Poll: Is stealing an idea from the future wrong?
- Thread starter Leemaster777
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In this scenario the only person who would know and make you feel bad about it is yourself. Literally no one else in the universe, include the person you stole from, would ever know unless you told them, and then they would simply believe you're insane unless you show them the time machine.
I think it would be more morally "wrong" if it was a something along the lines of an art/media/cultural thing. A scientific or medical device/idea/etc. could potentially revolutionize the world and save billions (literally billions if not trillions, if we count those in the present, those born after us but before it was originally invented, and those after if was originally invented).
It is also important to note that you aren't really hurting the original creator; they never created it in the first place. The thought of creating what you stole would never cross their minds because they would have always know it existed and was invented by someone else, and they would either live on normally or invent something else that came after your invention. Stealing from them may actually benefit humanity in the long run because we are increasing the rate of creations and advancements.
This is much more complicated than it may seem, as there are endless possibilities that could take place; I simply chose what I feel is a pretty "normal" result of future-stealing. How far you go into the future would also factor into the severity of your crime (that isn't actually a crime because you are the rightful creator
).
Lol, time-travel... D:
I think it would be more morally "wrong" if it was a something along the lines of an art/media/cultural thing. A scientific or medical device/idea/etc. could potentially revolutionize the world and save billions (literally billions if not trillions, if we count those in the present, those born after us but before it was originally invented, and those after if was originally invented).
It is also important to note that you aren't really hurting the original creator; they never created it in the first place. The thought of creating what you stole would never cross their minds because they would have always know it existed and was invented by someone else, and they would either live on normally or invent something else that came after your invention. Stealing from them may actually benefit humanity in the long run because we are increasing the rate of creations and advancements.
This is much more complicated than it may seem, as there are endless possibilities that could take place; I simply chose what I feel is a pretty "normal" result of future-stealing. How far you go into the future would also factor into the severity of your crime (that isn't actually a crime because you are the rightful creator
).Lol, time-travel... D:
I may not have come up with it, but the technology and ideas being brought about early is a good thing in the long run. It means the resources put towards their discovery can be placed towards something else, building on top of it and improving upon it.
Shoulders of giants my friend. If you take this idea from someone in the future and then go back to before it was conceived and share it with the world, that person would probably come up with a new idea, or a way to make your (their) idea better.
As long as the idea you take is not in and of itself harmful to humanity.
Unless of course you're talking about like, going to the future, taking a really good/popular book or movie, and then coming back and trying to sell it as your own. That's a pretty dicky thing to do.
As long as the idea you take is not in and of itself harmful to humanity.
Unless of course you're talking about like, going to the future, taking a really good/popular book or movie, and then coming back and trying to sell it as your own. That's a pretty dicky thing to do.
I voted no, mostly because it's victemless. But that's not really the interesting part to me.
You specify in your post that we can travel without paradoxes... But the very topic we're discussing IS a paradox.
Also, we're all already traveling into the future! Just at normal speed.
You specify in your post that we can travel without paradoxes... But the very topic we're discussing IS a paradox.
Also, we're all already traveling into the future! Just at normal speed.
I think the question of how your time travel affects the universe is a bigger moral question.
If your theft (or any action you make in the past that will change the future) erases events and even people from existence, is it murder?
Or will you create an alternative universe?
Theft like that seems like a victimless crime though. The person who invented it would never invent it if you already did. Their work isn't taken away from them, although they may lose an opportunity to be a pioneer.
If your theft (or any action you make in the past that will change the future) erases events and even people from existence, is it murder?
Or will you create an alternative universe?
Theft like that seems like a victimless crime though. The person who invented it would never invent it if you already did. Their work isn't taken away from them, although they may lose an opportunity to be a pioneer.
How is this even a question? OF COURSE it is wrong! You're denying someone the fruit of their painstaking research or intellect, and aping it in another time period.
Now, in some cases perhaps the end justifies the means, like a cure for a deadly disease, but the actual act of stealing someone's idea is wrong no matter how you twist time travel into it.
Hell, imagine if it happened to you- would you think it was fair?
Now, in some cases perhaps the end justifies the means, like a cure for a deadly disease, but the actual act of stealing someone's idea is wrong no matter how you twist time travel into it.
Hell, imagine if it happened to you- would you think it was fair?
One issue I didn't see brought up is the effect of super advanced tech on a species not ready for it. Look at what happened uplifted Krogan in the ME universe or the humans who found that tech in the forbidden planet movie. They weren't ready culturally for the quantum leap in tech and it ended up destroying them.
Thinking about it, if you steal an idea from the future, someone still has to have invented it in the first place I mean you don't actually know how it works or why it works, but if you stole the idea and had it in the present time, wouldn't that mean that the original inventor in the future would be basing the idea on the idea that you stole from him in the first place? That sounds like a paradox to me, so yes, I think it would be wrong to steal an idea from the future because then you could cause the universe to divide by 0.
Stealing from an alternate Earth though no problem 'cos it's an entirely different place and thus you're not bringing it around before it is due. It's like if you stole a cure for cancer from a world where the Germans won World War 1. Because of the massive differences in history it's obviously not the same as our Earth so there is no chance of a paradox. Just pissed off German pharmaceutical companies.
Stealing from an alternate Earth though no problem 'cos it's an entirely different place and thus you're not bringing it around before it is due. It's like if you stole a cure for cancer from a world where the Germans won World War 1. Because of the massive differences in history it's obviously not the same as our Earth so there is no chance of a paradox. Just pissed off German pharmaceutical companies.
