Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

Temporal Interference

A question that I’ve recently been wondering about would be what sort of effect limited contact – or interference – from our time could have on societies in the past. Many timelines have suggested massive changes, such as from ‘the guns of the south’, which had an independent Confederate States appearing at the last minute, or relatively minor changes, such as the movie ‘The Final Countdown’, which had two Japanese aircraft being lost to the Enterprise’s fighters, instead of to natural events of some kind. I suspect that the truth lies somewhere in between.

For example, lets suppose that a copy of ‘A Few Bloody Noses’ (Robert Harvey) fell back in time to General Howe, as he prepared to attack New York. Its not impossible to imagine him dawdling, as General McClellan did at Antietam, but any reasonably competent general should have seen the opportunity and destroyed or captured Washington’s army. Furthermore, he would have discovered that Arnold was inclined to betray America, and he might be able to avoid him being captured. That would have a major effect on the American Revolution.

Or, what if a car fell back in time to the Aztecs? They won’t be able to duplicate it, but they might be able to get all sorts of ideas from it, including the wheel and possibly metalworking. Progress along those lines could make them far more formidable foe when Cortes arrives.

If, however, we want real change, what if Stevenson’s Rocket, one of the first real railway engines (http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r082.html), was to be transported back to the Roman Empire in 200BC? The roman’s should have been able to duplicate it without much difficulty, at least in a basic way. The use of steam engines helped bring the British Empire, which was not that much more advanced, together, what might it do to the land based Romans? As railways provided a method of transported large amounts of cargo relatively quickly, it would become possible to bind the empire together much more thoroughly. Instead of the famous roman roads, which still required horsepower, the railways could transport troops across the empire without the need for forced marches. Imagine what might have happened if Hannibal had been met at the Alps, after his hard crossing, by six freshly rested Roman legions, outnumbered and facing Scorpio, the only general to beat him. The Roman Empire might never fall!

Or, on a different note, what if potatoes fell back in time to Ireland? If the Irish had the ability to grow more food and therefore support a larger population, would the English ever be able to invade? If is happened early enough, some bright Irish lord might have the idea of planned production, raise a proper army, and unify Ireland. Coming to think of it, that could happen in Scotland as well. If the Scottish were able to feed their armies properly, they might have been able to withstand an English invasion. A better fed – and therefore healthier – population would also have more people and any given king would be more healthy and therefore the problems that allowed the English to sneak in might disappear.

If people were to go back in time, what if a few people from Mexico fell back to the Aztecs? Most would probably be killed on sight, but that would infect their captors with disease. If they carried Smallpox, the Aztecs would have an epidemic before Cortes and co arrived. This would boost their own immune systems (of the survivors that is) and perhaps they’d also have children from the time travellers, assuming that one of them had survived. If all that happened fifty years before Cortes, the Aztecs might have recovered much of their empire and Cortes would have to win without smallpox. Could he do it? It seems unlikely.

But there’s one other point: do the time travellers have a right to give their knowledge to the people in the past? If I go back in time and warn King David I of Scotland about Edward III’s brilliant trick to capture him, would I accidentally wipe myself out of history? If the King of Scotland has extra prestige than OTL, it could have all sorts of interesting effects.

But would people in the past care? If Britain, fighting for survival in World War Two and slowly losing its independence to America, was offered a whole, fully functional SSBN, with the vast destructive power of its nuclear arsenal, would Churchill hesitate to fire one of its weapons at Berlin, ending World War Two? Given his hatred of Stalin, he would probably fire one off at Moscow as well. The damage to our time would be irreparable, particularly given that Churchill might decide to demand that America help out Britain gratis – or else! Roosevelt’s politicking when Britain was facing defeat had really annoyed many British people, so a threat to hit Washington might well happen.

A Final concern was raised by Dale Cozert. A “problem arises in the real world and in the world of {Islands in the sea of time]’. The ‘Islands’ level of technology and organization is very good at people-control. If Nantucket itself doesn’t eventually become an exploitive dictatorship in a generation or two, one or more of its current friends certainly will, or some of their friends.” Such a problem is very important.

The Taliban, probably the worst movement in the 20^th century, were amateurs compared to the Spanish inquisition. Furthermore, the Taliban lacked the level of technology available to the more developed societies. Given their illogical and un-Islamic actions, developing that level of technology was unlikely. However, the current level of technology could create a genuine dictatorship in the past Spain or Britain – or worse. Today, many politicians feel at least a connection with their people, which is above regarding them as vermin or bugs, which was not shared by many of the noble people in the past centuries. There is even evidence that Napoleon shared this little problem, certainly he never expressed any regret for the suffering he caused.

But those people, given access to modern technology, could rule with a rod of iron. No Robin Hood could survive in the greenwood if infrared sensors could find him. No resistance movement could hope to match the co-ordination provided by radios. Those people would probably be unconcerned by the megadeath caused by a nuclear explosion, would Edward hesitate to nuke Paris in the Hundred Years war? Would Philip have hesitated to nuke London as the Armada headed on its way? All these are concerned that need to be addressed in any ISOT timeline.