Ethical Dilemma: If You Could Travel Back in Time and Kill a Child-Hitler, Would You?
15 years ago
Posts: 15
Na, dont mess with time. Even more so, even though I hate what they did, many german nazi scientists who were empowered by that idealism gave us a lot of things that are around us today, notably the start of the space program. Who knows how long all of that would have been delayed if you did something to mess up the timeline.
Although in an ideal situation I would clone him, leave a copy and use the "bring him to the future, but watch him carefully" option. If he were repurposed for a good cause he could be a great leader.

15 years ago
Posts: 264
You would create a paradox thus none of the answers.

15 years ago
Posts: 1668
Warn: Banned
This isn't an ethical dilemma, it's a false dichotomy. Really have they consider just take him away from this house and put him in a jacket? Or perhaps bring him up in a proper environment so he doesn't go that way? If he is insane due to biological cause, give him some medications. so many things you can do...
Quote from Deva
You would create a paradox thus none of the answers.
no, it's just a false dichotomy
Quote from you_no_see_me_
this is not about cannibalism...please get back on topic
Quote from Toto
I think it is exactly the topic. I see nothing wrong.

15 years ago
Posts: 141
well my biggest problem with killing hitler would be the fact that he helped bring germany out of a there depression and that our war with them brought the us out of a depression. so i guess i wouldn't screw with time travel for the fear of makeing it worse in the end.
Irish+French= Drunken painter?

15 years ago
Posts: 264
Quote from BoxBox
no, it's just a false dichotomy
I was rather referring to the flaws of time traveling, if Hitler would die as a child you wouldn't have any need to travel back in time in the first place... but yeah you are right.

15 years ago
Posts: 124
What if you went back in time, failed to kill him, and were the cause of his actions?
"This year, they should give the Nobel Peace Prize to the inventors of cancer and accidents, because research shows those are the main causes of disarmament."
This whole thread reminds me of the movie "The Butterfly Effect". i think id play around with the time machine for a bit. trying out different things, like kidnapping him or influencing him to be something good, and fast forward in time to see the result. all the outcomes might not nessacerly be "good" but id pick the least "bad" outcome. at least, not the one resulting in 6 million peoples deaths.
"Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived."- Dalai lama

15 years ago
Posts: 1668
Warn: Banned
Quote from Deva
Quote from BoxBox
no, it's just a false dichotomy
I was rather referring to the flaws of time traveling, if Hitler would die as a child you wouldn't have any need to travel back in time in the first place... but yeah you are right.
Yes, but there's not paradox in the first place because backward time travel is impossible. I don't know where people get the notion that hollywood actually have real science. Einstein was the biggest critic of time travel.[ironically which is what his relativity was implicating in some extreme circumstances.]
Quote from you_no_see_me_
this is not about cannibalism...please get back on topic
Quote from Toto
I think it is exactly the topic. I see nothing wrong.
not paradox in the first place because backward time travel is impossible
could you explain that? in english possibly? i never could understand Einstein's theory of relativity...
"Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived."- Dalai lama

15 years ago
Posts: 1668
Warn: Banned
Quote from Kittycat101
not paradox in the first place because backward time travel is impossible
could you explain that? in english possibly? i never could understand Einstein's theory of relativity...
Special relativity equation gives results that if an object travels beyond the speed of light, the object is not causally related and thus appear to be traveling back in time. Say you have a laser gun and you fire it at a tree. If the observer is travelling faster than the speed of light, it may appear as if the piece of laser came out of the tree and went into the laser gun instead. But this is obviously a cheap way because one things then did not cause the other. Where ever that piece of light came from, it did not come from the tree or the laser gun.
On the subject of time dilation an easy version is this:
velocity=distance/time
gravity changes and bends space. Distance changes by gravity and this time have to change with it to compensate, this is proven in the case light. EM wave travels at constant speed in vacuum. Stronger gravity, shorter distance, shorter time, and velocity is still constant. Time goes faster for someone in orbit of earth comparing to someone living in a basement. But time dilation is so small that it doesn't matter too much to us humans.
Quote from you_no_see_me_
this is not about cannibalism...please get back on topic
Quote from Toto
I think it is exactly the topic. I see nothing wrong.

15 years ago
Posts: 330
It would messed up time so badly. I don't know how my family would be affected or if I would be here today..Hard choices though.
Did you know Hitler was an art student but was rejected from art school so he got into politics?
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15 years ago
Posts: 468
We're products of our environment. You move him to a different situation and he'll grow up incredibly different.

15 years ago
Posts: 141
Quote from E-chan52
Did you know Hitler was an art student but was rejected from art school so he got into politics?
if only they had liked his art 🙁
Irish+French= Drunken painter?

15 years ago
Posts: 1668
Warn: Banned
Quote from ktmeunier
Quote from E-chan52
Did you know Hitler was an art student but was rejected from art school so he got into politics?
if only they had liked his art 🙁
No, it's not their fault. He was just insane. How many people gets rejected from prominent art schools each year? How many from MIT? If all those rejects just decides to screw the world, we all be dead a long time ago. No, they pick themselves up and do something else. It's called survival.
Quote from you_no_see_me_
this is not about cannibalism...please get back on topic
Quote from Toto
I think it is exactly the topic. I see nothing wrong.