving in the same direction, he'll perceive the return message as incredibly slow. If he turns around, he's encroaching on the twins paradox. I'm not sure where the latter option leads to, but his erratic driving certainly casts doubt on his validity as an inertial observer. As far as I'm concerned, the assassin arrived when I expected him to, long after I sent the message.

So what's the problem?

Anyway, wouldn't it be nice if we had zero-energy tachyons to go at infinite speed - that would solve Einstein's biggest objection to QM, namely that observations are presumed to change the wavefunction at all points in space instantaneously.

Adrian.
 
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  • #2
AdrianMay said:
Hi all,
I've heard it said that if I could send a message faster than light, then another inertial observer would think it was going back in time. If the message was to hire an assassin to kill me before I sent the message, we'd have a paradox.
Why do you think that is a paradox?
After all the assassin clearly failed his mission because you are alive!
 
  • #3
You might be interested in my replies in this thread, and also this post. (Make sure to scroll down to #138 to see the correction of a typo).
 
  • #4
Hi Passionflower,

It's not me, I just heard a rumour that everybody else thinks so.

Hi Fredrik,

I guess the Alice-Bob thing is indeed a paradox.

In the meantime, I thought of another aspect: you lose the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Suppose you punch out some morse code on your 2c neutrino torch towards a receiver on Mars. The spaceman is going to be a bit suspicious that what looks like a receptor on Mars is shooting out neutrinos that are getting hoovered up by a torch on earth, but let's suppose he thinks no more of that. The problem is if there's a bit of space dust in the way and the beam gets blurred. Then he's going to see a messy beam come out of Mars and get tidied up along the way to Earth. That's a direct violation of the 2nd law and amply serious enough without any paradoxical suicides.
 

1. What is the assassin paradox?

The assassin paradox is a philosophical thought experiment that questions the possibility of a time traveler going back in time to kill their own grandfather before their parent is born. This creates a paradox because if the time traveler is successful in killing their grandfather, they would not exist in the present to travel back in time.

2. How does Adrian propose to solve the assassin paradox?

Adrian proposes that instead of trying to change the past, the time traveler would simply create an alternate timeline where they are not born. This avoids the paradox and allows the time traveler to still exist in their original timeline.

3. Can the assassin paradox be solved using other methods?

Yes, there are other proposed solutions to the assassin paradox such as the idea of multiple universes or parallel universes. However, Adrian's solution is one of the most widely accepted and logical solutions to the paradox.

4. Is the assassin paradox a real scientific problem?

The assassin paradox is a philosophical thought experiment and is not considered a real scientific problem. However, it does raise interesting questions about time travel and the concept of causality.

5. Are there any real-life examples of the assassin paradox?

There are no known real-life examples of the assassin paradox, as time travel has not yet been scientifically proven to be possible. However, the concept has been explored in various works of fiction, such as the movie "Back to the Future".

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