They wouldn't be needed for anything, but I could definitely imagine some politician creating the Time Police based on misunderstandings of Time Travel.
POLITICIAN: What if they go back in time and NAZ Is win WWII??
SCIENTISTS: Well sir, actually, if you look at the data I think you'll find that's impos-
POLITICIAN: I don't have time to listen to this egghead crap! Find me five teenagers with attitude! We need to create... THE TIME POLICE!
SCIENTISTS: Ai Ai Ai!
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The future of warfare in UC.
Just because the loop is stable does not mean people will not attempt to destabilize it.
And is it really the sort of thing you want to risk?
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Also, there are all sorts of financial shenanigans people could get up to that wouldn't necessarily change the past in a noticeable way — gambling on sports or investing in the stock market, if they don't go too big, stockpiling commodities that aren't particularly valuable in the past then retrieving them in the future when they are valuable, buying land under the same circumstances...
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
It's a bit mind screwy, but maybe they could prevent people from altering the future at their leisure? Either with the excuse that, "While the past can't be changed, the future can be," or the slightly more mind breaking explanation of, "If we don't tell ourselves what the stable, ultimate future looks like, our actions can make it better."
Fire, air, water, earth...legend has it that when these four elements are gathered, they will form the fifth element...boron.
How about this: The time machines that they've actually made and used are 'time vehicles', built in a single time and able to travel from there to arbitrary times; but they have the limitation that they cannot alter the timeline. However, theoretical calculations have not ruled out the possibility of constructing a 'time tunnel', consisting of a 'transmitter' device in one time and a 'receiver' device in another time, that could alter the timeline. The Time Police are there to make sure no one actually builds one of these (and then destroys the Universe, or makes Hitler win World War 2, or whatever). It isn't even necessary for time tunnels to actually be possible, so long as no one in-universe can be certain they aren't.
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Could it be a case of said time police invoking a stable time loop?
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They could play the role of causality enforcers. Their motto? "We make sure that whatever happens, happens" (yes this is an idea I've been tinkering with, but you're free to use the general concept).
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In-universe there's no real way that you could KNOW its a Stable Time Loop. Every time somebody has time travelled its worked that way but who's to say something else couldn't happen?
What is time police needed for, if the past can't be changed? So far I could only come up with
-bringing doppelgangers back and
-keeping time travel secret, but why would they need to keep it secret?
Any suggestions?
edited 9th Jan '14 4:48:50 AM by daytimelantern