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From: kaufman@nike.uucp (Bill Kaufman)
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.sci,net.philosophy,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: A Sane Man Proposes A Time Travel Experiment
Message-ID: <451@nike.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 31-Jul-86 12:52:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: nike.451
Posted: Thu Jul 31 12:52:54 1986
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In article <7489@tekecs.UUCP> mikes@tekecs.UUCP (Michael Sellers) writes:
>  As a collateral question (and possibly too speculative for these august
>groups :-), if you were the one capable of sending something back, what (or 
>who) would it be?

A nuclear bomb.  Something that would, by "appearing" in that time,
materialize in my grandfather.  A computer & manual, destined for T.A. Edison
in Menlo Park, NJ.  The plans for "Opertion: Overlord" to die F^uhrer's 
office (excuse the attempt at an umlaut) in Berlin.
In general, anything that would cause an identifiable, unavoidable mistake
in time.  Great way to verify whether we live in a "parallel" universe, or
a "serial" one (cf. "Thrice Upon a Time," by (James P.?) Hogan).

In article <83@unc.unc.UUCP> melnick@unc.UUCP (Alex Melnick) writes:
>Another question is:  If you were in the future, knew about the experiment,
>and had the equipment to send some material or information back to the
>experimenters, WHY WOULD YOU SEND ANYTHING?  (Douglas Adams is right:  English
>grammar can't handle time travel.)

What if the results could be changed by the exeriment (cf. Heisenberg's Un-
certainty Principle :-)?

BTW: It was Larry Niven who said that. Niven's example went something like:
-----
"OK, I'll go back and deal with the dinosaurs. You go to Ford's lab,
duplicate the duplicate, come back with the original duplicate, and
I'll meet you a million years ago. Got that?"
"Ummm,..."
		(Larry Niven, in one of the "Flight of the Horse" s.s's;
		 and "Theory and Practice of Time Travel", in "All the
		 Myriad Ways".)
-----
(If anyone has the original quote, mind emailing it to me? TIA.)


					-Annoyingly,
					 Bilbo.
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