Aliens as FTL Humans: Scenario from Sci-Fi Novel

[EnumaElish]

What do you think of the following scenario*? Aliens are future humans who discovered faster than light travel. They propagated throughout the universe. In so doing they traveled back in time, to our time, or even earlier times.

*I read this in a popular space opera novel. It may have been Charles Stross or Alastair Reynolds. But I am not certain.

 

[Simon Bridge]

It's a popular trope.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-szarek/are-ancient-aliens-really_b_4380799.html

FTL implies causality violations ... most authors just ignore it, or they want to use the grandfather paradox for plot purposes.

 

[EnumaElish]

Thanks for the news article. Here's another thought - also thunk by someone else first. If aliens are future humans who flew back in time to teach us about pyramids so we can advance and eventually become them, travel back, and teach our ancestors ... and round and round ... *where* did the idea for pyramids come from in the *first* place?

 

[Drakkith]

Welcome to the world of temporal paradoxes... keep a watch handy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_loop

 

[newjerseyrunner]

Any and all discussions about timelines that interact with themselves makes me think of this.

 

[EnumaElish]

All grammar is relative?

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

All grammar is relative?

Relativistic.

 

[Dr Wu]

Perhaps this explains why a certain high-up member of the conspiracy establishment has a thing about reptilian shape-shifters (who secretly rule the world). Perhaps they're just humanoid speculators from the future, hoping to make a killing on the stock market?

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Perhaps this explains why a certain high-up member of the conspiracy establishment has a thing about reptilian shape-shifters (who secretly rule the world). Perhaps they're just humanoid speculators from the future, hoping to make a killing on the stock market?

Changes in the money flow would have a butterfly effect and eliminate the supposed beneficiaries of such changes.