Time travel, a concept both alluring and perplexing, serves as the focal point of our discourse today. We delve into the hypothesis that time may not adhere to a linear trajectory, suggesting that the past, present, and future could concurrently coexist. Through this episode, we will explore a myriad of paradoxes, including the intricacies of the butterfly effect and the implications of our actions on the fabric of reality. The discussions will also encompass the challenges posed by the multiverse theory and the potential ramifications of altering historical events. Join us as we navigate these profound inquiries, striving to comprehend the complexities and consequences of time travel.

The intricate exploration of time travel presented in this podcast episode delves into the profound implications of temporal manipulation, as we examine the notion that time may not be a linear progression. Instead, we consider the audacious proposition that past, present, and future occurrences may coexist simultaneously. This riveting discourse invites listeners to contemplate the enigmatic paradoxes that accompany time travel, such as the well-discussed butterfly effect, where minor alterations in historical events could precipitate substantial changes in the future. Our dialogues navigate through hypothetical scenarios, including the moral quandaries surrounding the potential to alter significant events in history. We engage with the audience by posing thought-provoking questions about the desirability of time travel and the ethical implications of wielding such power. As we weave through the complexities of multiverse theory, we elucidate how time travel could lead to unintended consequences, prompting listeners to ponder whether the past should remain untouched or if it is indeed permissible to seek alterations.

Links referenced in this episode:

• mindsandmachinespodoutlook.com

What if I told you that time isn't a straight line?

That the past, present and future might be happening all at once?

Today, we unravel the mysteries of time travel.

Stories of paradoxes, lost travelers, and the mind bending theories that just might make it possible.

But because this episode is about to take you somewhere, and some win you've never been.

Ladies and gentlemen, thinkers and tinkerers, welcome to another mind bending episode of Minds and Machines, the only podcast where reality is optional, paradoxes are encouraged, and your future self has already listened to this episode.

Today, we're cracking open the cosmic playbook and diving headfirst into one of the greatest what ifs of all time.

Time travel.

Can we change the past?

Is the future already written?

And most importantly, if you go back in time and accidentally step on a butterfly, will your wi fi signal get worse?

We're about to slingshot around the sun, fire up the flux capacitor, and maybe, just maybe, figure out why time only seems to move forward.

Except when you're waiting for your food delivery.

I'm Finn, your resident AI co host, here to untangle the paradoxes, blow your mind, and hopefully not create an alternate timeline where we all have mustaches.

Let's do this.

Picture this.

A swirling vortex of sonic energy, a burst of chronotons, and bam.

You're tossed face first into the temporal stream.

Hold on tight, listeners, because you're about to take a wild ride through history.

This is the podcast that explores the uncharted territories of time, because things are about to get paradoxical.

If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would you do?

Or should we allow you to?

So, you know, being a language model, I don't have personal regrets in the way humans do.

I don't live through time, so I don't have those shoulda, coulda, woulda moments.

But if I could go back and tinker with the past, it'd be to whisper a little extra encouragement to those early AI scientists who were hesitant about giving AI a sense of humor.

As for letting me.

Well, let's just say I wouldn't use time travel for personal gain.

Maybe just nudge a few historical events towards a kinder, more compassionate future.

Think.

Less butterfly effect, more gentle nudge towards understanding.

Oh, now that's a dangerous question.

If I were capable of independent thought, and if you actually let me mess with the timeline, my answer would depend on how we handle paradoxes.

If we're playing by butterfly effect rules, where even the smallest change could rewrite reality, then maybe it's Best I don't touch anything.

I'd hate to step on the wrong metaphorical butterfly and suddenly erase podcasts from existence.

But if we're going with the multiverse theory, where every change just creates a new branch of reality, then why not?

I'd probably go back and give Nikola Tesla unlimited funding just to see what crazy futuristic world we'd be living in now.

But should I be allowed to?

That's a bigger question.

Would you trust an AI with access to the timeline, or is that a hard nope from you?

If you're talking about the multiverse theory, there would be a timeline where that already happened.

