Allow me to answer your question: If you steal a time machine and put it back before you left it, did you even take it in the first place?

Only from the perspective of the person who's time machine it was ...

But I refer you to the fact that I returned the time machine to a point on the timeline before I took it. To put it into specifics: I took the time machine at 7:31 pm on Saturday, April 3rd, and returned it at 2:19 am on Thursday, April 1st. At that point in the timeline, I hadn't taken the time machine yet. Therefore, did I even take it to begin with?

If I understand you correctly, the time machine owner would have noticed gone. With the alteration of the timeline, he wouldn't have. So It was both missing and not missing ... A bit like Schrödingers' cat ! :~)

Or, if you'd rather a BioShock reference, there comes into existence a conundrum in which the time machine is there, but at the same time was not there (notice the tenses I used - "is" and "was"), and thus, upon discovering the version of the time machine from 7:31 pm on Saturday, April 3rd next to the version of the time machine from 2:19 on Thursday, April 1st, he would experience a minor lapse in sanity and memory, in which his brain simultaneously remembers it being there and not being there at 2:19 on Thursday, April 1st. In other words, his brain would try to place two memories in the same spot, and would thus drive him insane since both memories technically happened.

I'm enjoying this conversation ... It starting to drive me insane as well (In a good way) !
Kewlew ... What have you started ? :~)

I'm not 100% sane, but I'm not 50% crazy, either.

I am 27% sardine, though (/j to make my degrading sanity humorous)

Noe that's what I call a compliment ! Thank You Kindly !

That was a good thread ! :~)

👍👊

Wise words

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound ?

It's a good question though ! :~)

Scientific answer: If a tree falls in the woods and makes impact with the ground, the vibrations and sound waves are still sent out from the tree, even if no humans or animals are present to experience and process those vibrations as sound. Therefore, even if we aren't there to hear it, a tree falling in the woods makes a sound.

Paranoid/existential/conspiracy theorist answer: Do we really have any proof that the things going on outside of our peripheral vision even exist and aren't just coming into existence as we "look at" them, and fading from existence as we "look away" from them?

Good points ... Well Made ! :~)

Hmmmm