Chapter 23

Clara and I had discussed security for our emergency Advisory Council meeting. We decided to post two guards outside of the meeting room. I instructed them to set up stands with ropes to keep everyone, including them, at least ten feet away from the doors until the meeting was finished. The closed doors would stop the majority of the sound from escaping from the room, but stopping most of the sound wasn’t enough. The sound that made it through the doors would be muffled, but if we got loud, it might be understandable to anyone standing right next to the doors. We had to prevent a leak at all costs, so hopefully keeping everyone at least ten feet away from the doors would be enough.

I was actually very reluctant to hold this meeting. I knew Clara and I had to brief our Advisory Council on the files and on what they meant. My reluctance was mainly due to the Foreword saying that this would be just the first of many argumentative meetings. I don’t like the type of conflict that this and future similar meetings would produce.

I started the meeting with, “We have a big problem, folks. Before I get into the nature of this problem, I want to make it clear that no one, Clara and me included, is to talk about the nature of this problem outside of a secure Advisory Council meeting like this one. We are to only discuss it in a meeting if the room has been cleared of unauthorized people and the doors are locked with guards posted outside of the doors to prevent anyone from listening.

“Is that clear!“

My eyes sweep over the members of the Advisory Council one at a time pausing until each person acknowledged they would comply with my instructions. After receiving an acknowledgement from everyone, I continued.

“Two days ago, Ted Peters and Mistresses Ariel Yates and Jane Toller brought this problem to my attention. They informed me that they had discovered a story posted on the Internet back in 2016 that described two hundred and sixty years of the Ark’s history and that I wrote the story two hundred and forty years from now.”

I watched as the implications of my statement turned the calm demeanor of the meeting into a loud, chaotic maelstrom; at least that was my impression. After giving everyone time to accept what I said, even if they didn’t really believe it, I called for quiet and I nodded to Jean Phillips, who seemed to recover first.

“Jon, that’s not possible without time travel and we all know time travel is impossible.”

I replied, “That is very close to what I told Ted, Jean. I have to accept what Ted, Ariel, and Jane told me as fact for they gave me the Foreword of the first Part of the story to read. What this means is time travel is impossible today, but it will be possible in the future.

“I called this meeting to discuss what that means for us now and in the future. We need to decide what we should do in regard to the story’s files. Currently, Ted, Ariel, and Jane have only read a few chapters of the story. They stopped reading once they knew what they were reading was accurate and before they reached the part where we went into lockdown, so none of us knows what the future has in store for us.

“The first question that I see needing to be addressed is, should we read about our future?”

Sandy Hall raised her hand and I said, “Go ahead, Sandy.”

“I like to read Science Fiction stories about time travel, Jon. I am sort of a fanatic about time travel and I’ve always been sort of scared about the possibility of it actually happening. As a result, I’ve read everything I could get my hands on about the theory of time travel.

“Based on what I’ve read, these files are a danger to all of us and we should destroy them without reading them.”

I then acknowledged, Bill Johnson who said, “I’ve read a bit about time travel also. I basically agree with Sandy, but the problem seems bigger to me than just reading the story and what to do with the files.”

Sandy said, “What do you mean, Bill? We destroy the files before we read them and that is the end of the problem.”

“Sorry, Sandy, but we have the files in our possession now and that creates the problem of how did we get the files. According to Jon and Ted, Jon is going to write the story.”

Sandy said, “So. We destroy the files now and two hundred and forty years from now, Jon writes the story about what happened to us.”

“Yes, I know it is possible to do things that way, Sandy. But, one of the things I read about was a time paradox. What I mean is, if Jon doesn’t read the story and the story he writes doesn’t match the files we have, will that affect our timeline? I think it will, so we need to keep the files, so Jon can use them in the future.”

Larry said, “Sandy and Bill have both made good points. However, the first thing that I think we need to do is to decide if any of us should read the story files now.”

Jean Phillips joined the conversation by saying, “Bill, I haven’t read a lot about time travel, but reading the files now would create a problem similar to the problem time travelers faced in the stories I’ve read. Their problem was using the knowledge of their future to change their past and that would change their present and future. The problem we face is that we would be using the knowledge of our future to change our present to keep something bad from happening in the future. If we do that, our future may be worse than what we learn is in store for us. I say it is best if none of us knows what will happen in the future.”

