time travel paradox
Grandfather murder problem
A time travel paradox is a logical contradiction that arises from hypothetical journeys to the past.
The classic example is the grandfather paradox: if you travel back and kill your grandfather before he has children, you prevent your own birth—but then who killed him?
Such paradoxes appear constantly in science fiction and philosophical thought experiments about whether changing the past is coherent or possible.
- causal loopSelf-causing temporal cycle
- causalityCause-effect connection
- loopCurve closing on itself
- wormholeHypothetical spacetime tunnel
- fluxContinuous change or flow
timeline · alternate reality · parallel universe · butterfly effect · closed loop · ripple · consequence · past · future · self-fulfilling · multiverse · continuum · causation · fixed point · destiny · fate · Back to the Future · Doctor Who
- paradoxescatch-22, causal loop, self-contradiction, ship of Theseus, infinite regress
- time traveltime machine, time loop, time jump, time slip, causal loop
- Famous Problemstraveling salesman, Monty Hall, prisoner's dilemma, trolley problem, continuum hypothesis
- philosophy questionsthought experiments, hypotheticals, trolley problem, ship of Theseus, philosophical questions
travel, paradox, timed, timer, timely, untimely, overtime, lifetime, sometime