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Causal loop

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For the cause and effect diagram, see Causal loop diagram.
For the science fiction plot device, see time loop.

A causal loop[1] is a paradox of time travel that occurs when a later (future) event is the cause of an earlier (past) event, through some sort of time travel. The past event is then partly or entirely the cause of the future event, which is the past event's cause. Since a causal loop has no independent origin, it is also called a bootstrap paradox or an ontological paradox.

Bootstrap paradox

The term "bootstrap paradox" refers to the expression "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps"; the use of the term for the time-travel paradox was popularized by Robert A. Heinlein's story THE RABBIT. It is a paradox in the sense that an independent origin of the events that caused each other cannot be determined, they simply exist by themselves,[1] thus they may be said to have been predestined to occur. Predestination does not necessarily involve a supernatural power, and could be the result of other "infallible foreknowledge" mechanisms.[2] The predestination paradox allows time travel to be self-consistent, similar to the Novikov self-consistency principle.

Bootstrap paradox in fiction

The bootstrap paradox has been used in fictional stories and films.[3] The concept is named from the Robert Heinlein story "By His Bootstraps".[3][4] Some works of fiction, for example Somewhere in Time, have a version of the paradox where an object from the future is brought to the past, where it ages until it is brought back to the past again, apparently unchanged from its previous journey. An object making such a circular passage through time must be identical whenever it is brought back to the past, otherwise it would create an inconsistency.[5] The movie Time Lapse is built entirely around the concept of bootstrap paradox.[6] Don D'Amassa states that "The greatest difficulty in creating a story of this type is not so much the plotting of the various times loops, but to render them in such a way that the reader can follow the logic."[4] It also featured in Series 9: Episode 4 of Doctor Who, "Before the Flood". At the start of the episode, the Doctor told a story of how he tried to meet Beethoven by travelling back in time. It turned out that Beethoven had never achieved fame at this moment, resulting in the Doctor giving the composer his own symphonies to publish, effectively making the Doctor their originator. At this point, the Doctor told the viewers about the Bootstrap Paradox, and said to "Google it". This led to a spike in searches during and shortly after the show was broadcast.[7][8]

Self-fulfilling prophecy

A self-fulfilling prophecy may be a form of causality loop, only when the prophecy can be said to be truly known to occur, since only then events in the future will be causing effects in the past.[2] Otherwise, it would be a simple case of events in the past causing events in the future. A notable fictional example of a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs in classical play Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus becomes the king of Thebes, whilst in the process unwittingly fulfills a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. The prophecy itself serves as the impetus for his actions, and thus it is self-fulfilling.[9][10]

See also

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References

  1. ^ a b Nicholas J.J. Smith (2013). "Time Travel". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  2. ^ a b Craig (1987). "Divine Foreknowledge and Newcomb's Paradox". Philosophia. 17 (3): 331–350. doi:10.1007/BF02455055.
  3. ^ a b Klosterman, Chuck (2009-10-20). Eating the Dinosaur. Simon and Schuster. p. 60. ISBN 9781439168486. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  4. ^ a b D'Ammassa, Don (2005). Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction. Infobase Publishing. p. 67. ISBN 9780816059249. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  5. ^ Everett, Allen; Roman, Thomas (2011-12-15). Time Travel and Warp Drives: A Scientific Guide to Shortcuts through Time and Space. University of Chicago Press. p. 138. ISBN 9780226224985. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  6. ^ Peter Christoforou (January 31, 2015). "Time Lapse (2014) Explained". Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  7. ^ http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-10-10/doctor-who-what-is-the-bootstrap-paradox
  8. ^ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/10/doctor_who_before_the_flood_review/
  9. ^ E.R. Dodds, Greece & Rome, 2nd Ser., Vol. 13, No. 1 (Apr., 1966), pp. 37–49
  10. ^ Popper, Karl (1976). Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography. LaSalle, Illinois: Open Court. ISBN 978-0-87548-343-6. OCLC 2927208.
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