Exploring the Time Travel Paradox: What Happens When You Meet Your Future Self?

[AdityaDev]

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?)

 

[jedishrfu]

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.

 

[AdityaDev]

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?

 

[AdityaDev]

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?

 

[jedishrfu]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future

 

[Dale]

Science fiction movies are not valid references or topics for this forum.

 

[PeterDonis]

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).

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.

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).