TTL:
• Imagine travelling in time to meet a younger you. What kind of work would you like to show him/her?
Terry:
TTL, that's an interesting thought. Time travel has always intrigued me. I often wonder if given that chance (were it possible) if I actually would alternate certain actions I took at the time?
But changing just "one" thing could bring chaoes or pleasure later on depending upon it's scale. Wouldn't you agree?
I'd like to see Eolake run a post about this sometime. I'd like to see the various thoughts from others..........Hey Captain Eolake, would you mind sometime?
At 11:14 AM, ttl said...
Yes, time travel is a fascinating subject, isn't it. There is a school of thought saying that even if we can't physically go back in time, playing such a scene out as a mind game, i.e. vividly imagining it, has real therapeutic benefits. Some even say that engaging in a "discussion" with a younger you this way can actually change your life here and now for the better.
One of my favorite books, The Disappearance Of The Universe, has Ascended Masters visiting "from the future". And since I completely believe its premise that the universe is an illusion/dream that we made ourselves, I don't see any reason why a "master dreamer" should not be able to manhandle the dream in all kinds of ways.
21 comments:
Some even say that engaging in a "discussion" with a younger you this way can actually change your life here and now for the better.
Ah, of course, engaging in a "discussion" with an older you is also a worthwhile exercise, and can be equally beneficial.
Makes ya kinda wish you'd taken a video or too where the younger you would talk about what's happening and what they believed at that time.
Hey, a making such a video, a snapshot in time of them or yourself, might be a nice present to give a son or daughter. :o)
By the way, those who are not yet familiar with the John Titor story may want to check it out. It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest sci-fi stories ever told.
John Titor appeared on the Internet in 2000 claiming to be a time traveller from 2036. He soon disappeared. Whether he was a hoax or an actual time traveller has been a topic of controversy ever since.
What makes him so interesting is some of his predictions about the future. (LarryFlint.com has an article about those) and the general sophistication of the story -- physicists have really had to dug deep in an attempt to debunk his assertions.
I've always wondered, if you go back in timne and kill yourself, is it murder or suicide or both?
And if you have sex with your earlier self, is it incest? Masturbation? If your earlier self is 17, is it statutory rape?
One of the Ascended Masters of the aforementioned book is a future lifetime of the author, and hot. And she says it would not be incest, but "it would be weird". :)
"Ah, of course, engaging in a "discussion" with an older you is also a worthwhile exercise, and can be equally beneficial."
I've tried that one time. Unfortunately, my older self is a little senile and extremely belligerent.
leviathud pondered: "I've always wondered, if you go back in timne and kill yourself, is it murder or suicide or both?"
I think you are referring to what's known as the time traveller's paradox. It's a mistaken belief. Time does not work that way.
If you travelled back in time and killed a younger you, it would make no difference in the life of the current you. It would just pertain to another branch on the tree of parallel realities. Another way to put it is that there is no way to go to the exact same version of your past that you lived up to this day.
Your killing of a younger you would be no different from your killing of a stranger on the street today. The answer to your question is: murder.
As Stephen Hawking very aptly explained it in "A Brief History Of Time", we feel the irreversible arrow of Time, but that doesn't mean that it has to be real outside our own conscience. In fact, he even demonstrated that "imaginary Time" (not what it sounds like, but a mathematical concept dealing with complex numbers) allowed to put the Universe into very simple and sensible equations, where it would be "finite" (non-infinite) without having a boundary that one might try to reach. Like the poles of a spheric planet: wherever you are, it can be the beginning, middle or end of a given dimension/meridian, including time, but it's also a continuous curved surface with no breaks in it. Except that space-time would be a hypersphere with a four-dimensional "surface". 3 for Space and 1 for Time, of course.
Communicating with yourself across this surface remains, naturally, a whole different enchillada. Very unlikely seeming. But physically inconceivable? Perhaps not.
Travel is of course exponentially more difficult to conceive.
Sending an e-mail is way simpler than taking a transcontinental flight...
Eolake said...
"And if you have sex with your earlier self"...
Well, it would DEFINITELY be homosexuality.
Or is that "auto-sexuality"???
ttl said...
