Jack McDevitt wrote a pretty neat time travel book, “Time Travelers Never Die.” Many things happen in the book, but one of the neat things is our fearless time travelers go back to the Library of Alexandria and copy one of the lost plays of Sophocles.
Wouldn’t a time probe be more plausible than a time travel machine? Then you can go back any time you want at your leisure and copy the contents of the library.
I do not like every moment of my past but alter my past and you alter my present and I like my present. If you go back in time and remove the things we think were destroyed before the event, without stopping the event, you have not altered the present. You bring back your looted treasures and you have changed the future. Maybe. But the future is predicated on the present and if in the present I have time travel then the future is as it was going to be. Some religions and some physicists believe that all is predestined anyway. All this to say, you cannot change the past, but you can affect the future.
What Karma fails to take into account was that there was more than one fire, over the course of centuries, and at least some of them were deliberate arson, committed by armies. “Prevent the fire?” You’d need an army of your own to do that, fighting the men who were setting the fires, and you’d need your army to do it three or more times.
Hypatia was the curator of what was the greatest accumulation of knowledge in the Ancient World. A mob, led by Cyril, burned down the Library and flogged her to death with abalone shells. The library was destroyed. Cyril was made a saint.
stairsteppublishing 3 months ago
Seems like a lot of work for what reason?
Baslim the Beggar Premium Member 3 months ago
Jack McDevitt wrote a pretty neat time travel book, “Time Travelers Never Die.” Many things happen in the book, but one of the neat things is our fearless time travelers go back to the Library of Alexandria and copy one of the lost plays of Sophocles.
Ermine Notyours 3 months ago
If it wasn’t going to be that fire, it would be something else. Everyone seems to go through a Dark Age every now and then.
Ermine Notyours 3 months ago
Wouldn’t a time probe be more plausible than a time travel machine? Then you can go back any time you want at your leisure and copy the contents of the library.
katharvey Premium Member 3 months ago
Merlin’s rockin a Cheech Wizard hoodie.
BRBurns1960 3 months ago
I do not like every moment of my past but alter my past and you alter my present and I like my present. If you go back in time and remove the things we think were destroyed before the event, without stopping the event, you have not altered the present. You bring back your looted treasures and you have changed the future. Maybe. But the future is predicated on the present and if in the present I have time travel then the future is as it was going to be. Some religions and some physicists believe that all is predestined anyway. All this to say, you cannot change the past, but you can affect the future.
Stephen Gilberg 3 months ago
Maybe it’s the kind of time travel where you can’t change the course of history.
DHBirr 3 months ago
What Karma fails to take into account was that there was more than one fire, over the course of centuries, and at least some of them were deliberate arson, committed by armies. “Prevent the fire?” You’d need an army of your own to do that, fighting the men who were setting the fires, and you’d need your army to do it three or more times.
patlaborvi 3 months ago
Dr Who would probably say that the fire is a fixed point in history and can’t be prevented, but stealing the books can take place behind the scenes.
eddi-TBH 3 months ago
The fires are historic events. It is simply assumed the books were lost. Merlin is choosing the most paradox-free option.
Rich Douglas 3 months ago
Hypatia was the curator of what was the greatest accumulation of knowledge in the Ancient World. A mob, led by Cyril, burned down the Library and flogged her to death with abalone shells. The library was destroyed. Cyril was made a saint.
bakana 3 months ago
My favorite time travel story is Heinlein’s “All You Zombies”