It has been a favorite subject for hundreds of years among wacky fiction writers and equally wacky philosophers - time travel. Nobody is sure how to time travel, but most cosmologists are sure that it is possible.
Einstein figured out how to travel forward in time - go really fast. But, going backwards is a different ballgame all together. The late Carl Sagan explained some of the issues in a PBS interview. From reading Sagan's interview, it is easy to see that time travel has all sorts of boring philosophical and scientific issues connected to it and it is nowhere near as fun as the fictional versions we are accustomed to. In books like H.G. Wells' Time Machine, Michael Crichton's Timeline, or even Sagan's own Contact, the characters all have to navigate difficult scientific terrain, but it all comes together in an entertaining way. Sometimes, fictional time machines create humorous ethical dilemmas. In the film Back to the Future Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) accidentally attracts the romantic intentions of his own mother (yikes).
Whether or not time travel will be possible one day is a fun conversation, but generally irrelevant to most of our daily lives. The notion of time travel does bring up a personal challenge: if you could travel backwards in time, what is one thing that you would change? Why would you change that particular incident? If you indeed did change the incident how would that affect your present self? Would you be a better or worse person?
This also conjures a spiritual challenge for us to consider: was that one event supposed to occur as it occurred and when it occurred? Is our time line set in stone by God or the universe? When we wish to change the past are we wishing to change something that was placed in our lives intentionally and for a purpose?
Join us this Wednesday at Short's Brewing Company as we play time machine! We'll grab a pint and climb into our Delorean. Wheels up at 7pm!
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