It's a paradox! Maybe?

Logic Level 2

Consider the following story:

You have the ability to go back in time. So you decide to go back and kill your grandfather when he was born, but this means that your father will never be born since his father (your grandfather) was killed immediately after he was born, meaning that you would also not exist since your father never existed, which means that you never existed in the first place to go back in time and kill your grandfather.

Is the story above a paradox or not?

No Yes It's a paradox and it's not a paradox at the same time

2 solutions

Ku John
Aug 4, 2016

@Seth-Riley Adams this cycle would be continuous but not a paradox. he will kill his grandfather and he will not be born, thus the killing would not be happened, but when his grandfather is still alive, he will be born and will go back in time.

another probability is that as he goes back in time, he tries to kill his grandfather thus he will not be born and his grandfather will still be alive. but since he tried to kill his grandfather the timeline would be altered. This would in turn having a probability of his father not bring born or even his father was born, he might not be born. the chances of him being born is to slim as the timeline is altered and the birth is not certain. thus the timeline will end by him not being born but his grandfather alive and a different timeline as compared to the original. this two different timeline is what i would call different dimensions but we wont be able to see different dimensions without the help of altering timeline.

Seth-Riley Adams
May 18, 2016

Relevant wiki: Paradox

A paradox is a contradiction. If the following scenario continues your grandfather would exist and eventually marry and have a son, which will eventually become your father and you would eventually be able to go back in time and kill your grandfather again and the whole process would continue forever with no contradictions whatsoever.

In conclusion, the following scenario has no contradiction, which means it is not a paradox.

A paradox is at least a "seeming contradiction", that could later be explained. For example, in special relativity there's the famous "Twin Paradox", which seems counterintuitive, but has a perfectly good explanation, backed by experimental evidence. Here, this paradox is the much-discussed "The Grandfather Paradox", in which a number of explanations have been proposed in an effort to resolve it. To date, none has been proven experimentally, but even if any theory proposed to resolve it has been proven, it would still be called "The Grandfather Paradox". Another such counterintuitive paradox that has a perfectly good mathematical explanation is Zeno's Paradox.

To claim that this is "not a paradox" is making the claim by fiat and without any proof that "There isn't any contradiction here at all! Nothing here to see... move on folks!".

This story is a paradox, a well-known one with a name.

Michael Mendrin - 5 years ago

Well, that does make sense... in that case, the answer should be "Yes". I'll ask the staff to change it and perhaps, you could write a solution to this problem?

Seth-Riley Adams - 5 years ago

Let me first go study the wiki on this, the one you posted a link here. The whole problem is, the word "paradox" is not a precisely defined one, like what we would expect of other terms that are used in mathematics. For example, in logic, the word "contradiction" has a clearly defined meaning. Not so much with "paradox".

Michael Mendrin - 5 years ago

I take it that you got this idea from this video . If that's the case, then you're making a lot of assumptions that isn't stated in this question.

Pi Han Goh - 5 years ago

Thanks for the link to that video.

I've heard before of quantum "parallel worlds" ideas of how to resolve the Grandfather Paradox. But, you are right, a lot of assumptions are being made---such as, while this could be true for particles with quantum attributes, the idea that this could be applied to humans existing in parallel worlds in some quantum fashion is far from proven or backed by experimental evidence. We're not there yet. For example, recent experiments have shown that it's possible to separate neutrons from their spins into taking different paths (yes, that's right!--now a fact! See Cheshire Cat ), we've yet to see the attribute of being alive or dead separated from humans in experiments---which is what this video seems to suggest the possibility.

Still, even if all this were true, and future schools teach how this "paradox" is resolved, it would still be called "The Grandfather Paradox". One thing for sure, at present, there is no such thing as a "correct" answer to the Grandfather Paradox. We only have some interesting ideas about how to resolve it.

Michael Mendrin - 5 years ago

I think the actual answer to this problem should be: "Nobody really knows for sure".

Seth-Riley Adams - 5 years ago

@Seth-Riley Adams – Yeah, I would agree with that. It's like asking what really goes on inside black holes near the singularity. Nobody really knows for sure. There could be time loops in there for all we know.

Michael Mendrin - 5 years ago

but you can still exist in theory through a alternate or parallel timeline the reason you will still exist is because you have altered the timeline but you are displacing it so you will still exist but there will be no records of you. and you might be stopped by you from the altered timeline as well if you dont create a paradox

NSCS 747 - 11 months, 1 week ago

It's a paradox! Maybe?

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