• ook@discuss.tchncs.de
    106·
    27 days ago

    Yeah, however, any subtle change in the past could unborn me. Any subtle change now only unborns people I will never know!

  • finitebanjo@piefed.worldEnglish
    61·
    27 days ago

    I think the point here is intent. Sure, tagging a sign or having a conversation with a stranger might have far reaching consequences, but we don’t know what those consequences could be and we don’t know what the consequences of not doing it would be, either.

    Time travellers, though? They know exactly how the world will be as a result of them not doing anything, and they want to keep it that way.

    • FlihpFlorp@piefed.zipEnglish
      3·
      26 days ago

      Exactly this. I have no idea how talking to a stranger 10 years ago changed his life or mine or the butterfly effect turned out.

      I often think to myself what would change if I did that. Not play online with friends? Probably not much, but what if I chose a different that come with different connections, took a different class in college.

      We have no frame of reference for what actions did. Just the present

    • Zabjam@feddit.org
      2·
      26 days ago

      You have a good point, but I think you can also read it in a different way. You can understand it as an encouragement. It is an answer to the question “what can I do? I am just a small nobody”. If you understand that time travelers are scared to change even the smallest things because they will alter the future, it will give you a perspective to see that everything anyone does can make a difference.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      26 days ago

      And, there’s both sides of the butterfly effect theory. The one side is that tiny changes can ripple through the world and have a massive effect. The other side is that seemingly big changes sometimes don’t have much of an effect at all.

      If you’re a time traveller and you go back in time, you know that there might be a very small number of possible futures where you exist. An even smaller number of futures where you’re a scientist. An even smaller number of futures where you’re a scientist who figures out how to build a time machine. And so-on. So, you don’t want to risk any disruptions that might negatively effect the world that you know.

      At the same time, in the present, it’s hard to know what to do. Big protest movements often have minimal impact. The things that do have an impact are impossible to predict: something unexpected happens while a reporter (or these days a big influencer) happens to be filming, and something about it goes viral.

      If you don’t want things to change, you don’t touch anything because even a small change could have huge consequences. If you do want things to change, it’s hard to know what to do because even a big change often seems to have few consequences.

  • 🍉 Albert 🍉@lemmy.world
    28·
    27 days ago

    chaos theory.

    any tiny perturbation has unpredictable effects.

    therefore any change in the past will have unpredictable consequences, which will differ from your preferred timeline.

    however, any change in the present will lead to a different future, but you can’t really know which one will it be based on your actions. maybe if you pick your nose right now will lead you to win the lottery next month, you can’t tell

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
      10·
      26 days ago

      therefore any change in the past will have unpredictable consequences, which will differ from your preferred timeline.

      Wait, this is people’s preferred timeline?

      • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
        12·
        26 days ago

        The terrifying thought that this is the good timeline.

        Reminds me of a writing prompt years ago about time traveling police preventing other time travelers going back to kill Hitler because those timeliness were worse.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        26 days ago

        The time traveller exists in this timeline. While it might not be the optimal timeline, it is possibly one of a small subset where the time traveller exists. The time traveller existing is probably a basic requirement for it being among the preferred timelines. But, as Back to the Future showed, you can always time travel, disrupt the past only slightly, and return to a timeline that was better than the one you left.

    • Hadriscus@jlai.lu
      8·
      27 days ago

      maybe if you pick your nose right now will lead you to win the lottery next month, you can’t tell

      can’t hurt to try !

  • Avicenna@lemmy.world
    12·
    26 days ago

    well there is a difference because in present you won’t know how you changed the future but in past you will know when you come back.

    • Echolynx@lemmy.zipEnglish
      8·
      26 days ago

      There is also a big difference in your capabilities in the past. Modern knowledge is a major asset in the past, not necessarily in the present.

  • thatradomguy@lemmy.world
    11·
    26 days ago

    So let’s all get our pitch forks and cast out president and all congress? He just keeps getting away with breaking the law, ignoring it, and unless we all gather up and force their hand, they’re not budging.

  • explodicle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    26 days ago

    This is how I feel whenever there’s an online discussion of time travel and someone suggests buying bitcoin.