23 ms·

How many of those are time travellers?

• viggity 7y ago
  want an uncomfortable thought experiment? what if time travel does exist, and allowing Hitler to live was the least bad option for the world? i.e. if Hitler was killed early in the war, he wouldn't have been able to override his generals with so many stupendously stupid ideas.
  • Razengan 7y ago
    If there were (will be?) truly "good" time travelers, why not prevent the nuking of Japan? Or any of the other countless massacres and genocides throughout history and still going on to this very day? Or you know, help everyone to resolve all conflicts without violence? Prevent the mass production of weapons in the first place? In the end this is just a variant of the "If there's a God why does it let bad shit happen" question. It's more likely that there are eldritch Lovecraftian entities feeding upon sentient misery.
  • notduncansmith 7y ago
    Unfortunately, to know which future is the least bad, you have to solve the Halting Problem.
    • Razengan 7y ago
      Or you can keep going back in time whenever a catastrophe happens, to prevent it. This probably creates multiple timelines and we just happen to be in the one where most large scale conflicts didn't get prevented (yet.)
      • stallmanite 7y ago
        Not to jinx it but the absence of large-scale nuclear conflict 1950-present seems pretty improbable and definitely very nice to have as far as counterfactual timelines go.