Quotation? (time travel's strongest counterargument)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here are some raw GB matches that show a quotation Hawking may have
written or said. But I haven't found solid evidence yet:

Engineering & Science - Volume 55 - Page 21
books.google.com/books?id=kylIAQAAIAAJ
1991 - Snippet view - More editions
But the best evidence we have that time travel is not possible and
never will be, is that we have not been invaded by hordes of tourists
from the future. means that a tiny change in the initial situation can
lead to change in the subsequent ...

Nonlinear problems in relativity and cosmology - Page 184
books.google.com/books?id=HJhFAAAAYAAJ
J. Robert Buchler, Steven Detweiler, James R. Ipser - 1991 -
Snippet view - More editions
... of physics will always prevent the creation of CTCs.5 He has also
suggested (half facetiously) that "there is strong experimental
evidence in favour of this conjecture in the fact we have not been
invaded by hordes of tourists from the future."

On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 5:34 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Quotation? (time travel's strongest counterargument)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Joel: Here is a preliminary comment. This is an old question/paradox
> in science fiction. But finding the matching phrasing might be
> difficult.
>
> The quotation is not mentioned on the main Wikiquote page for Hawking
> (nor the Talk page). However, the excerpt below could be transformed
> into the quotation.
>
> Title: A Brief History of Time
> Author: Stephen Hawking
> Date: 1998, First published in 1988
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=oZhagX6UWOMC&q=overrun#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> This might explain why we have not yet been overrun by tourists from
> the future, but it would not avoid the problems that would arise if
> one were able to go back and change history.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Here is an instance where the quotation was attributed to Hawking by 2004
>
> Peridocal: Popular Science
> Date: Feb 2004
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=rdCPa_yGqF0C&q=overrun#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> His most famous science-fiction-writer-befuddling question: If time
> travel is possible, why haven't we been overrun by tourists from the
> future?
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 4:51 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      Quotation? (time travel's strongest counterargument)
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I apologize for asking the list -- I don't do quotations, and don't
>> own the reference books.
>>
>> Who first said "if time travel were possible, we would have been
>> overrun by tourists from the future by now."  Stephen Hawking, or someone else?
>>
>> Joel
>>
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>
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