Time Travel Essay - AAAAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE

I'm doing this metaphysics essay on time travel at the moment, and it's some crazy shit.

I was doing some readings for it and suddenly had an idea for a small example. Well, at the moment that example is now occupying 1400 words (essay is 2500-3000). What's worse, I don't have any structure, purpose or argument. I'm just writing stuff, listing one problem or paradox, overcoming that but leading to another. At the moment it's little more than a list of paradoxes with no structure or argument - NOT GOOD!

And what's even more, I think I'm losing track of the timelines and paradoxes this example has created! AAAAIIIIEEEEEEE

I keep trying to illustrate one point and end up demonstrating something else!

Ok, this is a very brief summary:


ok - Chris1 has never broken his arm. Xray, and memory proves this. he goes back in time to his 15th birthday and breaks the arm of his younger self, Chris2. As a result, Chris 1's arm was now broken all along, and now an X-ray will prove that, but how would that explain that his memories, while true, were of an event that never happened (not breaking his arm and playing football after his 15th bday - which Chris2 couldn't do as he had a broken arm!)

furthermore, As Chris2 has a broken arm, when he gets old enough to time travel he has no reason to break the arm of his younger self, so he doesn't.
Which means that Chris2 has memories and physical evidence (scarred bone) of a broken arm. But as he doesn't go back in time to break his younger self's arm (Chris3), it never happened
so again he's got false memories, he doesn't remember what really happened, and his physical evidence contradicts his false memories - his memories are simultaneously true and false. They're true memories of a non-event (which is paradoxical in itself).


you want to know what just really fucked me up though?

I thought I was going to show a way out of the loop until I realised that the only logical follow-on is this:

Chris3, not having broken a bone inhis life, gets to the point where he's able to go back in time. To prove you can change the past he decides to go back in time to break the arm of his younger self.............


So I don't know if it's a closed causal loop, open causal loop (if there is such a concept) or another type of paradox.....


Can anybody else figure out what the hell I just did? Coz somehow I gotta finish an essay out of it.......I don't even know what my point in these examples are anymore


But I've gotta finish it or else I'll get in trouble from my gorgeous girl :P