eli5: What is the bootstrap Paradox?
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Basically, you have event A which causes Event B. Someone does the time travel thing back to *before* event A, and manages to cause Event A. The paradox is that from outside the loop, you can’t say what event caused what, as it just goes in circles; A caused B, which caused A…ad infinitum. This is why another name for it is a *causal loop.*
The classic example is traveling back in time and becoming your own grandfather. Another you may be more familiar with is the Time Turner scenes in Harry Potter. Remember all the bits of randomness that turned out to be time-traveling versions of themselves (throwing the rock, casting the Patronus, etc)? They could do those things because they traveled in time, but those things had to happen for them to reach a point where they could travel in the first place.
There’s a reason Starfleet has a division dedicated specifically to preventing or resolving such things.
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