The Time Traveller's Dilemma: Difference between revisions
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** In ''Megamorphs 2'', this trope is in effect big time, though played...interestingly. To elaborate, the Animorphs go back to the end of the Cretaceous Era and soon discover not one but two sentient alien races who had colonized the Earth. They also soon discover that there is a giant freakin' comet flying through the sky, which [[The Smart Guy|Ax]] informs the group will just barely miss the Earth, based on its trajectory. The two alien races are at war with each other, but with the Animorphs' help, the "good" aliens drive off the "bad" ones. The "bad" ones respond by moving the comet off its path, aiming it towards the Earth in order to wipe out the entire "good" alien population. If you know anything about the age of the dinosaurs, you've probably guessed by now where this is going. The "good" aliens try a last ditch effort to blow the comet back into not hitting the planet and killing them all, but Tobias secretly has Ax rig the explosive to be a dud. Tobias insists that [[I Did What I Had to Do|he did what had to be done]], realizing that in order for humanity to rise, the Animorphs can't change history such that the "good" aliens (and the dinosaurs) survive, because they know from the lack of either in the present that they don't. Tobias also insists that he didn't consult the others because he didn't want them to live with the guilt of having condemned an entire sentient species to extinction. This still leaves Ax and Tobias with that guilt, and the question of whether dooming one innocent species to ensure their own existence was the right choice. This therefore is the unusual case of ensuring a [[Stable Time Loop]] being highly morally questionable.
* Addressed in [[Orson Scott Card]]'s novel ''Pastwatch'', where the organization that just discovered time travel is quite aware that interfering with the past will erase the existence of everyone in the current timeline and insists on having the world vote on whether or not to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]]. As humanity is facing imminent extinction anyway at that point, the vote passes.
* In the [[Peter David]] [[Star Trek Expanded Universe]] novel ''Imzadi'', Admiral Riker wants to go back some thirty years to the time of late-season [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|TNG]] to save Deanna's life, since he believes someone already altered time by traveling back to kill her; Data objects on these grounds. When it's done and everybody has time-traveled home, the Guardian of
* In ''The Time Ships'', the Time Traveller's second trip into the future sends him to a completely different world from the one he remembers. He concludes that with every use of the time machine he is potentially committing murder on an unimaginable scale and vows to prevent himself from ever creating the machine. Later subverted when it turns out that the many worlds model is in effect.
* Discussed and averted in [[Island in The Sea of Time]] and ''1632'', both novels involving the permanent transplantation of a modern town to the past. They came to the conclusion that it was a once-in-a-universe cosmic event, so they were astronomically unlikely to go back, therefore they didn't have to worry about changing the future because they'd already changed it by their very presence.
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