The only reason we should be concerned about nuclear warfare

Do you think it would be wise to skip like a stone over time?

Allow me to elaborate: if you could fast-forward to a specific date in the future . . . could you live with the consequences? Think about what would happen. You’re sitting here right now, you think of this date in the future, and you make a conscious decision to be there right now. Bam, you’re there. Where is there, anyway?

Here are some problems that I see with such an ability:

There’s a question of whether you were actually present in the timeline between points A and B, where point A is where you popped out and B is where you popped in. If you weren’t there, then essentially you were missing. If you’re gone just an hour, then it’s no big deal; but if you decided to go forward to see the Super Bowl in 2015, then your friends and family probably think you were killed at a rest stop by the time you catch up with them. If you were there the whole time, then . . .
you’ve skipped over that time and have no recollection of what has happened in between. Like being active but not conscious during a blackout, you may have said or done things you would either like to remember or wish to forget but either way, not knowing is a torture of its own; you’ll miss out on inside jokes, and you’ll probably never figure out why your girlfriend doesn’t talk to you anymore or why some less attractive girl lives in your bedroom with you. The possibilities are endless, but you’ll never know any of them unless someone films you the whole time you skipped out on, which means . . .
you’re coming to a place that is unknown. In the meantime something important might have happened – it might be something good, like getting a promotion at work, which would be provide an awkward moment when your subordinates find you working among them and for a moment think you’re actually being cool for once; or it could be something bad, like your city was devastated by a nuclear attack and oh by the way – that chair you were sitting in a year ago? No longer exists. You just went butt-down on a radioactive wasteland, pal.
What would be really hilarious is if you skipped time only and couldn’t take space into account; that would be a one-time use ability, in all probability. Because of the movement of the Earth around the sun, you’d almost certainly reappear halfway through a wall, like the unfortunate subjects of the Phildelphia experiment, or perhaps you would be found floating in space someday – if you’re really lucky, you’ll reappear in low-Earth orbit and burn to a cinder as your corpse makes atmospheric reentry, and then you just might make the news!

Time Travel Issues — (Photo credit: Dekonstruct2009)

The interesting thing about this idea is that it’s easier for a logical mind to envision time travel into the future and not into the past, mostly because the non-existence of the past makes travel to there impossible according to the laws that govern our Universe.

That being said, I think I would much rather take the slow route from A to B; in the end, there are a few advantages to this method. For one, it reflects a sense of responsibility and intention towards the timeline. For another, it assures that when you arrive at point B, you’ll have some justifiably reasonable expectations as to its current state, as well as what you’re doing there, why, and how. Sometimes we’re caught up in something that we’d rather not be doing, and looking forward to something in the future, but if you give it some thought, you’d probably realize you’re safest in getting there via the common route.

I should point out, however, that there would be one reason you could use such an ability: if you knew that you wouldn’t be present during the skip, then you could fast-forward ten to fifteen years (it would be nice if you didn’t age over the skip, as well,) by which time you will have been declared legally dead. If you could provide some access to your life insurance payout ahead of time and insure yourself to the gills, you can then access your money and run off to a foreign land where you can live like one of Anne Rice‘s vampires on your fortune of American money. But that sounds a little too shady for my blood; I like my life just the way it is.

What do you think? Is it irresponsible to skip over portions of time, or would you have a good reason to do it? Let us know in the comments!

This post was prompted by yesterday’s Daily Post prompt.

So far, 100 other responses have posted:

2 comments

tnkerr says:

January 12, 2014 at 3:15 pm

You’ve got some great points here Rob. I can think of a few additional reasons to be concerned about nuclear warfare but plopping butt-down on a radioactive wasteland would indeed be a worry.
I like your post.

- Rob's Surf Report says:
  
  January 12, 2014 at 4:16 pm
  
  Thanks, tnkerr!