"Your killing of a younger you would be no different from your killing of a stranger on the street today. The answer to your question is: murder."
Legally, maybe. And the decision of the jury would make little doubt. But a psycho-analyst (who else?!?) would draw lots of very interesting conclusions about how messed up you already were before doing that to your symbolic self. ;-)
If I met a younger me, I would say, Look how you never forgot, how you never left my face, you stayed the course though every force imaginable tried to pull you off.
You knew me, you held me, you never forgot me. Enter now into the inheritance of the just.
I was God's little girl,
I never forgot, though centuries of long long roads have passed.
laurie
Eolake said: "And if you have sex with your earlier self, is it incest?"
Whatever you call it, its narcissism taken to its highest form.
Ttl said: "I think you are referring to what's known as the time traveller's paradox."
No, I was just wondering, legally, what would it be defined as. I'll leave the theoretical temporal physics to another time.
Ah, of course, engaging in a "discussion" with an older you is also a worthwhile exercise, and can be equally beneficial.
I agree with TTL. If I could travel back into time I would attempt to convince myself "not" to go down certain highways I have traveled. But would I honestly pay attention? Perhaps only if I knew I was actually talking to the future me.
I think about all the screwups I made in my life with the exception of accepting Christ as my Saviour.
I think about all those dark times I could/should have shunned. But I was weak. (Still am when it comes to love) and the female flesh. Color me hopeless on that TTL. Good insight though on your response.
What about you TTL? Or Captain Eo? Pascal? Would any of you men alter your past in "any" way?
Leviathud said...
I've always wondered, if you go back in timne and kill yourself, is it murder or suicide or both?
I believe it would considered both a suicide and murder. And yes, you would cease to exist physically. There can be no other intelligent answer for this. At least I don't see one?
Nothing significant.
Maybe have gotten laid a couple times as a teenager just to get it out of my system.
There are many choices I have made in my past that I would like to alter. But almost none of them are about doing stuff. It's the stuff that I did not do when the opportunity was there that I would alter. Basically, it's the wasting of time that bothers me.
Interestingly, none of the things I did do where I screwed up bother me the least bit. Given this, here's my life lesson:
Do stuff. It doesn't matter if you screw up. Do all kinds of stuff.
Laurie,
That was just beautiful.
Leviathud said...
"Whatever you call it, its narcissism taken to its highest form."
Narcissism = love of oneself. Good one! :-D
"I'll leave the theoretical temporal physics to another time.
LOL! Nicely spotted!
Terry said...
"I think about all the screwups I made in my life with the exception of accepting Christ as my Saviour."
Don't tell us that everything else you did was a screwup.
Nobody's THAT talented. ;-)
Come to think of it... yes. I WOULD alter my past in some way. Consider it selfish, but I would advise myself against doing some thoughtless things I now feel ashamed about. I was young, and dumb, but I recall a few times I caused grief to somebody simply because I hadn't thought before speaking or acting. I believe I would learn just as well from these mistakes if a future me went to warn the past me about what would happen then.
Ah well, nobody's perfect, even saints sin sometimes.
As for some poor choices (or considered as such) that only affected myself, no, I don't think I'd try to change them. Some "mistakes" are useful. Every time I think about a difficult period of my life, I remember I made friends at that time, and I would never want to change THAT.
Of course, a fateful second that meant the difference between the life or death of somebody, I definitely would try. "Don't get distracted at this date and time, have everybody buckle up, and focus on the road. You'll understand."
But hey, maybe I don't need to do that. It feels that, on more than one occasion, "somebody" was watching over me. Like that minefield I mentioned once. Was there some subtle influence across our perceived Time? Perhaps. We can never know for sure whether we were lucky at some moments or "there was something else" (warning, guardian angel, etc.), but the end result is here: I can't complain too much about my life, on average. A few health problems, like almost everybody, but in all honesty nothing worth whining about. I still have both my most excellent parents today, and know how precious this is. Would I have been happier growing up in, say, Sweden, but in a dysfunctional family? Or in Finland, but with mucoviscidosis? I think not. Most of the hardships that happened to me made me either wiser or stronger. And the same goes for many of my choices, good or bad or debateable. I'm at peace with Time.
