Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

'''Card, Orson Scott. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus.''' New York: Tor, 1996. (First of a promised Pastwatch series.) Discussed briefly and put into thematic context in Stephen Baxter's "The Technology of Omniscience: Past Viewers in Science Fiction."

Premise stated by Baxter, "In the twentieth-third century, chastened eco-collapse survivors use a 'Tempoview' to trace the great crimes of Western civilization down to the actions of one man — Christopher Columbus." When it turns out that they can not only observe history but change it, the characters in our future decide to change that of Columbus, "even though this will mean the obliteration of those presently alive" (Baxter, p. 99).

Plot summarized in detail in the entry in Wikipedia.

See for the device and the ethical/moral dilemma.

RDE, Initial compiler, 17Mar19