Can Meeting Your Future Self Create a Time Loop?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of time travel and its implications, particularly focusing on a hypothetical scenario where a person meets and potentially kills their future self. Participants explore whether this situation creates a time loop, the nature of time in such scenarios, and the consequences of multiple interactions with different versions of oneself.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant proposes a scenario where person A travels to the future, meets his future self, and kills him, questioning if this creates a time loop.
  • Another participant argues that it would not be a loop since time effectively ends for A if he is killed, and suggests that A could change the outcome if he knows about the future event.
  • A different viewpoint suggests that if A hides from his future self, it could lead to multiple versions of A existing simultaneously, raising the question of whether this implies a multiplication of the universe.
  • One participant challenges the validity of using science fiction movies as references in this discussion.
  • Another participant counters that the scenario is not more impossible than traveling forward in time, asserting that there is only one A whose path through time becomes convoluted but remains singular.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on whether the scenario creates a time loop, with some arguing against the loop concept while others explore the implications of multiple interactions. The discussion remains unresolved, with multiple competing perspectives on the nature of time travel and its consequences.

Contextual Notes

Participants reference popular culture and science fiction to illustrate their points, which some argue may not be appropriate for the forum. The discussion includes assumptions about the nature of time travel and the implications of actions taken by different versions of the same person.

AdityaDev
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I was thinking about time travel...this is what i came up with ---->
lets say person A (age 20,year 2014) travel to the year 2024 and meets himself (A2, age 30).lets say a kills his future A (i.e A2) and travels back in time (which i know is not possible but then).
Now A is back in 2014.After 10 year another A will kill the actual A. Does this end up in a time loop for A? (only for A or for all?)
 
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I wouldn't say its a loop since time ends for A. What if you consider that A knows the fact and decides to change it?

This type of plot was featured in the Back to the Future movie where Marty gives Doc Brown a note that says he'll be shot by
terrorists in the future an event that Marty witnessed. Doc Brown then must decide whether he will read the note or not and act on it or not.
 
If present A hides, then the other A will search and return back...now there are two A.when the A that tried to kill the original A returns, he will also hide and another A will come after 10 years...now there are 3 A.So does this mean the universe multiplied?
 
jedishrfu said:
I wouldn't say its a loop since time ends for A. What if you consider that A knows the fact and decides to change it?

This type of plot was featured in the Back to the Future movie where Marty gives Doc Brown a note that says he'll be shot by
terrorists in the future an event that Marty witnessed. Doc Brown then must decide whether he will read the note or not and act on it or not.
I have not any of those movies...can u give a better explanation?
 
Science fiction movies are not valid references or topics for this forum.
 
AdityaDev said:
and travels back in time (which i know is not possible but then)

It's no more impossible than traveling forward in time the way you have described it (i.e., jumping forward 10 years without living through the intervening time).

AdityaDev said:
Does this end up in a time loop for A?

No. There is only one A: he jumps forward 10 years, then jumps back 10 years, then goes forward 10 years in the normal way (by experiencing 10 years), and then is killed.

AdityaDev said:
If present A hides, then the other A will search and return back...now there are two A.when the A that tried to kill the original A returns, he will also hide and another A will come after 10 years...now there are 3 A.So does this mean the universe multiplied?

No, it means you are making your scenario more and more complicated. But however complicated you make it, there is still only one A; his path through spacetime just gets more and more convoluted. Try drawing a diagram of A's path through spacetime (using dotted lines for the jumps); you will see that it is a single connected path (if we define "connected" loosely enough to include the dotted lines representing the jumps).
 

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