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September 29, 2005
Time Machine--WEbring #9
The topic this week is from Mr. Prize In Every Box: If you had a time machine you could use only once, what would you do with it? Would you go to the past or the future? Whom would you want to meet or what would you want to see?
I've always been very leery of the whole time travel thing. When people approach me saying, "Hey Ms. Write Again Soon, would you like to try out our fantastic time travel machine?", I always gracefully decline. Who knows what disaster I might wreak on the universe if I could go back and forth (even just once). If I went back, I might change something that would alter my life's course--and I might not find myself here. And frankly, here is pretty good, even if that means sitting in my parents' house in front of the computer.
And if I went forward, I think we can agree (based on all the sci-fi literature in the public domain) there are really only two possibilities: 1) the world would be a disaster, thus sapping me of the will to make it better once I returned to the present time, or 2) the world would be exactly the same, thus sapping me of the will to make it better once I returned to the present time. Basically, I like the mystery--I find it motivating.
On a side note, I would like to point out that in some cosmic g-love thing happening here, there has been a lot of talk about time travel recently. I refer you to the recent Dilbert "corporate time travel" machine series September 19-21. And then the Defective Yeti's review of The Time Traveler's Wife, and an ensuing critique of the problems with time travel in literature and film. And then there's the...well, I guess that's about it. But it seemed like a lot.
All that said, if I could use a time machine only once, I would probably go back to yesterday morning and tell myself not to read Ms. NYC Rouge's web entry of the day. That was a mental image I did not need.
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For other commentary on this topic, see:
I'd Rather Be Traveling
Post No Bills
A Prize in Every Box
Bad Apologies
Wish to See
A Little Maryment
Comments
I spent many a high-school history class figuring out what would happen if time travel was possible. I deduced that it is impossible to "change" the present by going back in the past and doing something, because it would mean that your going back in the past and doing something was already figured into the time continueum (sp?) and that your act of going back and changing it is precisely what made your present the way it is before you went back.
On that note, the best, and more realistic (in terms of "getting" the implications of time travel) is The Final Countdown (spoiler included! Don't read the whole page if you don't want to spoil the great ending!!! )
Posted by: gizmo guy at September 30, 2005 05:38 AM
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Posted by: kuper at September 18, 2008 02:59 AM
