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    The Grandfather Paradox
    By Derek Potter | February 13th 2012 08:30 PM | 24 comments | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
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    About Derek

    I'm an electronics design engineer with a lifelong love of science, especially physics.


    I do not have a cat.
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    Comments

    vongehr
    Wow - deep. So it is impossible? Or is the message that he came back from the future and deleted it?
    Sascha Vongehr | 02/13/12 | 23:19 PM
    derek_potter
    Har har. Well, even a null blog makes more sense than most of yours!

     
    Derek Potter | 02/13/12 | 23:43 PM
    Gerhard Adam
    Actually it's amazing that you got 9 reads so far, and now three comments.
    Gerhard Adam | 02/14/12 | 00:17 AM
    derek_potter
    I'm going for that Click-Whore title!
    Derek Potter | 02/14/12 | 02:09 AM
    derek_potter
    72 hits, 8 comments and growing :)
    Derek Potter | 02/14/12 | 12:34 PM
    derek_potter
     604 / 24  :)
    Derek Potter | 03/03/12 | 10:28 AM
    Hank
    It's very zen.
    Hank Campbell | 02/14/12 | 03:04 AM
    derek_potter
    Haven't you got another website to muck up, Hank? :P
    Derek Potter | 02/14/12 | 12:38 PM
    Bonny Bonobo alias Brat
    The title 'The Grandfather Paradox' accompanied by only a picture of yourself shaking a fist implies to me that maybe you are a paradoxical grandfather Derek? 

    According to http://www.definitions.net/definition/paradox paradox means :-
    1. (n.) paradox a seemingly contradictory or absurd statement that expresses a possible truth.
    2. paradox a self-contradictory and false proposition.
    3. paradox a person, thing, or situation, exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature.
    4. paradox an opinion or statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion. 
    But which of these paradoxical grandfathers are you claiming to be? I imagine that you are simply not a grandfather and that is the paradox, if so then that's a bit boring..... 

    Or you could be really interesting and tell us what you promised to tell on my blog about UFO's Causing problems at the LHC when you said :-
    I have what seems to me to be a complete (ahem) solution to the Grandfather Paradox, which I shall put up some time. There are problems though, but they get less important at the level of single particles. At the Doctor Who level, things become a bit counter-intuitive - it's hard to imagine what it's like when what you haven't done yetdetermines what you are about to do. I don't mean "determines logically what you *must* do" but "causes you to do them" This sounds like the "big hand out of the sky" theory, that time somehow "forbids" you to kill your grandfather. Nope, it's plain physics.  Wait and see. 


    Helen Barratt | 02/14/12 | 04:45 AM
    derek_potter
    Nag! Nag! Nag!
     
    Derek Potter | 02/14/12 | 12:39 PM
    Bonny Bonobo alias Brat
    Yes, but look how brightly my face is shining. Hopefully I can nag safely from the other side of the world even though you do look ready to punch someone out for calling you a paradoxical grandfather!.
    Helen Barratt | 02/14/12 | 12:49 PM
    MikeCrow
    picture of yourself shaking a fist

    And here I just thought it was just Derek's version of the Thinker.
    —
    Never is a long time.
    Mi Cro | 02/14/12 | 12:40 PM
    Thor Russell
    Well I can't beat you for emptiness, but I have given it a go
    http://www.science20.com/thor_russell/blog/intelligence_mathematically_intractable-86917 
    I will soon be the ultimate Click-Whore for that phrase.



    —
    Thor Russell
    Thor Russell | 02/14/12 | 04:16 AM
    MikeCrow
    I'm with Sascha, Deep, very deep!
    —
    Never is a long time.
    Mi Cro | 02/14/12 | 10:36 AM
    derek_potter
    I'm with Sascha, Deep, very deep!
     
    That's me. And I have the headgear to prove it.
    Derek Potter | 02/15/12 | 02:20 AM
    derek_potter
    Oh well, at least I now know my limp wrist looks like I'm shaking a fist to (at?) Helen. Never noticed it before. I suppose I'll have to change my picture.

    Or perhaps not :)

    Derek Potter | 02/14/12 | 12:46 PM
    Gerhard Adam
    Well, with this new picture, perhaps an appropriate comment might allude to something akin to "digging yourself out of a hole".  Of course ... for all I know you're simply trying to return to the dirt from "whence you came".  :)
    Gerhard Adam | 02/14/12 | 18:45 PM
    derek_potter
    Hoi! Mixing science and religion is bad enough but don't you dare touch the sacred art of caving!

    Anyway, one of my caving buddies was a Roman Catholic Priest - handy in a "one-way" cave.

    And I've heard all the psychological interpretations that I need, including something about a sperm in search of an egg :) 
     
    Derek Potter | 02/14/12 | 20:35 PM
    Gerhard Adam
    Far be it from me to tell you what holes you can crawl into or out of :)
    Gerhard Adam | 02/14/12 | 20:39 PM
    RIP Derek.

    Your grandson Harry (not verified) | 02/15/12 | 04:49 AM
    derek_potter
    Good one!
    Derek Potter | 02/15/12 | 06:14 AM
    UvaE
    It's now official. None of us can complain about the Facebook articles making the top of the charts because a blank entry also acquired such status! 


    Enrico Uva | 02/15/12 | 10:56 AM
    Hank
    Told ya's.  
    Hank Campbell | 02/15/12 | 11:21 AM
    Bonny Bonobo alias Brat
    "Told ya's" 
    Actually, I must have missed you telling us this Hank. Presumably you and Stefanja have changed the 'Top Articles' formula, as Sascha repeatedly requested that you to do so, in order that the popular 'Who's Stalking you on Facebook' and 'Can a Man Get Pregnant..' blogs no longer appear in the top articles, even though they are still the top articles getting the most hits? 

    I can't believe that the majority of readers are primarily reading the 'Virtual Particles Real yet Real Particles Unreal According to Feynman' blog solidly for the last few days with none of the popular articles making an appearance at all, unless the average Science20 readership has changed rapidly overnight! 
    Helen Barratt | 02/16/12 | 15:38 PM

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