Here today, gone tomorrow

I've been thinking about time travels lately. As a big science fiction fan, I've read the Time Machine by Orsen Wells (yes, there are movies based on this book... not those featuring Christopher Lloyd, although they're also leaned on that one too). And it makes one think about alot of things...

As far as I know, time travel is possible, at least on paper (understand: mathematicaly). I've also been told that it seems possible to travel forth, but not back, also only in theory. But as with all things (like flying to the moon), there aren't many theories which remain on paper. One day, someone, somewhere, somehow, always makes those impossible dreams become reality. Which is good... we need visionaries, they're the engines of a civilization (although today, society rather tends to see these persons as threats, as weird people without a sense for reality and to lock them away... or kill them... but that's another story).

So let's all say that we could travel through time. Let's be insane for once and even assume we could travel back in time. Ok! Cool! Let's see some dinosau... WAIT!!! What about concerns? Safety! Yes! Safety first! It's quite obvious that time travels, if those where possible, would be forbidden by the law (too risky, paradoxon, blablabla... the usual crap). But we're humans and doing stupid and risky things (like picking the famous apple) are just a part of us. Someone would travel through time anyhow, and very probably for those who actually forbid it.

But there's this something... you know... this little detail which just makes you suspicious and you don't really know why... I thought about this. I really thought about this for a long time.

And what came out isn't really a nice picture. Assuming time travels (back in time!) are possible, knowing that humans always manage to make science fiction a reality, also knowing how damned curious we all are... how come we never had any visitors from the future?! Ok! I can already hear some people saying that those future guys would be afraid to change their own timeline... but do you REALLY think that would hinder a HUMAN from TRYING?... really... we ARE that dumb. We NEED to know. So this would leave a single and not very nice conclusion: that there is no one left to try (... oh-oh).

Right, there's another possible conclusion... I know. Maybe we had visitors, but the "government" made a secret out of it, blablabla... this is not X-Files and I'm not Mulder. I think that the visitors would be well aware of that. And I also think they would have lots trouble to hide from the rest of us (just imagine what a couple hundreds of years have done to us... physicaly speaking...). Nope... I really think that even if it was possible to travel back in time, that there is just no one left to try it. Really... sounds like a possibility to me. Not the only one, but sounds like a good one.

As you might have guessed by now, this is just a little game... a brain-game. There are actually hundreds of different possibilities why time travels could be or couldn't be possible. I'm sure you can think of at least as many as I can. The point is, should we know our future? Should we influence our past? What good would it bring to know the future? Has nature intended this? Should we always grab an opportunity?

Do we really need to do something, only because we actually are able to do it?

This is the central question which science, philosophy and politics should answer. I truly believe that answering this question would make our entire race go one step up in evolution.