Time Travel
What if we could travel back in time? What would we do in the past if we could travel there? Or would the future be preferred? For those of you who are unsure of what I mean by time travel. For me, time travel is the movement between points in time and space. There are tons of time travel movies out there that show us the endless possibilities of what could be done if time travel were possible. Most movies revolve around a time travel device, which one has to use to travel. In other words, a vehicle. It would be pretty amazing if we could go back or forwards in time. There are so many possibilities. You could meet new people, literally rewrite history and find out about humanity´s long lost secrets. In the future, you could see what awaits us and what we should expect. No matter if you want to travel to the past or the future, one thing is clear, you are going to have one heck of an adventure. However, has anyone thought about the consequences? The advantages seem pretty obvious and fun, but has anyone thought about the consequences of going back or forwards in time?
How does Time Travel work?
Time travel is technically possible according to scientists, but it will certainly not be like the time travel you see in the movies. It will only be a trip into the future by a few seconds. ell, depending on the speed you are travelling, and for how long you are travelling at that speed, you can travel into the future by a few minutes, an hour or even years. This phenomenon is called time dilation. Since I am not quite sure how to explain it properly, I found a video by Ted-Ed that explains it quite nicely. Honestly, the Ted-Ed videos are amazing at explaining complex things or telling mythical stories. Therefore, I suggest that you check it out occasionally and maybe even learn something new.
Travel to the past
So, time travel like we see in the movies is not exactly possible now. Probably in the distant future, the scientists will find a way to go back in time. However, for now, we can only use our imagination. Hypothetically, what would you do if you could travel back in time? A lot of people say they would want to go back in time to kill baby Hitler. However, has anyone thought about the consequences of doing that? In no way am I saying that whatever Hitler did was acceptable or even humane, but would killing Hitler be the best option? Lets run it through. We go back to April 20, 1889, when Hitler was born. Just like Deadpool, we will go to the hospital where Hitler was born and eventually we would hire an assassin to do it since we are not cruel enough to kill a baby, even though the baby is Hitler a future dictator. Now he is dead. What are the ramifications of killing Hitler? Well, a welcome side effect is that World War two won´t happen because of Hitler. What else? There is no way to say for sure what the consequences are since there is no way of knowing. Nobody can go back in time to kill him and if someone did, will we know? Think about it for a moment. If someone killed baby Hitler. How exactly do we now know who Hitler is? There would be no records about him since he is dead and no longer a significant historical dictator. Maybe in Hitler´s place, some other maniac would exploit the articles of the law that Hitler used to rise to power. Which will eventually cause another World war. Maybe there would not be another person who takes over Germany and everything would be fine. Germany would be bigger than it is today and Berlin won´t be split amongst the allies and the Soviet Union. What now? I am no history expert, but one thing is for sure. The world we know today, as we know it, would not be the same. All we can do is speculate based on facts and think about the what-ifs. There is no way to prove anything, and there is no way to know since we don´t currently have the required technology available. Which is honestly a shame, since it would have been interesting to know what would happen if Hitler never existed. Honestly, it would be generally interesting to see what would happen if. What would happen if WW1 never started? What would happen if Korea never separated? What would happen if the cold war didn't start? What if the founding fathers did not find anything? What would happen if some influential people never existed, like Einstein or Newton? Would we still know about relativity or gravity? All we have now are educated guesses. Nothing is set in stone. Maybe eventually we will find out, but for now, all we can do is make educated guesses and hope that we are close to what could have happened if we could rewrite history. (It is hard to believe that we are technically living through and writing history.)
On YouTube, there is actually a video about whether someone would in time to kill baby Hitler. It is quite interesting to watch and points out certain aspects of time travel that I did not even think of.
Travel to the future
Let´s just say you don´t want to change the past, but you want to know what will happen in the future. Some of you may think, what? The future will be different. Depending on how far you are travelling, but yeah the future will be different. Even only a few months from now. We may not realize it but technologies are advancing every day. Some life-changing invention may come tomorrow, which will shape the future. It is interesting to see how some people don’t expect the world to be different in the let´s say five years since we are living through the changes and the changes just seem normal. It is hard to picture that five years is considered the future isn´t it. We all expect that the future will be a distant thing maybe hundreds of years later, but when people say the future is coming, they are not wrong. The future is coming every day with the changes that come along with it. Even though we are not expecting it. For example, the phone. Many people can´t imagine life without it. The first telephone was invented in 1876 and that model is far from the smartphones we have today. The phone keeps evolving along with us, so the change might not seem that drastic, but what if you told someone of the 19th century how the world will be like today. Heck, tell someone in the 20th century how technology has advanced. They will call you an eccentric dreamer. Nobody is expecting change, since we are living through it and we can´t visualize how different the world will be in the future, since it feels so distant. Due to the distant feeling, we may not expect the changes the future generations will live with.
