Time Travel

Just read about the book “All You Zombies” and the apparent paradox it contains (thanks to Gaganpreet). In brief it’s story is :

A baby girl is admitted in an orphanage in 1945. In 1963, she falls in love with a man. An unfortunate series of events leave the woman pregnant and the man missing.In 1964, the woman gives birth to a baby who is kidnapped. Also, the doctors find out that the woman has both the sex organs and in order to save her are forced to remove her female organs. Thus, the woman now becomes a man. In 1970, he goes into a bar and tells the bar’s old bartender about his misery. The bartender offers to help him by taking him back in time and change his fate. So, the old bartender drops the man in 1963 and he himself goes in the year 1964. The man (in 1963) falls in love with a young orphaned woman and after a few weeks of dating makes her pregnant. In meantime(according to story line), the old bartender (in 1964) kidnaps the baby and takes her to 1945 and drops her in an orphanage and then picks up the man from 1963 and drops him in 1985 and recruits him in a special police force which fixes events in history. Finally, he comes back in 1970. The man (in 1985) lives a normal life till old age and travels back to 1970 later to think about his life and the apparent paradox. He is his own mother, father and child !!

The whole story can be read here. Though I am no time travel expert, here is what I think about the famous explanations for this paradox (If it is considered that this paradox can occur):

In the first case, no simple explanation can exist for this paradox. By simple I mean, existence of a single time line(or no parallel universe). A person cannot produce himself because it leads to the fact that he was created by thin air. Thus, we have created a whole new system without taking anything as input. This is in clear violation of the law of conservation of energy.

Also, we cannot use any energy he intakes during his lifetime (like food) to balance the initial energy because energy has to be supplied at the time of creation of an object. It cannot be loaned as in the case of money.

Now in the second theory, the concept of parallel universes is used. In this system, whenever an object travels in time a new parallel universe is created. It is different from the original one in terms of the effect caused by the time-traveling object. So, on analyzing we find that for parallel universes to exist multiple copies of the same object should be able to exist at a single time and space. However on closer inspection we can see that whenever an object travels in time he actually creates a copy himself, different from his original one. Thus, traveling in time actually creates some sort of clones of the concerned object. Though the objects may be similar in every characteristic, they are different entities and cannot be considered the same.

Thus, the aforesaid paradox is actually not a paradox at all but just a complexity caused by time traveling. This analysis also considers the case when parallel universes are formed only when an object wanders into a time and space where he has existed before.

However, the possibility of creation of parallel universes on the fly by time travel and traveling into the past is a concept to be tested by hardcore physicists, not by day-dreamers like me who have only an overview of this idea.

Ciao

Music :

Iron Maiden is the best band I have heard so far. Can listen to all its song in an infinite loop . My favorites are Blood Brothers, Tears of the Dragon, Aces High, Trooper and Revelations.

PS : AI handed me my worst grade ever