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Old 01-02-2019, 04:37 PM
cosmicfish cosmicfish is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mmartin798 View Post
In the case where all the alternates continue to exist, then your example is a valid one. However there exists also the following possibility.

Canon indicates that there is one past. For example, in 4e the 1989 war was prevented. That event is locked in. This would seem to indicate that for each moment in time, we have a single past worldline and infinite possible forks going forward. So while the decision process may be your modified Trolley Problem, the way I see the worldlines progressing is more like Schrödinger's Cat. Until you make decision as to pulling the switch, your innocent person in the chair is already both alive and dead in the future infinite worldlines. But once the decision is made, the event is now known and locked in. From this point on, all the worldlines that existed contrary to the decision you made are gone and we now have an infinite number of worldlines where only the possibility left by your choice remains.

This view seems consistent with canon, as Bruce finds his wife and children dead in the future after he stops the war. His actions to stop the war destroyed the worldlines where his family existed. This also can help explain why the Project is still ill prepared for what comes. Bruce stopping the 1989 war was to give the Project more time to prepare. But as there are other actors working against Bruce's ideal, that resulted in the Project successful worldlines being rendered non-existent. Know this make Bruce seek out the actors doing this, and one of their names seems to be Krell.
Canon indicates multiple pasts, at least from BEM's perspective. While I like the idea of a probability field collapsing to a single event, the question remains what causes the collapse? If the past is fixed, and BEM travels into the future, then the intervening period becomes part of his past and is then presumably fixed? And if not, why not? Is the past only fixed by majority?

I am not at all trying to say your idea is not potentially valid, just trying to understand how it would work.
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