A time travel puzzle to ponder (and discuss)

[kiwi1960]

More than once, I have had this dream about going back in time to the 3rd September, 1939.... its the day the (now) UK and other nations declared war on Germany.

Now... (besides the point that my dreams are weird, which is not up for discussion) here is the conundrum....

In the dream, I offer my services to the allies... to help defeat Germany by giving them advanced warnings of what's going to happen.

Now... here is where it gets interesting....

Given that today, my involvement would be ultra top secret so nothing is mentioned about me in the history books... so....

If I offer to help the allies... am I changing history?

OR.... if I don't offer to help, and will my non involvement cause the allies to lose the war.

Dammit, I cannot explain it very well. But if I help... say... telling the British that the Germans would take France and that they would need to evacuate their soldiers from Dunkirk .... I actually helped them do it even though the whole event was actually a disaster in one respect, but the fact that so many soldiers were saved means in some ways it was a victory... BUT.... if I keep my mouth shut, the entire British army was captured (or at least, those in France) and the its Navy and Air force suffered such high losses that it cost them the war later on.....

So.... you have a choice... TELL or DON'T TELL.... maybe history, as we know it, is counting on you helping the Allies so history can turn out the way it did.... or you keep your mouth shut despite history counting on you.... and the allies lose.... BUT, when you arrive at that date in history.... you have no idea whether you are supposed to help or not.

Now.... supposing you were NOT meant to help... but you do anyhow... and history shows the war ended a lot earlier than it did .... in fact, if you were NOT meant to help but you do... and you caused the defences at Perl Harbor to be beefed up, making the Japanese shy away from attacking.... meaning the atom bomb was never invented.... etc etc etc...

The conundrum..... what do you do? Help.... or not help???? Were you meant to help, or will you change history totally... given that the time line you left behind (2016) has one version of history but you changed all that.... it could cause you to not be born... (lets not dwell on that aspect) ... but if Nuclear power had not been invented, nor the jet engine... then maybe computers wouldn't be here now...

(and yes, I know the Jet engine was being developed by a few nations in the 1930's... but its an example.... a better example would be the V1 and V2's which ultimately led to man walking on the moon in 1969.....)

What would you do... help or not help?

Anyhow.... in my dream...I don't give away too much info too soon, for example, I keep quiet about the attack on December 7tth, 1941, as that would be vital for history... if no "day of infamy" happens, then future history would be affected, BUT... I at least tell them about Dunkirk maybe a day before it happens... and the invasion of Norway just before it happens... some warning is better than none...

Thoughts?

 

[E-Rikkie]

ah time-travel, always a good topic. but it doesn't matter what you do, because you will allways create a paradox. multiverse or no multiverse

it doesn't matter what you decide, because it already has happened so the outcome in 2016 is whatever you decide to do.

you would always travel back in time to the timeline you came from in 2016.

[razark]

Suppose you did travel back in time to 1939.  How useful would your information be?

Assuming that you could convince the Allies that you were authentic, and provide them advance information on what's going to happen so that they can benefit, how many of these changes would it take for the course of the war to change enough that your information is no longer valid?

 

For example, tell the French the Germans are invading here, at time.  The French then repel, or at least delay, the German troops.  How will the Germans react?  What will happen instead?

[RainDreamer]

I subscribe to the theory that as soon as you travel through time you already branch off history, from a time line without your existence at all and one with you there.

So either way you have already changed history just by being there. The only difference is how much you want to influence the events.

Edited July 30, 2016 by RainDreamer

[astrokerb]

Presumably, if you tell you tell the Allies things that history records them knowing, you can safely assume that they knew because of you and there is some kind of paradox. If you tell them things that history does not record them knowing, you will create an alternate timeline.