I was thinking over Novikov's principle, trying to explain it to some younger people interested in the topic when I had a realisation. This is probably easily explained, but its stuck in my head now and I'd love some rationalisation.
Let's say at t=1 I receive a watch from my future self, then at t=2 I go back in time to t=1 and give this watch to my past self to start the loop (then I return).
The state of the watch at t=1 must therefore be the same as the state of the watch in t=2. The problem is - the watch must necessarily degrade, therefore the watch at t=2 must be degraded from the state of the watch at t=1, causing a problem. If this is treated like a equation this results in t2 != t2, a logical contradiction.
Either I must be misunderstanding the principle, or Novikov's theorem must postulate some way around this problem, some highly unlikely event which keeps the watch from undergoing any sort of degradation. Or I casually disproved the theorem, and I very much doubt its the latter.
Thanks for hearing me out to this point, hoping some light can be shone on the concept!