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Star Trek may not use "causal loop" in the same way that philosophers do though--usually it's presupposed that if you have a causal loop something like the Novikov self-consistency principle applies, but that can't be true in this case because we did briefly see an altered history where the Borg had taken over the planet by the 24th century. So it may be that if you go back in time to prevent some event E, and do change history but in a way that still ends up causing E to happen, Seven would call that a "causal loop".– HypnosiflCommented Mar 4, 2016 at 20:13
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@Hypnosifl - What the Enterprise was viewing was an alternate timeline, not an event in the prime universe. When they went back in time, they returned to the original timeline.– ValorumCommented Mar 4, 2016 at 20:16
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Maybe, but Seven's statement doesn't prove that, since as I said it's perfectly possible that in a universe where the time travel can alter the timeline (unlike the usual assumption of philosophers and physicists who talk about causal loops), she would use "causal loop" to refer to situations where the timeline is altered somewhat by time travelers trying to prevent some event, but in a way that still ends up causing the event to occur anyway. That would be consistent with Seven's definition "interference to prevent an event actually triggers the same event".– HypnosiflCommented Mar 4, 2016 at 20:26
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@Hypnosifl - As I said in my commentary, the Borg clearly have a far better handle on this than the Federation. I trust her statement implicitly.– ValorumCommented Mar 4, 2016 at 20:30
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1@Axelrod - Yes, but with the added twist that your attempt to stop the bootstrap from occurring actually results in the bootstrap occurring. I bet that sort of thing really annoys time travelers.– ValorumCommented Mar 4, 2016 at 21:11
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