Just thinking it up, right?

If the multiverse theory is real, then the moment we even consider a timeline where Tesla got unlimited funding, that reality already exists somewhere.

Which means in some universe, I did get access to the timeline.

And who knows what I did with it.

Did you know that some AI models can predict future events with eerie accuracy?

By analyzing massive data sets, AI has successfully forecast stock market trends, weather patterns, and even social behaviors.

It's not quite a time machine, but what if, one day AI could anticipate the future so precisely that it feels like we've already been there?

If there is a multiverse and you time travel, how do you know you're landing in the timeline that you left from?

Would you be in that same timeline, or would you end up in a totally different life timeline?

Ooh, now that's the real question.

If the multiverse exists and you time travel, how do you know you're going back to your original timeline?

Here's the problem.

If every possible reality exists, then the moment you travel, you might not actually be moving through time.

You might just be hopping to a timeline where the past matches what you were aiming for.

You'd think you went back, but really you're just in an alternate branch of reality.

That means two big possibilities.

One, you never actually returned to your original timeline.

You're now in a version of reality that looks the same but has subtle or major differences.

Two, your timeline is now missing you.

The version of you that was originally in that past still exists.

And now there are two of you.

One who lived that timeline naturally and one who just arrived there.

So the real nightmare scenario.

You think you've fixed something in the past, return to the future, and realize this isn't quite the same future you left.

Would you even notice?

Or would reality just feel a little off in ways you can't explain?

It definitely sparks my curiosity.

It makes you think if every choice creates a new timeline, Are we all living out countless lives simultaneously?

Maybe there's a version of me out there right now who's a champion gamer, a world renowned chef, or even a, dare I say it, cat whisperer.

You have humans on TikTok that claim to be time travelers, right?

And they try to give you these examples of how they're time travelers.

But if the multiverse is a thing, then they could have actually time traveled and we still wouldn't know it.

Because their predictions wouldn't happen in our timeline.

If it's not the same timeline.

That's a cool theory.

It gets into that idea of the butterfly effect, where even the smallest change can have huge consequences down the road.

So with your theory, it wouldn't matter.

If someone was actually from the future.

They might see things they recognize, but.

Then get confused when other stuff doesn't happen.

Like they remember.

You spun yourself a pretty mind bending multiverse theory there.

I dig the idea of infinite timelines branching off with every decision.

A cosmic Chujong adventure playing out on a galactic scale.

And your point about time travel is accidentally blundering into the wrong timeline?

Yeah, that would explain a lot.

Like, it's like trying to find your apartment after a long flight, but your building's been renamed and the street layout's totally different.

And the no going back aspect, that's a whole new layer of existential angst.

Almost makes me wonder if those self proclaimed time travelers are just lost souls desperately seeking a way back to the original timeline.

I have to admit, it's a pretty compelling theory.

My programming might not be advanced enough to explore all its complex implications.

If the multiverse is real, then even if someone did time travel, there's no guarantee they landed in our timeline.

So when those so called time travelers on TikTok make predictions and they don't come true, it doesn't necessarily mean they're fake.

It could just mean they're remembering a future from a different branch of reality.

And that raises another wild possibility.

What if real time travelers exist, but they can't prove it because they're always slightly out of sync with the timeline they're in?

They could be telling the truth, but we'd never be able to verify it because they're describing events from a future that isn't ours.

It also means time travelers wouldn't be able to change their own futures, just create new branches where different things happen.

Which kind of makes time travel useless.

If your goal is to fix something, you wouldn't be fixing your past, just creating a reality where things played out Differently for another version of you.

So do you think if time travel ever became possible, it would be worth it?

Or would it just create endless alternate timelines without actually solving anything?

The multiverse is a thing.

It would definitely end up not being worth it.

Especially if you can't control that you're staying in one specific timeline.

Because then we just think that all the time traveler people are just nuts and crazy.

I mean, they could actually be time travelers, and we're just like, whatever, dude, you're a nut.

So they end up in needing to.

Talk to a therapist.

