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Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines

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On 9/10/2016 8:47 PM, Cryptoengineer wrote:
> wdstarr@panix.com (William December Starr) wrote in news:nr2ejh$s9p$1
> @panix3.panix.com:
>
>> In article <ctbishop-2858AE.15355410092016@news.individual.net>,
>> Charles Bishop <ctbishop@earthlink.net> said:
>>
>>> Don Kuenz <g@crcomp.net> wrote:
>>>> William December Starr <wdstarr@panix.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>> L. Neil Smith had a story in which the answer to the Grandfather
>>>>> Paradox was "If you travel back in time and try to kill your
>>>>> grandfather, you will die."  Mostly because the grandfather in this
>>>>> case was way faster on the draw.
>>>>>
>>>>> (Going solely by Smith's (very short) short-story title list in the
>>>>> ISFDB, I'm pretty sure it had to be "Grandfather Clause,"
>>>>> http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?94387)
>>>>
>>>> Thank you. That's one way to eliminate the paradox.
>>>
>>> Does it add another one. Is the fact that he has killed his
>>> grandchild mean the grandfather's life has been changed, flapping
>>> butterflywise, so that the grandchild won't be born?
>>
>> As I recall, the grandfather was visiting a (mostly empty) museum or
>> something with his obnoxious spoiled brat six-year-old grandson when
>> the adult version of the latter appeared and tried to kill him. At
>> the end of the story, the grandfather was making a promise to
>> himself to try and make sure that the kid grew up into a better,
>> less bitter person the second time around.
>>
>> So yes there's a paradox, assuming that he's successful and that
>> would-be murderer incarnation of the adult version of the kid will
>> now never exist.
>
> He may have problems - it sounds like the grandson is so dumb that he
> doesn't understand how the 'grandfather paradox' works.
>
> To do it correctly, he has to go back far enough in time to kill his
> grandfather *before* the grandfather fathers a son or daughter, the
> grandson's parent.
>
> Killing the grandfather when his own 6 year old self is already on
> the scene is Doing It Wrong.
>

Only of course if you want to create a paradox.  If you just really hate 
your grandfather, killing him after he's done his reproductive duty 
makes a bit of sense.

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Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines Charles Bishop <ctbishop@earthlink.net> - 2016-09-10 15:35 -0700
  Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines wdstarr@panix.com (William December Starr) - 2016-09-10 22:13 -0400
    Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines Cryptoengineer <treifamily@gmail.com> - 2016-09-10 21:47 -0500
      Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines David Johnston <Davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> - 2016-09-10 21:59 -0600
    Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines Don Kuenz <g@crcomp.net> - 2016-09-11 04:55 +0000
    Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-09-10 22:37 -0700
      Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines David DeLaney <daviddelaney@earthlink.net> - 2016-09-11 04:26 -0500
      Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-09-11 21:07 +0000
      Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) - 2016-09-11 21:54 +0000
        Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines Lawrence Watt-Evans <lwe@sff.net> - 2016-09-12 00:39 -0400
          Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-09-11 23:07 -0700
            Re: Examples where authors messed up Timelines Lawrence Watt-Evans <lwe@sff.net> - 2016-09-12 02:35 -0400

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