What is bootstrap parradox?
The bootstrap paradox is a concept often discussed in the context of time travel. It refers to a situation where an object or piece of information is sent back in time and becomes the cause of something in the past that ultimately leads to the original event of sending it back in time. This creates a loop where the object or information has no clear point of origin.
Here's a classic example:
Imagine you receive a book from your future self. You study it, and later in life, you use the knowledge from that book to write the same book. Then, once you finish writing it, you send it back in time to your younger self. The paradox is that the book exists without ever being created or originating from any specific point in time.
This paradox challenges our understanding of causality, as it suggests that an event can be both the cause and effect of itself, leading to logical contradictions and questions about the nature of time and reality.
The bootstrap paradox is primarily a concept from science fiction. It's often explored in stories, movies, and television shows that involve time travel. The paradox highlights the complex and often paradoxical nature of time travel, which, according to our current understanding of physics, isn't possible.
In fiction, writers use the bootstrap paradox to create intriguing plot twists and to explore the philosophical and logical implications of time travel. Since time travel itself is speculative and not proven to be possible, the scenarios involving the bootstrap paradox remain within the realm of fiction and theoretical discussion.
The movie Back to the Future features a concept similar to the bootstrap paradox, though it's more commonly referred to as a time loop or causal loop in the context of that film.
In Back to the Future, Marty McFly travels back in time and influences events that ultimately shape his own future. For example, he plays "Johnny B. Goode" on the guitar at the high school dance, which inspires Chuck Berry's version of the song in the future. This creates a loop where Marty's knowledge of the song comes from the future, but it also ends up influencing its creation in the past.
While Back to the Future isn't a perfect example of the bootstrap paradox (since the movie doesn't involve an object or information being sent back with no clear origin), it does play with similar ideas of time loops and the influence of the future on the past, which are key elements in stories that explore the bootstrap paradox.
In the movie, Biff Tannen gets his hands on a sports almanac that contains the results of every major sporting event from 1950 to 2000. He then uses a time machine to go back to 1955 and gives the almanac to his younger self, allowing him to become incredibly wealthy by betting on the outcomes of future sporting events.The paradox here is that the almanac's information (the future sports results) only exists in the past because it was brought back in time. However, its existence in the past directly influences the future, leading to the timeline where the almanac is brought back in the first place. This creates a loop where the information has no clear origin—it's a classic bootstrap paradox, where cause and effect are intertwined in a way that defies logical progression.
The timeline of the McFly family was drastically altered as a result of the events involving the sports almanac in Back to the Future Part II.
When Old Biff Tannen gives the sports almanac to his younger self in 1955, Young Biff uses it to make a fortune by betting on sports events with guaranteed outcomes. As a result, Biff becomes immensely wealthy and powerful, creating an alternate timeline where he controls Hill Valley and marries Marty's mother, Lorraine. This changes the lives of the McFly family for the worse:
- George McFly (Marty's father) is murdered, and Lorraine ends up in a loveless marriage with Biff.
- Marty McFly finds himself in a world where his family is broken and his father is dead.
The wealth and power Biff gains from the almanac lead to a dystopian version of 1985, where Hill Valley is overrun with crime and corruption. This altered timeline is the direct consequence of the bootstrap paradox created by the almanac, showing how even small changes in the past can have massive ripple effects on the future.
Marty and Doc Brown then have to travel back to 1955 to retrieve the almanac and restore the original timeline, which they eventually do, correcting the course of history.