Cool ideas - worthy of a story

Time travel experiment demonstrates how to avoid the grandfather paradox (Update)


(PhysOrg.com) -- Among the many intriguing concepts in Einstein’s relativity theories is the idea of closed timelike curves (CTCs), which are paths in spacetime that return to their starting points. As such, CTCs offer the possibility of traveling back in time. But, as many science fiction films have addressed, time travel is full of potential paradoxes. Perhaps the most notable of these is the grandfather paradox, in which a time traveler goes back in time and kills her grandfather, preventing her own birth.


I'm thinking this could be such a good thing for some of us. Think of the possibilities for getting out of trouble. Forget the anniversary? Zip back a few days, put a reminder into the smartphone to pick up flowers and voila! Saved! How about that term paper that you forgot in University? The one that would have saved your final mark? Head on back to a month before the due date and leave a copy on your old desk for submission. You might as well leave a note to yourself reminding you not to drink the whole bottle of rum the next night, to avoid those awkward moments at the Police Station...


Then again, you might not be as interesting as you are now without those past experiences. And let me tell you, you ARE an interesting sort...