Novikov self-consistency principle: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|AssertionTheory that time-travel paradoxes are impossible, as paradox-causing events cannot occur}}

The '''Novikov self-consistency principle''', also known as the '''Novikov self-consistency conjecture''' and [[Larry Niven]]'s '''law of conservation of history''', is a [[principle]] developed by Russian physicist [[Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov]] in the mid-1980s. Novikov intended it to solve the problem of [[Temporal paradox|paradoxes in time travel]], which is theoretically permitted in certain solutions of [[general relativity]] that contain what are known as [[closed timelike curve]]s. The principle asserts that if an event exists that would cause a paradox or any "change" to the past whatsoever, then the [[probability]] of that event is zero. It would thus be impossible to create [[time paradox]]es.