The End of Eternity

Tim Bruening <tsbrueni DeleteThis @pop.dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote in news:46760D88.485049C2
@pop.dcn.davis.ca.us:

> Which wars would you prevent, and how?

I would prevent the War of Jenkins' Ear, by preventing his ear from being
cut off. The reason why is that it is silly. Then I would stop the Soccer
War, by cancelling the North American qualifying round for the World Cup.
Who the hell needs soccer, anyway?

Then I would stop some more serious wars. For instance, I would cancel the
Hundred Years' War and the Thirty Years' War on the grounds that they take
too long. I would also cancel the War of the Roses for both reasons--it
takes too long, and roses are a silly thing to fight about.
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Gene Ward Smith wrote:

> Tim Bruening <tsbrueni RemoveThis @pop.dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote in news:46760D88.485049C2
> @pop.dcn.davis.ca.us:
>
> > Which wars would you prevent, and how?
>
> I would prevent the War of Jenkins' Ear, by preventing his ear from being
> cut off. The reason why is that it is silly. Then I would stop the Soccer
> War, by cancelling the North American qualifying round for the World Cup.
> Who the hell needs soccer, anyway?

When did the Soccer War take place? I don't recall that war. I do recall the
other wars you mentioned.

> Then I would stop some more serious wars. For instance, I would cancel the
> Hundred Years' War and the Thirty Years' War on the grounds that they take
> too long. I would also cancel the War of the Roses for both reasons--it
> takes too long, and roses are a silly thing to fight about.

Okay, HOW would you prevent the above named wars?
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Tim Bruening <tsbrueni.TakeThisOut@pop.dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote in
news:4676165B.C49A184D@pop.dcn.davis.ca.us:

> When did the Soccer War take place? I don't recall that war. I do
> recall the other wars you mentioned.

1969. The contestants were Honduras and El Salvador.
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Gene Ward Smith wrote:

> Tim Bruening <tsbrueni.TakeThisOut@pop.dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote in
> news:4676165B.C49A184D@pop.dcn.davis.ca.us:
>
> > When did the Soccer War take place? I don't recall that war. I do
> > recall the other wars you mentioned.
>
> 1969. The contestants were Honduras and El Salvador.

How would canceling the North American qualifying round for the World Cup
have prevented the Soccer War? How would you have canceled that round?

How would you stop the loss of Jenkin's ear?
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On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:38:33 UTC, Tim Bruening
<tsbrueni DeleteThis @pop.dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote:

> I have heard many politicians express opposition to wasting taxpayer
> money on
> space when there are so many problems at home to solve. Few politicians
> can see
> a decade into the future, let alone 12.5 million years!

I have yet seen any politician that could see past the next election
let alone the next decade.


--
Robert Blair
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On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:31:21 -0400, dbd DeleteThis @gatekeeper.vic.com (David
DeLaney) wrote:

>Tim Bruening <tsbrueni DeleteThis @pop.dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote:
>>The memoir, of course, gave Twissell much guidance in
>>how to send Cooper back in time. I wonder how the time loop ever got
>>started.
>
>Why would it need to 'start'?
>
>Dave "and Tim, if you learn only ONE thing this year PLEASE make it 'how to
> snip unneeded material out of posts you're replying to'" DeLaney

Disagree. If he learns only ONE thing this year, it ought to be how
to stop replying 5 times to the same post.
--
Bill Snyder [This space unintentionally left blank]
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Among the most important people in Isaac Asimov's Eternal society are
the Technicians, who calculate the Minimum Necessary Change to produce
the desired Reality Changes. No Section has enough Technicians.
Eternity does have matter duplicators, which it used to create Sections
all the way to the end of the Earth. The duplicators can even duplicate
people! I suggest putting Andrew Harlan and other top Technicians into
a matter duplicator to create as many Technicians as needed.

Eternity also has a severe shortage of women, so I suggest duplicating
the Timer women who work temporarily in Eternity, rescuing women from
disaster a la Millennium, and also growing babies in artificial womb
obtained from the 482nd Century.
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In this book by Isaac Asimov, a time traveling culture called Eternity
keeps changing Earth's history to eliminate disasters. The time fields
needed to create Eternity were first discovered in the 24th century by
one Mallansohn, who was actually a man named Cooper whom Eternity had
sent back in time to the 24th century after being trained by Technician
Andrew Harlan and Computer Laben Twissell. Cooper used energy from a
nuclear power plant to power the first time field. However, in the
Eternity timeline, atomic bombs weren't detonated until the 30th
century. Why did the people of the Eternal time line have nuclear power
by the 24th century but not have nuclear bombs until the 30th century?
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In article <TECQXhvKj0FX-pn2-vqV1Fe1H7VyK@dsl-
206-55-144-107.tstonramp.com>, Robert Blair <nobody.TakeThisOut@nowhere.not> writes
>On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:38:33 UTC, Tim Bruening
><tsbrueni.TakeThisOut@pop.dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote:
>
>> I have heard many politicians express opposition to wasting taxpayer
>> money on
>> space when there are so many problems at home to solve. Few politicians
>> can see
>> a decade into the future, let alone 12.5 million years!
>
>I have yet seen any politician that could see past the next election
>let alone the next decade.
>
>
Be careful what you wish for...
Politicians who see past the next election may
a) Divert significant percentages of their country's GDP to an overseas
bank account
b) Ensure that there is no next election
c) Decide to earn their place in history by doing something spectacular
that the stupid population can't see is needed, such as completely
rewriting the labour relations laws, imposing a per-capita tax to fund
local government from which their party will take little benefit but all
the blame, or deciding to fix all the problems of the world. Whether the
rest of the world likes it or not. By force.

