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Paradox Topic
Skulltulla:
"All right," Travis continued, "say we accidentally kill one mouse here. That means all the future families of this one particular mouse are destroyed, right?"
"Right"
"And all the families of the families of the families of that one mouse! With a stamp of your foot, you annihilate first one, then a dozen, then a thousand, a million, a billion possible mice!"
"So they're dead," said Eckels. "So what?"
"So what?" Travis snorted quietly. "Well, what about the foxes that'll need those mice to survive? For want of ten mice, a fox dies. For want of ten foxes a lion starves. For want of a lion, all manner of insects, vultures, infinite billions of life forms are thrown into chaos and destruction. Eventually it all boils down to this: fifty-nine million years later, a caveman, one of a dozen on the entire world, goes hunting wild boar or saber-toothed tiger for food. But you, friend, have stepped on all the tigers in that region. By stepping on one single mouse. So the caveman starves. And the caveman, please note, is not just any expendable man, no! He is an entire future nation. From his loins would have sprung ten sons. From their loins one hundred sons, and thus onward to a civilization. Destroy this one man, and you destroy a race, a people, an entire history of life. It is comparable to slaying some of Adam's grandchildren. The stomp of your foot, on one mouse, could start an earthquake, the effects of which could shake our earth and destinies down through Time, to their very foundations. With the death of that one caveman, a billion others yet unborn are throttled in the womb. Perhaps Rome never rises on its seven hills. Perhaps Europe is forever a dark forest, and only Asia waxes healthy and teeming. Step on a mouse and you crush the Pyramids. Step on a mouse and you leave your print, like a Grand Canyon, across Eternity. Queen Elizabeth might never be born, Washington might not cross the Delaware, there might never be a United States at all. I'm not born, so I don't step on the mouse..."
EDIT: This is from "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury.
Illidan:
I feel compelled to read this book now. Thanks, Skulltulla.
Inv3rted:
What I wonder is if timeline tangents exist or not. If they do, then any action done by a member of the future in the past could have dire repercussions.
But if they don't, anything that would change the future would be impossible to do. Even if you tried, by some way or another, you could not change the future based on the sole fact that the future is the way it is.
Also, if we're going to go by relativity, the only way we can think of going in the past is to break the light barrier, something that Einstein has said to be impossible because it would take more than an infinite amount of energy.
TheLegomaster:
--- Quote from: Green Link on September 10, 2009, 08:06:20 PM ---What would happen if Pinocchio said "My nose will now grow"?
--- End quote ---
He would explode into gory bits of wood, which Souperman will use in his newest concoction.
troy001234:
Well even if you go back in time you'd be a part of it, no matter what nothing would change, you were meant to do that... Ima make a pic