tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30096810.post6588990311493413768..comments2024-01-18T22:58:49.172-06:00Comments on Dust of the Time: Rehistory--Why Not?Dust I Amhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17214613587456861583noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30096810.post-73833987411492998222006-12-01T17:49:00.000-06:002006-12-01T17:49:00.000-06:00Ray Bradbury's story of time travel, A Sound of Th...Ray Bradbury's story of time travel, A Sound of Thunder, was originally published in the June 28 1952 edition of Collier's magazine. <br /><br />Thanks for making me search on Bradbury's short story, because I also found other interesting items on the science and other issues related to time travel. <br /><br />However, there may be a big difference between traveling back in time (described in many sci-fi stories), and simply changing physical phenomena in the past (my story). For one, concurrency issues are avoided.<br /><br />I'm trying to work out some of the philosophical issues by placing limits on the the Sugar Ant Particle effect. For example, assume the effect has an asymptotic limit sometime in the past (say 2,000 years), prior to which the environment cannot be affected, no matter how much energy is used.Dust I Amhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17214613587456861583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30096810.post-13591550463702578752006-12-01T09:48:00.000-06:002006-12-01T09:48:00.000-06:00I believe Ray Bradbury also covered this in a shor...I believe Ray Bradbury also covered this in a short story that was made into an unpopular movie a year or so ago, about hunters who went back in time to hunt dinsaurs. One strayed off the path and killed a butterfly, which changed all history. Forget the name of the story.Patrick Kinsalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03042224324297018086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30096810.post-1661847867301734372006-11-30T15:10:00.000-06:002006-11-30T15:10:00.000-06:00You are one very deep lady.You are one very deep lady.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30096810.post-79061274080016743782006-11-30T13:49:00.000-06:002006-11-30T13:49:00.000-06:00Your answer on 're-do's' that should {but cannot) ...Your answer on 're-do's' that should {but cannot) be done makes sense. I've never been a fan of fantasy s-f, but may take a look at Tim Powers latest book. <br /><br />Most of my interest is in what the real world will look like in 100 to 1000 years from now. I expect more of the same--sin, valor, cowardice, generous sacrifice, etc.--but in very different environments.Dust I Amhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17214613587456861583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30096810.post-20687906388166198152006-11-30T09:34:00.000-06:002006-11-30T09:34:00.000-06:00I guess by 'constructive' I mean that a writer can...I guess by 'constructive' I mean that a writer can imagine what the world would be like if history had been slightly different, without actually wanting things to BE different, and give us a cautionary tale. For example, I remember reading a story about a bleak future in which the Jews had never gone back to Israel from Babylon, and Christianity never got its start. I don't think the author was a Christian, but my impression was that he was saying "Look what a sorry world this would be without Judaism and Christianity."<br /><br />The same thing happens in a lot of comic book stories - someone lashes out in anger and kills someone else, and then a horrible alternate future is spawned - the heroes of that time have to go back in time and try to stop it all from happening. The moral of the story is "don't lash out in anger and kill someone!" It's like imagining what the world would be like without the Fall, or Cain's murder of Abel - obviously we can't change those things, but it does help us realize that there are certain paths we really shouldn't go down. Writing about the vast consequences of changing small things in the past can remind us that exercising our God-given freedom in the present will have vast consequences in the future.Elliothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08144417439505262113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30096810.post-86754591537911497892006-11-30T08:54:00.000-06:002006-11-30T08:54:00.000-06:00Thanks for your comments and references. When you...Thanks for your comments and references. When you say the story could be a 'constructive act of the imagination,' I'm not clear how it can be constructive. Can you elucidate?<br /><br />Perhaps God does allow man to control all dimensions--including time. Except that if man knows when the end of time is to come, he could constantly delay it.<br /><br />With regard to man controlling God, the priest can choose to consecrate or not to consecrate the body and blood of Jesus Christ. God Himself is under the control of a man.<br /><br />Maybe I'm treading where no man should tread.Dust I Amhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17214613587456861583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30096810.post-86732723847323496592006-11-30T08:45:00.000-06:002006-11-30T08:45:00.000-06:00Very interesting! Though my brain hurts just think...Very interesting! Though my brain hurts just thinking about it. I think that a lot of 'alternate history' science fiction has arrived at similar conclusions, though not expressed in theological language. The lesson of such stories often is "Meddling with the past only brings disaster."<br />So I agree that actually trying to change history would be wrong, though I think that writing alternate history stories can be a constructive act of imagination. It has its pitfalls - some authors, it's true, use the format for wildly self-indulgent expression of their own biases. Others are more careful and even-handed.<br /><br />Catholic sf author Tim Powers recently talked about alternate histories in an interview - his latest book, Three Days To Never, centres around people who are trying to revise the past. He also has a story in his Strange Intineraries collection about a Catholic priest and a ghost which has some interesting ideas about time and quantum uncertainty.<br /><br />I'm also reminded of Connie Willis' sf novel To Say Nothing of the Dog, which has people blundering around the past, trying to rejig history - she seems to suggest that there is a Providential order to history that humans can't alter for very long.Elliothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08144417439505262113noreply@blogger.com