According to Steven Gibbs, the grandfather paradox does not exist because when you use a time machine to go back in time -- you are going to an alternate timeline. In other words, you time travel to a parallel earth very close to our own, but not the same. This fact prevents the grandfather paradox from occurring.
In that parallel earth things may seem very close to the way they are here, but they are not the same. Subtle differences are there if you carefully observe. It could be the future price of eggs in the store, or a new girl in your school, but it is not exactly the same.
The idea of the Grandfather Paradox is that it is not possible to time travel back to the past because the chrononaut would be able to go back and remove his grandfather thereby he would never be born and thus the paradox. The problem with this theory is that it ignores what we know of MWI - multi world interpretation of the Everett Wheeler model.
There is not one universe but many. We live in a multiverse where many different possible futures are happening at once. When a time traveler jumps back in time they hit another timeline and thus the grandfather they remove may in fact resemble their own grandfather, but he is different man. Meanwhile, the real original grandfather still marries and has kids. Thus no paradox occurs when you time travel back.
But you say, what if we could go back to our own original timeline?
This is very difficult but it can be done. Remember that there are possibly billions of timelines. Landing on the exact line is almost like hitting the a perfect game of golf. Seems easy but it is not. Still what happens if I go back to my exact timeline and convince my grandfather not to marry grams. Will the Grandfather Paradox occur then?
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According to Steven Gibbs no Grandfather Paradox will occur. What happens is that my timeline splits into two. On the original timeline I still get born, but on this new branch I was never born and things become more and more different as time goes on. The percent divergence of the timelines grows as they move further apart. In fact, they might look quite different after some time. After the bifurcation point the two timelines will continue to diverge. |
Al Bielek says that if you continue to go back and split a timeline it eventually blinks out. The timeline "runs outta gas" and evaporates. Think about the stream of time being similar to you being in a boat on a river. The river splits into two forks. If it splits enough times there is not enough water to float the boat. You stop. Also, he talks about a coming future emergency.
Steven Gibbs claims that he built the HDR - Hyper Dimensional Resonator so that it would take people to an alternate timeline to avoid any problems with the grandfather paradox. Also to prevent people from using the HDR for bad purposes like playing the stock market or winning pony races. I know this one guy. He lost all his money. Basically, this fellow spent it on slow horses and fast women.
Think of the Grandfather Paradox as a way to prevent serious discussion about time travel and the HDR object.
My email is hdrREMOVEMEkid[at] hotREMOVEMEmail [dot] com, all lower case, without the REMOVE ME. Ask me any questions you have including questions about time travel and the Grandfather Paradox.
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