Physic is not random. If time traveller is here now, then it was here forever, because to be here at time T, it must be here at time T-1 too. Even if we develop a time machine to change Universe at time T, then change will propagate in both T+1 and T-1 directions. Timetravelers are our brothers and sisters.
> If time traveller is here now, then it was here forever, because to be here at time T, it must be here at time T-1 too
If you believe in non-random deterministic universe then at T-1 (and always since big bang) traveler was already here in the shape of ancestors, just like at some point you existed in your mom and dad and before that in whatever big bang elements etc.
Who’s to say we’re living in the corrected branch? Commit fae12 doesn’t benefit from a patch being applied to its great grand parent and the history since then being rebased off of that.
In my most Hotep-y daydreams, I've sometimes wondered if this is the timeline where a group of scrappy, persecuted white dudes traveled back in time to make sure that Western civilization would become the primary world power (instead of, like, an expansionist ancient China or Egypt or Persia).
Yeah, it's exactly what you would expect someone like Card to write, but if you go into it knowing the views of its author, it almost becomes like a parody of his politics and becomes quite an enjoyable read on "I wonder how many crazy reasons he's going to bring up why Columbus was actually a hero".