by Mumon » Fri Nov 26, 2004 7:44 am
There is no such thing as a time paradox.
Everything is already set down. Forinstance if any of you try to go to the future and find out my information for me, then come back and tell me before I request it, you will fail. Fail as in you can not come up to me and say "Don't worry it's going to come out like you said it would" because nobody has done that yet. On the other hand you could tell me that tomarrow because I've not witnessed tomarrow yet. But if you try to tell me before today, then you will either fail to tell me, or I'll fail to understand, and not even notice you tried to tell me. (On the other hand I might notice tomarrow that someone did indeed try and tell me a week ago and I then just understand what they told me)
Some people say what if I go back in time and kill myself, that would create a paradox. But the truth is that you can't go back in time and kill yourself, you can only try to go back in time and kill yourself. You will of course fail. (And if you never noticed someone tring to kill you, then you will have failed so badly that you didn't even notice you had been trying to kill you).
If I go in the future and I read though my own obituary in the local news paper I've got a bit of a problem on my hand. If I know without a doubt that that is my obituary and that it is indeed true, then I know for a certanty when and where I'll die. But luckly we don't live in a world without doubt. All I have to do is find some way that it might not be my obituary and make sure it's not. For instance if I read my obituary and it says that the only way they had been able to ID my body after a horable fire was from my dental records then all I need do is swap my dental records with someone elses and make sure they are the person to die in the fire. (Or I could just put a cadaver in the fire so I don't have to have killed someone.) Now my obituary will be printed in the paper and I'll still be alive. That's the kind of stuff we have to do to "change" the future.
This is why I don't like to go in the future that often. If I go in the future every thing I witness will happen. Most of the time that's not a problem, I might just witness a car run a stop light and nobody be hurt. No problem. I know it will happen, but that I don't have to worry about it. On the other hand though if I witness someone get shot in the head then I know they will get shot in the head and there will be nothing I can do to change that... Well there are a few things, but it's alot of work to trick my past self into having seen something and it not be real. And the more I see the more I have to trick myself about.
I know it sounds strange but think of it this way... I could go break a priceless vase and be in big trouble. But the person that owned the vase might tell me after I broke it that they had been worried I might break it so had taken the time to replace it with a faux vase.
Just remember, the more you know the harder your life is (With or without time travel). Leave the time travel in my hands if you are worried about a pair of ducks, but I assure you it's safe if you watch what you do carefully. (You can break your arm roller blading, but if you know what you are doing the chances lower greatly... you might witness a man be shot in the head... if you join the army. If you don't join the army the chances drop a bit... go up again if you move to a high crime city)
(Kioko drew that.)
The crazy Cow Monster
(I should make a D&D monster of my self that is good for a party of six lvl 20 characters.)