Time Travel and Free Will: You can alter course of events but not the result according to physics

W_L · May 2

https://www.businessinsider.com/time-travel-possible-changing-past-isnt-physics-says-2020-9#:~:text=A 2020 study offered a,you couldn't change history.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/aba4bc

I mentioned this weeks ago in my story about time travel, using the principle known as the Novikov's self-consistency principle, but I thought it might be a good idea to discuss and explore this topic with other writers and readers. For my story, I wanted to use a realistic concept around time travel being possible, but results from history cannot be changed. This kind of concept is based on the nature that the universe as a system recalibrates itself around results. You cannot exist without the results matching the causes.

If the theory and math hold true, the underlying idea around "Free Will" is kind of moot, except for minor variations. It opens up a lot of deeper questions around natural law, the limitations on chaotic elements, and human philosophies that invest heavily on absolute free will.

Does that mean destiny and fate are real? Are we just a Thanos snap of a finger away from "inevitability"?

It's an interesting thing to consider for human beings.