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Just had a story idea. You know how all the countries that have the oil are governed by unpredictable whacko’s. Like Nigeria's rigged elections just caused oil to shoot up almost $2 a barrel today or Chavez's endless ranting and raving in Venezuela. Well originally many of these counties had colonial rule at one time or another. Britain should send agents back in time 200-300 years (before anyone knew how important oil would be) to make sure these countries come under and remain under British rule therefore making the UK the most powerful government on earth. The story could focus on these agents trying to blend in on the British ships but covertly using advanced technology and foreknowledge. Kind of a dastardly quantum leap.
Why don’t I write it? Would require a lot of research to figure out how and why each country gained independence. I’d have to figure each turning point and get my dates right in order to beat the Spanish and French and then figure out how Britain could have won the war of independence with the US using foreknowledge. And, I’m just too lazy.
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How do you work around the time travel paradox?
They go back in time to change something...so it's fixed...but then why do they go back in time to change it? They don't? But then who played their role in fixing it?
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Interesting idea, and it'd be interesting to explore all the implications that might have in the possible futures. The way I've seen time-travel stories done is either they address ONE particular future, or they spend some time exploring a number of them. Frankly, the implications of the time travel paradox are what I find interesting about time travel stories. When an author spends some time coming up with unexpected ramifications either in scope or type (e.g., butterfly effect, small change in the past changes the future wildly to the point it's almost unrecognizable.)
In the oil example, for instance, maybe the central control of all that natural resource would lead to earlier innovation for some technologies...which may cause or prevent certain wars in world history. May lead to other innovations that we haven't yet seen. May lead to behavior types (e.g., horrible global warming problem due to really wasteful behaviors by majority, because centrally controlled oil is easier to come by, less iffy supply/demand) that are unexpected.
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