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Questions tagged [bootstrap-paradox]

Time travel concept used in many sci-fi works, also known as a causal loop, or an ontological paradox. An object or idea travels into the past and becomes its own future travelling self, effectively having no origin or ending.

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25 votes
5 answers
21k views

Bootstrap Paradox in Interstellar

So, the plausible explanation to who put the wormhole and the tesseract in the place is But this explanation raises another question and yet another (similar) paradox. Question - Paradox - ...
travis bickle's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
553 views

Seeking a short story about backwards time travel and looping history

I read this short story years ago but can't think of how to find it. The entire summary also reveals plot surprises. Sorry, but the only way I know to describe the story. In the 1970s the ...
Jerome P Mrozak's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
452 views

Which Sci-Fi work introduced the idea of "Protecting Child-self"?

The special case of Bootstrap Paradox in which a guy travels back in time to protect himself is common these days. I have encountered it countless times. The first example I encountered was in ...
Dr. Doom's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
627 views

What was the first 'time loop' story featuring the bootstrap paradox?

The earliest 'time loop' story I am aware of is Lester Del Rey's '...and it comes out here' from 1951. The main character is trying to invent a practical atomic generator & fails again and again. ...
Lee Eckhardt's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
430 views

In the movie Terminator 2, why doesn't the T-800 cease to exist when history is changed?

In the movie Terminator 2, we find that Sarah and Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) himself helping to destroy the files in the Cyber-something factory + the recovered neural net microprocessor which ...
tigerkoley's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
3k views

Doctor Who: Big Bang 2.0 is driving me crazy

In Doctor Who 2005: Big bang 2.0, the Doctor appears with a hat or something and a mop in his hand to rescue himself and Amy Pond after he is sealed shut inside the Pandorica. How can the Doctor come ...
Yash's user avatar
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1 vote
4 answers
4k views

What's the solution of Bootstrap Paradox without the involvement of multiple timelines?

In Doctor Who, there's no concept of multiple timelines. I remember The Doctor seeing himself after travelling back in time (viz. when Rose saved her father and in the recent episode Before The Flood)....
Dr. Doom's user avatar
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