appeal of time travel

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Fast forward: How we learned to love time travel

A classic H. G. Wells story and key mathematics made time travel such a popular idea that it fundamentally changed our thinking, argues James Gleick in Time Travel: A history

By Jonathon Keats

7 September 2016

The time travel trope can be traced to H. G, Wells’s The Time Machine

Ronald Grant Archive

ON 28 June 2009, at 1200 UTC, Stephen Hawking hosted a party for time travellers at the University of Cambridge. Among the careful preparations, the most important was to invite guests only after the event had taken place. Much to Hawking’s disappointment, nobody showed up.

Travelling through time may never be feasible, but it remains a perennially popular topic in science fiction, philosophy and theoretical physics. In Time Travel , James Gleick provides an absorbing history of the idea, eloquently elucidating the reasons for its enduring appeal.

The concept of time travel is surprisingly recent. “Though the ancients imagined immortality and rebirth and lands of the dead,” Gleick observes, “time machines were beyond their ken.” In fact, he traces the trope back to a single work of fiction: The Time Machine , written by H. G. Wells between 1888 and 1895.

It tells of an unnamed time traveller who rides into the future on an apparatus resembling a bicycle. His voyage is made possible by the fact “there is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it” (as the Traveller helpfully explains to his temporally challenged friends).

His reasoning (and Wells’s story) were inspired by the investigations of 19th-century mathematicians such as Bernhard Riemann. But as Gleick observes, Wells’s vision was equally driven by technology: “Time became vivid, concrete, and spatial to anyone who saw the railroad smashing across distances on a coordinated schedule.”

If the literary roots of time travel are The Time Machine , then scientific interest originated with Einstein’s special theory of relativity, published in 1905. In Gleick’s account, these two foundations were mutually reinforcing. Science gave credibility to the fiction, which made the science more accessible. The combination was so potent, and expanded so quickly, that time travel began to seem like a truly timeless principle.

“Today the time machine is no longer obligatory to the game of altering the past – it has been internalised“

Gleick traces its literary pedigree, sometimes to the point of tedium, from Wells to writers such as Robert Heinlein and Jorge Luis Borges. He also delves into pop culture, ranging from Star Trek to Woody Allen.

Then there’s the science. While Einstein remained sceptical of voyaging through the space-time continuum, his close friend Kurt Gödel mathematically described an alternate universe in which time warped to loop back on itself. Gödel gave the calculation to Einstein for his 70th birthday, often checking later whether his theory had been proven.

It wasn’t, but Gödel’s “closed time-like curves” continued to bedevil physics long after his death, ultimately inspiring a rebuttal by Hawking, who claimed that time loops violated established laws of physics. Hawking organised his Cambridge party as experimental evidence.

Whether or not Hawking has the final say, the concept of time travel has proven phenomenally productive. Within physics, Gleick captures some of the intellectual ferment in his account of the debate about whether time is an illusion. Within literature, he’s particularly incisive in his account of alternative histories, which originated as an accident of time travel. “Travel to the past begins as tourism in the extreme,” he writes. But the sightseers “start tinkering”. Eventually they aim at history’s greatest villains, and murder Hitler, or slay his mother.

Beyond the adrenaline, what makes this compelling is the chance to imagine what might have been. Counterfactual narratives let us examine the past more speculatively, and explore how things can go awry in the present. Is despotism a function of personal charisma or socio-economic conditions? How do we prevent a holocaust? “Nodal points must exist,” says Gleick, “just not… where we think.”

Today the time machine is no longer obligatory. The game of altering the past has been so internalised that Gleick suggests the notion of time travel has fundamentally changed the way we think.

To illustrate, he cites our habit of burying time capsules. Only since the 20th century have we sought ways to communicate with the future. Now we tend to interpret any box of coins found under a cornerstone as an effort by ancestors to send us a message. In fact, those old cornerstone caches were votive offerings, not meant to be discovered.

In contrast to his enthusiasm for SF, Gleick finds a time capsule “a tragicomic time machine”, moving through time at a rate of one second per second. Few capsules survive, he notes, and why should the future care about us in the first place?

But here Gleick neglects the wisdom of his book, forgetting that time travel is experienced in the traveller’s present. Time machines are instruments for exploring the past and future, to augment our current knowledge or enrich our lived experience. Placing items in a time capsule is an opportunity for self-appraisal. Considering how we would like to be perceived by the future is a way of examining what we most cherish.