Oh yeah, maybe I WOULD have let that depressive spinster "rape" me to help her feel better. Now that I know that nobody would've walked in on us anyway. Might've been the charitable thing to do. :-)
TTL,
To rephrase your advice, "Better to have tried and screwed up, than not to have done anything at all".
Most of the hardships that happened to me made me either wiser or stronger. And the same goes for many of my choices, good or bad or debateable. I'm at peace with Time. Dr. Pascal said.
I beg for the peace you have Pascal. I long for it. I wish somebody would have chained me down in my apartment on the night of August 29th 1998 and under no circumstances released me until the following day. Literally not letting me go out with a friend to a certain dance club where ultimately a very tragic event took place but at the time it appeared so alluring........I never knew a heart could break without making any sound.........Have I learned anything from that eventful night? Yes. Have I been forgiven? Yes. But the demons of old conjure up the aftermath even after nine years.
I grow weary of the flow of tears that wash over me now. Sometimes I still see the creature of fate looking back at me from the mirror.
Terry said...
"Have I been forgiven? Yes."
Sounds to me like you need to forgive yourself and move on. Whatever you did, you're not a child murdering monster, so learn to love yourself. To love and forgive. It's your duty. :-)
Remember, religion teaches us to respect our body. Same goes for the soul, and the self: do not despise them. You'd be making a classic mistake. Be lucid, but loving. Here's a little self-made advice: You shouldn't be harder on others than on yourself. But you shouldn't either be harder on yourself than you would be on others.
It's always a good idea to change perspectives. Sometimes, you need to ask yourself: "How would I treat another person if they had done what I have? Would I be as severe to another, or am I just indulging in the deceiving lure of guilt?"
Do not yield to the Dementors. Demons only have as much power on you as you'll let them have. If you don't give in, they're helpless. Always remember that: through sun and rain and storm, you're the sole captain of your life. You don't command the sea, but you rule the ship.
Time travel or not, what's done is done. And the Future is still a blank page for you to write, if only you can manage to exit the Present.
Terry said...
"I think about all the screwups I made in my life with the exception of accepting Christ as my Saviour."
Don't tell us that everything else you did was a screwup.
Nobody's THAT talented. ;-)
Pascal, when I read your remark I smiled with a happy tear in my eye. I know that you have that tremendous ability to do that with your wisdom and wit.
You made me feel good for a brief flash of a moment.
I look forward to emailing you on a personal level. I think in some predestined area of my life I was mean't to speak with you and to share points and peaks of life itself.
I never knew I could care so much about a foreigner from Lebanon of all places. Or encounter a man like Eolake from England who knows the difference between nude art and pornography.
You don't know this my friend but you may have stopped me from committing suicide not so long ago.
I won't go into details but I wanted you to know this.........
Terry said...
"I look forward to emailing you on a personal level."
Whenever suits you, friend. Go right ahead.
"I think in some predestined area of my life I was mean't to speak with you and to share points and peaks of life itself."
It's probably true. Once again there can be no hard evidence to find, but I recently had this echoing thought: "Maybe Terry's mother, whose memory he faithfully keeps, made it so that we'd meet and I'd notice somthing special about him." Sound funny for ME of all people to say, but I believe our loved departed ones become our guardian angels if we deserve it, and that it happened in this instance.
Which should encourage you, right? I told you: you're not alone.
Now I have you to thank back for giving a "heathen" like me something worthy to believe. :-)
I may never know how many people my words have helped saving. And I don't care about knowing. The important is not a lifesaver certificate record, only the result matters.
Fortunately, my gut instinct tells me that my "hate club" is not the suicidal type. Too much centrifuge energy. Otherwise, I'd worry about my impact in this instance.
But it's a known fact that some people are very happy with being angry. Read Sturgeon's the Cosmic Rape (no sex in that story, BTW) for a very interesting example, where the best way to show love to a certain person was to keep his daily hate alive.
"Maybe Terry's mother, whose memory he faithfully keeps, made it so that we'd meet and I'd notice somthing special about him." Pascal said.
Pascal, those are the kindest words YOU HAVE EVER SPOKEN TO ME. God Bless You my FRIEND.
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