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xkcd #2976: Time Traveler Causes of Death (xkcd.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Many a hungry time traveler has Googled 'trilobites shellfish allergy' only to find their carrier had no coverage in the Ordovician.

https://explainxkcd.com/2976/

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (9 children)

[off topic]

One of my favorite time travel novels is 'The Big Time' by Fritz Leiber.

The two big ideas in the book. First, that there's a Law of Conservation of Reality. Go back in time and shoot Hitler. He dies. Then gets better, really fast. Twenty minutes after you shoot him, he's fine. Spend your whole life shooting him and the history books will just ignore it. It takes an army of time travelers working night and day to get any changes to stick.

Second idea. There are two armies, both trying to change the past/future. They have been at it since before the Big Bang and will go on until the Heat Death of the Universe. They recruit humans but no human has ever seen the big bosses, just low ranking stooges.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

But that neccessitates a predetermined fate.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

. It takes an army of time travelers working night and day to get any changes to stick.

Changes do occur in the story. The participants talk about the 'Change Winds' and how people can just disappear because thier timeline has been shifted and their parents never met.

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