July 02, 2009
Time Travel
I used to think I knew the rules for what happens to you if you go back in time and meet yourself. Disaster, right? The Back to the Future movies taught me all I ever needed to know about what happens if you go back in time. Now it’s in my head so please sing this line – “Take me away, I don’t mind, you better promise me I’ll be back in time.”
OK, we’re was I? Oh yes. Marty McFly and Doc Brown taught me that if I ever go back in time and meet myself, to be very careful that I don’t change the course of history, lest I want my brother’s picture to dissolve. This makes sense. If I grew up to be the President of the United States, got in my CIA time machine, and went back to see myself when I was 16, I could change everything. If I said to my younger, impressionable self, “Edward, trust me. A lot of being the president is sitting in meetings.” Ugh. Right there, young Edward might have decided to change his aspirations and become a vet. And what would happen to old Edward? I guess I’d disappear because now President Barnes never existed.
The recent Star Trek movie changes this simple truth. In the movie, old Spock meets young Spock, they speak, and there are no problems. Young Spock is about to go on adventures for years. I would think that meeting oneself would change the way one views life. Is it a given that you will live to become old Spock? I doubt it. If an older Ed came to see me, isn’t it possible that I would assume that I would grow to be 96 at least, so maybe I could rob a bank or try to catch a bullet with my teeth? And then I would die, and old Ed would die too, right? According to Star Trek, I’m not so sure. But I can’t help but wonder what will happen if young Spock looks at old Spock, thinks to himself, “That old man looks like he’s been through hell - instead of going into space, I’m going to open a little boutique.” I don’t know what his life would be like, but I bet he’d end up living long and prospering.
Posted by ed at 14:16 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
State Of Fear