The other day when I was working out, I watched “Meet the Robinsons” on HBO. It’s a pretty cute little movie – one of those digital Disney animation things. The story is about a boy named Lewis who is raised in an orphanage and loves creating silly inventions, most of which don’t work the way he hoped they would. On the day of his school’s science fair, after yet another invention goes awry, a boy from the future arrives in a time machine and tries to convince Lewis to fix the invention. He takes him to the future to prove that he IS, in fact, FROM the future, and then explains that the invention from the science fair must be fixed in order for the future to unfold correctly. If he DOESN’T fix the invention, the boy from the future will no longer even exist. Eventually, we discover that the boy from the future is Lewis’s eventual son, and the science fair invention was a catalyst that resulted in Lewis being adopted, meeting the girl who would one day be his wife, and the means to provide him with everything he needed to continue inventing things. (Including time machines, which his future son uses to go back in time to make sure the time machines will be invented… or, er, something like that…)
Time travel has been a big theme this season on Lost, too. I watched several episodes yesterday (I had four unwatched episodes on Tivo, and Tivo only saves five episodes before it starts deleting…), and all of the time paradoxes are starting to get confusing. (Which is weird, because usually Lost makes so much sense. :)) Desmond can jump back and forth through time but has no control over it… Ben shows up in Tunisia and asks for reassurance that the year is 2005 (presumably because he has mastered the art of time travel, unlike Desmond?)… a morse code message is sent from the island to the freighter out on the ocean, when the ship’s dead doctor washes ashore – except the doctor is still alive on the freighter (so is the ship in the past? Or is the island in the future?).
A few years ago, I read an interview with the writers or producers or directors of Lost, where they were asked about the mysterious goings-on at the Lost island. They assured the fans that the inhabitants of the island were NOT dead and they were NOT in purgatory… moreover, they said that when the entire story finally unfolded, we would see that everything that has happened on the island was possible or at least plausible. So, I assumed there would be nothing TOO far-fetched happening on the show. And then all the time travel stories began…
Although to be fair, there ARE scientists who believe that time travel COULD be possible. They theorize that time is not a rigid straight line (as is often illustrated by “timelines”), but rather something more pliable – like a piece of yarn. If you can attach one end of the yarn (let’s say the “past”) and the other end of the yarn (the “future”) together, then perhaps it would possible to quickly jump from one side to the other, thereby visiting past and future, future and past. Of course, it all depends on breaking the speed of light… because apparently time is different when you’re going really, really fast…
But my puny little mind has a hard time accepting time travel as a “plausible” thing. In order for it to be possible, it seems like “time” would need to be a more concrete entity – isn’t time really just a “concept”? Isn’t it just a way that we humans define our existence? How can you jump back and forth between a concept? Once a moment happens, how can it ever be lived again? It hasn’t been “recorded” anywhere – it’s just something that happens and never occurs again. And if we COULD travel to a different time, wouldn’t we still be in our OWN present? I mean, no matter where you are or what time it is, your experience will always BE your present. So if you were able to travel into the past or future, yet still be in the present, wouldn’t that mean that ALL time is occurring simultaneously?? And if that’s the case, then shouldn’t we already HAVE time travelers from the future who are popping up into our present? It gives new meaning to that song from Rent – “there is no future, there is no past… there’s only now, there’s only this…”
I think I need to go watch something that doesn’t make me think… :)
2 comments:
If you didn't have time for it you should have written it yestermorrow at eleventy threeve. It's not too late you know. Knew. I think I've lost my mind-but I can find it later (before).
You make a lot of sense, visitor from another time... alas, I already have plans at eleventy threeve, and therefore must write my post at breakfast next Tuesday afterevening while I fix my watch...
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