Episode 77, ‘Time Travel: The Grandfather Paradox and Abilities’ with Olivia Coombes (Part I - Time Traveller Abilities)
The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast
Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane
4.8 • 604 Ratings
🗓️ 12 April 2020
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Olivia Coombes is a philosopher and teacher at the University of Edinburgh whose research focuses on issues about the possibility of time travel, the paradoxes involved in time travel, and how these topics relate to the question of free-will. In addition to this, Liv is also the co-host of the Edinburgh-based podcast Two Philosophers: One Podcast, No Problems.
Since the philosopher David Lewis, and before, philosophers, scientists, movie fans (pretty much everybody), have deliberated the possibility of time travel. People have asked questions like: What is the order of time? If we could build a powerful enough machine, would we be able to travel through time? Causation goes forwards in time, but is there anything stopping it going backwards? And, if it could, can we have causal loops in time?
In this episode we’re going to be focusing on the grandfather paradox, which is one instance of the question: can time travellers change the past? This paradox asks us whether or not we could go back in time and kill our own grandfathers. Many people say no: it is logically impossible, like squaring circles, or making something from nothing. However, Olivia Coombes thinks differently. She thinks that we can kill our grandfathers, and that we are able to change the past.
Contents
Part I. Time Traveller Abilities
Part II. Further Analysis and Discussion
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Olivia Coombs is a philosopher and teacher at the University of Edinburgh whose research focuses on |
| 0:13.0 | issues about the possibility of time travel, the paradoxes involved in time travel, and how these |
| 0:18.5 | topics relate to the question of free will. In addition to this, |
| 0:21.8 | Liv is also the host of Edinburgh-based podcast, Two Philosophers One Podcast, No Problems, along with |
| 0:27.0 | her co-host Elliot, in which they discuss philosophical problems in the context of film and pop culture. |
| 0:32.2 | Since the philosopher, David Lewis, and before, philosophers, scientists, movie fans, and anyone |
| 0:37.2 | you like have deliberated the possibility of time travel. |
| 0:40.3 | People have asked the questions like, what is the order of time? |
| 0:43.3 | If we could build a powerful enough machine, would we be able to travel through time? |
| 0:47.3 | Causation goes forward in time, but is there anything stopping it going backwards? |
| 0:52.3 | And if it could, can we have loops in time? |
| 0:56.1 | Today we're going to be focusing on the grandfather paradox, which is one instance of the |
| 1:00.0 | question, can time travelers change the past? |
| 1:03.5 | This paradox asks us whether or not we could go back in time and kill our own grandfathers. |
| 1:08.7 | Many people say no, it is logically impossible, |
| 1:11.6 | like squaring circles or making something from nothing. |
| 1:14.9 | However, Liv Coombs thinks differently. |
| 1:17.3 | She thinks that we can and should kill our grandfathers |
| 1:19.9 | and that we are able to change the past. |
| 1:22.9 | Like the should, that... |
| 1:24.1 | Everyone's going to be like, nice. |
| 1:27.0 | I'm going to be like, nice. Yeah. |
... |
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