I started this meeting using our formal meeting protocol, but the strong feelings about the issues resulted in people jumping into the conversation without being acknowledged, so I decided to let the conversation continue according to our informal rules. As the discussion progressed, I could see there were several topics being addressed. The interesting part of what I observed was the adversaries on one topic were allies on another topic.

Rising to my feet after an hour of arguing, I said, “Alright, people, let’s calm down for a few minutes. I’ve been listening and this conversation is starting to go in circles. A number of topics have been addressed, but it seems to me these topics can be summarized as two main issues. The issues are, should we read the files and if so when and what we should do with the files. I think resolution of the first issue will have a large effect on the second issue. So for now, let’s try to limit our conversation to whether we should read the files now or in our future and can we discuss the issue in a calmer fashion.

“Harry, I haven’t heard you express an opinion yet. What do you think about reading the files?”

“Jon, I think Jean’s point was the main factor in my deciding that we shouldn’t read the files. What I’m hearing is, some of us want to change our future for the better and think that will be a good thing to do. Some of us are afraid that any change to our present could have a negative result on our future.

“What most of us are overlooking is, if we make any change our present, then what we read now will not be our future. We also need to remember that if we do something different than what we read, we really don’t know if that will make our long-term future better or worse.

“I keep thinking of the phrase unintended consequences, but that doesn’t exactly define my thoughts. Let’s assume that we do something that changes our future for the better. That better set of circumstances will affect other things that guided our future. We would find that single act affects many aspects of our future. While that one action will change one aspect of our future for the better, it will probably result in other aspects changing and possibly for the worse. We also need to remember that whatever is described in the files is unlikely to address everything that will happen to us in the future. We would be constantly using our knowledge of the future to try and change things for the better and I think the more we try the worse things will become because what we read now would no longer be accurate.”

Rose Armstrong said, “Can you give us an example of what you mean, Harry?”

“Sure, Rosy. Assume we read a man is going to do something improper and that the something will cause something horrific to happen. To prevent that horrific whatever from happening, we banish this person from our territory. The story probably doesn’t discuss all the good things this person will do, so if we banish him, he won’t be here to do those good things and our society will suffer for his loss. Furthermore, his banishment could cause other major problems to occur that aren’t mentioned in the story; because in the story, he wasn’t banished. So in trying to prevent one bad thing from happening, we create a situation in which many bad things could happen.

“Basically, changing even one thing will create an alternative future and we can’t predict the quality of life we will have in an alternative future. My fear is it will be worse. I think it will be better for all of us to not know about what lies in store for us in the future and just continue to live our lives as we have been doing, which is what the story probably describes.”

Clara said, “That sounds like what Jon and I are afraid of, Harry. However, the opposite may result. We may make a better future for us if we limit our changes to only major things.”

Larry laughed and said, “Clara, I know you are sincere in what you are saying, but if we start making changes, I doubt we will limit ourselves to just a few significant changes. Once we start down that road we will be changing things every time we turn around. What we define as a minor problem will seem to be more significant than it is as we get used to making changes for the better.”

Julie said, “But what about the story files. Could we use them to fix any future problems we create when we change something in the future?”

Ted said, “I have to agree with Harry, Julie. If we change our future, the story files will no longer be accurate. So how can we use inaccurate story files to fix the changes we make in our future?”

“Well, Jon will be writing the story of the Ark’s past in the future. If we do something that changes our future, wouldn’t the story files he writes change to reflect the new future? All we would have to do is consult the story files after making the change to see the effects of the change, and if they are bad, we can fix the problems we make with another change.”

Larry said, “I think you may be right about the story files changing, Julie. Using the files is the cause of the problems we would create, and keep in mind that the story probably does not address all of the problems the Ark will experience due to a change. We fix one serious problem and create five serious problems that need to be fixed. We use the story files to fix three of the problems that are described in the story. Fixing those three problems creates fifteen serious problems for each one we fix. If we only learn of five of those fifteen problems, we could fix them, but then we would create twenty-five serious problems. Fix twenty of those problems and we have a hundred problems to fix. We would be overwhelmed by the new problems we create by fixing the prior problems we created when we fixed a previous problem that we discovered by reading the revised story. However, we would also have all of those new problems the story never mentions to deal with.”

Julie said, “I hadn’t thought of that, Larry. But what if we were to fix only major problems and then not fix any problems our fix creates.”

“That might work, Julie, if the sum of the negative effects the problems we create is less than the effects of the problem we fixed in the first place. However once we make a change, we can’t go back and undo it. If the effects of the new problems are bad enough, and not necessarily worse than the original problem, we would probably try to fix those new problems. From there, our problems would mushroom and that might cause an overall negative change to our future.

