ext_66540 ([identity profile] ten-and-chips.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2006-01-25 06:11 pm
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Quantum Physics 225: Wednesday, Fifth Period

The Doctor looks slightly more comfortable in his skin, and also a lot more ginger. This is a good thing, and he's slurping on another can of Coke. There's an empty one on his desk, and a 6 pack near the door for everyone else's taking.

"Feel free to have a Coke, guys.

"Kay. So. Your people. You'll maybe vaguely remember that in 123, we talked about paradoxes, and the two major kinds: predestination and grandfather. If you don't remember them at all--predestination is when one travels back in time and ends up causing an event he or she meant to stop. Grandfather is when one causes one's own existence to be forfeit because of travelling back in time. Okay? Cool.

"To that end, I asked you to consider two events in the lives of each of your selected historical figures. If yours is really hard to find information on, one is fine. Here in class, we're going to talk about and discuss what would happen if the predestination paradox was applied to one event, and the grandfather one to another. This last might be difficult--how could you end your own existence (because all of you were born after the dates of your events) by changing said event? I don't care how wild it is, just go for it, but it should make sense and reflect how human history works.

"For Monday, I want you to look at this book...to find out what actually happened. Then we're going to talk about how this differs from what you've decided today."


((General information about the 1970s is available here.))

Re: DISCUSSION

[identity profile] carter-i-am.livejournal.com 2006-01-26 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
Sam thought about this. "Okay. Robert F. Kennedy, as a Senator, was in favor of pulling our troops out of Vietnam. Using the grandfather clause, if someone had gone back in time and assassinated him earlier, my father might have been an active pilot during that time, in which case he wouldn't have been in college with my mother and wouldn't have bought coffee in the diner near the college when her boyfriend dumped her. So they wouldn't have started dating and I wouldn't have been born."

"However, if someone were to go back in time to try and stop President Kennedy's assassination, on both JFK's behalf and on the assumption that Senator Kennedy, then not a senator, would never have been elected to the Senate or been on the Presidential campaign trail that led to him being assassinated, could have set events into motion that led to both of those events still happening, but in a different time or place, and possibly with a larger loss of life or worse repercussions on the government."