Looking over the old stuff: Sound of Thunder

[lukejoo1092]

Another thing that we learned months ago So, we know that it was because of the main character, Eckels, that the future got messed up. People became more stupid (well, they favor strength over brains and they spell horribly). But then I got 2 questions:

1) If they are people that favor strength over brains, then how could they have ever developed the technology to time travel? Wouldn't they have been too stupid to even care about time travel?
2) Also, if the problem was killing the t-rex, then can't someone just go back in time and stop them from doing so? After all, it's a TIME MACHINE.

What do you think? Do you agree or have something else in mind?

[james]

1. Well, i think they werent that stupid to not even think of or care about time travel and anyone have an idea of traveling back in time in their mind which eventully would lead them to invent something incredible like time machine also, were not even sure how far future it is in the story. Idk anyways...arg..
2. Im not sure what you meant by trex problem, but i think its impossible because of the parallel universe whatever so it would just be the same even when you come back to present

[jooyoungpark]

i dont really know about the first one but the second one
2. Well, the fact is when this "problem" of change in humanity happened. It would not seem like a "problem" except for the people who know the "real" present, it will be normal and already accepted "history".

[KevinW]

1.
Agreed with James. "If they are less intelligent, then they must be stronger" just doesn't make much sense. There's no necessity in there to balance out loss of intelligence by adding in more strength. They could be:
a) Stronger and dumber
b) Weaker and dumber
c) Stronger and smarter
d) Weaker and smarter

The problem with even calling the people from the other timeline dumber is that they've only shown they think differently. They have different values and a different language system.

Difference between Travis, Billings, Kramer, Lesperance and Eckels's world and Deutscher's world:
1) A different language system
2) A different political viewpoint

What if everyone spoke Chinese instead? Or Korean? Or Japanese? Or Indian? Or a mix of those languages? I don't think that just because their language is exactly our English we can say that they are idiots, yet.

We know for certain that their side could invent a time machine! Like Luke said, they were able to build a time machine! That certainly couldn't have been easy, and if the Time Machine was the pinnacle of both worlds' technology, then in terms of science they were equals.


2.

Heh. Personally I dunno. Maybe the hunters DID try it?

[gb1708]

1. I don't think they are stupid, as Luke said that they didn't spell in the correct way. But, the past was changed, people had another civilization so in their thought it's correct. And, I think if they see our spell they will think it is wrong,too.
2. I don't know. Maybe it happens

[yeajinchoi]

1) For the time machine and time traveling question, I think its sort of like the factor in the story that has to remain there. Like, when Eckels and the other hunters went back in time, how was a time machine there? I think it's the thing the the time travelers are taking with them. And they did the same when they came back to present-day(despite the ginormous changes). If the time machine disappears, then where would the people come out of? Or the idea that the new world people were actually smart makes sense too. (Although it doesn't explain how the time machine would be in the past)
2) That was my question too. Why can't you just go back to before you killed the t-rex? Maybe they did. After Eckels was shot. It could of been a punishment for messing up time and after Eckels died, they could have went back into the time machine to fix everything. I think the author just wanted the story to have more impact on Eckel's death and how he was shot.

[jisu25]

1. In order to obtain strength, they might have needed to change the past which will allow them to obtain more strength then "before" the present which can improve the current technology. Also, stupid people would think of stupid ideas like the idea of ¡°time travel¡±. When someone makes a mistake they want to fix it and using the time machine will allow them to fix it. However using the time machine is going to lead to a problem called time paradox, in which the changed past is also going to affect the present. This is why time traveling is stupid.

2. If someone tries to fix the past by stopping the group from killing the t-rex, then a time paradox will occur. Even though the past is fixed, there is a chance that your action is going to worsen your present situation. People call this taking a risk, however, it is better to not take a risk because if you fail you are not going to be able to change it back to the way it was before.

[sergeyfen]

1. I dont really know what you mean there, but i think people that prefer strength over the brains are still smart and not like dumb dumb. They are just people that prefer strength but they still can be smart, maybe just seeking for strenght more.
2. Yeah i think it was weird, they had time machine why then they didnt use it to correct everything, maybe if future is changed once it can never be changed again.

[nadiraamalina]

1. I think that by favoring strength over brains, the author meant that they were more violent and war inclined that the people in the original timeline. Doesn't mean that they're dumb though. That's just perpetuating the 'Dumb Jock' stereotype. And they're still humans. With the same intelligence and ingenuity as us. So inventing the time machine shouldn't have been a problem for them.

2. Well, since the desk guy seemed to be in favor of Deutscher becoming president, we can assume that many people are in favor of him too. Since he won the election ._. Anyway, since they like him in office, and they like the direction he would eventually bring their country in, why would they want to change anything? Perhaps the time travelling gang might end up liking Deutscher.

On the other hand, if they go back in time and un-kill the butterfly, they might just trigger a worse future to happen. Time's path has probably changed, and if they kill the butterfly, they might not get the original timeline back. There is a lot of time between the butterfly's death and the 2055 election, and a lot of things could've happened.

[woojongpark]

1. If people favored strength, they would be interested in inventing time machine because some changes in time could result in increase in someone's affluence or bankruptcy of some other people. So people would be actually eager to invent time machine if they favored strength.
2. Yeah the textbook actually explained a little about how the changes in past can not be undone, but I still don't understand. Maybe it's because more changes in past may cause other minor or major problems in the process.

[jungholee]

1) hmm i think the normal people became more stupid, and worse than normal future. But the technology is same as normal and changed future. That's because the average of people's level became worse, but only few people that developed the world(like inventors, Bell, Edison, etc...)still could think about the inventions, and they made the inventors. So the world could developed by few people's ideas.

2) hmm..i think even if you go back again, that means you changed the past again. It's hard to explain but ill try. There is person A from now, and person A from the changed future. Ill just call the person from future to person B. So there is person A and B. they are same person.
Person A went back and killed t-rex. then go back to future, so he became person B. This world is person B's future. the president changed.(future B) Person B goes back to the past, and stop to killing t-rex from A. then A and B both go back to the future. Then now, the future A(original future) has two person A because there is one who didn't shot, and one who made person A couldn't shot. you know what i mean? hmm it's confused...
ok

Person A kill t-rex, ->Person A goes future. ill call person B from now on. -> If B goes past again, the Person A is trying to kill t-rex. -> person B makes person A cannot kill t-rex. -> both go back -> Because person A and B are same person, the world has two person A in the future.
I think it's the why they didn't go...I did all my work what i can....phew..

[mirim002]

1. maybe the people there was strong, but they could have been smart also?
2. Well i think that another person COULD go back and fix the problem...but what happens if that person messes something up? then that would make things more complicated. rather not take the chance.

[munisa]

They cannot go back in time and stop what they have dont, its a paradox, it just cannot be done, Im pretty sure that they would have done it if that was possible, but accoring to the author its impossible to do that

[brandonina]

1.) I don't think you can imply that people are stupid by referring to the incorrect spellings in the story. Maybe it's just that the way how people spell things have changed because the everything that's done in the history is messed up.
2.) I'm not sure about the ability of time machine because i'm don't know much about it. But I think changing it back is totally possible except it would be painstaking plus Eckels is dead at the end so yeah... meaningless.

[akari]

hi^^