A principle proposing that causality is subject to a conservation law—that the total amount of causal structure in the universe remains constant. Conservation of Causality suggests that you can't create new causes or destroy old effects; you can only rearrange causal relationships. This has implications for time travel (you can't create paradoxes because causality is conserved), for quantum mechanics (entanglement redistributes causality), and for free will (our choices are causal transactions, not violations). It's causality as a budget: you can spend it, but you can't print it.
Conservation of Causality Theory "Time travel stories always have paradoxes—kill your grandfather, you're never born. Conservation of Causality says: can't happen. Causality is conserved; you can't create a loop that breaks the budget. Time travel might be possible, but paradoxes aren't—causality won't allow it."
by Dumu The Void March 5, 2026
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