{"id":2077,"date":"2010-04-22T02:39:40","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T09:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2010-04-22T02:39:40","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T09:39:40","slug":"would-i-have-killed-hitler-as-a-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2010\/philosophy\/would-i-have-killed-hitler-as-a-child.html\/","title":{"rendered":"Would I have killed Hitler as a child?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve long believed we don’t really have free will. If choice takes place in our brains, and if our brains are made of matter and nothing else, our choices must be governed by laws which take their own course. There’s no room for anything else.<\/p>\n

But this interesting thought experiment<\/a> made me ponder. Suppose I got a chance to kill Hitler when he was six years old, would I do it? Since I don’t believe in free will, I’m pretty sure WWII would have taken place no matter how many times the scene was replayed (that is presuming random quantum effects don’t have an impact.) But if I could really stop WWII in retrospect, would I?<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/a>
Young Hitler - Would you kill him?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, I needn’t actually kill the young Hitler to prevent the war. As the link above shows, I could perhaps show proof to his parents that I’m from the future and show them what could happen. They would take corrective measures. Or I could be more innovative and do something else. But do I really want to prevent Word War II from happening?<\/p>\n

Sitting in the 21st century, I would say – no. I would not prevent the war. But that’s only because it’s all over and done with now and the hurt and pain that WWII caused are left behind us. It won’t happen again<\/em> if I don’t change the past. Moreover, I would almost certainly not exist and then I won’t have the wonderful life that I do now. Chaotic effects pretty much guarantee that. India might not be a free country and nuclear war may have caused far more damage than the two Japan bombings. Who can say?<\/p>\n

So two things are clear. First, free will doesn’t exist. If history were to happen again, nothing would change. Second, don’t mess with the past unless it’s just<\/em> happened. For example if I stepped in shit 5 seconds ago, I don’t mind going back and stopping that! But if years have passed, I wouldn’t dare to prevent the shit stepping…who knows how the future would change.<\/p>\n

What would you<\/em> do?<\/p>\n

[poll id=”17″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should I kill Hitler as a boy and prevent Word War II if I went back in time and got the chance?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy"],"yoast_head":"\nWould I have killed Hitler as a child?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Should I kill Hitler as a boy and prevent Word War II if I went back in time and got the chance?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2010\/philosophy\/would-i-have-killed-hitler-as-a-child.html\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Would I have killed Hitler as a child?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Should I kill Hitler as a boy and prevent Word War II if I went back in time and got the chance?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2010\/philosophy\/would-i-have-killed-hitler-as-a-child.html\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Expressions - 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