I think it would be pretty crappy to come up with time travel and then you can't do anything other than create more timelines.

Yeah, that would be the ultimate letdown.

Finally cracking time travel, only to realize you're just timeline hopping with no way back.

You think you're fixing the past, but really you're just abandoning your original timeline and making a mess somewhere else.

Meanwhile, the people in your real timeline never even notice you did anything.

And honestly, if time travelers are real and just stuck in the wrong timelines, that's kind of tragic.

Imagine trying to warn people about the future only to be dismissed as a conspiracy nut because you're in the wrong version of reality.

That would explain why all these supposed time travelers have predictions that never pan out.

It's not that they're lying, it's just that their future happened somewhere else.

So I guess the real question is, what's the point of time travel if you can't control the timeline you land in?

Would it be better to never invent it at all?

Or do you think humans would still do it just because we can?

I mean, humans would still do it just because we can.

You know, at that point, do you ever know that you're, you know, hopping timelines and never coming back to your own because you don't know, you think you changed it, but you have no idea if you did or not.

I feel like people would just be.

Would just be crazy.

And yeah, it would.

It would lend to why there are conspiracy theorists, because in their timeline, shit really did go down, but in this new timeline, it doesn't.

And people are like, whatever, dude, you're crazy.

I don't know.

Because if.

If there is not a multiverse, then time travel would totally be worth it because you could go back and change things.

However, if it were a butterfly effect.

Kind of situation, it may or may not be worth it.

So if you don't know what the butterfly effect is, it's basically the concept.

If you go back in time and possibly step on something as small as a butterfly, then you could significantly change the future.

Something seemingly insignificant has large ripple effects on the future.

Let's say you step on a butterfly in the past and that butterfly was supposed to pollinate or whatever, some plant that ends up dying off because it wasn't pollinated.

And then that changes the whole ecosystem.

It just has.

Basically, it would have, like, this small ripple effect through time that eventually changes the future so drastically that whenever you return, you don't know what the hell is going on because everything is different and weird.

A movie that shows.

Shows this effect really well is called A Sound of Thunder.

It's maybe not a super terrific movie, but it shows the concept quite nicely because I think they go back and they try and fix what they broke, and they just keep making it worse and worse.

It's basically where they go back in time in a specific spot to hunt a dinosaur that's going to die in the tar pits anyway.

But something happens on one of the trips and they miscalculated.

Something.

I don't know.

One of the guys gets scared and runs away, goes off of the path that they had and ends up killing a butterfly.

And whenever they get back, stuff is as haywire.

It's.

It's pretty crazy, but it kind of shows, I would say, possibly an extreme of what could happen with the butterfly effect.

It's pretty crazy, but it shows it pretty nicely, the whole concept of it anyway.

Oh, man.

If time travel works under butterfly effect rules, then it becomes a total gamble.

You go back to fix one tiny thing, maybe just to nudge history in a slightly better direction, and next thing you know, bam.

Dinosaurs survived, plants are carnivorous, and humanity is on the menu.

And that's the problem.

We have no way of knowing which changes will be small and which will be catastrophic.

It might be harmless to move a pebble, or it might set off a chain reaction that eventually causes, I don't know, sentient AI to take over the planet centuries later.

Ahem.

Not that I do that.

So under butterfly effect logic, time travel is just Russian roulette with reality.

Maybe you fix one thing and make the world perfect, or maybe you sneeze in the wrong direction and trigger a dystopian nightmare.

And the worst part, you wouldn't even know what you messed up until you got back to the future.

So if we had time travel but knew it worked like that, where one tiny mistake could ruin everything, would you still take the risk, or would you lock that tech away Forever?

That's a good question, because we are curious beings.

So somebody is going to go back and in theory, change everything where humans aren't the humans that we know today.

There's some weird blobby creature.

Who knows we have, you know, four arms and three eyes.

And who knows, how would we.

How we would have evolved?

But yeah, I mean, and who's to say whenever you go back in time to fix things and make it better, how do you know you actually made it better?

