This is in response to Romantico, so SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!
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This movie used the idea of multiple realities, in other words, by going back in time and changing the events of the past Nero DID NOT change the events of HIS REALITY?S past, but a completely different past. This means that there is a reality (the one we have always followed) where Spock failed and Romulous was destroyed and Ambassador Spock is now gone.
The reality that Abram?s movie(s?) takes place in no longer has Vulcan as a planet and has both young and old Spock (though Old Spock is now working on building a Vulcan colony).
The reason Old Spock had no problem telling Kirk, Spock and Scotty the future is that IT IS NO LONGER THEIR FUTURE. It is the future of a different reality.
This is a brilliant way of having the crew of the Enterprise go on random missions that have nothing to do with the ?original? mythology, because we are now dealing with a different reality.
What is truly amazing is that the idea of parallel realities is very real. I studied it in my AstroBiology class. What it says is that if there is a break in the universe (scientists usually think it will be a wormhole, though a blackhole might work) someone could travel from one reality to another, and because of the lateral shifting of the universes (think of the movement of the tectonic plates) when they reached the other side they would be either in the past or in the future. This means someone could alter what happens in the past, but not be affected themselves (ie- not Back to the Future)
Abrams is working with very real theories here, which makes it use in the movie AWESOME.
Hopefully this makes sense.
David walked into the valley
With a stone clutched in his hand
He was only a boy
But he knew someone must take a stand
There will always be a valley
Always mountains one must scale
There will always be perilous waters
Which someone must sail
-Into the Fire
Scarlet Pimpernel
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