Motivation for time travel into the past

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the motivations behind time travel to the past, specifically exploring the paradoxes involved. A participant suggests that witnessing historical events, such as dinosaurs 210 million years ago, could initially motivate time travel. However, they argue that once the experience is fulfilled, the motivation would diminish, creating a paradox. The conversation also touches on the potential for using time travel to gain financial advantages, such as providing past versions of oneself with lottery numbers and stock market predictions, thereby amassing wealth. The impossibility of time travel is acknowledged, alongside the concept that a time machine would only allow travel to a point after its creation.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of time travel theories and paradoxes
  • Familiarity with concepts of causality and temporal mechanics
  • Knowledge of historical events and their significance
  • Basic grasp of financial principles related to investments and wealth accumulation
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the implications of time travel paradoxes in theoretical physics
  • Explore the concept of causality in relation to time travel
  • Study historical events that could be of interest for hypothetical time travel
  • Investigate the economic theories behind wealth accumulation through strategic investments
USEFUL FOR

Philosophers, physicists, science fiction writers, and anyone interested in the theoretical implications of time travel and its potential motivations.

Mutsi
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Hi,

Today I was sitting in the train and I wondered what the motivation for a time traveler would be if he wanted to go in the past. Say that I live in 2011 and I went back 210 million years ago to see the dinosaurs, that would be my motivation. But when I would travel back to there and satisfy myself from what I have seen and went back. I would no longer have that motivation in the present and thereby I would never want to go back 210 million years in the first place. Or is my way of thinking about this just wrong?
 
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Well one could give an earlier version of oneself the lottery numbers followed by how the stock market will go (and key sports results). Once you've turned yourself into a billionaire tycoon you could transfer back technologies for your companies to patent. You could become the worlds richest person.

Although time travel in this fashion is understood to be impossible, a time machine (it it were possible and CPCs didn't interfere) would only allow travel back to a certain point after the creation of the machine.
 
Mutsi, that would only be true if you returned before you left!
 

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