I find it difficult to reach the end of any line of reasoning about the Time Patrol. Imagine that the twentieth century restored at the end of The Shield Of Time was identical with the one from which Everard and Wanda had departed except that, in the restored timeline, Wanda had no sister. It would follow that a Wanda with no memory of a sister would depart to the Pleistocene lodge, there to meet the Wanda who did remember having a sister. An Everard who did not remember Wanda talking about a sister would arrive at the lodge, there to meet an Everard who did remember Wanda mentioning a sister. I think that many Time Patrol operations risk duplicating time travellers. Poul Anderson acknowledged this in a letter in relation to a different example from The Shield Of Time and said that there could be different ways for the Patrol to cope with such duplications. (Hopefully not just by shooting the spare time traveller.)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Very interesting. And it's a pity Anderson died before he might have written a Time Patrol story focusing on the problem of such duplications.
Ad astra! Sean
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