Happy Sunday, at the time of this writing, that is…. should I ever come back to this post in the future, though, and alter it, will it still be written on Sunday, February 7th, 2015? Today’s (or tomorrow’s, depending on when you are reading this) writing is all about Time Travel.  As well, there are a lot more links and alt text comments included than I usually do, so you might find this more rewarding to read on a laptop or desktop, as opposed to a mobile device. Of course, you can always return in the future….

Like most geeks or nerds (or am I a dork?) I have a life-long affection (obsession?… see diagram) with Science Fiction.  I grew up on Star Trek (THE Star Trek, although I did have an appreciation for TNG, there really is only one Star Trek for me), Twilight Zone, the Outer Limits and Night Stalker.   My favourite early authors included Asimov, Heinlen, and later Spider Robinson.

But of all the possible story lines included in the Sci-Fi genre, it’s Time Travel that fascinates me the most, and I think it’s not because we don’t fancy life on other planets or servant robots as much, but because it’s the tantalizing thought of Do-Overs at the risk of the butterfly effect.

But aside from the idea of reliving your favourite days, rewriting your personal history, or diverting disasters, what really grabs my fancy (if one’s fancy can be grabbed) is the idea that once a timeline is altered, the traveler must have to remember that thread along with all the other concurrent ones. So, if the traveler from, say, 2015 goes back to 1981 and alters his or her path at that moment (hmmm… should I have chosen Preppy or Punk?), it seems manageable to keep those two story lines. But, really, if one COULD time travel, what are the chances you would only go back once…

Please indulge me, gentle reader, as I dig about in this dichotomy.

We’ll call our subject TT, and TT’s original life or timeline TT(1). Let’s say TT discovers the ability to travel at age 20, and she goes back to age 15 for a do-over (We’ll call that J(1-a) for “juncture”).  That timeline is TT(2). Easy. (But, does TT(1) carry on in a parallel timeline?  Can TT peek in over there, from time to time, and decide to re-enter TT(1) at any time in the future, or would she have to go back to J(a), or prior to that, in order to re-enter TT(1)? Let’s follow TT(2) a little longer, until, say, she is 30, and thinks she wants to slightly adjust something in TT(2), but otherwise carry on in this trajectory.  She goes back 6 minutes, days, weeks, months… whatever it is she needs.. and there we have J(2-a). But, she doesn’t get it quite right, and goes back again, adjusts her timeline again, now she is on life TT(2), following path J(2-b), 2 timelines to remember, one with a fork in the road. And so on…. and if we layer the butterfly effect, suddenly even those 3 “simple” paths become chaos.

Here is a list of my favourite books and movies on the topic. One of the greatest appeals to me of Time Travel, incidentally, is the idea of going back and reading all those books I never seem to get time to…..

Time and Again–Jack Finney

TimeLine –Michael Crichton

Time Traveler’s Wife– Audrey Niffenegger

The Lakehouse (movie)

About Time (Movie)

Honourable mention movies:

Safety not Guaranteed

Peggy Sue got Married

The Time Machine (1960)

Looper

Groundhog Day

And of course…. the Back to the Future franchise