# Time travel ethics: Saving the Turkana boy. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 12, 2014, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341 "2014-08-12T01:28:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/1 "2014-08-12T01:28:31Z")
Ethics and time travel go together like flux capacitors and DeLoreans. Let’s see what you make of this scenario. You’re travelling through time, in ancient Africa. 1.5 million years ago. You have an invisibility field and phaser which shoots on stun setting. You’re see [an 8 year old _Homo ergaster_](http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkana_boy) go about his business. You then spot a large bird of prey circling. It’s clear that the bird is about to kill the boy. What do you do? (We don’t know how he died, so I cribbed his death from the [Taung Child.](http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taung_Child)) ---
**Author:** ![DingoelGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/2 "2014-08-12T01:35:17Z")
That wold be a great find! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/3 "2014-08-12T01:42:44Z")
Stun the bird and save his life. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/4 "2014-08-12T01:55:32Z")
Stun the bird and bring it back to the future. What the heck kind of bird of prey can kill an 8 year old boy safely? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/5 "2014-08-12T01:57:50Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Stun the bird and bring it back to the future. What the heck kind of bird of prey can kill an 8 year old boy safely? A big one. Also, name/thread win. If you leave him to die, he becomes one of the oldest intact skeleton discovered so his death is not in vain. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/6 "2014-08-12T02:08:51Z")
Heavy choice. Changing the past risks changing the future, and I’d hate to be responsible for something horrible, like Hanoi Jane becoming POTUS, the Saints not winning a Super Bowl, or the SEC not being the most awesomely glorious conference in college football. Plus, I’m considering turning heel in general. Babyfaces tend to get the short end of the stick. So I won’t interfere this time. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/7 "2014-08-12T02:22:23Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Heavy choice. Changing the past risks changing the future, and I’d hate to be responsible for something horrible, like Hanoi Jane becoming POTUS, the Saints not winning a Super Bowl, or the SEC not being the most awesomely glorious conference in college football. > > Plus, I’m considering turning heel in general. Babyfaces tend to get the short end of the stick. So I won’t interfere this time. Bam and Oakminster ceases to exist, because in the original history of the world, he had saved this little boy who it turns out was his great[sup]n[/sup]grandfather. Time travel is tricky. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/8 "2014-08-12T02:46:42Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > Bam and Oakminster ceases to exist, because in the original history of the world, he had saved this little boy who it turns out was his great[sup]n[/sup]grandfather. > > Time travel is tricky. Dang. Guess that’s why they say ya shouldn’t buy used plot armor on Ebay. ⭕(:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/9 "2014-08-12T03:06:29Z")
Never kill the butterfly guys. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/10 "2014-08-12T03:10:33Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Never kill the butterfly guys. On the other hand, saving the boy may have turned Hitler into the greatest black velvet painter in history. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/11 "2014-08-12T05:01:50Z")
If a time traveler in the past can affect the future, then my simply being there will be more than enough to change the future into something unrecognizable. Not shooting the bird won’t change that, so the effects on the future are irrelevant. Anyway, I probably zap the bird; both are animals, but one’s a hominid and the other isn’t so there’s a certain tribal loyalty thing going on. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/12 "2014-08-12T05:28:30Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > On the other hand, saving the boy may have turned Hitler into the greatest black velvet painter in history. So you’re saying it’s a grim outcome either way. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/13 "2014-08-12T06:25:15Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > If a time traveler in the past can affect the future, then my simply being there will be more than enough to change the future into something unrecognizable. Not shooting the bird won’t change that, so the effects on the future are irrelevant… I don’t buy this theory at all. I could sail the world in a hot air balloon 1.5mil years ago and I seriously doubt it would change the world into something “unrecognizable”. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/14 "2014-08-12T15:58:43Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > I don’t buy this theory at all. > I could sail the world in a hot air balloon 1.5mil years ago and I seriously doubt it would change the world into something “unrecognizable”. Say you scare a bird, which causes its sperm to be slightly jostled such that it produces a different offspring, which cascades into affecting predators offspring as they try to catch this bird, Which in turn affects the offspring of any creatures they come in contact with, and so on and so forth until there is an entirely different set of humans walking around 1.5 million years later, with entirely different history and culture. Some things would be the same as I suspect certain technologies and cultural norms are too useful to remain undiscovered, but it would be a very different place indeed. As to the OP I’d probably go ahead and shoot the bird. What’s the point of time travel I you don’t screw around with history. There is no reason to believe that the alternate time line would be more likely to be bad, who knows it might even rain doughnuts every afternoon at 3:00. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/15 "2014-08-12T16:23:08Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > who knows it might even rain doughnuts every afternoon at 3:00. Wait. That doesn’t happen in your timeline? WHAT DID YOU BREAK? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/16 "2014-08-12T16:59:27Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Stun the bird and bring it back to the future. What the heck kind of bird of prey can kill an 8 year old boy safely? Duck hunters have been killed by angry swans in New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/17 "2014-08-12T18:58:58Z")
To hell with it. I’d pack up and buy stock I knew was going to do well. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/18 "2014-08-12T20:00:33Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Duck hunters have been killed by angry swans in New Jersey. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/19 "2014-08-12T21:00:22Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > …As to the OP I’d probably go ahead and shoot the bird…who knows it might even rain doughnuts every afternoon at 3:00. And you can go into the history books as the first non-Brazilian to travel back in time. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341/20 "2014-08-12T21:15:44Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > And you can go into the history books as the first non-Brazilian to travel back in time. This is hilarious, but I’m not sure if its for the same reason you intended! 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-travel-ethics-saving-the-turkana-boy/695341.md?page=2)