Can time travelers go back in time and have sex with themselves? Astrophysicists investigate

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/11/24/can-time-travelers-go-back-in-time-and-have-sex-with-themselves-astrophysicists-investigate.html

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Obligs:

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Um, i’m sure they could have used that time they spent trying to figure out selfcest to help develop new energy sources, faster than light travel or time crystals instead.

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Seems only fair. Past me had fucked present me numerous times.

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If I could go back in time, I’d spend some time with myself explaining what kind of shit is going down in the future, knocking boots with myself, not so much.

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Pfft… lousy lay

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I couldn’t have sex with my younger self because I’m so not my own type.

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My first thought. I know too much about myself, and doubt younger me would be into the post-pandemic version. :woman_shrugging:t4:

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Kill your parents, have sex with yourself, step on a dinosaur egg, flap butterfly wings, whatever.

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I couldn’t do it.

I’m just not attracted to myself.

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Many people have told me to do this, but I haven’t done it yet

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I find your inability to tell us exactly when you’re making out with yourself, er, disappointing.

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2015 me: So you say you’re from the future? I’ll bite. What happens in 2016?
2021 me: The Cubs win the World Series and Donald Trump gets elected president, both in the same week.
2015: I’ve seen that movie before. I’m bored already. What next?
2021: We spend the next three years debating whether Nazis are bad or good. Fox News says they’re good, a few fringe wackos on the left say they’re bad, CNN can’t decide.
2015: [stares in shock]
2021: Then there’s a global pandemic. Fortunately a vaccine becomes quickly available, but saving our own lives becomes a super controversial hot button political issue, with only super weirdo liberal freaks choosing their own lives over freedom.
2015: [dials 911 but doesn’t press send]
2021: And Biden is in the White House, and everyone’s talking about how liberal he is

“911, what’s your emergency?”

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i was under the impression that time was more like an ever branching tree. Worrying about causing a paradox would only be a problem if time was direct and linear. Like you could go back in time and change something and then if you went forward again you would just be on a different branch. with your old self still existing in that parallel dimension/branch, not disappearing like a marty mcfly photo. In my perception/idea of time, I’d think the only real dilemma would be that you really could never get back to the same future you came from. But you wouldn’t kill yourself off or anything. I’d think the only problem would be the normal genetic issues. it would be like twins having sex. And i guess if you don’t have offspring, it’s just a personal moral issue. ha.

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Present and past me both think they can do better. But they’re both overestimating themselves and should totally settle.

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Dark Matter by Blake Crouch really explores this topic… amazing book if you can get over the author’s use of broken sentences. Highly recommended.

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