Honestly, I like the twenty-first century.
Compared to all of the other time periods throughout history, I believe that right now is one of the best to live in. We've got devices that can improve our ives, and even extend them. We can connect with and travel to anyone in the world. Perhaps best of all, I truly feel like I have the opportunity to do anything that I want to do with my life.
That being said, humans have had thousands of years to surely make certain time periods worth visiting. If I somehow got ahold of the DeLorean, the Tardis or some other time machine, I'd certainly put it to use.
The Past
I'd be very, very nervous travelling back into the past. As has been widely discussed in countless books and movies, the smallest little thing that I did could change the world. You've got to admit, it's interesting to think about. Consider yourself breathing at this moment. Imagine you take a deep breath, instead of a shallower one. Maybe, because of me instructing you to take that breath, you decide that this post is stupid, and you quit reading right now. Let's imagine that because you stopped reading this post, you get to bed a few minutes earlier. The next day, when you wake up for work, you might feel well rested. Because of this you get to work early. Your boss, seeing this, is happy with you, and the next day, he or she decides to reward you by buying you coffee. Unfortunately, on the extra trip to Tim Hortons your boss makes, he or she gets in a car crash. And maybe the person who hit your bosses car is shaken for the rest of the day. When they go to take a job interview later that day, they feel less confident and don't get the job. And so...
Anyways, you get my point. Any little thing could set off a chain reaction of slightly different events, leading to huge changes soon afterwards. Heck, if someone had said "bless you" to JK Rowling after she sneezed, she might have thought about that on a train ride and not thought about Harry Potter, who she said simply wandered into her head one day.
But imagining that I felt safe going into the past, there are several times I'd like to visit.
One of the first things I'd like to do is go back two thousand years or so and see all of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It's a bit of a tragedy that only one has survived to this day; now nobody will ever see what the other six were like. They would be incredible to see.
Another thing that would be interesting to see would be my parents when they were younger. And my grandparents. And my great-grandparents, and their parents, and their parents. What was my family like when they were in high school? Were they very similar to their present selves, or would I have trouble recognizing them on the street? It'd be interesting to find out.
Of course, I wouldn't want to simply observe all the time. There are a few things I'd like to change, providing they didn't have any unforeseen repercussions. There are two instances that jump most quickly to my mind. One, I'd like to go back... oh, I dunno, probably five or six years ago now, and tell my dad not to go driving at a certain time on a certain night. My dad, my sisters and I were driving someplace to do something or other (very descriptive, I know) when the car in front of us seemingly randomly slammed on the brakes. We stopped in time. The car behind us did not. Our car was rather messed up- as was Laura's back.
And although this is probably a little underhanded, I wouldn't mind going back in time with a gun and knocking out certain tyrants in the past. The one problem I can see with knocking off certain baddies is this; if they hadn't risen to power and done atrocious things, how would the rest of the world learn not to repeat their mistakes?
Future
Naturally, the true appeal in time travel is the ability to go into the future. I'd have less reservations about going into the future then the past; going into the past is like resetting everything. Going into the future is just continuing the game.
Unfortunately, it's drearily obvious what I'd want to do if I could travel in time to the future. First and foremost; how are me and my family fairing twenty-five years into the future? Have I achieved world domination yet? How's the health of my parents and grandparents? Do my siblings have good lives? How are my friends and the rest of my family doing? The best thing about all this is that if me, my friends, or anyone in my family is doing poorly, I can go back to present day and give them a sharp kick to the rear to get them on the right track.
Of course, you can't go to the future without marvelling at the new technology. I don't know what we'll invent next, but I do know that it'll be incredible. I can't help thinking, however, that maybe I'd rather have this revealed to me over the course of time? It might take all the fun out of it if I already knew what was coming next.
Yep, a time machine would be a pretty cool thing to have, even with all the risks involved. To me, time travel still seems to be in the realm of science fiction. But hey, Albert Einstein thought that we could, and who'd argue with Mr. E, right?
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you tomorrow.
-Mark
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