So one day, why can’t we travel back in time? Why shouldn’t we?
First, we need to study the relative maturity of the species in question.
We know that going back in time could be a wonderful thing. We've thought about it, dreamt it. Imagine how many people we could save, how many disasters we could avert, how much advice we could give. We could make a real difference. And if it's not too far back in time, the repercussions would be barely noticeable. Repercussions for the future are not yet our problem.
But then if you will, hear the record screeching to a halt.
Because humans, particularly humans in charge of things, really are a problem. And for every one of you lifesavers, there are 7.4 humans that wouldn't bother and 1.6 of them would not care if lives were lost by their actions.
The powers that be can blow us up many times, as if one's not enough.
They release deadly toxins into the air.
They willfully ignore mother nature screaming at the top of her lungs to do something.
And they can do things to people that we will definitely not speak about here.
They seem really keen on just being a problem and then meekly destroying everything, abandoning sentience altogether.
If it were possible, time travel would give those folks the power to end it all pretty fast.
So, at the outset, it doesn't look good, purely on character analysis.
Imagine one of the 7.4 people who surround you. Imagine they got hold of a time machine.
Would they go back and do what you would do?
Highly doubtful.
Look at how they behave in today's world.
It's inconceivable they wouldn't do exactly the same in a world with time travel possible.
Let's have a look at who and what they are and then we can decide if humans should ever be allowed to travel back in time.
We've covered how many ways they have of destroying us all on a grand scale but now let's look at a more subtle approach, how they manipulate us, how they make us turn in a certain direction or other.
There are systems in place within marketing, political campaigning and the psychology underpinning both, which map us as humans to as close as they can get to stimulating almost automatic compliance. The idea of such systems is to ensure that if they put an ad on our Facebook page at 11.37 am on a Tuesday, they know we are 34% likely to click through.
They already know this about us and more information about us pours into their receiving tanks every day.
In those worlds, we are all a collection of data points. They can tell what we buy, when we buy and why we buy. They can tell us what to vote for. And we are tracked like outlaws all the way through from street camera to IP login to a card payment in Starbucks. And that's the tip of the iceberg.
The Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal is the perfect example. It tells us the lengths they have already been to get us into the box they want.
As the matter is still ongoing in the courts, everything that's written below is alleged.
In 2015, Cambridge Analytica, a London-based consultancy, harvested personal data from 87 million Facebook users (70 million of them in the US) without their consent.
Cambridge Analytica claimed to have 5000 data points on every one of those users.
The data was used to provide incredible amounts of information to political campaigns, noticeably, the Trump campaign in 2016, the Brexit campaign in 2018 and in Russia.
Imagine them knowing that you're still a little sad about your dog dying last week and you need a hug. Their hug will come in the form of the most precise micro-marketing the world has ever seen.
And let's not forget Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA mass surveillance programme in 2013.
We don't know what will happen as a result of the Cambridge Analytica scandal but, whatever happens, we do know that once a thing is known, it cannot be unknown.
This will be the new norm.
Add the onset of DNA profiling to all of this and you will see they have you all but cloned and right in front of them at will.
So, let's talk about tomorrow.
The Virtual Reality of tomorrow would be fertile ground for them.
As VR develops into a more neural experience, transmitting to and receiving signals directly from your brain, they will have a way directly into your mind. Suggestion will be confused with natural intent and they've got you. You won't even realise it's happening.
From this, will come a deeper understanding of the human brain and naturally a deeper understanding of how to manipulate and control the human brain.
So much for the certainties of corporate abuse.
From DNA profiling will come a greater understanding of how each of us is constructed, what our genetic strengths and weaknesses are. We might even be manipulated to slowly kill ourselves if we are considered surplus to requirement, maybe when we get past retirement age.
So, put all this in a box called "They do it even if they could get caught" and wonder what that box would be like if it was called "They do it and they can never get caught."
Would the box be bigger or smaller?
But hold on a minute. We're not finished yet.
What if the technology filtered out into the wrong hands. Over time, it always does.
When it does, everything could come to end and none of it would ever have existed.
Terrorists. Psychopaths. Either may be happy with an end-it-all moment. One for belief, the other for a game. And anyone can do it by accident.
What if modern-day Nazis got hold of it? Their genocide would be a single trip to a single moment, the moment they imagine the Jews to have been conceived.
And the beauty of it is, it's undetectable by anyone apart from the time traveller. None of us would know what had happened. To us, things would be just as they always were. There never was an old guy called Ted living two doors down, there never was a country called Rwanda.
Undetectable Temporal Manipulation
Undetectable Temporal Murder
Undetectable Temporal Genocide
I wonder what it would be like to see the changes. What if you saw it happening on a daily basis? What if you could tell who was doing it? They’d be the ones who suddenly acquire it all like magic at some point in time. It would probably be easy to figure out who.
What would you do about it?
Would anyone doubt that if any of them got a time machine, they would set about one single task, to mould the world in their image and again, to hell with anyone else?
So for this and for all the reasons discussed here, no is my answer. Not at any cost. Ever.
The responsibility of time travel is too much to ask of humanity.
Time travel and Logic must be uniquely paired. With humans, they are not.
And luckily, the laws of physics agree.
And to be honest, it's a relief.
This is a report on the present and a warning for the future.
Be vigilant.
Teaser for Episode 4 – Blurring the Lines
So, we have to accept, for now, that time travel to the past is impossible and thankfully so. Even if it were possible, there is no way we should allow ourselves to do it.
But we can pretend and when we do, our Brain starts working its magic.