THE HUSSITE LAMENT
PART I: MA VLAST
- - -
IN THE RING with BRUCE HORN
Earth's Premier Debate Show
Episode 842: October 8, 2448
(Televised throughout the solar system via SolaVision Network; text by Typing Solutions broadcast to minicomputers October 9; available for viewing by personal portal - dial 123HORN on your viewing portal transporter; available for spaceship in-flight entertainment by request)
PART I: MA VLAST
- - -
IN THE RING with BRUCE HORN
Earth's Premier Debate Show
Episode 842: October 8, 2448
(Televised throughout the solar system via SolaVision Network; text by Typing Solutions broadcast to minicomputers October 9; available for viewing by personal portal - dial 123HORN on your viewing portal transporter; available for spaceship in-flight entertainment by request)
HORN: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the galaxy, and welcome to tonight's exciting edition of "In the Ring". Tonight we have two guests from our lovely home planet of Earth, who are part of the most important scientific project ever devised. What could be more important than space transportation or the no-gravity cupholder, you might wonder? Well ladies and gentlemen Mr. John Milar and Mr. Emerson Dean are here tonight to tell us about their little project - the time machine. Gentlemen, welcome to the studio.
MILAR AND DEAN: Thank you.
HORN: Why don't you introduce yourselves?
MILAR: John Milar, lead developing scientist and designer.
DEAN: Resident philosophical expert and chief of experimental questions. His job is to come up with the thing and my job is to bug him about all the important moral issues it raises.
MILAR: It's just a time machine.
HORN: Questions such as...?
DEAN: How can we prevent people from changing history? And if someone were to change history, how on Earth would that work? In a - I don't know, metaphysical sense or something like that. Suppose that you went back in time and stopped Lincoln getting shot. Would our memories of school history lessons and such be altered instantly so Lincoln was never shot and nobody ever thought so, or do we suddenly discover he was never shot? What about all this time we've been thinking he did? What would happen to it?
MILAR: It's a deep question but we never need to find out, particularly. The government can regulate use or limit it to scientific purposes. I don't think we'll ever even need to use it. Perhaps the most active part that could be taken would be to record the speeches of Lincoln and the epics of Homer and the conducting of Beethoven and the playing of Liszt.
DEAN: I would love to hear Liszt. But suppose he finds us in the back of the auditorium.
HORN: You're not talking about a grocery list here, are you?
MILAR: Oh no. A piano player. Big old instrument that made banging noises. Wonderfully versatile actually, and often very beautiful. Pity we're stuck with these, uh, -
HORN: Have you tested the time machine yet?
MILAR: Well as a matter of fact that's an amusing story. We were almost done, just had a problem and couldn't figure out what was wrong. Then all of a sudden all of us appear in duplicate - well it was us from an hour later to tell us how to fix the problem! (they laugh)
HORN: Neat.
MILAR: Almost didn't happen. An hour later we wouldn't have remembered to go back and tell ourselves if it weren't for Emerson tugging at our trouserlegs.
DEAN: Suppose you hadn't have gone - what would have happened?
MILAR: We would still be stuck.
DEAN: But you had already experienced the perception of not being stuck - you'd already solved the problem - what would have happened if you didn't remember to go?
MILAR: We would never have had that perception.
DEAN: But suppose I go on the record now and say - "Pluto was destroyed for a hyperspace bypass." And tomorrow I go back and stop the construction. What happens to that statement I just made?
MILAR: You wouldn't have said it.
DEAN: I just did!
MILAR: So you won't go back in time tomorrow.
DEAN: You can't be sure.
MILAR: Aw hell.
[OOC: Will post the rest in another post later tonight.]