Philosophy - The time twist?!?!?

Slovenia
December 8, 2007 7:16pm CST
I just watched the movie "the butterfly effect" where a guy could travel back for a few seconds and change something, and then that changed the future (present) in a lot of ways, some good some bad.... BUT i'm asking this: If you went back in time and killed your mom, before you were born, what would happen? The twist: if you killed your mother before you were born, then you were never able to go back in time to actually kill her, since you never existed, so what the hell happens???
1 person likes this
7 responses
@kurtbiewald (2625)
• United States
9 Dec 07
hmmmmmmmmmm so, you hate your mom........... I have no clue why, your business its kinda obvious though, maybe try to fix it as a holiday gift for her and you anyway...........we can't ravel back in time H.G. Wells time machine is a good book onthat if you like that sort f fantasy. he really let his imagination spin I especially liked the part about weak consumers sunning themselves and living high on the hog , while the workers and providers would provide material things for them , yet at night would come out and feed on them
@barehugs (8973)
• Canada
9 Dec 07
Ok this is not so far out! It actually happens all the time. We are Creators, each and everyone of us. We create our lives moment by moment as we live them. We make life changing decisions moment by moment as we live our lives. A decision made Now changes your whole future from this moment on. Lets say I choose to turn my computer off right now. OK! This response would not have been posted,and you would have never read it. This would have changed both our lives in the future. WE are all Time-Twistors!
• Slovenia
9 Dec 07
Thats only half true, but i'm not talking about changing stuff, i'm talking about a loop in time. think about it, if you killed your mother in the past before you were born, that means you never existed and could never have gone in the past to kill her. This would make the whole time and space crash. Maybe you'd make "nothingness" a void in time.
@eyewitness (1575)
• Netherlands
9 Dec 07
Wow you're going deep.Well if you already live and then go back you would excist because you haven't got back in time yet. So if you would go back and kill her and then return to the future you come from you don't excist in the future nor the past. So it's like changing history.Well it's not easy to explain but that's how i think about it.
@theprogamer (10534)
• United States
9 Dec 07
In terms of the rules for Butterfly Effect its not possible for him to eliminate his mother like that (well, maybe something from the fetus... perhaps internal damage?). Now in terms of "regular" or classic time travel, yes the theorized rules state if one eliminates their mom or dad before your conception then you cease to exist (again its why I was hesistant on your original problem, since the character could not travel before the point he existed). Another theory claims that being outside of time renders the person "immune" to the effects of time change (and a lot of fiction depicts it). Due to the anomaly being outside of time once they take on a new existence apart from the "alpha" timeline. Now, if this person killed their forebearers and went back to the future a few possibilities could occur. For one, the person could cease to exist upon arrival since they were restored to their proper place in the timeline. For another, the "immunity" could still be in place. However, due to the events that transpired the person doesn't really exist per say, at least in terms of the present world. Friends won't recognize him, remaining family won't know who he is, all records, events, memories concerning the time traveller will be erased due to his eradicated existence. This is called "beta" timeline or at least that how I've come to know and study it. For yet another possibility, the speed of the change throughout the timeline itself is a variable. The traveler may arrive before or after the changes take place in the timeline. The changes are theoretically the force or the time catching up with the rest of the timeline, or the adjustments made to physical reality due to changes in the timeline. Think of saving over a document in Microsoft Word for example. If the traveller arrives after the changes they'll be safe from the changes (since they've already occured). If the traveller arives before the changes hit the present, then the traveller faces obliteration in wake of his eradication and the upcoming time changes.
@meaculpa (338)
• Philippines
9 Dec 07
It is a time twist indeed and most films would use these such as the butterfly effect movie. I like movies with twists.
• China
12 Dec 07
I think it can't be explained via current scientific principles. I watched the film in the day before yesterday.
• China
9 Dec 07
I haven't watch the film.Maybe I should watch it tonight.All scientific fictions are not my favorite.