Changing History

[Randyman]

Amateur time travelers kill Hitler.
Professional time travelers kill Princip.
Expert time travelers kill Rousseau.

(Depending on the physics of time travel, of course.)

[TGLS]

And of course, Master Time Travelers don't kill anybody.

---

Honestly, if I had access to echoes, I'd be more interested in enriching myself. Trying to save history by altering events is a herculean task on its own. Adding a potentially infinite amount of echoes makes it simply impossible.

[AlexanderHowl]

Which is why my scenario avoids killing anyone. Anyway, what about your scenarios for changing Echoes?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Anyway, what about your scenarios for changing Echoes?

What is the objective?

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

It is changing history though because you are targeting an Echo. Echos will follow the history of Homeline until they diverge. When we are talking about changing history, we are talking about changing the historical trajectory of an Echo and transforming it into a parallel.

It's not changing the history of Homeline though (or some other reference timeline). It's changing the future of the Echo, with unpredictable results.

In general, it does seem like a pointless exercise though, as there'll be countless timelines that follow a similar path without your interference anyway, and a myriad that revert to a set future. There might be a couple of valid reasons to do this though:
- Practical historical/sociological experimental research. Historical study doesn't normally have much opportunity for experimentation.
- Satisfying the egotism or megalomania of the meddler
- As a form of entertainment for Homeline observers
- An attempt to gain power or some other benefit by living in the Echo
- An attempt to invent something new to bring back to the Homeline: if Tesla and Einstein had worked together on chronotech, for example.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

It's not changing the history of Homeline though (or some other reference timeline). It's changing the future of the Echo, with unpredictable results.

In general, it does seem like a pointless exercise though, as there'll be countless timelines that follow a similar path without your interference anyway, and a myriad that revert to a set future. There might be a couple of valid reasons to do this though:
- Practical historical/sociological experimental research. Historical study doesn't normally have much opportunity for experimentation.
- Satisfying the egotism or megalomania of the meddler
- As a form of entertainment for Homeline observers
- An attempt to gain power or some other benefit by living in the Echo
- An attempt to invent something new to bring back to the Homeline: if Tesla and Einstein had worked together on chronotech, for example.

You are missing the main reason that anyone does this canonically (and why Infinity is vigilant about stopping it; making most of your suggestions extremely risky), to destabilize the echo and cause it to change quantum.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

You are missing the main reason that anyone does this canonically (and why Infinity is vigilant about stopping it; making most of your suggestions extremely risky), to destabilize the echo and cause it to changes quantum.

I should probably read the book one day.

ETA: So what happens if an echo changes quantum?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I should probably read the book one day.

This is Centrum's principle advantage. They understand how to do this semi-reliably and are using it to shift echoes up, out of Homeline's reach.

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I should probably read the book one day.

ETA: So what happens if an echo changes quantum?

Homeline is on Q5 and Centrum is on Q8 and both of them can only journey to timelines up to two Quanta away from their home Quanta (Q3-Q7 for Homeline and Q6-Q10 for Centrum). In the case of Homeline, they primarily want to prevent Quanta changes in Echoes because they want continued easy access to the Q6 timelines. In the case of Centrum, they primarily want to change the quantum of the Echoes to force a cascading reaction that will cause Homeline to shift down in Quanta, preferably to Q3 or below, so Centrum will never have to deal with Homeline on any Quanta that Centrum can access.

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

Originally Posted by Randyman

. . . Expert time travelers kill Rousseau.

(Depending on the physics of time travel, of course.)

As a friend of mine who is an expert in Enlightenment philosophy pointed out that would not be a game-changer. There were just too many people around who thought like Rousseau but were not quite as good at writing like he was.