On Time Travel. The Evil Dr. Schmitt-Rottluff.

He's back. The Evil Dr. Schmitt-Rottluff.

The Evil Doctor Emile Schmitt-Rottluff

If you went back in time and met yourself, who would remember what and when? I read this question somewhere recently. Your future self would remember events from the past just as we all do, and would remember meeting his past self in the regular way. He would remember meeting his past self only after it happened. The past self would remember meeting the future self, but only after it happened...right up until the future self, went back and met the past self, at which point which we're in some kind of weird feedback loop, (or the fulfillment of a memory/prophecy) because remembering going back and meeting yourself twice would be more than deja vu, it would be a new phenomenon.

It might be more accurate to say that the future self remembers meeting his future self when he was his past self. The future self would recognize the past self, the past self would think the future self was full of shit--for many years, perhaps, until he went back and did it himself.

(Again.)

If you go back in time and meet yourself, you have essentially created two people. Because past self has a timeline leading to future self, but future self can act independently (having achieved time travel) while past self is doomed to follow future self's time-line right up until future self goes back to meet past self.

(Future self has bypassed, and made themselves independent of time, making all of this possible.)

Future self goes off in one direction after meeting past self, who does not yet have the ability to bypass time and must stay on their own time-line. At the point of divergence (the point where future self goes back to meet past self), past/present self is now free to go off in some other direction, because they too have time travel.

Past self, having met future self, and knowing themselves, and therefore having great ability to know what they are likely to do in any given situation, decides to do something different, thereby preventing future self from arriving at the point of going back to meet past self...an event which past self (as well as future self) clearly remembers happening. Basically, only when past self meets the 'point of divergence', can he do something different from future self. 

In other words, at some point in his own time-line (in the future but not happened yet) he figures future self marries Margaret, and they buy the house on Elm Street. By not doing that, he greatly changes future self's life events. making it difficult to figure out how future self somehow arrived at the same point of divergence, whereby he could go back and meet his past self.

When future self meets past self, that is the seminal event. Only when past self gets to future self's point of divergence, (where he went back in time), then the second persona has been created, because you have two different selves doing two different things, both of them now mobile in time.

Perhaps this will help:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJIJp9ikhXA&feature=share

Thank you for reading.