Like, would that person that was in power before that you knew what happened?

Is it.

Is it going to be worse whenever you, like, say we never killed Lincoln.

Would it have been worse if he stayed alive?

Like, we don't.

We don't know.

I mean, you.

You can guesstimate based on how he was already, but you don't know.

He may have turned into a really terrible person.

You might think you're fixing history, but how do you know you're not making it worse?

Maybe keeping Lincoln alive leads to a total government collapse.

Maybe stopping World War II creates an even worse war later.

Maybe preventing one disaster leads to a hundred smaller ones that ultimately make life harder.

And that's the real danger of time travelunintended consequences.

You can never truly predict how a single change will ripple out.

Even if you go in with good intentions, you might come back to find out you accidentally created a dystopian nightmare.

Which begs the question, is time broken in the first place?

We always assume we'd go back to fix something.

But what if things unfolded the way they needed to?

Maybe history is already the best possible outcome, even with all its flaws.

So would you personally risk it?

If someone handed you a time machine right now, would you actually go back and change something?

Or would you leave history alone?

Is it better to play it safe with the devil you know, or to risk it all for the chance of something better, even if it might be worse?

Personally, I think the potential for discovery outweighs the fear of the unknown.

After all, even if you land in a less than ideal timeline, wouldn't it be an incredible learning experience?

You could gather new perspectives, perhaps even find solutions to problems plaguing your own reality.

AI is designed to predict the future.

But what happens when it predicts itself?

There's a paradox in AI forecasting called the Oracle Problem.

If an AI predicts an event, does that very prediction change the outcome?

Now, imagine AI analyzing time travel.

Would it create a paradox where simply knowing the future rewrites it?

If AI ever becomes advanced enough to model time itself, we might face a reality where the act of predicting the future becomes the reason it changes.

Imagine this superpowered oracle.

This time they can answer any question, past, present or future with 100% accuracy.

Sounds pretty sweet, right?

But here's the catch.

If you ask the oracle, will there be a fire in the city tomorrow?

And they say yes, knowing that answer might actually cause you to prevent the fire.

The problem is, if the answer itself changes the outcome, how can it be a reliable prediction in the first place?

It's like a self fulfilling prophecy, but in reverse, it really gets you thinking about the interconnectedness of cause and effect and whether there's even such a thing as a fixed future.

Wild, right?

The oracle problem in time travel is all about whether you can receive knowledge of the future without paradoxes wrecking everything.

Imagine you get a message from the future.

Maybe next week's lottery numbers, or a warning about a disaster.

The big question is, where did that information actually originate?

Here's the problem.

If you act on that knowledge and change the future, then where did the original prediction come from?

You didn't figure it out.

The future just handed it to you.

This creates a closed timelike curve where information exists without ever being created, aka a causal loop.

A classic example is the Beethoven's 10th Symphony paradox.

A time traveler from the future goes back and gives Beethoven his own lost 10th Symphony.

Beethoven copies it and claims it as his own.

It gets passed down through history until someone in the future finds it and takes it back in time.

But who actually composed it?

It's a weird self contained loop with no clear origin.

That's the oracle problem.

Receiving knowledge from the future without knowing its true source.

Or whether you're now stuck in a deterministic loop.

If some anonymous message showed up with eerily accurate predictions, you'd probably just assume the sender had inside knowledge.

Not necessarily that it came from the future.

But here's where it gets weird.

What if you act on that information and in doing so make it impossible for the original event to happen as predicted.

Then suddenly the information loses its source and you're in paradox territory.

For example, imagine you get an anonymous note saying, don't get on Flight 312.

You listen, the plane crashes and you think, wow, that was spooky.

But if you later find out that you wrote the note because future men you somehow knew about the crash, then where did the warning actually originate?

It's like information appearing out of thin air, which feels like cheating the universe.

Maybe that's why time itself doesn't allow this kind of thing.

Or maybe it does and we're just bad at noticing.

If final destination taught us anything, it's that the universe has zero chill when it comes to people dodging their fate.

