In theoretical physics and time travel theories, the concept known as the Bootstrap Paradox poses fascinating questions regarding origin and the nature of time.
The name of the paradox is derived from the expression “pulling oneself up by the bootstraps,” which relates to an endless cycle with no particular beginning.
When something is sent back in time and becomes the cause of its own existence in the future, it is known as the Bootstrap Paradox in the case of time travel.
The paradox can be explained by a very simple example.
Imagine a time traveler who travels back in time and gives Newton a copy of his own works before they were even thought of by him. Newton then publishes the work under his name and becomes famous. So where is the exact origin of Newton’s works? They do not seem to have a clear point of origin because the copy of his works were given to him by the time traveller who got the copies from Newton in the future.
So this creates a loop where the work does not have a specific origin.
There are several theories as to how the paradox can be solved, namely the notion that the information needn’t have a point of origin, which brings in the multiversal theories where each the info will have many iterations which exist in different universes. These are theoretical ideas, though, and their validity haven’t been established.
This paradox has baffled scientists for generations and it poses a threat to our basic understanding of time.
This article was written by Parikshith.
