A man stands infront of a wormhole that goes back 10 seconds into the past. He decides to jump into the worm hole, go back 10 seconds then shoot his past self. What happens to this man? Is this possible to happen?

I will post my own answers once i have seen some of yours.

1- this belongs in the physics section of the forum
2- this is why time travel (at least backwards) is impossible

A little bird will land on his shoulder and say to him as he experiences a 10 second old wound appearing in his body "Now that was a silly thing to do, wasn't it?":)

When the man appears behind himself, he quickly throws his own gun out the window! Then the man from the future is no longer armed, and he is safe! Then they kiss.

Originally posted by Votorx
What happens to this man?

Well if he shoots himself (in the past..whatever that means) then everything after that shooting ceases to exist..everything involving that man so the original shooting doesn't take place......this is a trick question but if it at all was possible i am guessing total decay of the universe because an anomoly has been found, an anomly that has no answer.

Is this possible to happen?



No and lets hope not.

That question acts as a good argument for time travel naysayers. Two of the same man can not exist at one point in time because that would mean more matter is required...more than that is presently avaliable in the universe.

If the time conundrum was contained to the proximity of the man then a local time distortion would eventually equal itself out. However as Sargentlard suggested if it was not localised in time and space and was applied to the entire time continuum the whole universe would be in a terrible state.

Is it possible to create a time conundrum, I would say yes and that in some ways we do it every day of our lives but it is somewhat isolated to the person involved, giving a sense of surreality.

When a person is thinking about a tradgic event in the past he exerts an influece on that past moment, the more intense the focus on this past event and the more there is the desire to change a past event, the more surreal his reality becomes.

I call this the "Turreal effect" where by the conscious state becomes surreal as the impact on the past event catches up with you so to speak.

The past is not as absolutely ridgid as we think.

What happens to this man? Is this possible to happen?
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Very simple....

What happens is the man he shot is not himself, rather his alternate self, existing in one of the other permutational universes.

The man he shoots dies, and nothing is altered, no paradox rises about. This is very possible.

NOTE: If one would ever TRULY go back in time, (assuming the past is rigid, and immutable as so many claim is the paradox in "time travel") how would he be aware that he has traveled in time???

His thoughts would be of THAT TIME, he would not know he was in the "past" because relative to his frame of reference it is NOW not "then", thus he would not be able to shoot himself, and there would not exist more than one man.

That is the REAL paradox, people's own fallacious logic, not time travel itself.