A Note on Linguistic Morality

The Close Possibility of Time Travel

“…Similar examples can be found in other fictions [194][195][196][197][198][199][200][201]. And, again, we are not limited to people vanishing; not only do objects [202] or entire worlds vanish [203], but sometimes things change in other ways, e.g., writing on a wall appearing in the present as a time traveler scrawls on the wall back in the past [204], or a mark on a table appearing in the present 'simultaneous' with someone on the other end of an anti-telephone burning it by accident [180].…”

“…Whilst a 'sortal neutral' version of displacement may be closely possible-e.g., requiring only that sending a time traveler into the past displaces an equal amount of mass back into the future [213]-most cases of this trope will not be 13 . Consider the trope of life/death exchanges, whereby going back in time and saving a life requires someone else to die [195,216]. Presumably, there is no corresponding 'exchange law' for sortals other than 'living humans'.…”