On Thu, 7 Feb 2008 11:48:48 -0800 (PST), jojo <jojlolo@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>On Feb 7, 9:02 pm, William George Ferguson <wmgfr...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>wrote:
>> On Thu, 7 Feb 2008 12:34:48 -0500, "KalElFan"
<kalel...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> >[crossposts from rec.arts.tv altered]
>>
>> >"MikeM" <MichaelML...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>
>news:e8574b71-6c03-4da3-bd18-f0e4fed1a9d3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>> >> ... If Sarah Conner loses, her son is killed by a
>> >> Terminator and the series -- not to mention the world she and her
>> >> buddies inhabit -- is gone. But if she succeeds, and somehow manages
>> >> to stop the construction of the intelligent supercomputer known as
>> >> Skynet, then...
>>
>> >> ... the protector won't be assembled
>>
>> >Not necessarily. The two writing constraints that the show now has,
>> >in terms of the time travel element, can be described as:
>>
>> > (i) the human protector from the first movie (John Connor's father),
>> > must go back to circa 1982 and conceive John. The Terminator
>> > must also go back to be the nemesis back then; and
>>
>> > (ii) the subsequent terminator and machine protector from T2,
>> > and the current terminators and protector (Cameron) depicted in
>> > this series, must likewise go back (unless the series somehow
>> > changes its own history by doubling back on itself; let's assume
>> > they don't do that).
>>
>> Actually, these aren't required. The show seems to take the position
that
>> changing the future doesn't retroactively change the past, and once a
>> future person/object travels to the past, it is part of that past.
Thus,
>> if changes made after Reese arrives in the past cause Reese to not
travel
>> to the past in the changed future, the Reese that did travel to the
past
>> was still there in the past. Similarly, if Cameron's intervention
leads to
>> her not being built in the future, the Cameron in the past still
exists.
>> The change doesn't retroactively make her go poof.
>>
>
>Which means that we are speaking here about parallel universes,
>meaning going to the past changes nothing to your world but creates a
>new universe, meaning there is no interest in time travel, meaning all
>the story has no purpose at all ! So Skynet sent a Terminator in the
>past to kill John Connor, but who cares, it will just create a new
>world where there is no John Connor, but do nothing in the universe
>where Skynet lost the war. And if parallel universes exist, there is
>an infinite number of them, so one more, one less, why the f... send
>someone in the past to stop the Terminator ?
There is no need for there to be alternate futures or parallel universes
in
existence, only the one, which changes. However, changing the future
doesn't change the past, even the past that includes someone who came back
from the (now changed) future.
So (paraphrasing what I've said before), Reese time-travels and gets Sarah
pregnant. Even if the events that change because of this cause Reese to
not time travel in the future, the Reese that time-traveled still existed
(the past didn't change, just the future). Then future John Connor(I)
sends re-programmed Ahnold back to stop an attempt by Skynet to kill his
younger self (an event fJC(I) doesn't remember). The intervention is
successful and the future is changed. Future John Connor (II) no longer
sends Ahnold back, because he doesn't need to, but sends the Rivernator
back (he remembers Ahnold coming back when he was a kid, but doesn't
remember Cameron coming back). The future changes again, and John
Connor(III) will rememberboth Ahnold and Cameron, even if he ends up not
sending her back. Once the time traveller becomes part of the past, they
don't un-become part of the past, even if they are erased from the future.
This does not necessitate actual existing alternate timelines, just a
malleable future, and a non-malleable past. It does allow for tem****al
orphans, that is someone who goes back in the past and changes it, may
prevent the future (their own timeline past) from occurring, but they're
still there and they still remember.
Also, changing the future as a whole is very, very difficult. The future
is caused by myriads of events in the present, changing any single one of
them will have very little effect on the over-all shape of the future
(stepping on a single butterfly will most likely have no discernable
macroscopic effect on the future). For a thought experiment, think of
having a six-inch wide board inserted in the Mississippi by St. Louis, at
an angle. Now check down stream, anywhere from about 2 miles to the Gulf
of Mexico. How much effect will that board have on the flow of the river?
--
"Oh Buffy, you really do need to have
every square inch of your ass kicked."
- Willow Rosenberg
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