If I could go back and do something over it would be the end of my sanity. Ok, that's a funny way to start a post, but let's get deep and geeky. People have been obsessed with time travel since ancient times (wikipedia says the earliest recorded story relating time travel was written in 720 in Japan). These days Dr. Who seems to be the king to travel through time (and space!) but just about every sci-fi franchise has it's time travel moments, many of them being some of the most entertaining episodes. And many of them dealing with the time paradox in interesting ways. In Futurama the time machine just lands on top of alternative-timeline Frye; in Harry Potter they just have to avoid seeing yourself and all is well; in Stargate SG-1... well they just frak around with time every way possible. Some time-travel scenarios are better than others, both in believability and in not-totally-screwing-up-the-time-continuum-ness.But I didn't start this post to talk about the fascinating topic of time paradoxes. As fun as that would be, I started this post with the intent of ignoring it completely. Because the point I want to make is that just having the ability to go back in time, no scratch that, to even think you might have the ability to go back in time and change something would drive the human mind absolutely insane. Well, at least my human mind. If I start to think abut it, even as a mental exercise, my crazy mind goes in circles, something like this:
Ok, I only get one thing, so I should pick something BIG like not dating my last boyfriend before my husband. Well wait, that could seriously impact the start of my relationship with my husband, so maybe not. Maybe something smaller, like somehow stopping myself from getting that concussion. But then I wouldn't know as much about concussions and might have not been able to mentor my girl who got one, and I wouldn't have started this blog and, and, and... Ok, thing smaller still, maybe stopping myself from drinking the janitor's Coke in 3rd grade, that was embarrassing. But that's so early who knows what random things it could change for better or worse. Ok, I know something recent and mundane, I'll actually say that clever thing I thought of saying 2 hours after talking to my sister. Oh my god, am I really going back in time just to make a kegels joke? I'm wasting time travel, I need to think of something bigger...
And if the proposition were real, that's how my mind would cycle, on and on, forever and ever. And that's why if I could go back and do something over... I wouldn't. You can't make me. Because great things come after terrible things. And terrible things make us who we are. I'm not saying this is true for everybody. Some people might really want to change something. But for me, I think the temptation to change the past would be like opening a family size bag of potato chips. You can't have just one, and you'll probably eventually regret having any at all.
This is great! It's so true. I remember in HS reading a story (I have no idea who wrote it, probably someone famous) about some people that went back in time when the dinosaurs lived and how they had to stay on the designated path or else they might screw things up in the future. One guy accidentally stepped off the path, stepping on a butterfly and killing it (you probably know this story, but I'll go on - and this may not even be totally accurate seeing as how I read it in HS, but it stuck with me). When he got back to the present the entire English language was different and other things had changed. All because of that butterfly. Because I guess it was scheduled to distract some dinosaur that was going to eat another dinosaur or something and that was going to completely change the English language. Or something like that. But it was really fascinating.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the "butterfly effect" ... it's a good thing time travel is actually impossible.
DeleteYou are so right that great things come after terrible things! I sortof did the same for my post. I originally wrote a whole bunch of words about why I wouldn't change things...then deleted all of them and said I'd change nothing. Great minds think alike!
ReplyDeleteIndeed! :)
DeleteYes, absolutely. However, if guarantees were given, I would definitely not date about 5 guys I did before my husband. Jerks.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Dr. Who. Honestly, have no clue about that show. I'm seeing so many of you writing about it, I'm starting to feel out of the loop!
I'm not a super big Dr. Who fan, but it's worth checking out if you've never seen it before. Loads of people dig it.
DeleteGlad to have found an new blog! I think the idea of time travel--just thinking of it--drives me nuts even without it being possible. Back to the Future is the movie that sticks out in my mind when I think about time travel, mainly because it was big when I was not. And I remember having major issues with the plot line. Changing one thing really affects lots of other things. Gives me a headache!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
That's one of those movies that I was just young enough to not get when it came out, but then when I saw it later I felt like I missed the boat.
DeleteTime travel has always fascinated me and I did study the possibilities. It is possible to go forward in time and astronauts do it all the time. The faster you travel the slower time moves. My problem is with going back in time. There is a hypothesis that states how this can be possible but my tiny brain cannot take it in. To me once an event has happened it can never be revisited.
ReplyDeleteI simply do not have the time to read and comment on all the entries in this hop so I randomly choose ones where the picture has some significance to me. I loved the London police box (Tardis) and remember having my photo taken by one as a kid when I was a huge fan of Dr. Who
Yes, I remember when I was like 13 I read the Ender series and in the later books there's stuff about traveling faster than light and how time passes differently and that totally broke my brain. Once you get actual physics involved it's all too much for me, I'll stick with the fiction. :)
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