Absolutely no paradox

"Absolutely No Paradox" by Lester Del Rey is a science fiction short story published in the early 1950s. The narrative explores the implications of time travel and addresses the paradoxes associated with it, particularly why people from the future have not visited the present if time travel is possible. Through a conversation between old friends at a social club, the story delves into the philosophical and scientific dilemmas surrounding time travel. The plot centers around Ned Brussels, who recounts the story of his friend Pete LeFranc—a pioneer in time travel who had successfully sent a cat a few days into the future. As Ned grapples with the paradoxes of time travel, including the absence of time travelers, the conversation reveals the tension between faith in scientific advancement and real-world evidence. Ultimately, a young man, who turns out to be Pete himself, enters the scene, leading to a revelation that time machines only work in one direction; they cannot return to the past, thus eliminating the potential for paradoxes. The story leaves readers pondering the nature of time and the consequences of human curiosity in the realm of science. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the fantasy editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of Ballantine Books, subsequently Random House, working for his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey’s imprint, Del Rey.