Changing Reality

So I was thinking about Back to the Future the other day when I realized that time travel is weird. For the sake of this entire post, we are going to ignore the “smarties” like Stephen Hawking and assume time travel is possible. If you travel to the future, you’re going to be depressed because you might find out that what you want might not be want you get. And if you go to the past, you’ll try to change a few things and end up turning the United States into a dictatorship by accident (insert current events joke here). Of course, when you really REALLY think about traveling to the past, a horrifying thought occurs.

As Doc brown explains in this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OPkqY9doGE, because old Biff went to the past, gave young Biff the almanac, and had young Biff kill George McFly, Marty is now in an alternate timeline. The point here is that something was changed in the past and it affected the present which created a parallel universe. When you think about it though, how big do the changes have to be before a parallel universe is created?  If you travel into the past, would you have to kill a historic figure or would you just have to scratch up someone’s car in order to change the timeline? My point here is that just by going into the past, you change the future. You were not there previously, and you are now. Someone saw you, a camera captured your image, or you left footprints somewhere. While you didn’t create a history making change, it is possible you changed a tiny bit of the past which influenced the present somehow.

This all brings me to my terrifying point. By going into the past, you insure that you are never returning to your original home. You can’t return to the same present you left if you accidentally (or purposely) created an alternate universe. You are effectively leaving your friends, family, pets, acquaintances, enemies, and adoring fans. That timeline is still continuing, so everyone you ever knew will most likely worry about where you’ve gone. They will never find you which will tear them apart, and it is all YOUR FAULT.

As for the new timeline that you so stupidly created, the people in it will potentially be unrecognizable from the people you used to live with. They will have memories and experiences that you might not remember. It would be like living with aliens.

The take home message here is if you’re going to time travel, make sure you hate the people you’re around first.