Film and literature often misrepresent the Grandfather Paradox. Harry Potter and The Prisoner at Azkaban portrays the paradox with only a few blunders.
The Grandfather Paradox is popularly known as the myth that one can kill his/her grandparents in order to prevent their own birth. This paradox of traveling through time was discovered in the Great Depression. This paradox does not exclude the possibility of an individual’s existence through their death source. The paradox lies in doing something to prevent future selfs from travelling back into the past (Krasnikov 6-). This paradox has two main arguments. Argument one opposes time travel. Argument two supports it. The reconstruction argument follows:
If time travel were possible, time travelers could alter past events.
Time travelers could alter the past events, which could lead to contradictory outcomes.
It is impossible for anyone to create contradictory situations.
Time travel cannot be achieved
This argument supports Casual Determinism. This should also be consistent with the laws and events of nature. This would support premise 1 of the argument that a traveler can’t change the past. Argument number two, however, supports the contrary. Argument number 2:
There are two meanings of the term “can” and “possible”.
If that’s true, then NTT contains an equivocation (Premise 1).
It is possible to travel through time, but it is unlikely that one can alter the past events.
This argument supports Casual Indeterminism. It relies on the second argument, the words can and possible’. A bike ride is an example. I can ride the bike. I’ve done it before. The other refers only to your ability, but not yet, to perform this action. This tiny difference is crucial to understand time travel paradoxes.
This paradox is used in time travel stories, both in film and literature. Harry Potter and Azkaban: One example of the Grandfather Paradox. This movie is part of the Harry Potter trilogy. The story begins when a very dangerous criminal escapes from a high-security prison. Sirius Black is the prisoner and Godfather of Harry. Many fear that the escapee will try to find Harry at Hogwarts, their school. Harry’s best buddy, Hermione receives a Time Turner from the Headmaster. This allowed her the ability to travel to multiple places simultaneously, so she could take several classes at once. This allows her to take one class and then travel back in the same time frame to take another. However, this raises questions about the brain’s ability to retain memories from the same time period.
The plot develops and Harry discovers that Sirius, his Godfather, is visiting him at Hogwarts. Hagrid the school groundskeeper, who is about to execute his pet because it injured a student, becomes concerned. They are shocked and mortified when they see the execution. Harry and Hermione later use the time-turner to return to Buckbeak’s execution. They hide behind large pumpkins and sneak down to the executioner. Then they lure the creature into their hands and let it go. This is the Grandfather Paradox. They travel back in the past to stop any action from happening. In this instance, the grandparents must not kill themselves to prevent their own deaths but travel back in order to save their animal. It is therefore more of the Grandfather Paradox in a causal loop, than an explicit reference to it.
They see their current selves as they move through the forest. They are not interested in being seen as they could disrupt the flow of time. They can evade their own attention for the moment. They finally find a clearing to rest in. Harry sees his Godfather and Harry being attacked at the clearing by Dementors who will eat your soul until death.
Harry is aware that he must intervene to save his own life, but he weighs the risks of disrupting the flow of time. He decides to save his life in order for him to stay where he is now, which means traveling in time. This movie also shows the Grandfather Paradox.
There are problems with how paradoxes are presented and used, just like in many novels and films. Each paradox can be viewed differently so that each case can be considered as an individual instance. One example is when Hermione makes strict use of the timeturner to go backwards so she can attend classes at different places. This would allow her to be in two places at once, effectively. This would create a timeline with small loops that allow the original timeline to be changed. The movie doesn’t realize that Hermione will create different versions of herself for each timeline. It is impossible to learn in two places simultaneously and still retain all the knowledge. Multiple memories can’t exist simultaneously even if Lewis’s system is based on little loops. It is impossible to confirm this, since this technology has not been tested. Also, I agree with her keeping both memories if the timeline had multiple timelines. If the timeline is made up of loops, like DNA strands, I think one memory should be replaced by the other.
Some might argue that Hermione may have a different internal clock from the one that she sees. This could solve the problem of Hermione’s brain being able to store multiple memories simultaneously, as her time doesn’t align with the timeframe in the universe. This seems possible for her. However, this would bring up more questions than answers. It would be interesting to see if other people could travel with her back, which is possible later. Would this also lead to a different time system? The technology to test each theory isn’t available so it is difficult for us to say definitively.
The second case of an apparent execution falls under the scope of time travel and Grandfather Paradox. Harry and Hermione were in the house with the groundskeeper when they were awoken by the sound of an axe cutting into Buckbeak. They hear an axe sound as they return, presumably from Buckbeak. The animal still lives. Harry and Hermione are able to travel back into time to see this animal later in movie. This is a single-timeline view. It’s actually quite logical given how the story is told. Their goal is to save the dead animal. Because they didn’t know the exact cause of death, they decided to travel back in their time. The paradox is true in this part.
But they did combine multiple timelines of time travel, creating a contradiction. The causal loop is not explored in the movie. Because they don’t see the death initially, they might be inclined back. This would repeat the loop. They are able save the creature and break the original loop. This could be due to a broken loop that spun off into another universe or it being deterministic. If the loop was broken, it would be possible for an alternate universe to support indeterminism. If someone saved Buckbeak and didn’t see the end, this would support determinism. The film’s cinematography left much to be debated, which is not fair.
Harry and Hermione are confronted by Sirius and Harry in the final scenario. This is the most famous Grandfather Paradox because it is about the paradox itself rather than the possibility of time travel. This section asks Harry to either save himself or change the past. Or, he must let go of his mortality, which would prevent him from being able travel back in time. As Harry lies dying, his perspective shifts to that of the movie. A shadowy figure appears in Harry’s vision and casts a magic spell that saves him. He did not know that he cast the spell as he traveled back to time. This is the same structure as the Grandfather Paradox. If the second example could prove to be deterministic then the film will be constant deterministic. The film raises concerns about which system is truly preferred, however, because it could have both indeterminism (determinism) and determinism (indeterminism) on multiple occasions.
Time travel and Grandfather Paradox both appear in more media than we might realize. Harry Potter and Prisoner in Azkaban’s Grandfather Paradox and Time Travel are key elements. Although the movie’s execution in relation to philosophy and paradox does not work perfectly, it does not interfere with the viewer’s enjoyment and comprehension of the film.
Comments are closed.