Ethics of Timeline Creation

[Umbral]

I have no real idea of where to put this thread, so I guess here.

Problem: If you came upon a time machine that would allow you to go back and forth in time (before your own birth only) and the knowledge that a sufficiently large alteration to the past would create a new timeline -how much responsibility do you have for the consequenses your actions have on the inhabitants of said timelines?

For example, you could aid the Norse colonization of Vinland, or aid the Minoans to set up shop in the Caribbean. Creating a new timeline. And one of the first things that would happen would be the megadeath of native indians due to disease.

And in 100 years everyone who lives in this timeline are people who would never have existed but for you. If you chose not to create this timeline, not one of them will ever have existed.

What is the right thing to do? Create as many timelines as possible, so hundres of billions who would otherwise never have lived get to do so? Or spare the million who would get their lives cut short and go for acreful, no-destructive creation?

 

[Finn]

You can't change the past, because you already did.

 

[Big Tex]

The real brain teaser is what happens if you create a timeline in which you never come across/invent your time machine...

At its crudest this reminds me of back to the future where Marty and the Doc create a timeline that has skewed from the original and need to go back before the tangent to correct it by making sure Biff never keeps the Sports Alamanac long term.

 

[Big Tex]

You can't change the past, because you already did.

That always bugs me as well, what if the past actually has some guys running around secretly in time machines and the world we know today is the product of some guys 2000 years in front of us trying to makeit better. What if time alternation is so common that everything is always chaninging and we just don't know it because we keep having history altered, maybe 20 seconds ago we were living in a TL where the Soviets won or Nazi won or something

 

[Umbral]

Ah, but I am not talking about changing our timeline, but timelines that branch off it.

Like Norse in North America, for example. Go back, change the colonization so it works. Now there are two timelines going forwards from that point, like alternate realities. One that you came from, and one you created.

Would the billions that will live in the new timeline make it worth the millions of Native americans who would die from diseases? Many of whom would not be born in the original timeline either.

 

[Big Tex]

Ah, but I am not talking about changing our timeline, but timelines that branch off it.

Like Norse in North America, for example. Go back, change the colonization so it works. Now there are two timelines going forwards from that point, like alternate realities. One that you came from, and one you created.

Would the billions that will live in the new timeline make it worth the millions of Native americans who would die from diseases? Many of whom would not be born in the original timeline either.

Parrallel Universes?

As for the killing millions to save billions, I guess thats just up to the person doing the changing. Would the lifestyle-quality for the billions be good, could you kill millions that are here now to save billions of potential lives in the future? Its all a matter of ones personal ehtics and such.

 

[Hendryk]

You never change the past. When you travel in time, the past becomes your present, and you're as entitled to change it as if you weren't time-travelling in the first place. You have a special responsibility from knowing the potential long-term consequences of your actions, but apart from that there is no objection in principle to your changing the course of history. Anyway, it won't make a difference as far as OTL is concerned.

 

[Susano]

That always bugs me as well, what if the past actually has some guys running around secretly in time machines and the world we know today is the product of some guys 2000 years in front of us trying to makeit better. What if time alternation is so common that everything is always chaninging and we just don't know it because we keep having history altered, maybe 20 seconds ago we were living in a TL where the Soviets won or Nazi won or something

Thats no particulary difficult dilemma if you think about it. I mean, iomagine it - they only stable state of affairs is a timeline where time travel never has been invented, hence the timeline will always come to that effect (that is, the timeline will be changed over and over again, until this change happens, meaning the timeline is free of ANY time travel again).

Anyways, as for the question in the OP, there are two possibilities: Either there are no parallel universes, in which you cant create a new timeline, or there are infinite timelines, and hence you cant really create a new one, as it already exists.

 

[Big Tex]

Thats no particulary difficult dilemma if you think about it. I mean, iomagine it - they only stable state of affairs is a timeline where time travel never has been invented, hence the timeline will always come to that effect (that is, the timeline will be changed over and over again, until this change happens, meaning the timeline is free of ANY time travel again).

Anyways, as for the question in the OP, there are two possibilities: Either there are no parallel universes, in which you cant create a new timeline, or there are infinite timelines, and hence you cant really create a new one, as it already exists.

I love the infinte timeline one because some where in the multiverse I'm getting laid by 50 playboy bunnies while smoking a cuban cigar and drinking crown instead of being at work

 

[Susano]

I love the infinte timeline one because some where in the multiverse I'm getting laid by 50 playboy bunnies while smoking a cuban cigar and drinking crown instead of being at work

No. No you arent. A "doppelganger" of you is, a copy if you will, but as I discussed at length with FQ you != your copy

 

[Big Tex]

No. No you arent. A "doppelganger" of you is, a copy if you will, but as I discussed at length with FQ you != your copy

We'll at the very least, good for my copy!

 

[Admiral Canaris]

Well, you could argue that since these timelines wouldn't exist without you, they're yours to do what you want with.

Me, I'd probably experiment a lot with them, making "improved" versions as I checked the consequences of earlier manipulations. The end-line of one near-perfect TL would outweigh the flawed ones... I hope.

First, I'd probably pray for guidance to see whether I was doing the right thing.

 

[Nicomacheus]

Also, if there are infinite parallel universes, then to some extent your choices don't really matter: however many people you save in the TL you manage might be dead in alternates to that TL. And if there are alternate TLs, then there's an infinite number of people, too.

In any event, the infinite point aside: from an ethical point of view, Hendryk is right: you'd have no more obligation than you do when making decisions in the present. In a normal context you have the obligation to be prudent with respect to the consequences of your actions.

In the example in question, your knowledege about the 'future' might be taken to expand the scope of your prudence and hence the extent of your responsibility. However, since you're creating a new future, your knowledge will instantly be of little direct use. You might still be able to take 'general lessons' from your knowledge of history to apply to the TL, but by taking action to prevent the bad things you know about, you may create bad things our TL hasn't ever seen. And such unforeseen consquences you will be no more culpable for than unforeseen consequences of actions you take without time travel.