Eye of the Needle: what if ....

[at Quark's]

A discussion in this thread got me thinking about something else about this episode.

Janeway makes the decision to not go back 20 years in time because "It would pollute the time line to such an extent that the consequences would be unimaginable". That's clear, yes.

I suppose the same argument would hold if the wormhole would have lead back not 20, but only 2 years, since they still would have come back to a point in time before they left and, for example, could convince themselves to avoid their DQ adventure in the first place, altering history significantly.

But what if they had found a wormhole with a 2-year difference in the 3th season? They would go back 2 years, and arrive at earth at at time they were lost in the DQ. None of the actions they would take would alter history that much compared to the case in which the wormhole would not have had a temporal displacement at all (i.e. it would simply transport them to the present AQ). But technically, they still would be altering the past.

In short: where would the dividing line be?

 

[Finn]

^The trouble is...how would they know they would be "altering" the past. For all they knew, it was supposed to happen...

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

Well, I'd say that in dint of altering time and the events that occurred through the 7 years spent in DQ, Janeway (regardless her rank) and her crew made a mess in all universes/galaxies known and unknown!

Even if I can understand motivations of people doing that* = to change the course of events to save beloved people, to avoid wars/famines etc...), there will always be serious consequences and often those who did not ask anything, who will be the first affected.

*Captain Janeway often played with the Devil to protect her crew (what I remind you, is the golden rule of any Captain). Who could blame her? But she never thought in the inevitable consequences of her actions on people and when she did, it has been too easy for her to minimize them and no one in her senior crew
did little better, thinking above all to themselves or just doing not care.

 

[A Chimpanzee & 2 Trainees]

Unless there is no meaningful temporal displacement at all, you can't go through the wormhole if protecting the timeline is in fact the goal. Assume that in year 6 or 7 they found a wormhole that was time displaced 2 years. What actions is the crew going to take in the alpha quadrant in those two years?

Does Harry Kim reconnect with Libby and marry her? He completely alters the potential trajectory of her life, and both of their respective families. Granted that won't be likely important to the history of the alpha quandrant, but the ethical issues of the changes remain, and the concerns about changing history are largely ethical ones.

If the wormhole is temporally displaced by nanoseconds or milliseconds such that meaningful action can't be taken by anyone, I suppose there's a logical argument that history then can't be changed, but by the same token, functionally speaking, you could say they aren't really going back in time, even though technically they are.

 

[DrCorby]

^The trouble is...how would they know they would be "altering" the past. For all they knew, it was supposed to happen...

Are you claiming it would be a predestination paradox? Because the DTI hates those...

 

[DonIago]

Hey, maybe they altered the timeline by not going through the wormhole.

Of course, what would most likely really happen is that they'd end up in a similar (perhaps almost indistinguishible) quantum reality in any case. From the Primeline's perspective they would simply disappear, similar to Spock in the Nuniverse films. Lord knows what the Voyager crew in that timeline would themselves do, assuming there even was (or would be) one...