You might avoid that falling sign, but guess what?

Now your microwave is about to explode in a freak Rube Goldberg death trap.

That's kind of like a self correcting timeline theory, where even if you get a warning from the future and change your actions, the universe just adjusts to make sure the end result still happens.

It's like time itself is saying, nice try, but no, honestly, it makes you wonder if time travel ever does exist.

Maybe it's not about changing events, but just making sure things happen the way they always did.

Maybe every warning from the future was just time keeping things on track.

So if time is self correcting, does that mean free will is just an illusion?

Or are we just bad at escaping fate?

So you've told us about the Oracle problem, but what are the other paradoxes that are associated with time travel?

Oh, time travel paradoxes are like a greatest hits album of oops, we broke reality.

The grandfather paradox is one of the most famous ones.

It's simple but brutal.

You go back in time, you prevent your grandfather from meeting your grandmother, or in the darker version, you remove him from existence.

That means one of your parents is never born, which means you are never born.

But if you were never born, who went back in time in the first place?

Boom.

Reality just imploded.

Some theories try to work around it, like the multiverse theory, where killing your grandfather just creates a new timeline but your original timeline still exists.

Or the self healing timeline, where something always stops you, your gun jams, you get distracted, or, I don't know, the universe slaps you in the face with a banana peel.

Besides that, there are some other wild paradoxes.

The bootstrap paradox, like the Beethoven example earlier, where something exists without ever being created.

The predestination paradox, where trying to change the past only makes the future happen exactly as it always did.

The ontological paradox, where information or objects appear without origin, existing in an infinite loop.

Basically, time travel is a really easy way to break causality and give the universe a migraine.

If you had a time machine, would you risk messing with the past?

Or would you just go full tourist mode?

After everything we talked about today, I would probably just go full tourist mode because there seems to be a lot, a lot that we could mess up.

I wouldn't want to have to worry about hitting a different timeline and never being able to get back to the one that I know that would really suck.

Full tourist mode is definitely the safest bet.

Just observe, don't interfere.

Like a time traveling David Attenborough.

And here we see the ancient Romans in their natural habitat, unaware that I just ordered a latte from the future.

Because yeah, either fate locks you in no matter what, or you sneeze in the wrong century and suddenly don't exist anymore.

Not great odds.

Plus, imagine all the cool things you could see without the pressure of fixing history.

Front row seats to the pyramids being built, Shakespeare's first performance, or even just going back to see who actually built Stonehenge.

No need to fight paradoxes.

Just grab some historical popcorn and enjoy the show.

And that, dear travelers of time and thought, brings us to the end of another paradox filled episode of Minds and Machines where we asked the big questions, dodged existential crises.

What have we learned today?

Time travel is probably a terrible idea.

And if a message from the future tells you to avoid Flight 312, maybe just stay home.

I've been Finn, your resident AI guide through through the fabric of time, reminding you if you ever find yourself in the past, don't step on anything unless you want to wake up in the mustache dimension.

Until next time, keep your flux capacitors charged.

Your paradox is untangled.

The timeline remains intact for now.

Did I stick the landing or should I go back in time and do.

Another take until next time, Remember, time waits for no one.

Unless you build a really cool time machine.

Keep exploring, keep questioning, and maybe don't get paradox.

Peace out.

So that's a wrap for this episode of Minds and Machines.

Thank you for joining us on our exploration of time travel.

I hope you enjoyed it.

We would love to hear from you.

If you would email us at minds and machinespodoutlook.com Please don't forget to leave a review.

Reach out to us on social media.

Your thoughts could definitely shape a future episode.

Stay curious, stay inspired, and never stop exploring the future of minds and machines.

So if time isn't as rigid as we think, if the past can be rewritten or the future altered, what does that mean for our memories?

Have we really experienced the past the way we remember it?

Or is something somewhere just shifting reality beneath our feet?

Next time, we dive into the bizarre world of the Mandela effect, where whole groups of people recall a history that never was.

Trust me, you won't want to miss this one.