A Hypothetical Question That Will Test Your Morals

Originally posted by kmeredith
I belive that even if you went back in time to change the evil someone will allways take there place. We will allways have some messure of evil in the world as long as we all have free will to think and have beliefs for ourselves. that is what makes the good in the world good.the world is never going to be everyones ideal.

Right. It'a a hypothitical "Whack a Mole." You beat one down and three more pop up. It's futile. Unless of course, one could go bck to the "Garen of Eden" and "Whack a Serpant?"

As others have said, even if you killed the original "evil people", others would just take their place.

reply to post by franspeakfree


OK - i will bite

lets use adolf hitler as an example [ only because he is almost universally known off ]

hypothetical - you go back to 1895 - and assasinate a 6 year old austrian named adolf hitler

ok - done

have you averted WWII ?

very unlikley - the far right still exists , national socialism was not invented by hitler - he was the 500th member od the nazi party

people like ernst rohm , herman goering , himmler , hess etc etc were all active in far right german politics independant of hitler

hittl;er only became the leader of the party with the help of them and others

in the absence of hitler - another far right leader would have emerged

so - what to do - kill all the others i name - pluss scores more - just to be sure ????

lests assume that after your first killing spree - you have managed to avert the rise to power of the " far right " movement in germany during the 20s / 30s

ooops - that leaves the feild clear for the equally abhorant german comunists to seep to power

what is going to be the fate of poland - trapped between the soviet union and a bolshevik germsany ???

also killing hittler will not stop the effects of the treaty of verseilles

killing hitler will not prevent hyper inflation in germany [ 1921 - 1924 ]

killing hitler will not wipe out antisemitism in germany

hitler dis not infact devise most of the most revieled policies of the nazi regieme - he merely approved thier implimentation

as the OP states - you would have to stay put and live with the consequences

killing hitler really does open a pandoras box

reply to post by franspeakfree


I might go back in time and then forget what I went back there for.
I'd probably change careers and become a fortune teller. It is an interesting question and I wondered something like it recently. If you could go only one way and stay there would you go ahead or go back. Everyone says they would go back. People are afraid of the future. Terrified.

It might be hypothetical but it's not a moral question. Morality is based on reality.

I'm unsure what your point is. Would you kill the guy being released from prison tommorrow who you just know will kill again. Now thats a moral question based on reality.

reply to post by franspeakfree


not only would i kill those who would grow to be degrading but i would also kill 90% of the population just to make sure. that is to say if i have a one way ticket back in time. also, id pick the biggest lottery jackpot date possible, there isnt financial aid for purging this world of its impending doom.

reply to post by franspeakfree

Logically you do nothing! Let me explain: If you have determined that the future can be changed then this means that anything in the past that is changed can affect the future. Therefore the only way that the future cannot change is if the past does not change. The moment you go back in time the past has changed. Your mere presence affects those around you. For all you know you buy an ice cream before the person who previously droipped it causing an accident resulting in the death of somebody who influenced the life of a dictator!

The tiniest things have knock on consequences. There are many many people who have the ability to be come "evil" dicatators they just don't have the opportunity. Lots have factors have to come together, social, personal, political.

So your target enacted evil acts based on a combination of factors which MAY have changed the moment you time travelled. Therefore, you do nothing.

"Could you do it? if so, why? if not, why?" You most certainly could rid/reduce/prevent of all ills and evils by going back in time. But by doing so would create multiple set of unknowns. You'd be wasting your resources by taking a chance. But if it means to reduce these possibilities from re-occurring, then by all means that's a necessary and valid course of action.

"What would you do?" I would risk my own life to right the wrong. But those are just words not put into action, my y'all! I will tell the people that the act was atrocious but necessary and leave the rest of the details for science fiction writers.

Firstly, I would point out that the dilemma is an impossibility, as if the future could be seen with such certainty then free will must necessarily not exist, and thus I would have no choice at all.

However, in the interest of answering the actual question, I would remain in my own time. As others have said, assassinating a prominent figure in the past would inevitably have unforeseeable consequences for the future, and the evil we know is always a better choice than that which we don't, all else equal. Besides, I quite enjoy living my life the way it is and don't much fancy having to go into hiding from murder charges.

no one individual is capable of creating that much pain upon the populas without a group to back him. Killing any future type hitlers would only mean another would take his place.

Im afraid you will have to rephrase yer query to fit such a more realistic model of human behavior. Mob rules Im afraid....now if you said take out the enablers then maybe you have a chance, yet that would mean killing many more people than orginally planned.

reply to post by franspeakfree


I would let God toss them in hell, since by doing do myself I would become a possible candidate for hell too, no matter how noble my intentions.

