Spring Break
Science fantasy: Time travel isn't happening, get over it
Time travel is impossible. Hollywood needs to realize this.
By: Abid Mujtaba
Issue date: 6/30/08 Section: Opinion
The author Douglas Adams who initially was of this opinion summarized it rather deliciously when he wrote:
"One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem involved in becoming your own father or mother that a broadminded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. There is also no problem about changing the course of history - the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end."
Some authors can stick to this absoluteness principle. J. K. Rowling comes to mind in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Fanatical followers will recall how the book's protagonists earlier thought Buckbeak to be dead when they heard the sound of an axe swinging and Hagrid howling. In fact their future selves traveling back in time saved Buckbeak and it was the executioner swinging at a post in frustration and Hagrid howling in delight at the rescue. The rescue has always occurred, nothing was changed by the time travel, it had always happened.
Having negotiated this tricky bit of time warping Rowling then fell in to the classical subtle pitfall of time travel, what I like to call the paradox of original thought. Earlier Harry thinks his father has saved him from the dementors from across the lake. He later lies in wait for his father on the other end who fails to appear and he realizes that his past self had seen his future self from afar and mistaken him for his father. He then whips out his wand and conjures a spectacular patronus and saves all and sundry.
The problem is that the future Harry realizes he can conjure up the patronus because his past self sees himself do it. But this is a circular occurrence. His past self sees his future self do it, but his future self can only perform it because of the memory of it from his past self. Where did the original idea originate from? Seemingly from nowhere, but ideas must originate somewhere; the effects must have a cause.
"One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem involved in becoming your own father or mother that a broadminded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. There is also no problem about changing the course of history - the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end."
Some authors can stick to this absoluteness principle. J. K. Rowling comes to mind in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Fanatical followers will recall how the book's protagonists earlier thought Buckbeak to be dead when they heard the sound of an axe swinging and Hagrid howling. In fact their future selves traveling back in time saved Buckbeak and it was the executioner swinging at a post in frustration and Hagrid howling in delight at the rescue. The rescue has always occurred, nothing was changed by the time travel, it had always happened.
Having negotiated this tricky bit of time warping Rowling then fell in to the classical subtle pitfall of time travel, what I like to call the paradox of original thought. Earlier Harry thinks his father has saved him from the dementors from across the lake. He later lies in wait for his father on the other end who fails to appear and he realizes that his past self had seen his future self from afar and mistaken him for his father. He then whips out his wand and conjures a spectacular patronus and saves all and sundry.
The problem is that the future Harry realizes he can conjure up the patronus because his past self sees himself do it. But this is a circular occurrence. His past self sees his future self do it, but his future self can only perform it because of the memory of it from his past self. Where did the original idea originate from? Seemingly from nowhere, but ideas must originate somewhere; the effects must have a cause.
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