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"Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution" -Edward Teller

No discussion involving the feasibility of time traveling can be considered complete without a discussion involving the paradoxes involved. Let us consider the paradoxes commonly associated with time travel and examine whether it rules out the possibility of time traveling. Possible conjectures to overcome the problems of these paradoxes will also be discussed here.

Generally there are two main classes of paradoxes associated with time travel. First of which involves the alteration of previously recorded events or simply, the changing of the past. A good example of this is the famous Grandmother Paradox.

"What happens if you went back in time and killed your grandmother before she could conceive your mother? The result, you would have never been born. If so, you could have never have gone back in time, and so you could never have killed your grandmother."

This sort of paradoxes might impose restrictions on the activities of the time traveler, but does not fundamentally rule out time travel in itself.

The second class of paradox involves the notion of causality, where every effect occurs as a result of its cause. Cause must precede effect. For instance:

"An art critic travels back in time to meet an artist whose work is greatly admired in the critic's era. Upon arrival at the artist's house, the critic views the existing pieces of art. He is disappointed. It seems that the artist has not attained the inspiration and greatness that he is famous for yet. Suddenly, the artist walks in. The critic tells the artist of his greatness in the future and shows the artist a book containing a collection of his future works. Unknowingly, the artist hides the book from the critic, forcing him to return to the future without his book and proceeds to spend the rest of his life mimicking the pictures found in the critic's book."

So where did the art work come from originally? Not the artist, because he stole it from the critic, and not the critic, because he got it from the artist. The art seemingly comes into existence from nowhere without any plausible explanation, hence the paradox. The implication is, therefore, since time travel negates causality, therefore it must be impossible.

There is much debate amidst the abounding theories regarding the implications of such paradoxes. Stephen Hawking proposed his chronological protection conjecture, suggesting that the laws of physics will always conspire

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