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Time Travel: A Serious Discussion; Seriously
Topic Started: Jun 9 2014, 02:15 PM (289 Views)
Hatsune Candy
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The soul of a forgotten file
I don't know if this is gonna go anywhere, but I've been wanting to discuss this with more people ever since it has been brought to my attention a few days ago. And now that I've formed some coherent thoughts about it, I'm going to.

So time travel. Can it be done? Should it be done? Do we even want to do it?

My biggest problem is should it be done, for a large variety of reasons. If the movies have taught me anything it's that time travel is a very powerful and very dangerous tool to use. For one, I believe in free will, I also believe in paranormal activity, but that doesn't mean either one exists. And one theory is that any time travel that will be done, has been done. So if someone travels back in time and alters the future, that has always been what was going to happen and they actually wouldn't be changing anything at all. The question remains on whether or not we want to prove that theory. Some might want to, but others would be more than happy to live a delusion thinking that they have the freedom to make their own decisions, like the way we do currently.

I'll have to admit, this theory makes the most sense, our present could just be someone else's past and vice verse. Whose to say that our present is the present that the universe is solely focused on. It's just like when humanity used to think that the Earth was the center of the universe, a highly unlikely and self centered theory. And the only way we are to know the truth is to see it for ourselves, but unlike with the Earth, we have to consider whether or not we even want to know the truth. It's a lot more to take in and most people might not be able to accept it.

Then there's also the possibility that that theory is wrong and we can change the past. I realize the butterfly effect is a real thing that happens everyday, that only proceeds to help me make my point better. It's just that with time travel, the butterfly effect is a lot more disastrous than the everyday butterfly effect. Would we really want swap out a relatively small disaster for a catastrophic event that could potentially destroy human life as we know it? I'm under the belief that (most) things happens for a reason and if we could go back in time and stop something that was meant to occur, all hell would break loose. Say we go back in time and stop 9/11 from ever happening (I'm sorry, but it was the only example I could think of). Okay, so the twin towers are fine now, whose to say the terrorists won't just try again? But on something else, like say... The White House. The government gets destroyed, country falls in turmoil, society starts to fall apart for all who live there, the terrorists win, you get the idea. And if we go back in time and try to stop that from happening, it would only further disrupt the future of humanity. It's a bit of an extreme example, but it gets the point across. In reality, even something as simple as our presence in the past could change the future in big ways and would essentially be unfixable because any attempt to go back and fix it would only proceed to alter the future even more. And if you're sticking with the theory of multiple timelines and whatnot, it doesn't matter, because you'd be stuck down that path you created along with the billions of other people in that alternate timeline.

Okay, so maybe we don't want to travel backwards through time, so what about forwards? Now that just raises a lot of ethnic concerns. Do we possess the right to see our future? Do we even want to know what happens in our future? I've always believed that nothing is set in stone, and by traveling to see our future we would basically be accepting that whatever we see there is what's gonna happen no matter what and that we have no say in it whatsoever. If we found out that it's something horrible, like nuclear fallout or whatever, then we would have to accept that that is our future and there is nothing we can do to change it. Like in a lot of movies that I've seen, trying to prevent the future is usually what makes it happen to begin with. So in others words, it goes back to that one question again and whether or not we want it answered. Do we have free will? Time travel, without a doubt, would answer that question for us. So the real question would be, do we want that kind of knowledge? I already know my answer. No, I don't. And I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me.

And then there's also the probability of power abuse to consider, it's a serious issue we'd have to think about before attempting time travel. Humanity has always had a tendency to abuse whatever power that they happen to have and there are, without a doubt, a lot of people out there who would use that technology for their own selfish needs and it probably wouldn't end well for the rest of humanity. Even if most of us want to use it to make the world a better place, not everyone is that kind hearted. So, as much as I love the idea of being able to travel through time (minus the fact that we're technically already time travelers), from a logical standpoint I just don't think we deserve that power. Especially when we still don't fully understand what the implications of the ability to move through time are. This is evident by the fact that time travel works differently in every single story that currently exists on the subject. In all likelyhood, any time travel would be under strict government regulation to prevent such a thing like abuse of power from ever happening and it probably wouldn't get used for much as a result, if I know politics any and I'm hoping I do. But maybe that's for the better, with all the risks involve, I would hardly call time travel worth it.

tldr: Time travel shouldn't be done, but that's just my opinion, what do you guys think?

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Naku Nyame
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The changed Naku
So this video came out today so yeah So this may just screw all of our thoughts about things. I don't know, I'm not a scientist.
Edited by Naku Nyame, Jun 10 2014, 09:26 PM.
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Hatsune Candy
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The soul of a forgotten file
Well... Crap, dude, that's one thing to think about. If time doesn't exist then... Ow, my brain.

Excuse me while I go re-evaluate how I view the universe.
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