A better question: 'would it be wrong if I took an idea from the future' and the answer, of course, is no.
Semi seriously though, if it was some sort of scientific advancement that benefitted humanity, then sure, no problem, but if it was just nicking someones killer riff or magical new ice cream flavour combo, then no, I wouldn't do that.
Semi seriously though, if it was some sort of scientific advancement that benefitted humanity, then sure, no problem, but if it was just nicking someones killer riff or magical new ice cream flavour combo, then no, I wouldn't do that.
I would say yes. If I were to go to the future and then go back to my own time and recreate something that was successful, then yes I would feel like I stole from that person. Even though they may have not even thought about that idea yet, I still would feel like I had just cheated them out of a successful future for my own benefit.
It could be very shortsighted to bring back even something extremely positive. Let's take the Cancer cure for example. Maybe during the experiments and calculations to get the cure perfected, other avenues are discovered, but put on the back burner until it's complete. One of those avenues could be a way to give people a perfect immune system, this allows everyone many more years, inlcuding obviously the smartest people, during that time its discovered how to extend the human life in a healthy state, 4 fold. This would stop people thinking of pollution, lack of natural resources, over population, etc, as 'the next generations problem' and all those issues get sorted within a couple decades.
An extreme example i grant you, but the discovery process can sometimes be just as important, or even more so, than the end product.
An extreme example i grant you, but the discovery process can sometimes be just as important, or even more so, than the end product.
Depends, are you solving a serious problem by taking it back? In that case it could be a moral course of action, although it would still be disingenuous if you didn't credit the person who would have gone on to invent it. If it's purely for personal gain, then yes, it's wrong, but since no-one else is going to know (although they may suspect, when you come out of nowhere with it), it's a distinction you have to make for yourself. However you can't know the ripple effects, so the case would have to be extremely unambiguous for it to be a blanket good thing.
For entertainment, I really don't care either way. It's more amoral than immoral/moral.
For technology, I would consider it a moral imperative, so long as you are using it for good and not for gain. Sure, there's the possibility that it could be worse off for humanity, but that chance, in my opinion, is minimal compared to the overall benefit it could have to our race as a whole. (Like sending us to the freaking stars).
The primary negative that I can think of would be if, say, you brought back tech without knowing that your government would then proceed to further their tyranny and/or suppression of human rights. So which tech you bring back would be something to heavily, heavily consider.
For technology, I would consider it a moral imperative, so long as you are using it for good and not for gain. Sure, there's the possibility that it could be worse off for humanity, but that chance, in my opinion, is minimal compared to the overall benefit it could have to our race as a whole. (Like sending us to the freaking stars).
The primary negative that I can think of would be if, say, you brought back tech without knowing that your government would then proceed to further their tyranny and/or suppression of human rights. So which tech you bring back would be something to heavily, heavily consider.
You wouldn't. You wouldn't know because it was already invented by the person who stole it. You wouldn't suddenly have this feeling that "Gosh, I should have been the one who invented that, someone from the past must have traveled forward and took it from me!".Squilookle said:
It would be like if someone from the past took the idea of the automobile from 200 years in the future (relative to us) and then "invented" it in the early 1900's. It was invented already, you moved on to new things to invent.
You go forward in time to steal the technology, bring it back and "invent" it, person in future never invents it so you can't go forward to steal it because they don't have it so you don't actually invent it which means you go back to the future to get it which means they never invent it which means.... *Head explodes*jpz719 said:
Immoral, yes, stealing is stealing.
However, technically plausible, no - inventions are not simply miraculous new things that suddenly spring forth, they're iterative of many things that came before them (or combinations there of); so if you were to steal an invention then you'd need to steal the decades or centuries that went into developing it.
Could you jump twenty years into the future and steal Intels latest processor design, sure, but it's going to be no good without the 3nm fabrication required to make it.
Fashion and literature are even more fickle, fashion is a reflection of current trends, you steal an idea from the future and all likelihood is it will sink as it's not what's in. Literature is also a reflection of the now (at least the popular, high selling literature) - someone above mentioned Tolkien, Lord of the Rings is his lament on industrialization, which is very representative of the time and part of what makes it a masterpiece, without which, there's a chance you wouldn't end up with the riches you presumably seek from such time travelling shenanigans.
Really you should just get the sports almanac or lottery numbers, it's a much more reliable method to be knee deep in private beaches, blow and hoes.
However, technically plausible, no - inventions are not simply miraculous new things that suddenly spring forth, they're iterative of many things that came before them (or combinations there of); so if you were to steal an invention then you'd need to steal the decades or centuries that went into developing it.
Could you jump twenty years into the future and steal Intels latest processor design, sure, but it's going to be no good without the 3nm fabrication required to make it.
Fashion and literature are even more fickle, fashion is a reflection of current trends, you steal an idea from the future and all likelihood is it will sink as it's not what's in. Literature is also a reflection of the now (at least the popular, high selling literature) - someone above mentioned Tolkien, Lord of the Rings is his lament on industrialization, which is very representative of the time and part of what makes it a masterpiece, without which, there's a chance you wouldn't end up with the riches you presumably seek from such time travelling shenanigans.
Really you should just get the sports almanac or lottery numbers, it's a much more reliable method to be knee deep in private beaches, blow and hoes.