Where are the Temporal Police from 100 Billion AD?

[Aaron]

Under normal space-time rules, yes. When you can travel back in time, no.

The point was it is not discrete - a situation arising of 'one or the other' cannot exist, it is flowing continiously. So the time intervals between extracting energy can be as small as required.

So you don't think that snagging energy from other points in time wouldn't violate the TPD?

[Thorin]

Under normal space-time rules, yes. When you can travel back in time, no.

The point was it is not discrete - a situation arising of 'one or the other' cannot exist, it is flowing continiously. So the time intervals between extracting energy can be as small as required.

So you don't think that snagging energy from other points in time wouldn't violate the TPD?

No. Why would it? You're only snagging energy over, say, a second. You can get infinite energy out of that second. You can get infinite energy out of a millenium, a year, a second, a billionth of a second. It doesn't matter how long it is, because you get infinite amount of singular moments in time in any time period.

I don't see how it would violate the TPD in anyway.

[Aaron]

No. Why would it? You're only snagging energy over, say, a second. You can get infinite energy out of that second. You can get infinite energy out of a millenium, a year, a second, a billionth of a second. It doesn't matter how long it is, because you get infinite amount of singular moments in time in any time period.

I don't see how it would violate the TPD in anyway.

Correct me if I'm wrong but they are not permitted to interfere in the natural course of events. Snagging energy (from whereever they get it) would be interference.

[Thorin]

How have they interfered in the natural course of events? If it was their super nova to take the energy from...

Just imagine them as not having the ability to time travel. They just find a super nova and take its energy. They're within their rights to do that, correct? Just as someone would claim a dilithium moon and take the dilithium.
If they could then develop time travel, and go back in time to a second before the super nova's energy was collected, and took the energy from that time, how have the interfered with anyone? It was their energy to take.

If they went back in time from the 30th century into the mid 20th century, and snagged a load of oil from Kuwait or Iraq, yes, they'd be snagging someone else's energy, but they're not. Just remember the Laws of thermodynamics don't apply (relative to the time travellers) when you have the ability to time travel. You can get infinite energy, which you know, the only question is whether it violates the TPD, and I don't see how it possibly, possibly does.

[Monroe]

I would think that the far future beings have all transformed off into noncorporeals like the Organians or something, and no longer really care what happens in the distant past.

Some of them care about learning about corporeals. Take that episode of ENT when Archer made a species go extinct by blowing up their ship.

[Captain Seafort]

If they could then develop time travel, and go back in time to a second before the super nova's energy was collected, and took the energy from that time, how have the interfered with anyone? It was their energy to take.

The problem, however, is which incarnation of the ship takes that energy. By crossing their own timeline they're interfering with their own past actions, creating a paradox. I agree that they'd have an enormous source of energy, as they'd theoretically be able to harvest every supernova in history, but they wouldn't be able to repeatedly harvest the same supernova.

[Monroe]

They could take only the power outputted by a star during that fraction of a second. If they absorbed the whole star then yes it'd create a paradox but if they just took what it releases for that one moment of time they could get around that problem.

[Thorin]

The problem, however, is which incarnation of the ship takes that energy. By crossing their own timeline they're interfering with their own past actions, creating a paradox. I agree that they'd have an enormous source of energy, as they'd theoretically be able to harvest every supernova in history, but they wouldn't be able to repeatedly harvest the same supernova.

I was expecting someone to say that, but the most commonly agreed answer is that time travel creates a parallel time line. In Timeless (Voy), the crew were saved by a future Harry Kim - even though he couldn't have existed if the crew were saved, creating a paradox. The only way is to say that there is a parallel time line created. This means that you get to keep your original 'container' of super nova energy even though you may have harvested the energy before you could have got that container. If we use the Timeless example (the only real comparison), then the repeated harvesting of a super nova could take place, as the paradox wouldn't take place.

[Graham Kennedy]

I would think that the far future beings have all transformed off into noncorporeals like the Organians or something, and no longer really care what happens in the distant past.

They would care if it ment they got destroyed along with their ancestors.

I can't really imagine a life form like the Organians being troubled by things like that.

We've seen "temporal shields" that prevent changes to the timeline affecting the shielded object. I would suggest that anything like that which can be invented on Voyager today would be literally below the level of child's play for somebody like the Organians, let along for somebody like the Q. Meddling with the past would be no threat to them.