You have a way with words, Scheherazade.

You have a way with words, Scheherazade.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Time Travel : Part Un

A lofty topic I will take on in parts. My goal here is merely to flesh out my nascent thoughts on the subject. But first, a preface:

At the age of 9 I discovered Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, and, subsequently, the twin paradox. The source was my very own volume of encyclopedias, my only reference tool in those pre-internet times, which I poured over incessantly. For some reason I was particularly enamored with this one-sheet thought experiment and so in a frame and on my wall it went.

I was still incredulous when it came to "TV" time travel, which went way beyond the simple premise (stated by the theory of relativity) that the faster you travel through space, the slower you travel through time.

My interest in the subject was left off here and my opinion remained the same (until recently) - that it may be possible to slow the speed at which one moves through time. I decidedly did not believe in "time travel" because Einstein's theory does not allow one to "go back" in time, and Back to the Future's unfortunate dearth of scientific backing left me unswayed. Although I was relatively intrigued by the idea that the future was so sensitive to a minor change in the course of events.

This brings us to the present noise on time travel, harmonious in the acceptance of one major principle: One cannot alter a course of events that has already taken place: sorry Doc, no disappearing from pictures or setting off chain reactions that revoke Marty's existence. (I mean that concept right there is really illogical in and of itself - that one can "unexist.")

1 comment:

TP said...

I thoroughly Enjoyed your time travel posts. It's a topic of great importance to me for I spent years of my childhood trying to understand this concept, contradicting myself over and over untill I would eventualy feel as though I'd lost my mind. Eventualy I accepted the fact that there are many things in our universe That are way beyond me, lol, and I'm cool with that, as long as it means I don't have to be perplexed by them anymore.

PS- Turns out Laura Berlin might actualy be a Genious after all