Something that has been bothering me lately is the future; that ever present, non existent concept and reality that stimulates action and contemplation for us all at some point or another. In a few months my world that has been fairly stress free for the last three years will change and I will have to go out and do something else. The problem there however is that I don't really know what that something will be. There are lots of uncertainties around the upcoming finishing line and I have no idea as to what will be coming next. My response has been divided. Not thinking about it has not been an option, thus I have done two things, neither of which have be totally useful, a) I have looked for something else to do after, and b) I have allowed my mind to wonder over something else and I have stumbled over what is basically counter productive; time travel.
Now, I need to point out that this is not a consideration I am thinking as a response to finishing uni. Going back to the beginning, were it even possible would be the last thing I would want to do. The prospect of reading another book by Virginia Woolf is enough to push anyone in productive direction. Instead I have gotten stuck in the procrastination of inventive and imaginative thought.
The problem with time travel seems to be based around the possibility of erasing ones own future from corrupting the past, for if you were to stand between your parent's meeting point at a dance, (for that is how people always tradionally met before the invention of 'girl on the platform smile' Match.com the internet came about) you would have never been born thus causing your timeline to fade out of existence. I however think that things could be a little bit more complicated then that. If one was to time travel, wouldn't they want to jump bigger distances? Going back to you're parent's generation would only spark the realisation that our generation was not the first to invent protests, sex and men with eyeliner, a realisation not many would like to engage with. So, what are the problems with jumping bigger spans of time?
The biggest problem I think is development. Lets say for instance a Roman was to travel outside of his/her own epoch, from walking along their straight road, a trip in time would land them to being sandwiched by a lorry shunting a Smart Car down the A1. A time travelling saxon may materialise inside an insulated wall cavity. The only survivor for a time travelling ancestor would be a worker from the 19th century; he would materialise in his own home almost exactly as it was, only redecorated with upholstery and wall coverings which were available and fashionable at the time... thank you very much National Trust. But what would be there for us? If I think about myself as to where I would be in a years time, I could find myself doing much the same as I am now. Siting on an Ikea island typing on a computer in silence. Hardly worth the effort. But if I was to travel further forward, would I be in a better position? A densely populated planet with populations squatting on a fault line waiting to be swallowed up by a crack in the earth, a couple of wind turbines chopping through smog and a grumpy load of people complaining about the mistakes we made that put them in the situation they are in now. Going along those lines could be getting a little bit political for my liking, thus I tend to give up and look at jobsite for someplace to work when I finish what I am doing here.
