If you could travel back or forward in time where would you go?
The past is in some sense safer since we have some vague idea of its context. However, the further back we go the less we know of it. Travelling to the past also has the added allure of answering currently unanswered questions such as: what were the dinosaurs really like? The fact that we have knowledge of the past makes it less mysterious as a destination in some ways but we can be more certain that it will be a time worth visiting.
I’d visit the future as long as I knew I could come back safely. I’d like to see how technology impacts human evolution, maybe millions of years from now. Eventually, you could have human dimorphism where some humans become so dependent on machines that they become febrile and delicate, whereas others become more physical. The more physical humans might be the breeders or something crazy like that. I think lack of physicality and diminished sex drive are probably linked. Exercise is known to increase testosterone levels.
Gosh, it would be tempting to go back and fix mistakes in my past. But I’m sure I’d fuck up something else. I’m in an okay place now and I wouldn’t want to make it so that Sarah didn’t exist or something. Besides, I’d be afraid to do some kind of butterfly-stomping thing like in that “Sound of Distant Thunder” story.
And it would be cool to see the future. But only if there is one. If I went and found out that the world gets blown up in 20 years it would make it really hard to get out of bed in the morning.
I guess what I’m saying is that I’m a wuss and I’d just stay here.