You don’t need a time machine to go forward in time—you can just wait. A″ cant leave everything to A’ because A’ will disappear within three hours when he goes back to become A″. If A’ knows A wasn’t reminded the A’ can’t remind A. the other three Harrys use their time turners to go backwards and close the loop. You do need both forward and backward time travel to create a closed loop, but the forward time travel can just be waiting; it doesn’t require a machine.
I think I get it, but I’m still a bit confused, because both A’ and A″ are moving forward at the same rate, which means since A″ started off older, A’ will never really “catch up to” and become A″, because A″ continues to age. A″ is still three hours older than A’, right, forever and ever?
To consider a weird example, what about a six hour old baby going back in time to witness her own birth? Once the fetus comes out, wouldn’t there just be two babies, one six hours older than the other? Since they’re both there and they’re both experiencing time at a normal forward rate of one second per second, can’t they just both grow up like siblings? If the baby that was just born waited an hour and went back to witness her own birth, she would see her six hour older version there watching her get born, and she would also see the newborn come out, and then there’d be three babies, age 0, age six hours, and age twelve hours, right?
How exactly would the “witnessing your own birth” thing play out with time travel? I think your explanation implies that there will never be multiple copies running around for any length of time, but why does A″ cease to exist once A’ ages three hours? A″ has also aged three hours and become someone else in the meantime, right?
Oh! Alright, thank you. :) So if you go back and do something one hour in the past, then the loop closes an hour later, when the other version of yourself goes back for the same reasons you did, and now once again you are the only “you” at this moment in time. It’s not A’ that continues on with life leaving A″ off the hook, it is A″ who moves on while A’ must go back. That makes much more sense.
Edit: This means it is always the oldest Harry that we see, right? The one with all the extra waiting around included in his age? Since all the other Harries are stuck in a six hour loop.
You don’t need a time machine to go forward in time—you can just wait. A″ cant leave everything to A’ because A’ will disappear within three hours when he goes back to become A″. If A’ knows A wasn’t reminded the A’ can’t remind A. the other three Harrys use their time turners to go backwards and close the loop. You do need both forward and backward time travel to create a closed loop, but the forward time travel can just be waiting; it doesn’t require a machine.
I think I get it, but I’m still a bit confused, because both A’ and A″ are moving forward at the same rate, which means since A″ started off older, A’ will never really “catch up to” and become A″, because A″ continues to age. A″ is still three hours older than A’, right, forever and ever?
To consider a weird example, what about a six hour old baby going back in time to witness her own birth? Once the fetus comes out, wouldn’t there just be two babies, one six hours older than the other? Since they’re both there and they’re both experiencing time at a normal forward rate of one second per second, can’t they just both grow up like siblings? If the baby that was just born waited an hour and went back to witness her own birth, she would see her six hour older version there watching her get born, and she would also see the newborn come out, and then there’d be three babies, age 0, age six hours, and age twelve hours, right?
How exactly would the “witnessing your own birth” thing play out with time travel? I think your explanation implies that there will never be multiple copies running around for any length of time, but why does A″ cease to exist once A’ ages three hours? A″ has also aged three hours and become someone else in the meantime, right?
A’ doesn’t become A″ by catching up to him, he becomes A″ when he uses his time machine to jump back 3 hours.
There would be three babies for 6 hours, but then the youngest two would use their time machines and disappear into the past.
A″ doesn’t cease to exist. A’ “ceases to exist” because his time machine sends him back into the past to become A″.
Oh! Alright, thank you. :) So if you go back and do something one hour in the past, then the loop closes an hour later, when the other version of yourself goes back for the same reasons you did, and now once again you are the only “you” at this moment in time. It’s not A’ that continues on with life leaving A″ off the hook, it is A″ who moves on while A’ must go back. That makes much more sense.
Edit: This means it is always the oldest Harry that we see, right? The one with all the extra waiting around included in his age? Since all the other Harries are stuck in a six hour loop.