“A book cannot exist with words that were never written.”

By: Binod Subedi

TL;DR: 

The Binod Variant™ presents a solution to the bootstrap paradox. Information (such as a book’s content) cannot be sent back to the past before it has been created. If the origin of the information does not exist in the timeline, it cannot manifest in the past. If the information has already been created, authorship is already decided. This resolves the paradox by ensuring information is tied to its creator and timeline.

Abstract

The Bootstrap Paradox: Binod Variant™ introduces a new approach to the classical bootstrap paradox, where information is sent back in time and appears to exist without an origin. In this version, the information’s manifestation depends on its causal origin — it can only exist in the past if it has already been created in the timeline. The physical object, such as a book, may appear in the past, but its contents only manifest if the information is already present in the timeline.

The Classic Bootstrap Paradox

In the traditional bootstrap paradox, we imagine a person traveling back in time and giving Shakespeare a copy of Hamlet before it was written. Shakespeare publishes the book, and the same book ends up being brought back in time. The paradox arises when we ask:

Who actually wrote Hamlet?

This creates a loop with no origin, causing the book to exist without a clear creator, defying logic and breaking our understanding of cause-and-effect, information, and entropy.

Enter the Binod Variant

In the Binod Variant™, we resolve the paradox with a simple yet profound change:

If information is sent to the past before it has been created, it cannot manifest. Specifically, if someone were to give Shakespeare a copy of Hamlet before he had thought of it, the book would be empty. It would not contain any words, because the information — the content of the book — has not yet been created.

However, if Shakespeare has already created the book (in his own past), then the book will contain its full text. The content is causally dependent on its origin. This version aligns with the idea that information must have a timeline-consistent source.

Scientific Interpretation

The Binod Variant™ is grounded in concepts of causality and quantum mechanics:

1. Causal Consistency: Information cannot exist in the past unless it has already been created in that timeline. The universe adheres to a principle of consistency where the origin of information must exist before it can manifest in any timeline.
2. Causally Dependent Information: The information (in this case, the book’s content) is entangled with its creator’s mental or physical process. Without that creator having already envisioned or written the content, the information cannot materialize.
3. Quantum Entanglement & Decoherence: The concept of information being entangled with the originator’s creation process is similar to quantum entanglement. If no clear origin exists, the information collapses into an undefined or blank state.

In this way, the paradox is avoided — the author of the work is always clear, and the information is bound to its creator.

Resolution of the Paradox

The Binod Variant™ resolves the paradox with a simple rule:

1. Physical objects can travel through time, but information within those objects can only persist if it has already been created in the timeline.
2. If the information has not been created yet (i.e., the origin of the information has not yet occurred in the timeline), it cannot manifest — it will remain blank, glitched, or undefined.
3. Once the information has been created, it is tied to the creator, and the information can manifest as it was originally created, but not before the timeline of its creation.

Therefore, no paradox arises because the origin of information is crucial — the author is

always known.

Philosophical Implications

The Binod Variant™ introduces several intriguing philosophical questions:

• The Nature of Originality and Creativity: Is creativity a unique, foundational process? Can ideas only exist meaningfully when a creator has fully imagined or conceptualized them?
• Conscious Intent and Information: Does information require conscious thought or intent to become a tangible part of the universe, or is it something that simply exists?
• Self-correction by the Universe: The universe may self-correct paradoxes by ensuring that information is always bound to a creator. Any attempt to pass information back in time before its creation leads to an unresolved or non-existent state.
• Ideas as Bound to Minds: Could ideas themselves be bound to specific minds and cannot exist meaningfully outside the context of their original creator?

Sci-Fi Story Hook: The Blank Book 

A struggling writer finishes the greatest novel of his life — a masterpiece. Hungry for early success, he sends the unpublished manuscript back in time to his younger self, hoping to jump-start his fame. 

The words haven't been written yet — because the universe refuses to let information exist before its origin. His shortcut failed.

Summary of the Binod Variant

• Name: Bootstrap Paradox: Binod Variant™
• Core Principle: Information cannot persist in a timeline where its origin hasn’t occurred.
• Mechanism: Causally entangled information collapses if disconnected from its verified point of creation.
• Status: Hypothetical, but grounded in principles of causality and quantum information theory.
• Impact: Resolves the bootstrap paradox by making information and authorship timeline-consistent and philosophically rich.

Final Thought

If time is a river, then information is its memory — and memory, by definition, must be causally earned.

You can carry an object into the past, but unless the information has already been created in that timeline, the pages will remain blank.

Tags: Paradoxes, Causality, Time Travel, Philosophy, Information Theory, Original Content