Timeline for Can a single time travelling person prevent the World Trade Center attacks?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 18, 2016 at 5:41 | comment | added | celtschk | Well, maybe create a stable time loop by (a) preventing 9/11, and (b) brainwashing your younger self into believing that 9/11 actually happened. | |
| Sep 18, 2016 at 0:32 | comment | added | GreenAsJade | The phrasing of this answer implies that the author thinks that all these reasons mean it is not possible (or that's the way I read it). That's not the case at all. For example, it's not that hard to conceive of a stable time loop where I leave myself all sorts of compelling clues about what I have to do in the future, and might make a very interesting story about the increasing anguish I face as I realise I have to do it. There's also a different interesting scenario/story that questions the cause of your mysterious arrival at a point in time with all these memories... | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 21:56 | comment | added | Trish | @Michael now... I did some more thinking and added a way out of the stringency of the causality chains: MWT. | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 21:55 | history | edited | Trish | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 319 characters in body
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| Sep 17, 2016 at 21:47 | history | edited | Trish | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 319 characters in body
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| Sep 17, 2016 at 21:46 | comment | added | Michael | Except those aren't the only possible ways that time can work. Your own example of Dr. Who is a good example, as consistency isn't even wanted or needed there: "You can't redo or fix anything you did yourself... except when you can." | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 21:37 | comment | added | Trish | @Michael Actually no, I did not say that he can't try, only that there are only 2 outcomes that can't make time paradoxes: either he fails to achieve it and thus maintains the reason to go back in time, or his timeline had the attacks fail in the first place and he has to make sure it does so again, to maintain causality. The main thing is: Time heals itself: if you try to change the timeline, it usually results in you not changing it in the first place. Understanding Time-Quantum-Mechanics is fundamental to writing time travel plots. | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 20:13 | comment | added | Michael | This answer is questioning premises of the question which were already assumed to be given. | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 15:06 | comment | added | Trish | my point is: Either he can't change the timeline due to it being his history that it happened already, he creates an instable time-loop, or his history is already that 9/11 never happened and he (or some other timetraveller) has to become the reason that will happen, no matter how hard he tries not to prevent it. Causality governs it all | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 14:39 | comment | added | WGroleau | While a nice commentary on time travel, it does not even approach answering the question as stated. | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 14:18 | comment | added | LukeG | -1 Not enough "wibbly wobbly timey wimey" in the Doctor Who part | |
| Sep 17, 2016 at 11:10 | history | answered | Trish | CC BY-SA 3.0 |