Time travel doesn't exist because time travel wiped out the timelines where it did

[Umbran]

"Why didn't you tell us this 200 years ago?"

"We did, and you didn't listen then, either."

 

[GMMichael]

"We did, and you didn't listen then, either."

I feel like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy sheds light on this. To quote the entry on humans (from the fandom site):

". . . they actually still think that digital watches are a pretty neat idea, and they spend most of their time concerning themselves with moving about little green pieces of paper."

 

[SidneyBroadshead]

Then there is the Hitler Paradox.

 

[Reynard]

There's also the Hitler Paradox. A high-tech thinktank develops time travel. They try to kill Hitler.
Paradox 1) Killing Hitler at any meaningful point in the timeline prevents World War 2. Doing so removes the postwar Military Industrial Complex that never gets created. This prevents the accelerated postwar technological development that leads to the thinktank being created in the first place and the technology to build timetravel technology.
Paradox 2) So many people will be trying to kill or protect Hitler that they will cancel each other out. Eventually the factions will try to destroy timetravel before it is developed to end the conflict. Also known as the Rick & Morty paradox.
Paradox 3) There

This makes the dubious suggestion that killing Hitler is the sole motivation to develop tome travel.

Fortunately for the continuum, there really isn't much capitalist value in developing time travel. Who is going to profit from fractured timelines?

 

[The Firebird]

This makes the dubious suggestion that killing Hitler is the sole motivation to develop tome travel.

Fortunately for the continuum, there really isn't much capitalist value in developing time travel. Who is going to profit from fractured timelines?

Wouldn't it be very beneficial to investors? Take a look at how things stand a year from now, then make your bets.

 

[Reynard]

Wouldn't it be very beneficial to investors? Take a look at how things stand a year from now, then make your bets.

Thereby completely altering the bet you were making. The whole point of an investment is to buy low and sell high. But if a bunch of people buy the stock price goes up. Not to mention other knock on effects that would be difficult to predict.

It is like knowing the lottery numbers: the more people that know, the less you win. And we can't really posit a reasonable world in which a technology as complex and likely power-hungry as time travel 9even if it is just information) could be hidden or secret.

 

[Spectral Anomaly]

Sigh. More junk science reporting of non–peer-reviewed material posted to arxiv.org. I love the idea behind open access, but the peer review process is still crucial.

 

[Maxperson]

This makes the dubious suggestion that killing Hitler is the sole motivation to develop tome travel.

Fortunately for the continuum, there really isn't much capitalist value in developing time travel. Who is going to profit from fractured timelines?

The person who goes back in time and develops Google/Amazon/Tesla/Apple/??? before the people who currently did it.

 

[MoonSong]

The person who goes back in time and develops Google/Amazon/Tesla/Apple/??? before the people who currently did it.

I would use it to sabotage patent trolls. "Here it is, a patent that is exactly the same down to the comma but thirty years older than yours, so this is all public domain already!"

 

[The Firebird]

And we can't really posit a reasonable world in which a technology as complex and likely power-hungry as time travel 9even if it is just information) could be hidden or secret.

Can't we?