[vivaldirules]

Excellent question, dickon25. And some interesting replies, too. I had a recent idea for a story plot that involves a person (I'll call him Joe) wishing to go back in time to an historical event to discover the truth about a particular incident that he was hung up on (e.g., the Richard III event). An alien/genie/seer/whatever who has many talents takes Joe back in time and shows him what really happened. This causes Joe to wonder about other things like the motivation for Richard III's actions, how it was done, what events led up to it, who else saw it happen, what happened to them, the psychological profile of Richard III at the time, events in his childhood which predisposed him to the act, the impact of his diet on the individual neuron firings in his brain at the time he committed the act, and on and on in an endless stream of questions. With each question, the alien/genie/seer/whatever reliably shows Joe the answer and the scientific basis of how such questions can be answered. After seeing each of his questions answered and learning much about the nature of man and science, Joe has one or more revelations which I have yet to work out. Perhaps he concludes that mankind is a hopeless cause. Or maybe the opposite. Or maybe he determines that knowing anything has no value at all. There's lots of possibilities. It's just a fragment of an idea so far.