Have you noticed that these days when time travellers grab you by the shoulders and ask what year it is, when you reply "2024" they no longer say "Thank God. I'm not too late"?
@rgarner What's worse is when you say 2024 and they break down in tears of joy, saying, "Oh, it worked! It worked! It's all so much better now!"
@courtcan ah, the absolute worst: libertarian timelords
@rgarner Half a tick, looking for the nearest Dumpster...
@courtcan @rgarner
The time travel in "Timescape" is done with messages, not people moving through a portal. It's pretty good about the need to avoid paradox.
Excerpt available here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/11313/timescape-by-gregory-benford/
@dec23k @courtcan "Remember to smile a lot, John Renfrew thought moodily. People seemed to like that. They never wondered why you kept on smiling, no matter what was said. It was a kind of general sign of good will, he supposed, one of the tricks he could never master."
Oh fuck they've got *my* number