# Ethics of Time Travel in fiction?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-of-time-travel-in-fiction/776474>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 6, 2017, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-of-time-travel-in-fiction/776474 "2017-01-06T19:35:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-of-time-travel-in-fiction/776474/61 "2017-01-21T18:23:19Z")

</div>

The ‘single invariant timeline’ theory has a name; it is called the [Novikov Self-consistency Principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle).

Some other options are 1/the boring option, where no time-travel at all can occur;  
2/The rewrite option, where time is rewritten, and the other timeline ‘ceases to exist’ (where does it go?) and 3/ The many worlds option, where the new timeline that is created is just one of a myriad other alternative timelines, some of them created by time-travellers, others just occurring naturally.

The bizarre ‘Back To The Future’ timeline is a variation on option 2, where the changes happen slowly for no discernable reason, and entire histories are wiped from reality by careless timetravellers.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-of-time-travel-in-fiction/776474.md?page=3)