On The Impossibility of Time Travel-Quote?

[ralph124c]

I remember reading about intellectual objections to time travel-all of the paradoxes that would result if it was possible. At any rate, a 19th century French scientist said something like “the battle of Austerlitz has been fought, and will not be fought again”.
I can’t remember where I read it…anybody know?

[Euphonious_Polemic]

@ralph124c

I can’t remember where I read it..anybody know?

You’re going to read it, sometime in 2014…

[Andy_L]

@ralph124c

I remember reading about intellectual objections to time travel-all of the paradoxes that would result if it was possible. At any rate, a 19th century French scientist said something like “the battle of Austerlitz has been fought, and will not be fought again”.
I can’t remember where I read it..anybody know?

I took a quick look through Paul Nahin’s “Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics and Science Fiction” which is quite thorough, and didn’t find anything helpful. There’s a famous hypothetical by Aristotle about a sea battle Problem of future contingents - Wikipedia, there’s Poincare’s concept of “eternal recurrence” Eternal return - Wikipedia, but neither of those is quite what you’re looking for.