“We would still have the situation where we would have to deal with problems created by our fix that are not described in the story because they would not occur if we hadn’t tampered with our future. We need to keep in mind that all of our future events are interrelated to some degree and we may not fully understand the relationship between two or more events. When you tamper with something you don’t understand, you usually end up with problems.”

“But couldn’t we put some sort of control in place that would prevent our actions from mushrooming or affecting other things?”

“As far as I can tell, Julie, the only control that would prevent that from happening is to not fix the first problem. If we do make that first change, then we will feel morally obligated to fix all of the new problems we caused.”

Clara said, “Julie, I think Larry is right. If we know our future, we will be tempted to change it. If we read the story and give into that temptation, the future we read about will change. The more we change our future, the less it will resemble the future described in the current files.

“Jon said we had two issues to discuss, but it now seems like we have three issues. The fact that our decisions on the first two issues places our future at risk proves that time travel technology is dangerous. We don’t have to address this third issue now, but I think we all need time to think about what we should do about time travel technology.

“As I see it, we can’t prevent the development of time travel for we need to use it to send the story’s files into our past. However, the technology needs to be controlled. We will also need to decide if we want the technology to continue to exist once Jon sends the files into our past. We can discuss this third issue anytime in the coming years. I suspect we will have many future discussions on time travel and how to handle its technology.”

Harry said, “Clara, destroying the time travel equipment would not prevent the people who know how to create the equipment from building and using new equipment. We would also have to do something about the people who have the knowledge.”

“Yes, I am aware of that, Harry. That is why I said we need time to think about what we will have to do if we decide to destroy the time travel equipment once Jon uses it. We may have to execute the people who know about the technology and destroy all of their research.

“To get back to Jon’s issues, does anyone have any further discussion on reading the files?”

Mary said, “I’m ready to vote on that issue, Clara, but I want to make an observation about your third issue. Our past has proven that scientists focus on whether they can do something, but they don’t seem to think about whether doing that something is a good idea. I don’t want us to stop creative thought, but we probably need an organization that will evaluate new ideas to find any problems before those ideas can become reality. Then we will need to decide if we can live with the problems those new ideas could create.”

I decided that we should take a vote on whether we should read the full story. If the results of the vote warranted it, we could continue the discussion, so I said, “We can continue our discussion on reading the story if everyone wants to, but I think it is time to vote on the issue. All those in favor of not reading the files raise your hand.”

The number of hands raised told me asking for a vote to read the files would be a waste of time, so I said, “Since the vote to not read the files is almost unanimous, I will forego taking a vote to read the files.

“Now we need to decide what to do with the files. Does anyone have an opinion?”

Maggie asked, “Jon, are you going to need the files to write the story?”

“I’m not a writer, Maggie. I’m thinking of just sending a printed or electronic copy of the files we have now back to the past when the time is right.

“You can’t do that, Jon. That would create a time paradox. The files have to be created, so you have to create them, not just use what is in existence.”

“I don’t see the problem, Maggie.”

“Think of it this way, Jon. Everything in existence today was created at some point in our past. The existence of files that were never created is impossible. If you were to just send the file back into the past in order to close the time loop, I don’t know what would happen. I suspect that something bad would happen, but I have no idea what that would be.”

Larry said, “I have to agree with Maggie, Jon. We have the files now, so you have to create them.”

Looking around the table I could see most of my advisors were nodding their heads in agreement.

I said, “I’m not sure about me being able to write the story. However, we have a lot of time before we have to come to a decision on that. Right now, the question is what to do with the files until then.”

Sandy said, “These files are dangerous, Jon. They need to be destroyed.”

“Sandy, I’m not a writer. I will need them to create the story.”

Larry asked, “Where are the files now, Jon?”

“I had Ted move them to the Administrative disk and had him overwrite their former disk addresses so no one could recover the files.”

“Good. That means only you, Clara, and Ted can access the files, and I think we can trust the three of you to not read the files. They seem safe enough to me. We could just leave them there until you need them or until we decide to destroy them. True?”

“Yes. That’s right, Larry, but we may need to expand access to the disk in the future.”

“We can come back to the issue of what to do with the files later as long as the files are safely locked away right now.”

