If we see the universe as a single, continuous chain of causes and effects, and time as the perception of this sequence as we move along this chain, there is nothing wrong with meeting ourselves from the future. According to this interpretation, our past, present, and future should be determined by immutable laws of physics. Therefore, even random events (such as radioactive decay) will be predetermined.
If you go back in time to see yourself in the past, it means that this event has already happened. If you don’t remember it, you may have erased your memory later. However, it has already affected the future.
Conversely, if you travel forward in time and meet your future self, then you have to go back to where you started and move on with your life, otherwise you won’t have anyone to meet in the future. This means that the version of you you meet while traveling into the future already remembers the meeting that took place while you were a time traveler.
However, if every cause-and-effect relationship creates a parallel universe on an infinitely branching tree of possible timelines, then every version of reality already exists somewhere. So it doesn’t matter if you’ve met yourself or not.
Fortunately, time travel is entirely theoretical and requires exotic matter or negative energy to function on a macroscopic scale.
Source: Ferra
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