The Grandfather Paradox PDF Download

Author: Steven Burgauer
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781542454476
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
Marooned in the present, their only hope for the future lay in the past. But first there was still the small matter of staying alive. The planet they were marooned on was crawling with bird-beasts, immense parrotlike carnivores that stood two meters tall, weighed upwards of fifty klogs, and had a giant scooped beak like a pelican. They normally swallowed their prey whole, though not before crushing them to death in their vise-like jaws. Then there were the vipers - writhing snake-like creatures armed with dozens of sucker-bearing tentacles. They sprayed their victims with acid, then ate them while they were still alive. But it got worse. Much worse . . . Now, join Andu Nehrengel and his female clone companions on an intense voyage through time. First stop: the Civil War and the Battle of Shiloh, April 1862, one of the most horrendous land battles of all time. Meet Mark Twain when he is still a riverboat pilot. Journey with him north to Missouri when he joins the Confederacy. Then it's back to the future and on to Mars! And when you're done reading this adventure, check out these other fine books by author Steven Burgauer: The Night of the Eleventh Sun, The Road To War: Duty & Drill, Courage & Capture, and his newest historical fiction piece, Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou, with a short video trailer https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQs2pwr89RI

Author: Fred Alan Wolf
Publisher: Elora Media
ISBN: 9780978681333
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Dr. Quantum- first introduced in the world wide hit film "What The Bleep Do We Know?!" is a series of adventures featuring the many-faceted fields of futuristic scientific thought. We follow Dr. Quantumand his UUSS (United Earth Science Services) team in the early 25th century in their endeavors to further the well being of the universes inhabiatnts through technology and science.

Author: Nikk Effingham
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198842503
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
There are various arguments for the metaphysical impossibility of time travel. Is it impossible because objects could then be in two places at once? Or is it impossible because some objects could bring about their own existence? In this book, Nikk Effingham contends that no such argument is sound and that time travel is metaphysically possible. His main focus is on the Grandfather Paradox: the position that time travel is impossible because someone could not go back in time and kill their own grandfather before he met their grandmother. In such a case, Effingham argues that the time traveller would have the ability to do the impossible (so they could kill their grandfather) even though those impossibilities will never come about (so they won't kill their grandfather). He then explores the ramifications of this view, discussing issues in probability and decision theory. The book ends by laying out the dangers of time travel and why, even though no time machines currently exist, we should pay extra special care ensuring that nothing, no matter how small or microscopic, ever travels in time.

Author: John W. Carroll
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 178374037X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
Is time travel just a confusing plot device deployed by science fiction authors and Hollywood filmmakers to amaze and amuse? Or might empirical data prompt a scientific hypothesis of time travel? Structured on a fascinating dialogue involving a distinguished physicist, Dr. Rufus, a physics graduate student and a computer scientist this book probes an experimentally supported hypothesis of backwards time travel – and in so doing addresses key metaphysical issues, such as causation, identity over time and free will. The setting is the Jefferson National Laboratory during a period of five days in 2010. Dr. Rufus’s experimental search for the psi-lepton and the resulting intractable data spurs the discussion on time travel. She and her two colleagues are pushed by their observations to address the grandfather paradox and other puzzles about backwards causation, with attention also given to causal loops, multi-dimensional time, and the prospect that only the present exists. Sensible solutions to the main puzzles emerge, ultimately advancing the case for time travel really being possible. A Time Travel Dialogue addresses the possibility of time travel, approaching familiar paradoxes in a rigorous, engaging, and fun manner. It follows in the long philosophical tradition of using dialogue to present philosophical ideas and arguments, but is ground breaking in its use of the dialogue format to introduce readers to the metaphysics of time travel, and is also distinctive in its use of lab results to drive philosophical analysis. The discussion of data that might decide whether time is one-dimensional (one timeline) or multi-dimensional (branching time) is especially novel.

