h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you have not been authorized to read Fact Sheet 3, then DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!!!

Fact Sheet 3:

Organised Time Travel In the 21st Century
(who and why, but not when)

THE WORLD COMMUNITY TEMPORAL UNION (WCTU) - The WCTU is dedicated to the study, and to a lesser extent the protection, of time and the past. They are the United Nations regulatory body which legally administers time travel. The WCTU adheres to the theory of Absolute Time. Absolutists believe that there is only one past, constant and unchanging. You cannot change the past, only observe it. Their answer to that age old question is "You cannot kill your grandfather because you didn't." Time paradoxes are impossible. A time traveller can only return to the past to do something they have always been destined to do because, in a manner of speaking, they have already done it.

For this reason (and just in case Absolute Time is wrong) the WCTU has a strict policy of non-intervention. Their motto is "Never be the cause of the phenomenon you are studying." Violators of this prime directive face revocation of their license to travel temporally (at the very least). The WCTU also very strictly forbids "meeting yourself." Unfortunately, the WCTU has few operatives of their own, with most time travel being conducted by free-lancers under license to the WCTU. The morals of these time travellers vary .The WCTU overseers in the Enforcement Division are feared throughout the time stream, but they cannot be everywhen. Unfortunate indiscretions can occur .

COMMITTEE AGAINST REAL, TIME (CART) - CART is the philosophical and legal opposition to the WCTU and these organisations are mortal enemies. Not only does CART believe the past can be changed, CART agents (using unlicensed time machines) actively attempt to change the past for financial and political gains in the present. To date there is no evidence of any successful CART operation, though CART claims that originally this was a world where Abraham Lincoln was NOT assassinated.

CART's methods are as brutal as any criminal organisation, they are little more than terrorists. CART is responsible for the death of thousands - WCTU operatives and civilians alike. Little is known about CART members, their goals, or their funding, though WCTU members joke that CART's money comes from the insurance on their assassinated grandfathers (WCTU members also make bad jokes about "put before the CART before the horse.")

Note: as of the 21st century no way has been found to travel into the future. Time travellers may only journey to the past and return to the present.