Time travel has been featured in many works of fiction, and a key theme is a paradox, or what would happen if an alteration took place in the past, leading to minor or significant consequences.
According to a new paper published by a team of researchers, if time travel was possible, the time-travelers wouldn’t face any real consequences as the timeline would correct itself, ensuring that everything will happen as it did in the original timeline from where the traveler will arrive.
The paradox
For example, one might travel through time in an attempt to prevent the pandemic by stopping the patient zero from being infected or exposed. However, once this action would be complete, the need to travel back in time would vanish, leading to what is known as a paradox.
Paradoxes have troubled researchers for a long time. Within the general theory of relativity, Einstein argues that there close time curves that would allow someone to travel to the past and interact with his past self, an action that could be quite risky as it could expose the travelers to major dangers.
Self-correcting timeline
According to the researchers, one could manage to prevent the exposure of the patient 0 to the virus, but they or another person could catch it, and the pandemic would still take place. The outcome in such cases may not be identical to what happened during the first timeline, but it would be similar.
Some science fiction writers have saluted the new paper. One best-selling author argues that the information shared by the researchers reinforces certain time travel trends that have been popular for a long time, including a perspective which notes that the Universe has a deterministic nature, and any attempt to change something will lead to the intervention of forces which seek to prevent the chance.
The paper has been published in a scientific journal.
