A new mathematical model purports to show that time travel without paradox is possible.
As a writer, I’m looking at the article thinking… just how many ways could this go wrong?
“The range of mathematical processes we discovered show that time travel with free will is logically possible in our universe without any paradox.”
How on earth would math show that things would adjust to work logically?
I wondered that myself. Math at that level is beyond me, but maybe postulated many-worlds makes sense here?
Not sure how you’d show that with math, though.
You just have to wave your hands faster. 😉
That’s exactly what writing is like!
I think one might do well to recall RAH’s “Author as Creator” theory, or whatever he called it, I don’t have my “Number of the Beast” copy ready to hand. The theory is not as outlandish as it first seems.
Take two individuals, One is a nameless peasant who died in the 13th century. She left no lasting trace of her existence. We don’t know her name, if she had any descendants, nothing, nada.
Two is a clearly fictional character, dreamed up in this case by the Bard. Namely Romeo. This fictional character, though by some standards less “real” than that long-dead peasant, has the ability to affect us today. We might weep at his death. He can still influence our emotions in a way that anonymous peasant cannot.
So, my friends, who is more “real”? Who has a more defined impact on the reality we know today? Cedar’s Perambulating Hatrack, Chaucer’s Wife of Bath, James Tiberius Kirk, Lazarus Long, or, say, some nameless knight who perished in the First Crusade?
Be careful what you write. It’s reality we’re messing with here.