Curiously enough, (a) appears to be the least damaging option. Perhaps
modern western democracies have more to learn from other traditions than
they would like to admit

OBSF: I think the machinations revealed part way through "Shards of
Honour" are of the correct scale. I'd like to see this mechanism fund
technology, but I think the timescale is too short; anything launched by
a single politician at the end of their term will only have a short few
glorious years before the inevitable collapse. Michael Flynn's FireStar
series books have a technical revolution funded by a billionaire with a
phobia, possibly linked to sexual cold feet.
--
A.G.McDowell
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On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:55:05 -0700, Tim Bruening
<tsbrueni.RemoveThis@pop.dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote:

>In this book by Isaac Asimov, a time traveling culture called Eternity
>keeps changing Earth's history to eliminate disasters. The time fields
>needed to create Eternity were first discovered in the 24th century by
>one Mallansohn, who was actually a man named Cooper whom Eternity had
>sent back in time to the 24th century after being trained by Technician
>Andrew Harlan and Computer Laben Twissell. Cooper used energy from a
>nuclear power plant to power the first time field. However, in the
>Eternity timeline, atomic bombs weren't detonated until the 30th
>century. Why did the people of the Eternal time line have nuclear power
>by the 24th century but not have nuclear bombs until the 30th century?

Because their history is much more peaceful and because Eternity would
have steered them toward nuclear technology that was safer.
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David Johnston wrote:

> On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:55:05 -0700, Tim Bruening
> <tsbrueni.DeleteThis@pop.dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote:
>
> >In this book by Isaac Asimov, a time traveling culture called Eternity
> >keeps changing Earth's history to eliminate disasters. The time fields
> >needed to create Eternity were first discovered in the 24th century by
> >one Mallansohn, who was actually a man named Cooper whom Eternity had
> >sent back in time to the 24th century after being trained by Technician
> >Andrew Harlan and Computer Laben Twissell. Cooper used energy from a
> >nuclear power plant to power the first time field. However, in the
> >Eternity timeline, atomic bombs weren't detonated until the 30th
> >century. Why did the people of the Eternal time line have nuclear power
> >by the 24th century but not have nuclear bombs until the 30th century?
>
> Because their history is much more peaceful and because Eternity would
> have steered them toward nuclear technology that was safer.

Eternity didn't become established until the late 27th century. It took a
long time to extend a temporal field up to the time of the sun going nova.
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David Johnston wrote:

> On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:55:05 -0700, Tim Bruening
> <tsbrueni DeleteThis @pop.dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote:
>
> >In this book by Isaac Asimov, a time traveling culture called Eternity
> >keeps changing Earth's history to eliminate disasters. The time fields
> >needed to create Eternity were first discovered in the 24th century by
> >one Mallansohn, who was actually a man named Cooper whom Eternity had
> >sent back in time to the 24th century after being trained by Technician
> >Andrew Harlan and Computer Laben Twissell. Cooper used energy from a
> >nuclear power plant to power the first time field. However, in the
> >Eternity timeline, atomic bombs weren't detonated until the 30th
> >century. Why did the people of the Eternal time line have nuclear power
> >by the 24th century but not have nuclear bombs until the 30th century?
>
> Because their history is much more peaceful and because Eternity would
> have steered them toward nuclear technology that was safer.

Eternity didn't become established until the late 27th century. It took
a
long time to extend a temporal field up to the time of the sun going
nova.
 >> Stay informed about: The End of Eternity 

Tim Bruening wrote:
> In this book by Isaac Asimov, a time traveling culture called Eternity
> keeps changing Earth's history to eliminate disasters. The time fields
> needed to create Eternity were first discovered in the 24th century by
> one Mallansohn, who was actually a man named Cooper whom Eternity had
> sent back in time to the 24th century after being trained by Technician
> Andrew Harlan and Computer Laben Twissell. Cooper used energy from a
> nuclear power plant to power the first time field. However, in the
> Eternity timeline, atomic bombs weren't detonated until the 30th
> century. Why did the people of the Eternal time line have nuclear power
> by the 24th century but not have nuclear bombs until the 30th century?

And how could anyone know Citizen Kane's last word was Rosebud?

Beyond that bombs are not power reactors.

--
Redutio ad Hitlerum, the stupidest form of reasoning ever.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3790
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
book review http://www.giwersworld.org/israel/willing-executioners.phtml a7
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