eli5: What is the bootstrap Paradox?
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So you watched Back to the Future right?
Marty’s adventures were chock full of different types of paradoxes.
There’s one in particular we can talk about.
He jumps on the stage during his parents big dance. He starts jamming to a song he loved and knew. Chuck Berry’s *Johnny B Goode*.
Instantly the camera cuts to a man off screen calling his favorite cousin: Charlie.
This is where the example stops.
But we can speculate what was being done here. The man of the phone is the musician responsible for the song. The actual Chuck Berry.
Over the phone he’s inspired to create a song that will one day go on to be learned, loved, practiced, and eventually played on a stage. That he’ll hear that will in turn inspire him to create a song that will go on to be loved, learned, practiced, and played on a stage that he’ll listen to that will plant the idea for a song that will go on to…
It’s a circular reference. Who created the song? Where did this new information come from?
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