Now that we have discussed how different the future can be from today, let´s discuss what you would want to do with your imaginary time machine. How far in the future do you want to travel? A few months, years or even centuries? Do you want to come back or stay in the future? Maybe you want to travel a few months forward to skip a traumatic life event and stay in the future where you did not witness that event. Maybe you want to go into the future by a few years since you want to know the results of an event beforehand. Maybe you are just curious and want to see if we have flying cars by travelling centuries into the future. I do not know what you want to do. Maybe you are just like the self-centred Biff from back to the future who uses the information he gains in the future to his advantage. Just like travelling into the past, travelling into the future may have some unintended ramifications that no one thought about. For example, you use the time machine to travel into the future to skip an event of your life. You do need to consider that you are not present at that time; therefore, you may have to repeat the event you missed. Alternatively, people assume you are dead and you will have to start again. Just remember that you are going forward in time. That does not mean that you will change along with the passage of time. When you travel to the future, you may not fit in since humans have evolved into something that you will never be. Not saying that evolution is a bad thing, but you won´t fit in nevertheless and you could become a lab rat where people use you to forward their research. You never know. Okay, let´s say you use the information you gained in the future to exploit the past. You know all the lottery numbers and win each time. You will probably become the richest and “luckiest” person on earth. Maybe just by winning the lottery that often, you may be hated. Alternatively, other people want to become your friends and use you, since you are rich. Maybe just by being rich, you lose a bunch of your friends. Just by playing the lottery, you could have missed a golden opportunity that fulfils your life. Something money can´t buy. Honestly, no one can say for sure what will happen if we can travel into the future. However, one thing you should keep in mind is that small actions can have large consequences. The only question is, will you make the consequences work in your favour, or the favour of the general public since what is good for you may hurt many. This is called the butterfly or snowball effect, depending on what terminology you use. And time travel might just mess with the fragile balance of life. Not saying that humanity should not explore time travel, since I am incredibly curious, but all I am saying is that we should keep the consequences in the back of our mind. We have already destroyed the environment, do we want to destroy the time-space continuum as well?
Time Travel paradox
There are a lot of paradoxes related to time travel. One of the many is the grandfather paradox. What would happen if you travel back in time to prevent your grandfather from meeting your grandmother? If that encounter did not happen? Your father would probably not be born, which in retrospect means that you will not be born. How can you travel back in time to repeat that if you do not exist? Since you do not exist, you can´t go back in time to prevent your grandfather from meeting your grandmother. Which means your father will exist and you will exist. It is a confusing paradox. There are different theories. Maybe you will create an alternate timeline where you and your father won't exist. Maybe you will live in a loop where you continue the encounter between grandfather and grandmother for the rest of your life. Anything can happen, since there is no way to prove either theory correct, since, again, we do not have the technology yet. So I am open to discussion since it would interest me what some other theories may be and how we can prove them.
Another paradox is more in the realm of our capabilities. It is called Einstein´s twin paradox. What would happen if identical twins decided to take part in an experiment where one twin will stay on earth and another will travel in space? As you probably know by now, astronauts travel faster through time, therefore their time is perceived to go slower. If you don´t, the link for the video about time travel is above. The question will then be, which twin will be older? Or will they be the same age? It makes sense to say that both twins will remain the same age if the other twin comes back from space, but knowing how time travel works and how time passes, can you really say that? Ted-Ed has provided another video that explains Einstein´s twin paradox. Don´t worry, when people hear Einstein, they normally expect something complex and not understandable, but that is not true. Just give the video a try. Maybe we have found the secret to a long life after all. But when everyone lives longer, will it still feel longer? Time travel and paradoxes are so confusing. However, not thinking about it does not make it better, since then we won´t know anything at all. Would that be preferable?
Conclusion
Time is a fickle thing. Time travel is a constant dilemma. Should I or shouldn´t I. Generally imagining what could happen fascinates millions of people. There are also times in our lives, which we wish we could repeat. One day I hope we can solve humanity's undiscovered secrets using some kind of time manipulation device. We could see what happens without changing a thing, but the question will then be, do we want to? As mentioned, time travel is a complex idea that has evolved over the years. There are endless possibilities of what could happen with time travel, and there will be endless situations created by what we do. No matter if you want to travel to the past or the future. One thing is clear. We can mess up, big time. We may never discover hidden treasures lost in time, but maybe it is for the best.