I now agree with all of you about the recording being weird - it doesn't make a lot of sense. It seems that the computer is saying Lavos has yet to rise - I missed that part. I guess the only way it would make sense is if it was a recording from 1999 or before that had been preserved.
But, something else unrelated that I'll just throw out there.... Are we sure the Time Devourer, in it's state before Serge is saved, can do anything from the DBT? We've heard that is has the potential to devour space-time. But, do we know if it can do that while it's sitting in the DBT bonding with Schala?
We know that it was least discussed that Serge might bond with the TD, and that the being would then be completed. Serge would complete the being because he is an Arbiter of the Frozen Flame, theoretically. But, if Serge dies as an Arbiter, then maybe the TD can't be "completed"? And, if it can't be completed, and it can't do anything in it's current (Schala-only) state, then there is no threat. However, if Serge survives, the threat exists of the TD being completed, thus destroying space time. And, playing off of Thought's post in the TTI/TB/TE thread, since nothing in the Chrono series changes until and action takes place (e.g. the TD being defeated by Serge), it could be assumed that, unless Serge acts otherwise, the TD will consume him and destroy the world.
Perhaps the ruined future that Miguel and the ghosts refer to is that future. It's not the exact future of Lavos destroying the world in 1999 AD, but it is a future where Lavos destroys the world.
An interesting note to that - if it's true that the TD is no threat as long as Serge is dead, then Belthasar put the entire world (at least Home World, but maybe all worlds) in jeopardy just to save Schala, by resurrecting Serge in Home World.
And, I still suspect it goes back further than that, and that Belthasar had Schala cause the storm that made Serge an Arbiter in the first place, but that's another story...