. . . dragging space-time with it like a swirl of chocolate
being stirred into a bowl of cream.
No, that’s not how it works. In our timeline, Barry’s mother’s already dead, and
her death is a fixed point. And nothing can change that.
* The other, of course, is Paul J. Nahin’s Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics and Science Fiction, Second Edition.
Each of the foregoing cases involves a self-defeating act—an act
such that, if it were performed, it wold not be. Self-defeating acts are obviously
impossible, since the performance of such an act would imply a contradiction. Yet time
travel seems to make such acts possible. This suggests the following line of argument
against backward time travel:
(P1) If backward time travel were possible, it would be possible to perform a self-defeating act.
(P2) It is impossible to perform a self-defeating act.
(C) Backward time travel is impossible.
Alise: You died ten years ago.
This freak made a mess of our garage.
Sadly, the story comes close to being a slick static timeline, but alas, the writers could not follow through.
The Downloader is a real piece of work. There’s only a ten percent chance of success,
eh? And even if they make it, half of them get caught by the Control Bureau.
Young Adam: I mean if this is happening to me, that means that
it already happened to you—right?—unless it works more like a multiverse where each
ripple creates an alternate timeline—