What would it mean to be able to return to a moment in your past? Do you have the ability to travel through time capriciously and to return whenever you feel like it, or are you limited to a certain amount of voyages? Are you even allowed to come back to the present time, or do you have to live through your past again? Furthermore, what happens when you do something different and you change the past? I don’t think I’d be able to address every single interpretation of time travel, but my choices would probably differ depending on the rules of the time travel.
If I could return to the past- I’d definitely change things. Maybe a bunch of small moments, like a few times when I acted embarrassingly in public, or even just a different line of conversation. I remember a time when a kid insulted me in elementary school - he really got me good - and a few hours later, while standing in the shower, I came up with a really, really good comeback. I don’t remember the conversation or any of the insults, but I certainly do remember how much I wished I could go back to that one moment and absolutely destroy this kid’s face. Sure, it’s not incredibly significant in the big scheme of things, but it was still important to 8-year old me that I demolish a random child with my words.
But then you’re faced with the possibility that, maybe, this power of time travel could be used in a better, less selfish way. Depending on how this power worked, you could potentially travel to anytime in your life. This begs the question, do I keep the knowledge I’ve gained when I go back? I was born about 4 months before 9/11, but even if I was an infant, I could, possibly, still find a way to prevent it. It’d definitely be amazing to go back and be able to influence past events, but what about the impact of my actions? What would happen when I returned to the present time?
If you don’t consider the possibility of preventing terrorist attacks, even changing a personal event could end up being catastrophic. There’s a possibility that ruining a kid’s life with a perfectly-planned comeback would set me up for a life of disaster. Maybe the kid was traumatized and lost all respect for mankind, leading to another terrorist. There’s an infinite list of bad possibilities that might result from a small change in my past, and at this point, I ask: Is it really worth it?
Maybe, just maybe, this returning to the past ability is only limited to things like reliving a moment in your past again or experiencing a certain event another time. Maybe you can only do it once, and then you have to immediately return to the present without changing anything. My personal problem is that if I could return to my past, I wouldn’t have anything significant to return to. There isn’t a single moment I remember that stands out as heavenly bliss or existential revelation. I can’t even think of a particular memory I would go back and relive. What would I gain from having the ability to return to my past?
Even if time travel was vague and loosely defined in this scenario, I think that, despite the possible good outcomes, I would not choose to use this ability. I don’t have any moments I would return to, happy or life-changing. Maybe I could change myself to be a better person by changing my past. Maybe I could even save a few lives while at it, but the amount of possibilities is infinite, and there’s no way of knowing what would happen. The one thing I do know, however, is that I’m okay with who I am, and there’s no need to revisit the past.
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