In another attempted past change, the
system read out the error. Someone had died at a significantly
different time, failed to do something noteworthy or something more
than the bounds of the program allowed. That meant that the results
of the trip could only be seen on a miniature scale - in this case,
a slice of the Old Internet on a salvaged mainframe – dialed into
the change's temporal frequency. A quick scan didn't show any
obvious changes, but the AI had picked up something. Unfortunately
the initial result was based on a composite energy level rather than
something text based.
It was, however, a self-set limit as
most things were reset after the cataclysm – it just wasn't good
practice to have people with different sets of memories around. Apart
from that, any actual damage done was long since reversed. Injuries,
illness, trials and other unfortunate events were almost forgotten.
That alone almost made the whole project futile – why change
something that had almost no impact on the present?
A deeper search was needed. With
enough trials, we can figure out what kind of changes are the most
beneficial.
A number of years later, it was found
that collection of data was one of the more important topics. While
people were generally cooperative, a number of people weren't. Some
of their research was eventually duplicated, but often took longer,
even under better circumstances. A few had a problem with this kind
of 'borrowing' as it relied on people who ended up not being part of
the new society. That argument was rather slippery though, as the
interdependence of the scientific and technological field as a whole
also relied on people that were not compatible with the new goals.
Eventually, after enough time had
passed, it was debated on whether it was desirable to influence some
of the 'missing' to make a different final decision. Again, the
issue of free will came up – hadn't they already made their choice?
Wouldn't new circumstances possibly alter it? Wouldn't that have
already been accounted for? What if it was – but with the caveat of
Time Travel
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