Conditional Reality

Bitpart Stripmine received an e-mail in 2005 that had been sent on the 43rd day of Spring, in the year 2172. The e-mail claimed to be from a descendent of Bitpart, who was doing genealogical research and wanted personal information about him: where he was born, his marital status, the names and ages of his children, and so on. Bitpart immediately wrote back: When am I going to die? An answer came back: We're not allowed to tell you that. Information can only go one way. Bitpart put the e-mail in his trash. Temporal spam, he muttered, the worst kind.