Page 49 - Tales Apocalyptic and Dystopian

Into the Tempifuge

“But anonymous people have always affected history in ways that
are not apparent for decades. What is to prevent a time traveler from
laying a trap for his own future? We don’t know our future, so the
principle does not apply to it.”
“That is a good point, and I see that you are capable of the
imaginative leap which will be required. Indeed, the future is more
unknowable than the past only because of memory; that might tempt
a time traveler to meddle in the past, creating a chain of events he
judges will have a desired outcome in the future. And, indeed, in
some sense such a traveler would alter the future—as he imagined it
before he left the present. However, because the future is
unknowable, the consequences of any specific act in the past on the
future are uncontrollable, and may turn out contrary to intent. This is
a lesson from the past relative to its future, our present. Any action in
the past subtle or hidden enough to avoid altering the present in any
knowable fashion would accordingly have very little chance of
shaping the future in an intended way.”
“But you want to me to alter the past,” Underwood said. “And in
a very knowable way.”
“Not in the present. This situation is tailor-made for the
intervention of a time traveler, precisely because we do not know
what is in the Package nor what will happen when we open it. Its
history is unknown, therefore malleable—or, in the sense of
Schrödinger’s cat, consists of superposed possibilities. Nothing in the
present—that is, up to the moment you step into the Tempifuge—
would be altered by what you do to the Package before it is sealed
back in 1990. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I finally got it. And yes, I am willing to go, given your
assurance that I will arrive in one piece.”
“Your verbal assent is sufficient.” John Smith stood; the others
followed suit. “I’m afraid you will have to depart immediately. We
cannot allow you out of the building with what you know. Had you
refused, well, another, less-qualified individual would have been
interviewed. Your knowledge about the era will enable you to get
your bearings, create a credible identity, and complete your mission.
Whatever else you might contemplate doing does not really matter.
That has to remain uppermost in your mind: you can go into the past,
but you can’t do—or be—anything that will matter; that is, have

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