Darby, in response to your example of Sally and the tt posting here.
It seems to me then, that there is an element of believing in "fate" and that somehow Sally not meeting Tommy turns out to be a bad thing.
If Sally missed meeting Tommy by 30 seconds, and then met and subsequently married someone else-so what? To say that the tt interfered and thus, this was a "negative' thing-who's to say? Oh, well she WOULD"VE met Tommy had the tt not posted-well okay, but where is it to be understood that meeting Tommy was something that Sally "should've" done?
In other words, according to this, we all, each and every day could have 'missed oppurtunities'. Maybe I woke up late for work and as a result, missed being in a bad accident. To this we would say that's "good luck". However, if I wake up late and as a result dont meet a man I would marry, how is this "bad luck?" So I didn't meet him. So I think this comes under the heading of what Pamela was suggesting, the "good and the bad". Life is neutral, Im afraid. For example, 52 degrees seems warm in the winter, and 52 degrees seems cold in the summer. So which is it? Is 52 degrees warm or cold? Its neither. Its 52 degrees. Our perspective and how we "feel" it determines its effect on us and our lives.
In my work, (ER) I have helped to save a life. There are times though that we aren't able to. What if, I saved the life of someone who then went and killed someone in cold blood? My "good" intention turned out to have a negative effect. If I didn't save someone, maybe I spared someone else from being killed by that person, so my "good" intention was good, although to not save someone seems like an "unfortunate" thing. So I think the problem when thinking of the tt paradoxes is ascribing any sort of morality to it. I mean, in your illustration that the tt would go 20 years into the future and see a life unrecognizable and all the people in the world would be different-is that a bad thing? maybe those people would handle the world and do things to improve it better than the "original" folks. Guess what I'm trying to say is why do we assume that to alter the timeline or have events change or deviate is a "bad" thing.
It seems to me then, that there is an element of believing in "fate" and that somehow Sally not meeting Tommy turns out to be a bad thing.
If Sally missed meeting Tommy by 30 seconds, and then met and subsequently married someone else-so what? To say that the tt interfered and thus, this was a "negative' thing-who's to say? Oh, well she WOULD"VE met Tommy had the tt not posted-well okay, but where is it to be understood that meeting Tommy was something that Sally "should've" done?
In other words, according to this, we all, each and every day could have 'missed oppurtunities'. Maybe I woke up late for work and as a result, missed being in a bad accident. To this we would say that's "good luck". However, if I wake up late and as a result dont meet a man I would marry, how is this "bad luck?" So I didn't meet him. So I think this comes under the heading of what Pamela was suggesting, the "good and the bad". Life is neutral, Im afraid. For example, 52 degrees seems warm in the winter, and 52 degrees seems cold in the summer. So which is it? Is 52 degrees warm or cold? Its neither. Its 52 degrees. Our perspective and how we "feel" it determines its effect on us and our lives.
In my work, (ER) I have helped to save a life. There are times though that we aren't able to. What if, I saved the life of someone who then went and killed someone in cold blood? My "good" intention turned out to have a negative effect. If I didn't save someone, maybe I spared someone else from being killed by that person, so my "good" intention was good, although to not save someone seems like an "unfortunate" thing. So I think the problem when thinking of the tt paradoxes is ascribing any sort of morality to it. I mean, in your illustration that the tt would go 20 years into the future and see a life unrecognizable and all the people in the world would be different-is that a bad thing? maybe those people would handle the world and do things to improve it better than the "original" folks. Guess what I'm trying to say is why do we assume that to alter the timeline or have events change or deviate is a "bad" thing.