Novikov self-consistency principle

The Novikov self- matching principle is an assumption that was made by Russian astrophysicist Dr. Igor Novikov in the 1980s to eliminate the paradoxes of time travel theory. This is achieved by providing that an event, which would imply a paradox is completely unlikely.

The scenario

Instead of conventional notions of Zeitreiseparadoxa, such as the grandfather paradox, Novikov used a mechanical model, which would be more easily accessible from the mathematical side. He imagined a billiard ball before that would accurately thrust into a wormhole, exactly, that they go back in time and with an earlier version of her would collide itself and thus themselves would distract from the track, which made it possible at all, in the said wormhole to fall - and thus push away the entire process in the non-existence.

Novikov found out that there were many trajectories that resulted from the same initial conditions. For example, the ball itself could just lightly touch, and therefore only slightly affect its course, but to turn to graze in the next round, just exactly the same. This process was complete in itself (called a causality loop ) and not a paradox. The probability of such a phenomenon, however, would be higher than zero, whereas the probability of self-effacement of the event would be zero, and therefore closed Novikov, that a time traveler, no matter what he would do, would never produce a paradox can.

Possible effects on the free will

A consequence of the Twilight Zone provides another example: A person travels back in time in order to clarify the cause of a famous fire. It is located in the building while the fire should break out, but comes across unintentionally a lantern around and so caused the fire, which they prompting years later to undertake the journey. The scenario includes himself completely from - through time travel to the event that had already happened in the future met.

Here, the person had no influence on their free will - it was impossible for them to prevent the fire, as she could not stop the event because it had to coincide with itself, because it was nonexistent. Even if the person had known what would happen, she would never be able to prevent what had to be done according to the principle. But even here, alternative ways are possible - for example, the fire would never have broken out because the person would never have gone back in time. Again, the event is completely true to itself in agreement, there is no interruption of causality.

So you can see that there are after the self- matching principle many possibilities that are based on the same initial positions, and let the one and the other the original event intact in itself. Even on closer consideration of free will is not actually trimmed, as only paradoxes are impossible, and all other decisions, however, are free.

Assessment of the Novikov self- matching principle

The principle requires certain circumstances, the very narrow limits the possibility of time travel. More specifically, it even assumes that only a single timeline exists that can not be changed and therefore reject the possibility of many-worlds interpretation entirely.

This consideration also the conclusion has been drawn that the principle of no more than a tautology represents - which means that it will be correct from their own definition out needs and requires no verification.

Examples in the literature

The Novikov self- matching principle was and is often used in fictional stories and narratives, which vary widely, but all agree in essence with the presumption Novikov:

• In several episodes of the Star Trek franchise
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999 ) and its film adaptation (2004)
• Terminator (1984)
• The Time Machine (2002)
• Twelve Monkeys (1995).