Time Travel: A history

James Gleick

Random House

This article appeared in print under the headline “Fast forward”

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Where Does the Concept of Time Travel Come From?

Time; he's waiting in the wings.

The dream of traveling through time is both ancient and universal. But where did humanity's fascination with time travel begin, and why is the idea so appealing?

The concept of time travel — moving through time the way we move through three-dimensional space — may in fact be hardwired into our perception of time . Linguists have recognized that we are essentially incapable of talking about temporal matters without referencing spatial ones. "In language — any language — no two domains are more intimately linked than space and time," wrote Israeli linguist Guy Deutscher in his 2005 book "The Unfolding of Language." "Even if we are not always aware of it, we invariably speak of time in terms of space, and this reflects the fact that we think of time in terms of space."

Deutscher reminds us that when we plan to meet a friend "around" lunchtime, we are using a metaphor, since lunchtime doesn't have any physical sides. He similarly points out that time can not literally be "long" or "short" like a stick, nor "pass" like a train, or even go "forward" or "backward" any more than it goes sideways, diagonal or down.

Related: Why Does Time Fly When You're Having Fun?

Perhaps because of this connection between space and time, the possibility that time can be experienced in different ways and traveled through has surprisingly early roots. One of the first known examples of time travel appears in the Mahabharata, an ancient Sanskrit epic poem compiled around 400 B.C., Lisa Yaszek, a professor of science fiction studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, told Live Science 

In the Mahabharata is a story about King Kakudmi, who lived millions of years ago and sought a suitable husband for his beautiful and accomplished daughter, Revati. The two travel to the home of the creator god Brahma to ask for advice. But while in Brahma's plane of existence, they must wait as the god listens to a 20-minute song, after which Brahma explains that time moves differently in the heavens than on Earth. It turned out that "27 chatur-yugas" had passed, or more than 116 million years, according to an online summary , and so everyone Kakudmi and Revati had ever known, including family members and potential suitors, was dead. After this shock, the story closes on a somewhat happy ending in that Revati is betrothed to Balarama, twin brother of the deity Krishna. 

Time is fleeting

To Yaszek, the tale provides an example of what we now call time dilation , in which different observers measure different lengths of time based on their relative frames of reference, a part of Einstein's theory of relativity.

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Such time-slip stories are widespread throughout the world, Yaszek said, citing a Middle Eastern tale from the first century BCE about a Jewish miracle worker who sleeps beneath a newly-planted carob tree and wakes up 70 years later to find it has now matured and borne fruit (carob trees are notorious for how long they take to produce their first harvest). Another instance can be found in an eighth-century Japanese fable about a fisherman named Urashima Tarō who travels to an undersea palace and falls in love with a princess. Tarō finds that, when he returns home, 100 years have passed, according to a translation of the tale published online by the University of South Florida . 

In the early-modern era of the 1700 and 1800s, the sleep-story version of time travel grew more popular, Yaszek said. Examples include the classic tale of Rip Van Winkle, as well as books like Edward Belamy's utopian 1888 novel "Looking Backwards," in which a man wakes up in the year 2000, and the H.G. Wells 1899 novel "The Sleeper Awakes," about a man who slumbers for centuries and wakes to a completely transformed London. 

Related: Science Fiction or Fact: Is Time Travel Possible ?

In other stories from this period, people also start to be able to move backward in time. In Mark Twain’s 1889 satire "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," a blow to the head propels an engineer back to the reign of the legendary British monarch. Objects that can send someone through time begin to appear as well, mainly clocks, such as in Edward Page Mitchell's 1881 story "The Clock that Went Backwards" or Lewis Carrol's 1889 children's fantasy "Sylvie and Bruno," where the characters possess a watch that is a type of time machine . 

The explosion of such stories during this era might come from the fact that people were "beginning to standardize time, and orient themselves to clocks more frequently," Yaszek said. 

Time after time

Wells provided one of the most enduring time-travel plots in his 1895 novella "The Time Machine," which included the innovation of a craft that can move forward and backward through long spans of time. "This is when we’re getting steam engines and trains and the first automobiles," Yaszek said. "I think it’s no surprise that Wells suddenly thinks: 'Hey, maybe we can use a vehicle to travel through time.'"

Because it is such a rich visual icon, many beloved time-travel stories written after this have included a striking time machine, Yaszek said, referencing The Doctor's blue police box — the TARDIS — in the long-running BBC series "Doctor Who," and "Back to the Future"'s silver luxury speedster, the DeLorean . 

