bootstrap paradox

[ boot-strap par-uh-doks ]

/ ˈbutˌstræp ˌpær ə dɒks /

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noun

(in science fiction) a closed loop created by time travel in which a person or object is sent back in time and the resulting timeline unfolds in such a way that, at its conclusion, that person or object is sent back in time, once again setting off the timeline of events resulting in their being sent back in time, in an infinite causal loop: The initial origin of the person or object before the first cycle of the closed time loop remains unknown.

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Also called on·to·log·i·cal par·a·dox

[on-tl-oj-i-kuhl par-uh-doks] /ˌɒn tlˈɒdʒ ɪ kəl ˌpær ə dɒks/ .

Origin of bootstrap paradox

First recorded in 1945–50

Words nearby bootstrap paradox

boots, boots and all, boots and saddles, bootstrap, bootstrap memory, bootstrap paradox, boottopping, boot tree, boot up, booty, booty call

How to use bootstrap paradox in a sentence

But I feel like films are uniquely suited towards addressing paradox, recursiveness, and worlds-within-worlds.
Christopher Nolan Uncut: On ‘Interstellar,’ Ben Affleck’s Batman, and the Future of Mankind|Marlow Stern|November 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
To appreciate the Palmer paradox, it's important to understand that Palmer's childhood and young adulthood were dichotomous.
Will the Real Jim Palmer Please Stand Up|Tom Boswell|September 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“Maybe we need a new category other than theism, atheism or agnosticism that takes paradox and unknowing into account,” he writes.
Frank Schaeffer, the Atheist Who Believes in God|Nick Tabor|August 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But Washington was a prisoner to its paradox of an Iraq policy.
Why the White House Ignored All Those Warnings About ISIS|Eli Lake|July 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST

As a result of this paradox, the Iraq policy process ground to a halt at the very moment that ISIS was on the rise.
Why the White House Ignored All Those Warnings About ISIS|Eli Lake|July 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It offers, to those who see it aright, the most perplexing industrial paradox ever presented in the history of mankind.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
But in reality this paradox of value is the most fundamental proposition in economic science.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
It was the spiritual way, whose method and secret lie in that subtle paradox: Yield to conquer.
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood
But it was a strange paradox, that precisely the depth of his love for her made him willing to think of losing her.
Love's Pilgrimage|Upton Sinclair
But this very paradox leads to the real principle of generalization concerning the properties of numbers.
A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive|John Stuart Mill