I saw Larry looking around the table to see if everyone agreed with him, and then he said, “It seems to me that we resolved our first issue by voting to not read the files. We also seem to have decided to postpone making a decision on the second issue, which is, what to do with the files. Do we need to vote on resolving the issue now or on postponing a decision on the second issue?”

In response to Larry’s question I said, “You’re right, Larry, about us resolving the first issue. But not resolving the second issue is going to be a problem.

“I had Ted disconnect the Administrative disk from the SAN network, and connect it directly to an isolated computer in the computer room. That means Clara and I have to go to the computer room every time we need to access the Administrative disk. Since we normally do that several times a day, keeping the Administrative disk isolated from the SAN will cause us a lot of problems.”

Ted said, “Jon, I could transfer the files to a separate disk and give that to you to secure in your office safe. Once that is done, I can sanitize the Administrative disk and reconnect it to the SAN.”

I said, “Does anyone see a problem with Ted’s solution?”

Everyone was shaking their head no, so I said, “Alright, do that, Ted. Just in case of a problem with the disk, copy the files to CDs and print the story out. When you finish, give everything to me. I’ll store everything in my safe.

“Is there anything else that needs to be discussed right now?”

Sandy said, “I have something related to you writing the story, Jon. Do you agree that it may be a bad thing to just send the existing files back in time?”

“I’m not sure, Sandy. However, I do agree with you that something can’t just exist; it needs to be created. Why?”

“I just wanted to confirm that before I open another can of worms. How you go about writing the story and what we do about time travel technology are both related to time travel theory. It seems to me that we all need to understand more about the theory of time travel before we start making decisions related to that theory. Do you agree?”

“Yes, that seems to be a good idea. What do you have in mind?”

“I think we need to discuss time travel theory. We can do personal research outside of this meeting room, but it may not be a good idea to discuss it around others. We might slip up and say something we don’t want others to know.

“You writing the story, Jon, has to do with closing a time loop. But, I don’t think time loops are simple. For instance, assume that we were to send you back in time today, and assume we send you back to twenty years ago. When you arrive, there would be two of you at that point in time. Let’s call the two of you Jon the Younger and Jon the Elder who would be twenty years older than Jon the Younger. You would both move along the timeline and reach today on your shared timeline. When the two of you reach that point, Jon the Younger would be sent back in time and he would become Jon the Elder. Jon the Elder would continue along the timeline and be with us after we send you back, but to us, you would be twenty years older than when we sent you back in time.

“However, Bob and Sharna dealt with Jon the Younger and Jon the Elder can’t make contact with anyone associated with the Ark until after Jon the Younger is sent back in time. So during the period before the Fall, we wouldn’t know you were alive. So there is a possibility that you don’t get picked up and live in the Ark, which means there is a good chance that Jon the Elder will die of the virus.”

I didn’t know what to say about that. Before I could think of anything, Joan interrupted with, “Wait a minute, Sandy. I always thought that when you sent someone back in time that the person became his younger self, but knew about his future.”

Sandy said, “No, it can’t work that way, Joan. Think about it. Assume we sent Jon back in time twenty years and when he arrives he becomes his younger self. Then twenty years later, he reaches the point where he was sent back in time. At that point, he would be sent back in time again. He would be in a constant loop forever reliving that same twenty year period of his life. He would never be able to move beyond the point where he is sent back in time. He would cease to exist after that point on our timeline.”

Joan said, “From what I read, when a person is sent back in time, they remain there until they are recalled to the present. The point they return to is after when they are sent back in time.”

Sandy said, “These different points of view are exactly why I think we need to do some research before we make any decision.”

Jean asked, “What about a copy of a person not being able to exist at the same time another copy of the person exists? Wouldn’t your scenarios violate that premise?”

“I don’t think so, Jean. To start with, I think what you are talking about is two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

“I’ve also heard that drastic things would happen if you ever went back in time and met yourself, but I don’t understand why. If Sandy’s premise is true, then in the case of Jon the Younger and Elder, Jon the Elder is not identical to Jon the Younger. He is twenty years older and his body has changed. Therefore, Jon the Elder is essentially a different person who just happens to resemble Jon the Younger and have all the memories of Jon the Younger to include the memories of what Jon the Younger will do during the next twenty years.”

Harry said, “Sandy, I was thinking of your first set of assumptions. Wouldn’t John the Younger be locked into the same time loop as you first described?”

“No, I don’t think he would, Harry. You need to remember that when Jon gets sent back, he doesn’t become Jon the Younger, so he won’t travel that portion of the timeline again.”

