What If a Time Traveler Erased Your Existence?

[Retro]

Just discovered this fascinating science channel, Unveiled. Short videos under 10 minutes and no annoying sponsor messages, either.

This video covers a scenario I've thought of a fair bit and explains it pretty much how I'd thought about it, too. The point is that the existence of anyone or anyone thing, has branching consequences to everything else in millions, or perhaps trillions of different ways.

One thing not mentioned in the video are the bacteria and viruses that would never interact with you, or be created or destroyed by you and how that would affect other organisms. You've got those countless trillions of differences right there, let alone the bigger things. A fascinating 8 minute video, give it a watch.

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[Mars]

Interesting video, somewhat repetitive, but still a nice one.

The basic idea is similar to the "Butterfly Effect": where a butterfly flapping its wings somewhere in the jungles of Brazil, has repercussions which, ultimately, may cause a tsunami.

The Butterfly Effect is a complicated and fascinating theory, and this Unveiled video seems to hark back to this theory.

For as unimportant and minuscule we are in comparison to the Universe, our existence does have an effect; for like the butterfly flapping its wings, every Action has its Reaction.....and the Ultimate - not necessarily the Immediate - consequence of this Reaction may lie in a distant future, and is therefore totally unpredictable!

Here are a couple of dictionary definitions of the Butterfly Effect: "small changes in initial conditions can lead to large-scale and unpredictable variation in the future state of the system"
and "(in chaos theory) the phenomenon whereby a minute localized change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere".

I find the depth and beautiful simplicity of this theory utterly overwhelming.......

 

[Ian]

I think Doctor Who tries to deal with this relatively simply, in that you can give small nudges to the fabric of the time continuum but not large scale changes. But what do I know! Wibbley Wobbley Timey Wimey!

 

[Retro]

Good point. I'll invite Dr Who onto this forum to help explain some of the finer points of time travel, causality and entropy.

 

[Ian]

But if (s)he gets involved, then her answers may cause forum users to react differently, especially if (s)he appeared in the past and said something that caused any of us to react differently as a consequence. The Forum may even disappear if (s)he can convince you that having it is a bad thing. Do you want that, Mr Retro

 

[Retro]

Oh no don't, those paradoxes are giving me a headache!