Henry Stone
Chrono Cadet
I've browsed through so many debates on proving/debunking time travel at this point, both here and elsewhere, that the point of them has become rather silly. I am a stern advocate for humanity needing a clearer idea of what TT entails before even starting to discuss possible ways to prove it to be real. When someone says "how would you prove it if you were a time traveller?" or "how can you prove that John Titor was real/fake?", I just sort it in the "if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" pile. The answers are meaningless, because the questions are meaningless.
So I would like to set up a bit of a creative writing exercise. It's the old "how would you prove that you're a time traveller?" question, but with a bit more depth, so as to study (or at least think about) the complexities of time travel.
The challenge: Pretend that you are, in fact, born into a society with the ability to time travel, and that you travel to our time. Give as detailed a description of the following things as you can:
1: Who are you, in your own society? Your background, your overall life experiences, your social circles, your daily doings, etc. Without even thinking about time travel, give a clear idea of who you are/were/will be in your society, just as a person.
2: What is your connection to your society's work with time travel? Are you a trained specialist, a dabbler, a private contractor, an innovator, a refugee, a clumsy person who pressed the wrong button, or something entirely else?
3: Why does your society time travel? This would include some rough ideas about who runs both society and the TT stuff, including matters of access, license, control, social norms, ideologies and more. TT might be as cold and calculated a thing as air traffic, or it could be a wild west of clever crazies running around with TT devices.
4: How does the time travel machine work? This includes whether there are multiple forms of time travel, of course! It is both a question of how the physics of TT work, with issues like paradoxes and split timelines, and a matter of the practical use of the technology, like do you get shot naked into the past, Terminator-style, or do you point and click on a screen and just slip in there, or do you perhaps even go only with your mind/spirit, as in Quantum Leap? And since this is a writing exercise, there is no "I don't know how it works". You, the person writing, must give an explanation. But see #5...
5: At the point of departure, what did you, the time traveller, bring? This includes knowledge, or access to it. Devices that let you call back to your own time ("time phones") are important, as are other time travel devices, but things like futuristic tools or reference books (physical, digital or other) are also important. If you brought your time machine with you, needless to say, it is of interest.
6:Why did you, the time traveller, decide to go here/now? This is both the personal interests and the "mission", if any, AND why the mission is important to you. The risks and sacrifices involved in time travel (will you return? Does it hurt?) figure prominently in this.
7: The big one: Considering all the above, how would you expect to convince someone in our time that you are, in fact, a time traveller? This includes WHY you would try to convince someone, and who that someone might or might not be.
The point of all this is that with the laughably limited amount of knowledge we have about TT, most questions asked are far too broad to make any real sense. Most who try to hoax us by claiming to be a time traveller are mainly trying to avoid hard questions, but in a writing exercise, the hard questions are turned on the person asking. And because the focus is not on a single person trying to convince someone, we can look at the questions from a multitude of angles, poking at the topic far more than if just one bored soul is trying to make up something on the spot.
Of course, I understand if people are overwhelmed by the need to suddenly take the place of the time travellers. It's always easier to be a dozen people hacking away at one person, than to actually take on the role of that person. Remember, others can still point out holes in your arguments :ninja: :ROFLMAO:
And yes, I'll add my own, my fingers are just numbing up right now...
So I would like to set up a bit of a creative writing exercise. It's the old "how would you prove that you're a time traveller?" question, but with a bit more depth, so as to study (or at least think about) the complexities of time travel.
The challenge: Pretend that you are, in fact, born into a society with the ability to time travel, and that you travel to our time. Give as detailed a description of the following things as you can:
1: Who are you, in your own society? Your background, your overall life experiences, your social circles, your daily doings, etc. Without even thinking about time travel, give a clear idea of who you are/were/will be in your society, just as a person.
2: What is your connection to your society's work with time travel? Are you a trained specialist, a dabbler, a private contractor, an innovator, a refugee, a clumsy person who pressed the wrong button, or something entirely else?
3: Why does your society time travel? This would include some rough ideas about who runs both society and the TT stuff, including matters of access, license, control, social norms, ideologies and more. TT might be as cold and calculated a thing as air traffic, or it could be a wild west of clever crazies running around with TT devices.
4: How does the time travel machine work? This includes whether there are multiple forms of time travel, of course! It is both a question of how the physics of TT work, with issues like paradoxes and split timelines, and a matter of the practical use of the technology, like do you get shot naked into the past, Terminator-style, or do you point and click on a screen and just slip in there, or do you perhaps even go only with your mind/spirit, as in Quantum Leap? And since this is a writing exercise, there is no "I don't know how it works". You, the person writing, must give an explanation. But see #5...
5: At the point of departure, what did you, the time traveller, bring? This includes knowledge, or access to it. Devices that let you call back to your own time ("time phones") are important, as are other time travel devices, but things like futuristic tools or reference books (physical, digital or other) are also important. If you brought your time machine with you, needless to say, it is of interest.
6:Why did you, the time traveller, decide to go here/now? This is both the personal interests and the "mission", if any, AND why the mission is important to you. The risks and sacrifices involved in time travel (will you return? Does it hurt?) figure prominently in this.
7: The big one: Considering all the above, how would you expect to convince someone in our time that you are, in fact, a time traveller? This includes WHY you would try to convince someone, and who that someone might or might not be.
The point of all this is that with the laughably limited amount of knowledge we have about TT, most questions asked are far too broad to make any real sense. Most who try to hoax us by claiming to be a time traveller are mainly trying to avoid hard questions, but in a writing exercise, the hard questions are turned on the person asking. And because the focus is not on a single person trying to convince someone, we can look at the questions from a multitude of angles, poking at the topic far more than if just one bored soul is trying to make up something on the spot.
Of course, I understand if people are overwhelmed by the need to suddenly take the place of the time travellers. It's always easier to be a dozen people hacking away at one person, than to actually take on the role of that person. Remember, others can still point out holes in your arguments :ninja: :ROFLMAO:
And yes, I'll add my own, my fingers are just numbing up right now...
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