If time travel were possible, why kill anyone? Why not go back to their childhood and teach them to be better humans? Is it justice to kill someone for a crime they have yet to commit? Isn’t the fact that you are able to kill them proof enough that they might not commit the crime, and there’s still time for them to change? Or maybe Hitler was arrested and removed from the time stream at the moment of his death to serve a prison sentence in Time Jail for eternity? Isn’t that basically the Christian conception of the afterlife anyway?
Also, intentionally going back to change anything is an inherent paradox as old as HG Wells. If you eliminate the reason for going back, you never go back. If you don’t go back, you don’t change anything.
And if we’re talking multiverse, then you’d never know if someone from an alternate future came to our past and did anything, because that’s what always happened.
why kill anyone? Why not go back to their childhood and teach them to be better humans?
I think this is wonderful logic for a great many situations with a vastly overpowered being. With enough power and patience, all problems can be solved peacefully.
my point was that by that logic (of why didn’t anyone kill Hitler in the past), the past should be perfect (which it isn’t), implying that the past events are done in such a manner that they create the best possible future outcome
And I’m saying that it’s not possible under any understanding of time travel or causality to perfect history for the best possible future outcome, because doing so would negate the necessity for time travel. Unless you want to argue that this is why time travel doesn’t exist, because the past is already a perfect state to never necessitate time travel. But that’s the only objective measure of “perfection” that is internally consistent, and I think we would both agree that from our perspective, the past is far from perfect.
Ok but then going back to study and learn would probably include a policy of non-intervention. So how would you know we aren’t constantly surrounded by time travelers blending in?
That’s kind of the entire conversation we’re having. If time travel exists, then why hasn’t the past been improved, led to is it even possible to improve on the past, led to would time travelers be able to change anything, led to how would we know if time travel exists. Is it important? Only if you want to answer any of the questions we’ve asked. What would we anticipate they do? That’s all of the questions we’ve asked.
I mean, giving it very little thought, if Hitler didn’t win, there were good chances that Germany would turn red, and still good chances it would still be aggressive…
Maybe alive hitler is the best possible course…
If time travel were possible, why kill anyone? Why not go back to their childhood and teach them to be better humans? Is it justice to kill someone for a crime they have yet to commit? Isn’t the fact that you are able to kill them proof enough that they might not commit the crime, and there’s still time for them to change? Or maybe Hitler was arrested and removed from the time stream at the moment of his death to serve a prison sentence in Time Jail for eternity? Isn’t that basically the Christian conception of the afterlife anyway?
Also, intentionally going back to change anything is an inherent paradox as old as HG Wells. If you eliminate the reason for going back, you never go back. If you don’t go back, you don’t change anything.
And if we’re talking multiverse, then you’d never know if someone from an alternate future came to our past and did anything, because that’s what always happened.
Causality moves in one direction.
I think this is wonderful logic for a great many situations with a vastly overpowered being. With enough power and patience, all problems can be solved peacefully.
my point was that by that logic (of why didn’t anyone kill Hitler in the past), the past should be perfect (which it isn’t), implying that the past events are done in such a manner that they create the best possible future outcome
And I’m saying that it’s not possible under any understanding of time travel or causality to perfect history for the best possible future outcome, because doing so would negate the necessity for time travel. Unless you want to argue that this is why time travel doesn’t exist, because the past is already a perfect state to never necessitate time travel. But that’s the only objective measure of “perfection” that is internally consistent, and I think we would both agree that from our perspective, the past is far from perfect.
Time travel is it’s own reward. We can study Ancient Rome or anything. Space probes sent to the extreme past would be very useful.
I do not expect “kill Hitler” or “fix my love life” to be the driving force in the multi billion dollar effort for time travel.
Ok but then going back to study and learn would probably include a policy of non-intervention. So how would you know we aren’t constantly surrounded by time travelers blending in?
We won’t unless they screw up.
Is our detection of them important? It is disappointing to not have obvious time travelers.
What would one anticipate a time traveler to do in the current time?
That’s kind of the entire conversation we’re having. If time travel exists, then why hasn’t the past been improved, led to is it even possible to improve on the past, led to would time travelers be able to change anything, led to how would we know if time travel exists. Is it important? Only if you want to answer any of the questions we’ve asked. What would we anticipate they do? That’s all of the questions we’ve asked.
But maybe this is the best possible outcome. Horrifying, right? Maybe this is the best we’re capable of at this point in history.
I mean, giving it very little thought, if Hitler didn’t win, there were good chances that Germany would turn red, and still good chances it would still be aggressive…