[text; failed anon]

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

Time-travel is an interesting business. The concept of being able to visit a time of your choosing has fascinated many (on my world, at least) for quite some time. We could possibly verify historical events! We could see the future of mankind! We could meet famous figures, both past and future! Why, then, have we not yet perfected the technology?

The reason for the lack of Time Machines and Time Travelers is very likely to be this: time-travel is risky. One wrong action, one misstep, and the future could be altered forever. I believe they call this the "butterfly effect." For example, imagine that you've just gone back in time to the Cretaceous era to view dinosaurs in their natural habitat. At some point during your visit, you crush a small butterfly under your foot. 'Oh well!' you think. 'It's just one insect!' However, a sort of "ripple" has just been formed, much as ripples in a pond when one throws a stone into the water. There's the one ring at first, and more ripples follow, spreading outwards and growing as time passes. By killing that one butterfly, the creature that would have fed on that insect has that much less sustenance, and could very well die. Anything that might have fed on that animal might die as well, and so on, and so forth. It creates a sort of "chain" leading up to present-day. By then, the consequences of killing that one insect might possibly have "snowballed" into something much more drastic.

What is time-travel, anyway? I believe that H.G. Wells explains it best in The Time Machine: 'Clearly,' the Time Traveller proceeded, 'any real body must have extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness, and--Duration. But through a natural infirmity of the flesh, which I will explain to you in a moment, we incline to overlook this fact. There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time. There is, however, a tendency to draw an unreal distinction between the former three dimensions and the latter, because it happens that our consciousness moves intermittently in one direction along the latter from the beginning to the end of our lives.'

So, dear DramaDramaDuck, what are your thoughts on time-travel? Is time-travel worth the effort and risk? If it was possible, what would you choose to do if you had the opportunity to travel to any specific time you wished, be it a point in your own life, history, the future, etc.?

If any of you have time-traveled, please tell me how you've accomplished it.

[[ooc: Striketext is ooc-ly striked out. She intended to delete that sentence, but failed to do so before posting.]]

Comments

[stripping.livejournal.com]

I know the butterfly effect in theory, but I have doubts of it being accurate. You see, oftentimes, people are brought into this place from multiple points on the same timeline. Perhaps it's due to them only being years apart, but aside from what the community has actually changed directly, the timeline proceeds the same way.

As for what I'm interested in traveling to, I don't want to go sightseeing in the past just in case the butterfly effect is true. Most likely... I have this friend, and his future self went through a very hard time because he was an idiot. If I could travel into the future, I would make sure he didn't make such a poorly-thought out deal with the World and trap himself into that service for the rest of eternity. Since I can't travel into the future, I make do by lecturing the current version of my friend every so often.

[text; failed anon]

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

[Herself included.]

[stripping.livejournal.com]

It allows you to contact them, and anyone capable of a 'worldhop' can travel to anyone's timeline regardless of where/when other members exist, past or future. But I can't exactly explain how worldhops work, I only make use of them.

Any friend would do the same in my position, after seeing how that decision ruined him... I'm content with my own life, but I can make things better for the people I care about if I try.

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

[stripping.livejournal.com]

Are you certain you don't just run with a bad crowd?

[text]

[savetheworld]

I always try to avoid going backwards. Forwards is safe.
Just using it to teleport and worldhop is fine.

[text; failed anon]

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

[text]

[savetheworld]

You would with that canon. Yes. 2009. I just do it. Super power.

[text; failed anon]

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

[originaldragoon.livejournal.com]

I lived through most of the history of my world, and experiencing it once was enough for me, so I have no interest in traveling back. As for going into the future, well, I think I would rather be surprised when it does come around.

[text; failed anon]

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

[originaldragoon.livejournal.com]

Not that it was unpleasant, though it has had its fair share of wars, I just have no interest in see something I have already seen before.

I believe everyone has had those kinds of thoughts, I being no exception. I just prefer to focus on the here and now, since that is what forms the future.

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

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[traptinacoffin.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, we all must murder a few butterflies to save a few caterpillars.

text; private

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

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[traptinacoffin.livejournal.com]

I haven't found many risks in my life unworthy of a little testing.

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[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

[hok-ton.livejournal.com]

Your understanding, while broadly accurate, is short-sighted. For if there are directions we only can move one direction along, could there not also be directions we cannot sense at all?

One cannot move through time and space without contending with at least the next dimension - that of possibility.

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

[And why didn't she think to put that in the story? She's mentally cursing herself right now. Way to go.]

[hok-ton.livejournal.com]

What time period are you from? Does your world have a knowledge of quantum physics or string theory?

Are you so certain of that? Humans are constantly debating possibilities, despite being unable to 'see' the actual outcomes. We have the theoretical concept of it, even if it is not a 'sense' in the biological sense.

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

[She's not entirely sure how to answer that question at first.]
[And that would only make this more complicated. Changes her answer.]

[prof-bumblebee.livejournal.com]

Time travel can become rather messy, as I understand it, but I don't think it works quite the same as you've described it.

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]

[prof-bumblebee.livejournal.com]

In our world, time travel is possible...but no matter what you do, your actions will only serve to reinforce what has already happened in the present. Time is more stable here.

[thesleeperwakes.livejournal.com]