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154

If time travel were to exist, which theory would you subscribe to? (lemm.ee)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Some ideas are:

You branch off into another timeline and your actions make no difference to the previous timeline
You’ve already taken said actions but just didn’t know about it so nothing changes
Actions taken can have an effect (so you could suddenly erase yourself if you killed your parents)
Only “nexus” or fixed events really matter, the timeline will sort itself out for minor changes
something else entirely

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Nothing is truly random, including the weather. It is extremely complex and difficult to predict, but once it happens that is what happened. As long as dice fall with the exact same speed and hit the same surface in the same spot at the same angle it will always end up with the same result. The randomness of dice comes from how the very small differences influence the outcome.

Going back in time with the knowledge of what happened the first time means that either you will choose the same thing because something led to that original choice or something will keep you from interfering. Free will exists because we don't literally know the exact outcome of our actions or the things outside of our control in advance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Nothing is truly random

Modern physics says otherwise. Einstein also thought exactly like that with his "hidden variables" theory which was later disproven.

Edit: I was interested to read some relevant discussions and here's some links with quotes

https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/29364/does-true-randomness-actually-exist

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/651011/is-there-quantum-randomness-that-significantly-affects-our-macro-world

It seems very likely that every deviation from perfect homogeneity and isotropy in the universe is due to amplified quantum fluctuations. (That's true in inflationary cosmology, and I'd expect it to be true in practically any alternative to it.) For example, the shape of Earth's land masses was probably determined by quantum fluctuations, and has had an enormous influence on human history.

Quantum fluctuations is basically true randomness on quantum level.

The randomness is largely canceled out, except in the case of unstable systems which magnify the effects of any perturbations, no matter how small.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macroscopic_quantum_phenomena