Author: Agustin Rayo
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262039419
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
An introduction to awe-inspiring ideas at the brink of paradox: infinities of different sizes, time travel, probability and measure theory, and computability theory. This book introduces the reader to awe-inspiring issues at the intersection of philosophy and mathematics. It explores ideas at the brink of paradox: infinities of different sizes, time travel, probability and measure theory, computability theory, the Grandfather Paradox, Newcomb's Problem, the Principle of Countable Additivity. The goal is to present some exceptionally beautiful ideas in enough detail to enable readers to understand the ideas themselves (rather than watered-down approximations), but without supplying so much detail that they abandon the effort. The philosophical content requires a mind attuned to subtlety; the most demanding of the mathematical ideas require familiarity with college-level mathematics or mathematical proof. The book covers Cantor's revolutionary thinking about infinity, which leads to the result that some infinities are bigger than others; time travel and free will, decision theory, probability, and the Banach-Tarski Theorem, which states that it is possible to decompose a ball into a finite number of pieces and reassemble the pieces so as to get two balls that are each the same size as the original. Its investigation of computability theory leads to a proof of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, which yields the amazing result that arithmetic is so complex that no computer could be programmed to output every arithmetical truth and no falsehood. Each chapter is followed by an appendix with answers to exercises. A list of recommended reading points readers to more advanced discussions. The book is based on a popular course (and MOOC) taught by the author at MIT.

Author: Dave Means
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1430301570
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
He was a government employed scientist, pulled from a mundain two-month study aboard a research ship stationed off the coast of Alaska. Vance Carr's superiors send him to investigate and identify a mysterious object discovered in a glacier, an object soon found to be something beyond comprehension; or belief. With his colleages, Carr unravels a mystery whose origin not only dates generations into the future, but also the past. He soon finds himself caught up in the greatest paradox known to man, one whose outcome carries the fate of the world's population.

Author: Jim Al-Khalili
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0552778060
Category : Physics
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
How can a cat be both dead and alive at the same time? Why will Achilles never beat a tortoise in a race, no matter how fast he runs? And how can a person be ten years older than their twin? Throughout history, scientists have been coming up with theories and ideas that just do not seem to make sense

Author: Robert Charles Wilson
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 146680078X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Two events made September 1st a memorable day for Jesse Cullum. First, he lost a pair of Oakley sunglasses. Second, he saved the life of President Ulysses S. Grant. In the near future of Robert Charles Wilson's Last Year, the technology exists to open doorways into the past--but not our past, not exactly. Each "past" is effectively an alternate world, identical to ours but only up to the date on which we access it. And a given "past" can only be reached once. After a passageway is open, it's the only road to that particular past; once closed, it can't be reopened. A passageway has been opened to a version of late 19th-century Ohio. It's been in operation for most of a decade, but it's no secret, on either side of time. A small city has grown up around it to entertain visitors from our time, and many locals earn a good living catering to them. But like all such operations, it has a shelf life; as the "natives" become more sophisticated, their version of the "past" grows less attractive as a destination. Jesse Cullum is a native. And he knows the passageway will be closing soon. He's fallen in love with a woman from our time, and he means to follow her back--no matter whose secrets he has to expose in order to do it. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Author: Edward Ashton
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1250275040
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
*Soon to be the major motion picture Mickey17* The Martian meets Multiplicity in Edward Ashton's high concept science fiction thriller, in which Mickey7, an "expendable," refuses to let his replacement clone Mickey8 take his place. Dying isn’t any fun...but at least it’s a living. Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous—even suicidal—the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal...and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it. On a fairly routine scouting mission, Mickey7 goes missing and is presumed dead. By the time he returns to the colony base, surprisingly helped back by native life, Mickey7’s fate has been sealed. There’s a new clone, Mickey8, reporting for Expendable duties. The idea of duplicate Expendables is universally loathed, and if caught, they will likely be thrown into the recycler for protein. Mickey7 must keep his double a secret from the rest of the colony. Meanwhile, life on Niflheim is getting worse. The atmosphere is unsuitable for humans, food is in short supply, and terraforming is going poorly. The native species are growing curious about their new neighbors, and that curiosity has Commander Marshall very afraid. Ultimately, the survival of both lifeforms will come down to Mickey7. That is, if he can just keep from dying for good.

Author: Chuck Klosterman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416544208
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
The bestselling author of "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" returns with an all-original nonfiction collection of questions and answers about pop culture, sports, and the meaning of reality.