Hypothetical Questions Thread

[boots60]

3 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Time travel shenanigans are rarely that simple. There's a host of cautionary tales demonstrating this.

 

Not saying it's a bad idea, but no one would have any idea of the actual consequences of altering history in that way. It could be better, it could equally be worse.

Have a read of 'Time & time again' a wonderful, funny, thought provoking time travel novel by Ben Elton. 

While the story is pure entertaining fiction it proves one thing, you can change fate.

 

[leicsmac]

Just now, boots60 said:

Have a read of 'Time & time again' a wonderful, funny, thought provoking time travel novel by Ben Elton. 

While the story is pure entertaining fiction it proves one thing, you can change fate.

 

Thank you for the recommendation!

 

I agree that you certainly can change fate. The problem is that you can never be sure, at all, if you're changing it for the better. Even if it's doing something like killing one of the worst people in history.

[Dahnsouff]

On 19/10/2022 at 13:26, boots60 said:

If you could travel back in time, would you kill Hitler?

I read Making History by Stephern Fry, so probably not  

[Wolfox]

5 hours ago, leicsmac said:

....killing him allowing the ascendancy of a leader with all the genocidal qualities of Hitler, but one that actually trusts his generals post-1941 and therefore is so much more effective? One that doesn't declare war on the USA and therefore the US doesn't intervene as much in Europe and stays active in the Far East? One that allows access to the necessary resources and encouragement to allow his scientists to complete the atomic bomb program before the Allies do?

 

There's a great many ways I can imagine that things would be worse. Of course, there are a great many ways it could be better.

 

Point is, unless you're absolutely sure either way (and given the laws of causality you never will be), it's rather foolhardy to take the chance.

Ah…. A nice counter factual narrative…. He had the undeniable charisma around which everyone surrounded themselves…

 

i’d take a chance of avoiding genocide I think…

[leicsmac]

30 minutes ago, Wolfox said:

Ah…. A nice counter factual narrative…. He had the undeniable charisma around which everyone surrounded themselves…

 

i’d take a chance of avoiding genocide I think…

I'm sorry, can you elaborate a little more on your position before I respond? I want to be sure I understand you correctly and am not misinterpreting something.

[Wolfox]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

I'm sorry, can you elaborate a little more on your position before I respond? I want to be sure I understand you correctly and am not misinterpreting something.

This could probably be very exhausting, as it’s all hypothetical…

 

We don’t know who might have ascended?

 

Nazi Germany were highly likely to lose any war over time…. The Battle of Britain was not even close in reality…. Better tactical leadership would only have extended the war and not changed the outcome…

 

On balance (an opinion) I can’t think of many worse outcomes…. The atrocities of the Second World War are still difficult to fathom… Hitler’s energy and approach to get into power and motivate the nation to fall in behind him was astonishing, and probably a one off?

 

I’m fully prepared to accept that you’re right in your assessments and I’m wrong…. The truth is we’ll never know!

 

ps…. My initial response was a little clumsy…. I wasn’t suggesting that you felt that genocide was a reasonable compromise…. Apologies 

 

I’d shoot him dead and not look back…. 

[leicsmac]

2 hours ago, Wolfox said:

This could probably be very exhausting, as it’s all hypothetical…

 

We don’t know who might have ascended?

 

Nazi Germany were highly likely to lose any war over time…. The Battle of Britain was not even close in reality…. Better tactical leadership would only have extended the war and not changed the outcome…

 

On balance (an opinion) I can’t think of many worse outcomes…. The atrocities of the Second World War are still difficult to fathom… Hitler’s energy and approach to get into power and motivate the nation to fall in behind him was astonishing, and probably a one off?

 

I’m fully prepared to accept that you’re right in your assessments and I’m wrong…. The truth is we’ll never know!

 

ps…. My initial response was a little clumsy…. I wasn’t suggesting that you felt that genocide was a reasonable compromise…. Apologies 

 

I’d shoot him dead and not look back…. 

Thank you for the clarification and the apology.

 

It's a reasonable shout that you are right too, certainly if I had the opportunity I'd think about it a very, very great deal, even with the uncertainty involved.

 

Indeed the truth is that we'll never know, and when engaging in a world-shattering event that could have an effect of tens of millions of lives, even in the name of saving millions of lives because of the information we have, I think it would be prudent and best to be absolutely sure one has all the information one can possibly have that the outcome would be positive before proceeding. Getting it wrong and making things worse, even if the odds are low, would be catastrophic.

[Wolfox]

3 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Thank you for the clarification and the apology.

 

It's a reasonable shout that you are right too, certainly if I had the opportunity I'd think about it a very, very great deal, even with the uncertainty involved.

 

Indeed the truth is that we'll never know, and when engaging in a world-shattering event that could have an effect of tens of millions of lives, even in the name of saving millions of lives because of the information we have, I think it would be prudent and best to be absolutely sure one has all the information one can possibly have that the outcome would be positive before proceeding. Getting it wrong and making things worse, even if the odds are low, would be catastrophic.

You’re completely right!

 

If the hypothetical was caveated with the opportunity to study potential outcomes with a group of informed people and statisticians (a bit like game theory maybe?) and the balance of risk was favourable, that apocalypse was highly unlikely outcome, we’d all shoot him….
 

Assuming that’s not the case and you have 30 seconds to make a choice, I’d hesitate, but I’d probably still shoot him…

 

edit…. I’d shoot Stalin too…. It’s often forgotten that significantly more people died in his gulags then in Nazi concentration camps

Edited 21 October 2022 by Wolfox

[Parafox]

If tomorrow was yesterday and today is tomorrow, would it be different?

 

 

[leicsmac]

Anyhow, on topic:

 

What happens when you go through a spinning singularity at the centre of a black hole? It is a wormhole that leads to somewhere else in the Universe? Or something else entirely?

[Nalis]

12 hours ago, Parafox said:

If tomorrow was yesterday and today is tomorrow, would it be different?

 

 

Tomorrow would be Friday and today would be Sunday. Next!

[Nalis]

2 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Anyhow, on topic:

 

What happens when you go through a spinning singularity at the centre of a black hole? It is a wormhole that leads to somewhere else in the Universe? Or something else entirely?

It would take you to a postnatal ward in Austria circa 1889