Paradox - What would happen?

Question

A man called Joe is feeling suicidal. He steals a time machine and goes back in time to when he was a child. He pulls out a gun and shoots his 12 year old self.

What would happen?

Answer 1

he would cease to exist basically, that would change everything about his family from there on and this is what causes the paradox as any of spring he may have would not exist, so they may not be president in 40 years time and save a country etc etc etc or whatever he was destined to do.

he would not need a gun to kill himself either, the basic rules of time travel are the same being or object cannot share the same point of time in the time space continuum, therefore if he touched himself he would implode.

nice question.

Answer 2

The past is already done. Even if he was able to travel back, he could not have shot himself, or  he wouldnt be alive to go back in time. No paradox would occur, he simple would for some reason not be able to complete his task as the events have already taken place.

Answer 3

yh because he is sending everything back with him so, like just think of it as if he dies when he is 12...family grieves etc then life continues nice question

Answer 4

The langoliers already eat the past ;-) lol

Answer 5

He would enrage the timelords!

Answer 6

Did you ever watch/read "A Christmas Carol" about Scrooge?? Isn't that kind of the same. They take him back in time.But, instead of being suicidal about his past/future..he changed his ways. That was a "good thing". Probably if this man went back to when he was 12 yr. old...he would find that he was a happier person then ..and WOULDN'T WANT to kill himself. A lot of us would like to go back to those days. A lot of us would like to change things in our lives. I'm at the top of that list for wanting to change the past.

Answer 7

He would seize to exist.

Answer 8

h**l. thats right. h**l. and im typing with one hand LOL

Answer 9

whoever owned the time machine would be really pissed

Answer 10

he would be in big trouble with his mum

Answer 11

Maybe something, maybe nothing theres a theory called the "time paradox" and it's supposed to create irreperable damage to a dimensions time continuum (If you were to shoot a younger version of yourself, only this dimension would end).  

However, I belive that time has a "healing" mechanism. Joe jumps back tries to shoot his younger self and fails. Either his weapon misfires, or a rogue random event (a piano falling from a crane lands on elder Joe, killing him instantly.) prevents him from completeing his mission. It may be a minor random event, young Joe turns left instead of right, or a large dramatic random event (the piano). However, since older Joe doesn't exist in this time the large event won't affect the younger Joe's life much (apart from being traumatised by the memory of a man being killed by a falling piano)

Answer 12

Joe would be retarded for having the worlds only time machine and using it to kill himself.

Answer 13

He would not be able to do anything to his younger self as he would cease to exist thus creating the paradox.

Answer 14

Do not confuse fiction with reality.

Paradoxes such as this are an excellent way of pointing out impossibilities,  such as time travel.

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Answer 15

Hmmmmmmmm the paradox only exists if time machines exist.

It is a mistake to confuse fiction with reality.

Answer 16

There are two hypotheses for this:

1. He would create a second timeline in which h e was never born and would exist independently of the other one.

2. The more accepted one: he can't! It's called the novikov self-consistency principle, and it says that time travelelrs couldn't change the past as they were always part of it. For example: even if there were time travelers on the titanic, they obviously falied to stop it from sinking.

Answer 17

The honest answer is that he either wouldn't be able to do that (he'd be prevented by laws of the universe that we don't yet know about) OR he'd slip into a parallel universe where it's perfectly acceptable for a being to kill themselves at an earlier time but still continue to exist.

Check out "The Grandmother Paradox" which is what this kind of thing is generally known as.

Answer 18

As soon as he does he would disappear

Answer 19

Get a time machine, five days before christmas. No chance

Answer 20

Not sure he'd go through the hassle of stealing a time machine to go back in time and shoot his younger self. WHy not blow himself away in the present?

Some people believe he'd cease to exist as he'd have erased himself from the time line and some people believe that he'll continue to exist. Something to do with an infinite number of universes or something. Interesting but way beyond me.

Answer 21

At the point of going back in time, the universe split, so it is a different 12 year old him which dies in a different universe.  The original 12 year old him that lived to grow up to be him the man is still alive in the original universe, and still grows into him.  The man him in the second universe-who kills the 12 year old him there-does not fade away like in a movie.  He stays in that universe as an alien interloper, and lives for days/years/decades/whatever, and dies in the second universe...unless he can get back to the first universe.  Of course, when the 12 year old him dies, the second universe splits and the adult him-who did the killing-may get sucked into the third universe.  What happens in the parallel universes has no effect on the other universes.  Each decision/action makes a new universe, and each universe has a life/existance all its own.  There is, therefore, no paradox.

Answer 22

not a clue

Answer 23

He would anger the Supreme Being a great deal.  Why would you want to kill your earlier self when there are so many wonderful treasures to steal?