This is my objection to the conclusion of the post: yes, you’re unlikely to be able to patch all the leaks, but the more leaks you patch, the less likely it is that a bad solution occurs. The way the Device was described was such that “things happen, and time is reset until a solution occurs”. This favors probable things over improbable things, since probable things will more likely happen before improbable things. If you add caveats—mother safe, whole, uninjured, mentally sound, low velocity—at some point the “right” solutions become significantly more probable than the “wrong” ones. As for the stated “bad” solutions—how probable is a nuclear bomb going off, or aliens abducting her, compared to firefighters showing up?
I don’t even think the timing of the request matters, since the device isn’t actively working to bring the events to fruition—meaning, any outcome where the device resets will have always been prohibited, from the beginning of time. Which means that the firefighters may have left the building five minutes ago, having seen some smoke against the skyline. Etc. …Or, perhaps more realistically, the device was never discovered in the first place, considering the probabilistic weight it would have to bear over all its use, compared to the probability of its discovery.
This is my objection to the conclusion of the post: yes, you’re unlikely to be able to patch all the leaks, but the more leaks you patch, the less likely it is that a bad solution occurs. The way the Device was described was such that “things happen, and time is reset until a solution occurs”. This favors probable things over improbable things, since probable things will more likely happen before improbable things. If you add caveats—mother safe, whole, uninjured, mentally sound, low velocity—at some point the “right” solutions become significantly more probable than the “wrong” ones. As for the stated “bad” solutions—how probable is a nuclear bomb going off, or aliens abducting her, compared to firefighters showing up?
I don’t even think the timing of the request matters, since the device isn’t actively working to bring the events to fruition—meaning, any outcome where the device resets will have always been prohibited, from the beginning of time. Which means that the firefighters may have left the building five minutes ago, having seen some smoke against the skyline. Etc. …Or, perhaps more realistically, the device was never discovered in the first place, considering the probabilistic weight it would have to bear over all its use, compared to the probability of its discovery.