5HC : Skinner, Turing and yet more Laplace

maru · 18 Feb 2005, 11:15 · from 2005-February.txt.gz

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From: marudubshinki at gmail.com (maru)
Date: Fri Feb 18 11:15:30 2005
Subject: (urth) 5HC : Skinner, Turing and yet more Laplace
In-Reply-To: <BAY102-F4B285B79A35E2E04F19EE866E0 at phx.gbl>
References: <BAY102-F4B285B79A35E2E04F19EE866E0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <42163ECB.1030501 at gmail.com>

I'd dispute the bit about boredom:  if you are really messing with the 
past, then you are changing your future drastically
(I will assume here that we are dealing with multi-verse interpretations 
of timetravel.  Single universe time travel involves
too many paradoxes.).  You'd be hopping though many universes.  I fail 
to see how on earth you could possibly get bored.

~Maru

Chris wrote:

> You also have to watch out for time-traveling Nigerian con-artists. 
> "Your future self says that if you get a letter from the daughter of 
> the Minister of Finance on a certain day, you should give her your 
> bank information so that you can become wealthy beyond belief."
>
>  Actually when you think about it, the ability to travel in time or 
> predict the future accurately makes pretty much all problems so 
> trivial that pretty soon boredom would set in and there would be 
> nothing left to do but mess with people. Give them a few predictions 
> to prove you know what you're talking about, and then mess with their 
> heads. Given enough time almost anyone might succumb.
>
> So, moral of this story, never trust anyone who knows the future, even 
> if it's a future version of yourself. (Screwing with past versions of 
> yourself would be the ultimate pastime to put a little danger into 
> your life). Chances are they're a real jerk.
>

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