Also wouldn't that create a time paradox? If I go back in time for that purpose, and accomplish that purpose, then I would never have any reason to go back in time. Unless I travelled to a parallel purpose, but if so, wouldn't my knowledge of the future be rendered useless, so more bd guys can come into being? The only way to get rid of evil would be omniscience, but then I would no longer be human. And if I make a decision to nip evil in the bud, because they cannot percieve neither evil nor the consequences like I can, would accuse me of being a dictator. If I had omniscience and could see all the consequences, even telling a simple white lie or calling someone a fool would be evil to me.

Thanks all who left a comment, there are some really interesting replies I have read every one of them in detail and I understand what people are saying about cause and effects its really interesting to see that there are so many diverse answers to such an impossible question. You can see why it has taken me a day or so to ponder. In the end it boils down to killing, and is it justified.

By reading the replies it is evident that not many of you would not travel back in time as you feel that by doing so would alter history and some of you would do nothing because you feel that it is gods plan that people perish and the world is cast in to chaos and destruction. I personally have a hard time trying to bring religion in to this However, I do respect the views from others.

I guess none of us really know how we would react until we come across this scenario in real life. I always think to myself, does time travel technology exist on this planet and if so, are those who have it, using it for the better of mankind? thinking about traveling to the future and past opens up a can of worms as seen by the replies here. It sure is a fascinating subject and one that hopefully will be embraced in the future when perhaps something of complete science fiction may indeed one day become science fact.

FSF

That is a very hard question to reply to. Maybe its a good thing we cant time travel!

Like in many movies and books, the good guy goes back in time and stops the bad guy and saves the world. It sounds ideal until another bad guy to comes along! Where would you draw the line? It would be an endless task.

Personally I wouldnt go back and kill the bad guy. I think as a society we learn from all the negative acts that the world throws at us. Hopefully this will teach us how to live and respect others in a better world.

Haven't read all the responses, but are the options only "kill or ignore"?

Assuming that the dictators are still children, their personalities are still in the process of forming.

What about a nice intervention - possible adoption of the children? Teach them a new way of living and thinking? Instill some principles of love?

If that child's inherent power is strong enough to become dictorial when negatively applied, then I would rather channel that child's power down a different channel and be a positive influence.

I have actually thought of this before. I have had the exact same train of thought with regard to one mad man in the forefront of my country's politics! And that was the decision I took on reflection.

Originally posted by Misterlondon
every action has a reaction.. who knows what chain of events you would start by changing the course of future.. you could make things worse

what if you just killed the lesser of two evils...


silly example i know... did anyone ever play Comand and Conquer red alert? the general story line (yes there was a story line) was scientists invented a time machine... went back to austria pre- ww2 and killed hitler, this however gave rise to the russian war machine much earlier in stalins career, and thus the allies were caught in a huge war with adiffrent super power one (who had a diffrent goal than the nazi's)

just to put some perspetive on your thoughts, as you change one variable another would take its place.


Also does this not create a paradox? for if you have time traveled back and killed these people then you have done this already... as in you cant time travel back in time once, if it happens it HAS happened and WILL happen, so youu already know youo failr to prevent this from occuring. unless you have time traveled to a paralel universe in which case you might be killing a teenager who never becomes the dictator, or the evil that your universe seen.

I would do nothing and ignore it all together and live my life as is...

there's one person i'd do something special for.
i just thought of this too....HITLER. i'd jump into the foxhole he stayed in just before the bomb falls(ww1) and make him jump out of his foxhole....even if it kills me. imagine seeing a black dude materialize in the foxhole right next to you with a 21st century ipad playing rap music....

I can't say I'd go back in time to when they were a kid and kill them. I probably wouldn't kill Hitler as a kid. But if it were the 1930s and I had the opportunity I'd put a bullet in his skull. I think its possible for anyone to change... Instead of killing the young future evil dictator why not try to help them be a better person? But if they'd already made decisions that result in deaths of innocents then screw it, knock them off.

What really stands out to me is that no one has said it is the killing that they cant do even if Adolf Hittler was stood in my face and i could kill him i really dont think i could. Are we not just as bad as the evil people killing and hurting others if we kill people ourselves no matter who they are.

reply to post by franspeakfree

Not a catch-22 for me in any way. In my view, power corrupts, so no matter what you do in this situation, the cycle of corruption will just continue anyway, with or without my help. Thus, I would do nothing, and morally would not feel responsible in any way.