The Paradoxes And Effects Of Time Travel 5

Chapter 14

Hello readers! For this month’s issue of The Paradoxes and Effects of Time Travel, I’m back with another fascinating paradox for us to explore: the Predestination Paradox! It's one of the last major paradoxes found in time travel, so make sure to read through to the end of this article to see what the future holds for this chapter. Let’s begin!

Introduction to the Predestination Paradox:
The Predestination Paradox occurs when an event is both the cause and effect of itself. To break it down further, this paradox occurs when an event in the past was caused by the actions of a time traveler in the future, creating a loop where the event was always destined to happen.

This paradox is particularly interesting because of how it challenges our perception of linear time. We mostly think of time as past, present, then future, but with the Predestination Paradox, the past and future are looped together, making it nearly impossible to distinguish where it started. It’s like that one saying: Did the chicken come first, or the egg?

Theoretical Perspective:
If this might be hard to wrap your head around, let me give you an example!

In the year 2050, there lived a historian named Lana. Lana discovers that in 2030, a disastrous fire burned down one of the largest libraries in the world—one that contained centuries of information crucial to understanding the past world. Curious about the decades of history she’d missed out on, Lana decides to travel back in time and stop the cause of the fire.

Soon enough, Lana arrives back at the site. The library is still standing, large pillars shining in pristine condition. When she enters, trying to find the future source of the fire, Lana spots an open wire sparking dangerously near a stack of books. Determined that the wire caused the fire, Lana desperately looks for something to insulate it. The only thing she can spot is an old cloth, so she grabs it and wraps it around the wire.

At first, it seemed to work—the sparking had dimmed. But, only moments later, the cloth begins to smolder before erupting into an intense array of flames. Unbeknownst to Lana, the cloth was much more flammable than she’d realised. Horrified, she tries to put it out, but it spreads quickly, burning hundreds of pages of delicate paper. Eventually, the entire library is engulfed in flames. As smoke rises, Lana stumbles backwards, the truth sinking in. She didn’t prevent the fire. She caused it.

Scientific Basis:
The Predestination Paradox is rooted in Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, as well as the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle.

As we know from previous chapters, Einstein’s theory allowed for closed timelike curves, more commonly referred to as CTC’s. They were loops in spacetime where an object could, in theory, travel back to its past. This theory is more indirectly related, stating that if these paths in time exist, a time traveler could potentially create a Predestination Paradox, where their actions were always part of history.

Then, there is Novikov’s Self-Consistency Principle, and this principle is crucial to the foundation of this paradox. It proposes the idea that in a universe where time travel to the past is possible, the changes made remain self-consistent, so as to not affect future events. A time traveler, following this principle, can only influence events in a way that it was always meant to occur.

We can connect this to the perspective I gave earlier! Lana had gone back in time to prevent a disaster, but her intervention directly caused it, meaning that it was always meant to happen in that way. By remaining self consistent, the future and past aligned, allowing events to occur the way they were destined to.

Examples In Popular Culture:
There are two huge movies I can think of that perfectly encapsulate the Predestination Paradox. First, is Interstellar. Interstellar is one of my favourite sci-fi movies, and it perfectly shows us how this paradox comes into play. If you recall, Murph, as a child,  always experienced gravitational anomalies in her bedroom. Books would fall off the shelves, and dust settled in a way that formed binary code. She never really understood how this happened, but she called it her “ghost.” Near the end of the movie, Cooper falls into a black hole, where he is able to experience time in four dimensions. He sees Murph’s room in different points in time, realising that he can interact with objects by manipulating gravity. All along, it was Cooper trying to send messages to Murph and his past self.

Next, there is also Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. When surrounded by Dementors, Harry saw a mysterious person cast a patronus, saving himself and Sirius. However, once he travelled back in time with Hermione, he realised that no one was going to show up. He was destined to cast the patronus, and was able to do it successfully since living through it in the past.

This event demonstrates the Predestination Paradox because Harry didn’t freely decide to cast the patronus—he had to because the timeline depended on it. If Harry had failed, you may think that the paradox would break, but it doesn’t since the loop is self-sustaining. One way or another, Harry would have saved himself, because that’s how it was destined to occur.

Philosophical Implications:
One aspect of the Predestination Paradox will see it as determinism [the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will]. Determinism has been used in the past by some philosophers to imply that humans have no free will, and cannot be held morally accountable for their actions. In simpler terms, it’s fate, and no one can control or change it.

According to the Predestination Paradox, history is pre-written, and anything interacting with the past will only be able to act in a consistent way that enables already established past events to remain preserved in the future. It’s cool to think about, but don’t think about it too hard! You wouldn’t want to send yourself into a mid-life crisis :’)

After that, we’ve finished discovering the ins and outs of the Predestination Paradox! Unfortunately, there are only two months left until we come to the end of this chapter. But, don’t worry! I’ve made sure to save the best for last. Next month, I’ll be discussing the Observer Effect in regards to time travel, before ending it off with a showstopper. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you back here next month. Bye!

Written by Daphne Clarke.
Edited by Sara Rowan.
Proofread by Hazel Antler.