Time Travel Paradoces

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 57717

Dan: 

> 
> Once you go down that "time travel" road you have a hell of a time 
> keeping things in check. The Star Trek writers did it FAR too often, 
> until they got to the point that they had to introduce some kind of 
> "Timeline Police" (don't remember what it was called exactly) to "keep 
> the timeline clean", that the Federation creates after they completely 
> master time travel. I think JKR is going to have to introduce some 
> serious limitation to time travel in general. And having strict 
> ministry laws about it just isn't good enough. People like Voldemort 
> and Malfoy don't care about the Ministry's laws.
> 
> I honestly think it would have been better if JKR just hadn't gone 
> there.
> 


I think the best restriction she can create, at this point, is to just simply limit 
Time Travel to the Time-Turner. One hour at a time.

Say Voldemort wants to go back in time to stop himself from using AK on 
Harry --  maybe he tells his past self to, no matter what, NOT KILL LILY! (No 
killing Lily, no sacrifice protection! And maybe he just tells his past self to drop 
an anvil on the kid's head or something and not take a chance with the AK.)

Now, on Halloween 1996, it will have been 15 years since that happened. 
That means, at one hour a turn, V-Mort would have to turn the damn thing 
backwards 131,400 times! 

Bah, better to kill the little bastard now! 

And what if you lose count and actually only turn it back 131,398 times? Then 
you get there too late and have to start all over! And unless the damn thing 
goes forward, how do you get back?

Or, to prevent V-Mort from ordering Pettigrew to actually turn it back 131,400 
times -- and forcing him to go back regardless of whether there is a way to the 
present or not -- make it so there is a limit on how many times you can turn the 
Time-Turner -- say, 24 hours, or even less. 

Who cares about the physics of it? It's a freaking hourglass that sends you 
back in time in a series about a kid with a lightning scar that walks through a 
wall to get to his train! You can make it up!

The last thing I want is JKR actually worried about people that write books like 
"The Science of Harry Potter Explained."

Say that it was invented to allow very short-term fixes, before the timeline got 
too far along.

I agree that Time Travel should be used VERY sparingly. Ditto for the 
Polyjuice Potion and Animagi.

Darrin
-- Maybe V-Mort could make up a song while he's turning... 

131,400 turns of this thing
Turn the glass, sit on my ass
131,399 turns of this thing