[quigonkenny]

Agreed on the Disappearance being unavoidable. If she could have changed it, she would have, as you suggested, even though she knew how and when it would happen (the "how" being nebulous, as she knew it was because of the "errors", but still didn't know enough about those "errors" to keep them from occurring).

Let me see if I can put it into what is likely more familiar terms... Let's say you're a respected and prodigiously intelligent scientist in an extremely advanced society, yet for all your brains and scientific abilties, you're able to do no more than predict the upcoming destruction of your planet by [sources vary], and do nothing about it directly, because you left your fix for [sources vary] in your other pants, with your time machine. That's Yuki prior to Disappearance, with the impending error build-up. Now, let's say that despite your inability to combat the problem directly, you can make sure that your society lives on, by sending your infant son to a planet far far away where the yellow sun will yadda-yadda-yadda... That's letting Kyon keep his memories. Now let's say that—purely hypothetically, mind you—somewhere down the road, that infant son grows up on that other planet to be a widely loved helper of society who flies around in tights and a cape, wearing his underwear on the outside, and through his travels, comes across the ticket you left him to pick up your other pants from the cleaners. That's the Emergency Escape Program. Get it now? ^_^