Sunday, September 18, 2011

Sensitive Geek MAN: You're not thinking 4th Dimensionally

I really enjoy the subject of Time Travel.

I am not entirely sure why I do, but I have a few thoughts.

First, I think that I engage with Historical subject matter more fully when I see how things could have turned out instead of how things did turn out.  The comparison makes it easier for me to really engage with the original subject.

Second, the idea of being able to revise mistakes is sort of attractive. I think most of us can relate to that.

Third, I like that most of the revisionist time travel stories deal with how the attempt to change the past actually causes more problems than it solves.

When I think about Time Travel and the actual possibility of it, I have to assume that, if Time Travel were possible, the traveler would not be able to actually change anything. He would be a spectator at best. If he was actually able to interact in a significant way, I have to believe that anything he would do would simply contribute to the way things turned out in the first place.  Revisionist versions of Time Travel are interesting thought experiments, but they inherently imply that there is no plan for creation. Being a Christian, I have to believe that God has a plan for us and is therefore moving things in specific directions for specific purposes. He may allow us a certain amount of freedom to make choices inside that plan, but not enough to invalidate the overall goal.

Also, a revisionist concept of Time also implies that God may not have crafted time all that well, if we could potentially jump around inside it and change things. If Time Travel is possible, I think that God's impeccable crafting of Time would take into account that travel and integrate it into it's whole. Really, if you continue with that, it really makes it so that Time Travel itself is very likely impossible, at least as long as you exist inside it. It is so well crafted that nothing bound within it could violate it in any meaningful way.

I've probably thought about this too much.

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