At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements ;)
A time traveller from the future has arrived. They've come to see you. For the sake of argument, let's say that this person is legit and you believe them.
What if this time traveller told you that your best friend will do something to jeopardize the world in the future? Would you help them stop your friend?
Probably not. I believe friends over strangers.
ReplyDeleteEven if you knew that the friend would do what the time traveller said they would?
DeleteI'd have to come to trust them over time if I had the time to be able to do so. I agree with the other commenter that I would believe a friend over a stranger.
ReplyDeletebetty
No. I wouldn't want to mess with the time continuum.
ReplyDeleteBut if it's our future, it hasn't happened yet. We won't be messing anything up from our standpoint.
DeleteYeah, if I was definitely sure I believed the time traveler. Although I would wonder why this person hadn't gone back to stop other disasters.
ReplyDeleteYes! I love my friend but if this is all legit than I would need to make sure the world is aok. Asking me to help them though would make me wonder about the intelligence of the Alien:)
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily an alien. But yeah, that's a good point. Why can't they fix it some other way?
DeleteI would have to believe that history can not be changed, and if I tried, I would probably make things worse. I'm a big believer in "unintended consequences". Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteTrue, but we're talking about their history, not ours. It hasn't happened for us yet.
DeleteI'd probably get all the details they knew and get feelers from the friend and try to steer it another way.
ReplyDeleteThat's probably the best course of action.
DeleteHmmm yeah if the best friend started down the path towards that I'd be on board.
ReplyDeleteI doubt it. But on the other hand maybe we're call to play and important part on what going on
ReplyDeleteLike the person who furnish gun for Hitler to commit suicide.
Coffee is on
LOL. Good point.
DeleteWhat is the friend planning to do? How do they know the friend is planning to do this? If I offer to help, will I be thrown in the looney bin?
ReplyDeleteOf the friends I have, most are sane and not attempting to pull a Pinky and the Brain. And, further more, I don't think any of them have the power or finesse to pull off anything catastrophic. And while we are at it, I'm not quite sure I'd have the ability to stop their plans. So, if I felt the need for my help was necessary and everything this person from the future said made sense, I might follow their lead and try to help save the world. Otherwise, no.
For the second question: they're from the future where it already happened. As for questions 1 & 3, I'll leave that up to your imagination.
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