OT - Conspiracy Theories.... I love the imagination!

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by kota1342000

Well, since we're speaking of conspiracy stories and I think Ive had my fill of political garbage, I think Id like to put forward Terry Pratchett's theory about alien abductions and their banning by the intergalactic community as of late. The confusion as to what would be interesting in our BVDs aside, the banning on abductions has been placed due to different species of alien expeditions lying in wait to abduct humans accidentally abducting other aliens who were lying in wait to do the same thing. Add to that another group of aliens who had received confused instructions and were herding cattle into circles and mutilating crops, and it was clear that the intergalactic community had to make Earth a "no-abduction zone" until it was determined exactly how many earthlings they had actually abducted. As it turns out, only one; who happens to be eight feet tall, extremely hairy and with gigantic feet.

I read a story in my early teens -- can't remember the author or name of it. In that story, it turned out that the "aliens" were us. Those "aliens" were in fact our descendants, tens of thousands of years from now, and they periodically travel back in time to study their ancestors, and to ensure that historical events unfold in such a way to ensure their existence.

Quite frankly, the possible paradoxes that come with time travel boggle my mind. But I think that time travel is the one technology that absolutely, under no circumstances whatsoever, that humans should ever be allowed to develop. Think of the crap we've pulled with technology so far -- the human race isn't responsible enough to possess time travel. The amount of wisdom you'd need to have to not produce any paradoxes with time travel is probably impossible for any race in the universe to possess. And it's virtually certain that time travel would be misused by mankind -- we've pretty much misused every other technology we've come up with in some way or another.

[Nowhere Man 1966]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

I read a story in my early teens -- can't remember the author or name of it. In that story, it turned out that the "aliens" were us. Those "aliens" were in fact our descendants, tens of thousands of years from now, and they periodically travel back in time to study their ancestors, and to ensure that historical events unfold in such a way to ensure their existence.

Quite frankly, the possible paradoxes that come with time travel boggle my mind. But I think that time travel is the one technology that absolutely, under no circumstances whatsoever, that humans should ever be allowed to develop. Think of the crap we've pulled with technology so far -- the human race isn't responsible enough to possess time travel. The amount of wisdom you'd need to have to not produce any paradoxes with time travel is probably impossible for any race in the universe to possess. And it's virtually certain that time travel would be misused by mankind -- we've pretty much misused every other technology we've come up with in some way or another.

My own take is that there are no paradoxes in time travel, I see it more like an 8-Track tape than the one string that some believe. If I go back in time and kill my grandfather before he fathered my mother, I would still exist but at that point in time, like hitting the channel button to an 8-Track tape player (jumping from Program 1 to Program 2), I would create a point of divergence where a separate timeline is created. Perhaps I would unleash some "butterflies" and history could be different a little bit or a lot, who knows? I would still exist but I would be like a "man without a country," a person from one timeline who jumped to another.

Now instead of 4 programs on the 8-Track, remember they were stereo, you have an infinite set of programs out there and what you do might create more. I think time travel incorporates some "sliding" (like in the TV show "Sliders") as well.

I think a good illustration is the Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" where George was taken to a timeline where he wasn't born, yet he existed. Of course, in that case, divine intervention was used instead of science as a vehicle, but it is a good example of my idea.

Chuck