NationStates Jolt Archive

You know how theoretically, time travellers could change history by jumping back and changing historical events? Well, what if someone from our future has already gone back and done that? There are lots of unlikely happenings throughout history.

that would be interesting to find out. ever read any of jasper fforde's 'thursday next' series? they provide an amusing, if occaisionally logically inconsistent, take on the machinations of time-travel and history manipulation.

The likelihood of all historical events is 1.

:P

Name something unlikely that has happened.

Well, I think that the whole Hitler incident was pretty unlikely. A bum becomes the leader of Germany? Not to mention so many failed assassination attempts. Seems like the balance of power was deliberately filled. I find it far more plausible that the Weimar Republic keeps trudging along miserable and the Soviet Union invades Europe.

Name something unlikely that has happened.

Well...I never thought that I would, in reality, be eating ice cream at 11:40 here tonight, but, lo' and behold, it has happened. THAT is quite unexpected, not to mention extremely unlikely to ever happen. Time travel must exist! :eek:

Well, I think that the whole Hitler incident was pretty unlikely. A bum becomes the leader of Germany? Not to mention so many failed assassination attempts. Seems like the balance of power was deliberately filled. I find it far more plausible that the Weimar Republic keeps trudging along miserable and the Soviet Union invades Europe.
That's the whole Plot to most of the Command and Conquer games...

That's the whole Plot to most of the Command and Conquer games..

Exactly. Command and Conquer seems far more logical.

I would of thought it far more likely the the soviet unoin never existed and the U.S. and a just-democratic-enough-to-fool-it's-people Russia would have teamed up and invaded Europe.

I would of thought it far more likely the the soviet unoin never existed and the U.S. and a just-democratic-enough-to-fool-it's-people Russia would have teamed up and invaded Europe.

That's not very logical.

What, that the people of Russia might want freedom? How is that illogical?

Exactly. Command and Conquer seems far more logical. Stalin would have been much better at conquering the world.

Hitler's micromanagement made him pretty inept at taking over the world which leads to the fact that if it was altered, the other possibilities could have been much worse. A military Dictatorship instead in Germany taking over the world? Another Soviet Type government which would ally with Stalin and divide the world between them both like was orginally planned if Hitler didn't backstab the Soviets.

If Germany and the Soviets had stayed teamed up they would have been nearly unstoppable. And with Italy and Japan also, they would have won.

(If you added up all they're holdings of all those groups at the start of the war, that's about a Quarter of the world right there.)

What, that the people of Russia might want freedom? How is that illogical?
They did want freedom. Hence the 1917 revolution. At least to begin with, the Soviet Union treated people better than the Czar did.

Certain world events do seem very coordinated, but I do not think it is time travel tampering, I think it is (and yes I sound like a conspiracy theorist) the various secret societies and old boys networks running the world.

For instance, Skull & Bones at Yale. Bush appointed 11 Skull & Bones members to government posts. Only 15 S&B members are accepted a year, and so that means there are only 800 living members. What would be the normal likelihood that two Presidential nominees were both S&B members, John Kerry and George Bush. Coincidence? Unlikely. S&B was founded by one of the biggest opium traders in the world (Look it up, its public history)

People can shout conspiracy theories all they want, but the evidence is in your face of almost global power and manipulation in the hands of a few individuals.

They did want freedom. Hence the 1917 revolution. At least to begin with, the Soviet Union treated people better than the Czar did.
True. But then things became much worse.

True. But then things became much worse.

But by then, it was too late to turn back.

There has been no tampering of history. All events, including Hitler's rise to power, were brought about by a logical sequence of events.

There has been no tampering of history. All events, including Hitler's rise to power, were brought about by a logical sequence of events.

Prove that history hasn't or hasn't been tampered with. Until we discover time travel, you can't.

We can't even prove history. We'd have to be imbiciles to try to prove the issue of time tampering either way.

If I feel this way, why did I make an unsupported absolute statement?

Because that's what people do on forums.

Name something unlikely that has happened.

Atlantis sinking?

Jesus coming back from the dead?

Atlantis sinking?
I suggest you look at information about the island of Thera, which was nearly destroyed as a result of volcanic activity. A possible origin of the Atlantis myth.

Jesus coming back from the dead?
The fact that he was the son of god didn't tip you off? Also they had a few more chapters to fill before the big finish.

That's the whole Plot to most of the Command and Conquer games...

But in C&C, they go back in time to change Hitlers future (C&C:RedAlert), and routinely screw around with time (C&C:RedAlert2)

There has been no tampering of history. All events, including Hitler's rise to power, were brought about by a logical sequence of events.

