Niven seems to suggest that the idea of multiple timelines is absurd, and he declares alternate history fiction to be fantasies without the trappings of fantasy—that is, there is little science in them, so they are not the hard science fiction he prefers. Even so, he recognizes in the concept of alternate histories the opportunity to play with Ideas, to ask "What if?" In the case of "All the Myriad Ways," the what if is "How would people respond if alternate timelines were proven to be real?" His answer is that cause and effect would cease to be real to people, and people would behave in ways atypical for them, suicides by people who have no reason to kill themselves; murders by people who would normally abhor murder; crimes committed on whim. What people did would cease to seem to matter, because they would...