So you CAN change time? (spoiler)

[Grup]

Please move it this isn't where you want it. It is a TT question though.

WOW! This makes my head spin. Instead of using the Kennedy assassination let's use something much more personal. Let's say you go back in time and kill one of your parents (before you were born) or even yourself. Do you cease to exist immediately in either timeline? Or is there no effect since "you" already exist.

 

[uniderth]

It would be impossible for you to kill your parents before you are born. Since it never happened no matter what you do it will never happen.

 

[Grup]

It would be impossible for you to kill your parents before you are born. Since it never happened no matter what you do it will never happen.

??? But if I can travel back in time to any point, why then would this be impossible? Just trying to get a grip on this whole TT thing.

 

[uniderth]

Well just think. Did anyone kill your parents before you were born? I'm just guiessing but the answer is probably "no." So we can draw some reasonable conclusions:

Time travel is impossible.
Time travel is possible but no one ever attempted to travel back in time and kill your parents.
Evene if some one did time travel with the intent of killing your parents something stopped them. How do we know something stopped them? Because your parents were still alive when you were born(at least your mother anyway).

 

[shapeshifter]

It's simple. The key is to forget all the 'persevering the timeline' stuff Old Trek has drilled into our heads, QT doesn't work that way. If you time travel back in time you arrive in a different timeline from the one you left.

You would be killing the parents of you in that timeline, that 'you' would then never exist there except in your present state. That timeline is effected, not your original timeline.

 

[Grup]

It's simple. The key is to forget all the 'persevering the timeline' stuff Old Trek has drilled into our heads, QT doesn't work that way. If you time travel back in time you arrive in a different timeline from the one you left.

You would be killing the parents of you in that timeline, that 'you' would then never exist there except in your present state. That timeline is effected, not your original timeline.

Gotcha. So then what we're doing every time I or someone goes back in time is creating one of a gajillion timeline possibilities where I live to be a hundred in one, die at childbirth in another, become king of the universe in yet another, and none of them affects or is even known about in the "natural" timeline(?). Right?

 

[uniderth]

Well I guess if you want an easy way out.

 

[shapeshifter]

It's simple. The key is to forget all the 'persevering the timeline' stuff Old Trek has drilled into our heads, QT doesn't work that way. If you time travel back in time you arrive in a different timeline from the one you left.

You would be killing the parents of you in that timeline, that 'you' would then never exist there except in your present state. That timeline is effected, not your original timeline.

Gotcha. So then what we're doing every time I or someone goes back in time is creating one of a gajillion timeline possibilities where I live to be a hundred in one, die at childbirth in another, become king of the universe in yet another, and none of them affects or is even known about in the "natural" timeline(?). Right?

If I understand QT correctly then yes. Of course this still leaves the question of why...

Spoiler: spoiler about classic Spock

Spock goes back in time too. I think he feels somehow responsible for turning Nero to the darkside so is compelled to interfere in his plans regardless of where it takes him.

Well I guess if you want an easy way out.

QT does seem to cut the legs out from under the drama, but I suppose scifi should accurately depict the most current theories.

 

[uniderth]

While the miltiple universe theory is interesting I personally don't subscribe to it except in sci-fi.

I'd actually prefer that scifi don't stick to current theories. If it did it would date it. It's like watching seaQuest. I love the show but it's hard to imagine everybody wearing 90's hairstyles in 2018.

 

[RobertScorpio]

While the miltiple universe theory is interesting I personally don't subscribe to it except in sci-fi.

I'd actually prefer that scifi don't stick to current theories. If it did it would date it. It's like watching seaQuest. I love the show but it's hard to imagine everybody wearing 90's hairstyles in 2018.

Interesting thought to end your post on. Now I am having to image what KIRK's hair style should have looked like, if not a 50s crew cut...Maybe everyone is bald like Picard in the future, since Testies are in short supply too..

Rob