Predestination Paradox: simple explanation


Understanding time is not an easy work. It is true, that there are many ways to time travel but there are much more problems to make a working machine for time travelling. There are many paradoxes of time travelling, and we have to solve all the paradoxes to make a working time machine. Some paradoxes are already solved but there are more paradoxes to be solved. Among those unsolved paradoxes, one of the most notable and complicated paradox is Causal Loop paradox or Predestination paradox.

In the third solution of the Grandfather paradox we saw that, if we go back to the past, actually a copy of our present version will be generated. If you haven’t yet read, read from the link below –

Now let’s understand the paradox,

According to this paradox, time bounded in a close loop that is called causal loop. You can go anywhere or rather in any point of the causal loop, but you can’t change it. It means, you can’t change your past. If you go to your past and do something to change a situation of past, you can’t rather you help in that situation to happen that thing unknowingly. If you going to your past then actually a copy of you is going to ‘your’ past but the copy (of you) is unknown to your previous version (your version in that time). And that copy (of you) can’t change your past. So, if you are thinking to change your past, forget it, according to Predestination paradox. What happened in your past that is independent of you. You just can change the way of happening, it means, in which way a situation happened in your past, only that way can be changed by you (or rather the copy of you). But what actually happened that can’t be stopped or changed.

Confused? Don’t get confused. The Incredible Truth is here to help you.

More specifically if you want to understand this paradox please watch an Australian science fiction thriller movie named Predestination, released in 2014.

The plot of the movie is given below,

Agent ChronologyDateEvent
01981Time travel is invented, allowing travelers to go as far forward as 2034 or as far back as 1928.
11964-FebBaby Jane is born to John and Jane.
21964-Mar-02Baby Jane is kidnapped by Agent Doe.
31945-SepBaby Jane is left at Cleveland Orphanage.
41963-Apr-03At Cleveland College, Jane meets John, who realizes he is his own lover.
51963-Jun-24Jane is abandoned by John, who leaves with Agent Doe to become a temporal agent.
61965-JanJane becomes John after eleven months of surgery and recovery.
71970-Nov-06In New York, John meets Agent Doe in a bar, where he is convinced to go back in time seven years to kill the man who broke his heart, his future self.
81985-Aug-12John is left at the Temporal Bureau to recover from a 22-year time jump.
91985-Aug-13John is given his Field Kit, becoming Agent Doe.
101970-Mar-02In New York, Future Agent Doe fights the Fizzle Bomber, who escapes. Past Agent Doe attempts to disarm the Fizzle Bomber's bomb, but it explodes, damaging his face. Reaching for his Field Kit, he is assisted by Future Agent Doe.
111992-Feb-21Agent Doe returns to the Temporal Bureau, where he is left to undergo surgery and heal before his final mission.
121975-Jan-07Agent Doe retires to New York, but his Field Kit fails to decommission.
131975-Mar-06Agent Doe kills the Fizzle Bomber, his future self, thus becoming the Fizzle Bomber.
141974In Chicago, Illinois, the Fizzle Bomber prevents a chemical spill by destroying the chemical company, preventing the potential drunk driver from going into work, saving 324 lives from the original 350+ death toll.
151975In Los Angeles, California, the Fizzle Bomber prevents an extremist group from igniting a bomb, decreasing the original 1,081 death toll.
161991-Apr-03In Hamburg, Germany, the Fizzle Bomber prevents the deaths of 1,861 people.
171968In Boston, Massachusetts, the Fizzle Bomber prevents the Hardshaw Weapons Factory Heist by destroying the factory, preventing the deaths of 3,027 people.
181970In Melbourne, Australia, the Fizzle Bomber prevents the Flinders Street Station train crash.

SOURCE: this plot chart is taken from Wikipedia, Predestination, Timeline.

Now from this chart you can understand that Agent Doe, John, Jane, the baby of Jane (baby Jane) and the Fizzle Bomber are practically same. They are various versions of a single person in various points of a causal time loop. But what Agent Doe wanted to change in his past he couldn’t do that rather he helped every versions of himself unknowingly.

This is Predestination paradox. Now you can understand this. First understand and visualize the whole thing, we will discuss about the “solutions” of this paradox later.

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