daver@felix.UUCP (Dave Richards) (08/27/86)
>In article <646@ulowell.UUCP> rickheit@ulowell.UUCP (Erich W Rickheit) writes: >> The possibilities of a nonexistant item appearing within a time loop >>though, are staggering. What else could you do with this? Am I the only one >>to have ever thought of such a thing? > Karl Heuer writes: >No. I first saw this described as (plot sketch) man invents time machine, >travels to future, sees statue in park honoring himself as inventer of time >machine, brings it back as proof, same statue is installed in park to honor >him. The same idea has been used in other contexts, though I haven't seen >it used to create/destroy a murder weapon. Jim Balter writes: >I think Heinlein has been there before you. Consider the character(s) in >"All You Zombies" who is his/her own parents, and who drafts himself into the >Time Service. And while the dictionary in "By His Bootstraps" does not >appear via a time loop, the information in it does. This plot element was used in a film starring Christopher 'Superman' Reeve (Somewhere In Time?). Near the beginning of the film, an old woman hands him a gold pocket watch. This starts him on his quest to travel back in time, which he does. He meets the old woman as a young woman, and gives her the pocket watch. I had a real problem with this. I wanted to know where it came from originally. Dave 'Ready when you are, C.B.' Richards