Can logical events explain the popularity of American Idol David Hasselhoff or Marmite? I think not

The fact that he was the son of god didn't tip you off? Also they had a few more chapters to fill before the big finish.

O lord, in thine holy scripture, hand picked by politically motivated, smelly old men, nothing can be unlikly.

Me+God=:fluffle:

Can logical events explain the popularity of American Idol David Hasselhoff or Marmite? I think not

They were all inevitible products of the gradual neural degeneration induced by increasing exposure to Intelligent Design in science classes.

All kneel before the great and powerful Flying Spaghetti Monster!!!

What if we discover time travel and start time traveling only to find out that in the future we use this new technology to engineer history and we try and stop our future selves which is actually what prompts our future selves to come back and stop our early time traveling selves from fucking shit up by kind of fixing things so that our history is how we remember it but was occasionally fucked up by our battling nearer future and further future selves?

You've taken that too far mate.

many major pivotal points in history were in reality just plain dumb luck. and not all of it good either.

if spata had never risen, and subsiquently the etruscans and rome, we would indeed be living in a very different world today. and yes i do believe it is very possible that the styrup and the flying wedge infantry formation could have been time traveller imports.

steam tecnology would have been common by the 1100s and while tecnological evolution would never have been at the pace we saw in the 20th century, niether would it have had the lost time to make up for that it needed to, nor ground to as glacial a pace as the middle ages is infamous for.

none of today's fanatacisms would exist. (though of course others might, still they might not as well)

nor would the pair of idiologies deceitfully represented by proponents and opponenets alike, as all encompassing, have ever been heard of.

that parallel world, the one we would have, had this temporal interference never occured, is certainly one i would prefer over what we have now.

=^^=
.../\...

What if we discover time travel and start time traveling only to find out that in the future we use this new technology to engineer history and we try and stop our future selves which is actually what prompts our future selves to come back and stop our early time traveling selves from fucking shit up by kind of fixing things so that our history is how we remember it but was occasionally fucked up by our battling nearer future and further future selves?

I like this one best. However, if you consider a model with parallel universes and/or new time strands opening up at each interference, the entire attempt becomes futile.

It also makes for wonderful fictional material. The nation I play here has been switching dimensions for years. What fun!

You've taken that too far mate.
Yes. Even I would not have taken it that far.

Besides, even if we DID alter history, it would just create an alternate universe. Therefore, our universe is what is. Tampered with or not, it still exists.

Yes. Even I would not have taken it that far.

Besides, even if we DID alter history, it would just create an alternate universe. Therefore, our universe is what is. Tampered with or not, it still exists.
Give me time, I'll twist that knot so hard it's momma won't recognize it.

Suppose we become beings of pure energy in the future. We have the power and nothing better to do so we go back to this, our present and past, to goof around with stuff. Our present selves do not percieve this, other than as what is described in the uncredible tabloid magazines as "miracles".

The cumulative stress on the time-space fabric wears it down, causing time to wind up. We notice this as an accelerating culture, with constantly faster information exhanges and technology developments. "Upper" drugs like caffeine and extacy become more accepted; people constantly complain they don't have time.

Eventually time hits a breaking point, bringing about the transformation mentioned in the first sentence.

...Yes, I've read the Invisibles. Many times. :D

That's the whole Plot to most of the Command and Conquer games...Only the RA half. The Tiberian half (what was originally to be the whole of the C&C series; C&C Red Alert was just filler, altought good, between C&C and C&C Tiberian Sun. then, due to the success of RA, RA2 was made. by then, the series had largely begun to derail as a result of EA's takeover) takes place in a completely unrelated alternate history.

You know how theoretically, time travellers could change history by jumping back and changing historical events? Well, what if someone from our future has already gone back and done that? There are lots of unlikely happenings throughout history.
The Time Tampering Institute is in Tampere, Finland.

Obviously.

The question is, if all possibilities exist somewhere in alternate dimensions, then every action we take, has an slightly different reaction somewhere else, and so forth and so on....thus the question is....did that particular alternate dimension exist, or did you just create it, by a simple random action?

Well, I think that the whole Hitler incident was pretty unlikely. A bum becomes the leader of Germany? Not to mention so many failed assassination attempts. Seems like the balance of power was deliberately filled. I find it far more plausible that the Weimar Republic keeps trudging along miserable and the Soviet Union invades Europe.

You been playing the original Red Alert again?

You been playing the original Red Alert again?

Actually, I prefer RA2.