Seminars & Colloquia Calendar

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Graduate Pizza Seminar

On the Logic of Time Travel: Paradoxes, Banana Peels, Cheshire Cats, and (maybe) Einstein

Emily Kukura: Rutgers University

Location:  Hill Grad Student Lounge
Date & time: Friday, 03 March 2017 at 1:40PM - 1:41PM

We've all seen popular time travel stories on screen, from Back to the Future, to Harry Potter to Star Trek, and so on. While some popular depictions may do a decent job, from a logical perspective many more are fraught with problems, often because they rely on some version of the premise that changing the past is possible. But just because we can't change the past doesn't mean that we can't travel to it, have an impact on it, and maybe even have a nice chat with our younger selves. In this talk we'll take a trip with Tim the Time Traveler to explore whether or not we can do better than Hollywood. Along the way we will likely encounter many banana-peels, disappearing cats, and other oddities, and to see where we end up you'll just have to hop along for the ride. Time (no pun intended) permitting, we may even talk about more math-y things like relativity, and how they could potentially accommodate some apparent paradoxes we may encounter on our trip.

Special Note to All Travelers

Directions: map and driving directions. If you need information on public transportation, you may want to check the New Jersey Transit page.

Unfortunately, cancellations do occur from time to time. Feel free to call our department: 848-445-6969 before embarking on your journey. Thank you.