Is this how the Grandfather Paradox works?

Question

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I understand, this is how the grandfather paradox works: Lets say I were to go back in time and try to stop President Kennedy's assination, and succeed in doing so. Well, by succeeding, I now no longer have a purpose of going back in time in the first place.

Therefore, when I return to the present (2008), I will NOT return to the alternate 2008, that I had hoped to return to, but instead, I would return to the same 2008, that I left.

Is that how it works?

Answer 1

yes and no , current theories suggest that the trip could only run one way

Answer 2

i do not understand the grandfather paradox because if you return to the future than you will be there, but if you go back and kill your grandfather you will not exist.

in order for this to be true you would have to go foward to an alternate universe.

if you go back and kill your grandfather there fore preventing your birth, how can you be in the future if you prevented your birth.

i am as confused as you are.

Answer 3

If you believe in the new physics, you may have already been there and done that, you just come back to a dimension that may or may not still have a  JFK. Because there are an endless number of dimensions and an endless number of outcomes, it's hard to know if the grandfather paradox works anymore in a mass of dimensions.

That's why I hate even thinking about new physics, too weird!

Answer 4

you are correct yet you would return to the new 2008. one that would not need any one to travel back in time to prevent an assassination. so...i guess that wouldn't be the classic "grandfather paradox" but another one altogether

Answer 5

In your scenario (which, by the way has nothing to do with the

grandfather paradox) you go back in time and prevent JFK

from being assassinated. On your return too the present you

would find yourself in a greatly altered 2008. One which you

probably wouldn't like.

Answer 6

The Grandfather Paradox is as follows:  If I go back in time to 1940 and kill my grandfather I have destroyed a direct ancestor, making my existence impossible.

Answer 7

kind of. The grandfather paradox is about killing your grandfather, which means you would not exist.

If you returned to the future, you would exist, this is the paradox, and whether you would return to an altered future or the same future is unknown, as mystery is the outcome of a paradox situation.

A version of this paradox is seen in back to the future, where Marty McFly travels back in time to when his parents fell in love. The kiss at the dance was the turning point in thier romance. As the chances of the kiss happening go down, Marty starts to fade away, because his chances of ever existing are also going down.

Another possibility of this paradox is that you went back in time to prevent the assassination of JFK, but were unable to do so. The time lines never changed, because you were actually already there and part of the time line. (See the movie De Ja Vue)

Of course, until time travel is known all of this is just conjecture. Perhaps the self correcting paradox time formula will prevent such paradoxs. (see the Futurama Movie)