The mere existence of someone from another time does not create a paradox
in itself. For instance, in a dterminist universe like that of Poul
Anderson's There Will Be Time, history already is the result of what
you did in the past/future, and can't be changed! (Was it a Frank Herbert
novel in which someone goes back to watch Christ on the Cross and turns out
to "be" Christ on the Cross?)
In a shifting universe like that of Anderson's Time Patrol series, travelers
from the future can indeed change the past, but in doing so wipe out the
world they came from, but continue to exist in the new time line they created.
I think this kind of universe is subject to Larry Niven's point that such a
universe would be subject to endless flux -- and the steady state eventually
arrived at would be one in which Time Travel would be impossible or never
discovered.
In my O.A. Explorers story, I used the idea of a fixed universe. The irony
of such a universe is that you only have "freedom" to act in the areas of
your ignorance! So the God's limitations come from the degree of their
knowledge -- and the Invisible God, omniscient as He is, can't "act" at all,
because His one action IS the universe!
What the Godlearners do is not to change history "directly", but reinterpret
it. Ditto for the Lunars.
Note how much room that leaves for "free will" -- lots! Consider the ferocious
arguments we have had over what the replacement of the Red Moon by the
White Moon means!
It also explains why Heroquests make you more powerful
and limit you at
once. By the time you reach Godhood, you know so much that your ability to
"change" (i.e. reinterpret) the universe has ended.
Jim Chapin
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