Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johnston2
So my theory is that Van Zandt got his technology from another Van Zandt, and that the secret he revealed to the world's leaders is that the odds are greatly against getting parachronics right. And getting it wrong produces an Oops. Worlds depopulated, invaded through gates it can't close, wracked by reality quakes, flung into interstellar space or stripped of air. Van Zandt got his tech from another Van Zandt who ruined his world.
And that Van Zandt only gave it to him on the condition that he use to do anything he can to keep any other world from getting close to developing it because the more people who get close to it, the more Oopses there will be. And thus The Secret is the reason for The Other Secret.
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That sounds a lot like Keith Laumer's
Worlds of the Imperium series, where the rather simple parachronic technology (19th century tech) destroyed huge numbers of worlds, creating what was called "The Blight", and the only worlds that survived either never developed the tech or got it
just right.
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