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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Re: BACK TO THE FUTURE  (Question, but spoiler)
Message-ID: <850@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 00:22:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.850
Posted: Mon Jul 15 00:22:55 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Jul-85 10:07:44 EDT
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Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
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>>> Now the question is: "How did Chuck Berry learn Johnny B. Goode
>>> before time became out of joint?"

>> Maybe Chuck Berry never got the inspiration for Johny B. Goode.  He might
>> have learned it from Marty before it ever became a hit and Chuck waited for

>> the right time to release.
>> Maybe it was predestined that Chuck would learn it from Marty who had in
>> turn learned from Chuck. (confusing?)

>That's a time paradox.  How could they cyclically learn from each other?
>It might have been that Chuck learned the style and "sound" from Marty...
>but that also can get paradoxical.

>>Don't forget he ends up saving Doc in the end.  Although Marty
>>tries so hard to warn Doc of his distant death Doc refuses to take it.
>>He rips up a message Marty puts in his pocket.  But the message ends up old
>>but intact in the future. Why?

>I've wondered about this too.  Remember he stuffed the letter back in his
>pocket after he tore it up so I assume he just pasted it back together later.

>>Also when Doc was first riddled with bullets from
>>the Libyans I don't remember any blood. Could it have been that Doc
>>was already forwarned and had the bullet proof vest on already.

>Irk.. you don't have much of a conception of time.  "Already" had already
>happened the "first time."  Thus he DID have the bullet-proof vest on
>because he already had the letter.

>>To all you time travel experts, I have heard various premises about but
>>wouldn't it be kind of distructive if you met future/past version of
>>yourself.
>>Also wouldn't Marty coming back to the future before he had/will go back
>>to the past do as much damage to the time stream as his interaction with
>>his parents?

>Yeh ... just his very presence might well have changed things.  But who would
>know?  Only Marty in his frame of reference.

Actually, there's only one serious praradox you need to resolve to get all
the others to go away: what happens to the "second" Marty?

Marty has this picture, from future v1.0 which is disappearing because
future v1.1 will be different.  But when he gets back home, he remembers
v1.0, even though he was making himself v1.0 disappear.  Either his memory
should somehow reflect 1.1 now instead of 1.0, or he couldn't cause himself
not to exist.

The only way I see out of this is to postulate that Marty v1.0 is distinct
from Marty v1.1, but that their existences are somehow coupled (at least up
to the point where they both go backwards.  It's certainly clear that Doc is
different; in v1.0 he is clearly NOT wearing the bullet-proof vest.  But
then you have to figure out where Marty v1.1 went to.  

This possibly gets rid of the Chuck Berry paradox, because Berry v1.1 is
getting the sound from Berry v1.0.  All the information about the future of
v1.0 is coming from v1.1.  Unless Marty v1.1 goes back to the past and
interacts with v1.0, there's no loop.

Charley Wingate  umcp-cs!mangoe

  "You want me to make a donation to the Coast Guard Youth Auxiliary!"