Re: Morality Question

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 10:44:34 GMT, Jonathan L Cunningham wrote:

> On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 19:51:34 GMT, R. L. <see-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 18:31:45 GMT, spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jonathan L
>>Cunningham) wrote:
>
>>>But maybe, if you had made a different choice, you would have made new
>>>friends, and gone on to a very different life - and had no regrets.
>>
>>Yes. That *was* the winning side speaking.
>>
>>Which suggests a story where the timetracks sideswipe and the Eric's who
>>chose Scunthorpe and Louth turn up, each insisting that the choice that
>>produced himself was the Right choice.
>
> Already followed up to this, but now as a story idea, and this now is
> sort of plot-noodling, and nothing to do with Eric's original post.
>
> Suppose someone from different time-lines did meet up with copies of
> himself? And suppose on comparing notes they *could* agree which of
> them made the right choices and/or had the best lucky breaks?
>
> And then it turns out this is all some kind of "quantum" preview of
> the future, and it hasn't happened yet? Then they know which decision
> to make - except for the lucky breaks bit: version A made a good
> decision, and was satisfied it was the right decision until he met
> version C. Version B always felt he'd made a mistake, and meeting
> A confirmed it. Version C felt like A, but they all agree his was
> the best choice: *except* that Version D made the same choice, and
> it turned out to be an utter disaster, the worse of the lot, because
> C's best outcome depended on a chance meeting in an elevator with
> the publisher who bought his book ... D remembers the occasion, but
> is quite sure that the publisher was not at the event.
>
> Which life should the protag choose? Not B, certainly. But if he
> doesn't choose A, he doesn't know if he'll get C or D. OTOH, even
> if he gets the D time-line, maybe he's learnt something from C's
> experience, and can use it to get his book published even without
> the lucky break ... ?
>
> Jonathan

Cue James P. Hogan: /Thrice Upon a Time/ -- which adds the feature that, at
any given moment, a quantum effect further back the timeline could
completely alter any and all of the outcomes depicted.

Regards,
Ric
.

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