“Are you saying that a time travel loop operates differently?”

“When I talk with others, Harry, I usually base my comments on the generally accepted concept of what our timeline is. But, I believe there is a timeline strand for each of us and collectively our individual timelines form what everyone thinks of as our timeline.

“If I’m right, then when we send a time traveler back in time, his timeline strand doesn’t become the former strand, but it parallels his earlier timeline strand until he reaches the point where he is sent back in time and then his time line just continues on into the future. I think of a timeline strand as a piece of string that stretches from your past to your future. To create a time loop, you grasp the string and pull it backwards to create the loop with the string paralleling itself.

“Now that I think of it, a better analogy would be cutting the string at the point where the person is sent into the past and pulling the end of the portion of the string that represents the future backwards so it lies beside the portion of the string that represents the past.”

Harry said, “Yes, I can visualize your concept of our timeline being a summation of individual timeline strands, Sandy, and I think your revised analogy is a more accurate representation of what everyone calls a time loop. However, according to that theory, let’s assume we sent a forty-year-old person back in time twenty years. To us, the forty-year-old person would cease to exist and we would have a version of that person who is now sixty.”

Sandy said, “Yeah that is true. However, I think it is one of the factors of time travel that we will just have to accept.”

Harry said, “I’ve heard about a different theory regarding time travel, Sandy. According to what I’ve read about that theory, sending someone back in time creates a fork in the timeline rather than a loop. Initially, both forks are identical. In the timeline fork that sent the time traveler back in time, the time traveler ceases to exist on that timeline. For the fork in which he appears, the time traveler becomes his earlier self, and he continues to live his life with his knowledge of the future he lived on the other timeline. Anything he does in that fork will change the future he is aware of without changing what happens in the fork from which he was sent back in time.”

“I haven’t heard of that theory, Harry. Does it have a name?”

“I’m not sure, Sandy. I think of it as the Split Timeline Theory. I believe it was developed as an alternative theory to the Time Loop Theory to explain what would happen if a time traveler is sent back in time. The theory would support sending people into the past with the confidence that their actions would not change that timeline’s past and future other than the time traveler ceasing to exist on that timeline.”

“But what would the purpose be of sending someone into the past if they aren’t going to return with whatever they learn about the past?”

“I don’t know. Up until now, everything about time travel has been just people fantasizing about an idea. Now we know it will exist and none of us really knows if any of the theories are true. Although, I do agree that talking about the various theories would be a good idea, so we would have some idea of what we may be opening ourselves up to.”

I said, “Something just occurred to me and I want to get it out before I forget it, but I don’t want to discuss it today.

“When I write this story, I will do it on a computer and we will send a disk that is compatible with 2016 technology into the past. That disk will be uploaded to the Internet and we will retrieve the files. The disk will probably be destroyed on our timeline before it is created. Isn’t destroying something before it is created some type of paradox?

Looking around the table, I saw the expressions on everyone’s face that told me they were overwhelmed by Sandy and Harry’s conversation and my observation. So I said, “I think we have discussed all that we can absorb today, and my observation probably put us over the edge. I think we have addressed the critical items so if no one objects, I think we should end this meeting and meet again in about two months. Any objections?”

I guess there were none for everyone started getting ready to leave. I said, “Before we break up, I have a few things that need to be addressed.

“I noticed that Joan has been keeping the minutes of this meeting on her laptop like she normally does. That is a problem. We need her to take the minutes and archive them, but she can’t leave them on her laptop and she can’t upload them to the storage disks that everyone can access.

“Ted, when you get back to the computer facility, create a user account on the Administrative drive for Joan.

“Joan, when Ted gives you your user name and password, upload today’s minutes to the Administrative disk.

“Ted, what do you suggest we do about overwriting the file addresses on Joan’s laptop?”

“The encryption and data shredding algorithms on Joan’s laptop are adequate security, Jon, so I don’t think it will be necessary for me to sanitize her laptop.”

Jon said, “The final item I have for all of you is some homework. I want all of us to start studying time travel theory. It isn’t fair for us to rely on Sandy and Harry to educate us regarding that theory. You don’t have to implement extreme measures to hide the fact that you are looking into the theory, but don’t broadcast that you are studying the subject.

“I earlier said to not discuss the files and the topic of time travel outside this room. I made that statement because I didn’t want other people aware of the files and the problems they could create and I didn’t want them aware that the Advisory Council is looking into the subject of time travel. Those restrictions still apply.