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Originally Posted by Interference  Nu-uuh. It just destroys people. The Universe can take care of iself. There are no great cosmic ramifications to us manipulating time, because we are cosmically insignificant. All we can do is mess up things on our own planet, and perhaps the home planets of some of the aliens living here. But suns won't go nova and rifts aren't going to open up and nexii aren't going to swallow galaxies whole. We aren't that important, honestly. Nobody's grandfather's life is that important. |
While I'll agree that our relative importance isn't that great, you're making an assumption that -- from my understanding of the concept -- isn't supported by the philosophical/physical underpinnings of the entire idea of time and time travel... namely, that everything in the universe is effected when such happens, because it is the entire universe together that makes time as we know it. Therefore... yes, if an individual went back in time, it would alter the universe, because it would no longer be the same universe it was before such a thing took place (if you follow my meaning). You altered the entire picture by shifting things into places they weren't before, whether it be people, mountains, planets, or ants.
Anything larger than the smallest subatomic particles (which seem to have this capability built into their physical nature) is likely to cause this sort of disruption. How large the ripple would be... that one's a point of debate. But even the sending back of an ant to where it wasn't in the universe before would mean it isn't the same universe as before, and so potentially the results could be enormous... let alone a conscious, thinking being who could either deliberately or in a panic cause all sorts of havoc.... havoc that would reach out far, far beyond our own little mudspeck across the entire spacetime continuum....