In the year 3025 time machines are available and accessible. So where are all the tourists?
A paper by Andrew Jackson of the University of Edinburgh explores the absence of time travellers in the present by proposing a model that suggests time travel is self-suppressing, despite its theoretical possibility.
I made a video summary of the complex theory.
Summary
Andrew Jackson's paper "Where Are All The Tourists From 3025?", proposes a novel theory for the absence of observed time travellers. Instead of attributing this to physical impossibilities, Jackson proposes that time travel is self-suppressing.
The core idea is that any act of time travel inherently introduces dynamic instability into the timeline, causing continuous rewriting of history. This process inevitably leads to a state where time machines were never constructed, effectively erasing their existence from a non-traveller's perspective, who experiences these changes as instantaneous.
The paper supports this using a Markov chain model that demonstrates the asymptotic convergence to a zero-construction state, offering a speculative yet compelling alternative to traditional explanations for the lack of future visitors.
Our friend from NotebookLM does a good job of summarising the text, but if you want the full PDF version here’s the link
Thanks for reading
Lily