Are there any time travel stories that use "ghost theory"?

[SpeedOfLight6]

By "ghost theory" I mean that you can travel to the past but not directly interact with it to change anything.
I've thought about the concept of time travel a lot and I believe this (or something similar to this) is the only way you can make backwards time travel logically work without invoking multiple timelines or sacrificing free will, so I'm curious of there are any science fiction stories that use this.
I know this exists in A Christmas Carol but that's not something we usually think of as a time travel story.
I'm fine with this being in the form of a book, movie, or any other medium to tell a story.

 

[Bick]

By "ghost theory" I mean that you can travel to the past but not directly interact with it to change anything.
I've thought about the concept of time travel a lot and I believe this (or something similar to this) is the only way you can make backwards time travel logically work without invoking multiple timelines or sacrificing free will, so I'm curious of there are any science fiction stories that use this.
I know this exists in A Christmas Carol but that's not something we usually think of as a time travel story.
I'm fine with this being in the form of a book, movie, or any other medium to tell a story.

Yes, Cryptozoic by Brian Aldiss.

See here.

 

[BAYLOR]

You might also want to look at Kelly Country by A Bertram Chandler.

 

[Wayne Mack]

A borderline case can be made for the Harry Potter story with the time turner. In the story, the future selves seemed constrained to act in the ways observed by their prior selves. On one hand, the future selves didn't change anything that had happened, but, on the other hand, the future selves actions did influence what did happen.

 

[SpeedOfLight6]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I don't consider Harry Potter's time turner to fit under this, since you can send people information about their own future, contradictory to free will.

 

[BAYLOR]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I don't consider Harry Potter's time turner to fit under this, since you can send people information about their own future, contradictory to free will.

Ubbo-Sathla by Clark Ashton Smith

 

[BAYLOR]

The Plutonian Drug by Clark Ashton Smith

 

[AllanR]

In E for Effort, novella by Sherred, the protagonist has a machine that can view the past and makes historical movies with it. While the machine can only view, the point of view can be put wherever one wishes.

 

[msstice]

In E for Effort, novella by Sherred, the protagonist has a machine that can view the past and makes historical movies with it. While the machine can only view, the point of view can be put wherever one wishes.

Reminds me of a movie called Time Lapse (2014) ⭐ 6.5 | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi though that goes the other direction.