From IAN ABBOTT
I was fascinated by Ian Redmount’s article, ‘Wormholes, time travel
and quantum gravity’ (28 April), but was surprised to see no mention of
the ‘many worlds’ interpretation of quantum mechanics.
With the many worlds interpretation there is no need for the ‘principle
of consistency’. If I were to travel backwards in time and kill my parents
before I had been born, this would not alter the fact that I have already
been born in my own personal history. But there will ‘now’ be a whole set
of universes in which I can never be born.
According to the article, the universe would somehow conspire to prevent
me from killing my parents, but if I was a decent shot, I reckon I would
stand a pretty good chance. However, probably some less drastic experiment
would be in order!
Ian Abbott Manchester
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