More recently, time travel has been used to examine our relationship with the past, Yaszek said, in particular in pieces written by women and people of color. Octavia Butler's 1979 novel "Kindred" about a modern woman who visits her pre-Civil-War ancestors is "a marvelous story that really asks us to rethink black and white relations through history," she said. And a contemporary web series called " Send Me " involves an African-American psychic who can guide people back to antebellum times and witness slavery. 

"I'm really excited about stories like that," Yaszek said. "They help us re-see history from new perspectives."

Time travel has found a home in a wide variety of genres and media, including comedies such as "Groundhog Day" and "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" as well as video games like Nintendo's "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask" and the indie game "Braid." 

Yaszek suggested that this malleability and ubiquity speaks to time travel tales' ability to offer an escape from our normal reality. "They let us imagine that we can break free from the grip of linear time," she said. "And somehow get a new perspective on the human experience, either our own or humanity as a whole, and I think that feels so exciting to us." 

That modern people are often drawn to time-machine stories in particular might reflect the fact that we live in a technological world, she added. Yet time travel's appeal certainly has deeper roots, interwoven into the very fabric of our language and appearing in some of our earliest imaginings. 

"I think it's a way to make sense of the otherwise intangible and inexplicable, because it's hard to grasp time," Yaszek said. "But this is one of the final frontiers, the frontier of time, of life and death. And we're all moving forward, we're all traveling through time."

• If There Were a Time Warp, How Would Physicists Find It?
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Originally published on Live Science .

Adam Mann is a freelance journalist with over a decade of experience, specializing in astronomy and physics stories. He has a bachelor's degree in astrophysics from UC Berkeley. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times, National Geographic, Wall Street Journal, Wired, Nature, Science, and many other places. He lives in Oakland, California, where he enjoys riding his bike. 

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The Enduring Appeal of Time Travel

It’s very likely that in our universe, time travel is impossible. That might well be part of its enduring appeal in science fiction.

Time travel has been a thing for a very, very long time. In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, which may date from as early as 400BC, King Kakudmi is looking for a husband for his daughter…and genuinely believes she’s out of everyone’s league. So he goes and asks Brahma (the creator god). They listen to a concert…and decades pass.

This is an example of the same kind of time travel concept often seen in fairy tales and for the same reason. It’s interesting that it’s been floating around for a while. It’s also interesting that it’s the oldest time travel story.

Time travel into the past doesn’t appear to show up until the Renaissance in Europe. In Samuel Madden’s Memoirs of the Twentieth Century , a guardian angel shows up from the year 1998. And the earliest I can find of the protagonist traveling into the past is Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Galoshes of Fortune.” And the first time machine? Not H.G. Wells. “The Clock That Went Backward” by Edward Page Mitchell in 1881. He started a trend.

So, how do writers use time travel? And why do we love it so much?

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Book Your Trip

Watch out for that butterfly: the lure of literary time travel.

Petra Mayer

Guy Pearce aboard his time machine in the 2002 movie version of H.G. Wells' classic novel. The Kobal Collection hide caption

Guy Pearce aboard his time machine in the 2002 movie version of H.G. Wells' classic novel.

Where would you go, if you had a time machine? Ancient Egypt? Tang Dynasty China? The Globe Theater, in 1599? Or maybe to the 25th century, because who knows, Buck Rogers might actually be there.

Sadly, no one's likely to invent a working time machine any time soon. But that hasn't stopped the legions of writers who've been exploring time travel ever since H. G. Wells described his first Morlock. Slips and drops and nets and projections and paradoxes — writers have thought up a hundred ways to travel backwards and forwards in time. And that's one of the great things about literary time travel: the way every writer seems to invent the mechanism all over again, every time they put pen to paper.

"We can actually do whatever we want," says science fiction author Connie Willis. She's won all kinds of awards for her tales of time-traveling historians — like Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog . Willis says the best thing about time travel is no one's invented it yet — so it can be whatever you want. "You know, you can change history or not change history, you can go as an observer, you can go where you actually become part of the past and help fulfill history, it's pretty limitless."

Well, within reason — don't go stepping on any ancient butterflies, or accidentally shooting your own grandfather. You don't want to cause a paradox. "The trickiest part of writing time travel is the paradoxes," Willis says, "because the truth is, you know, we can't go back in time, one of the reasons is, just by being there we would change things, you know, so that's what you spend most of your time doing!"

Avoiding paradoxes is especially tricky for Willis, who's generally keeping track of multiple characters jumping around to different points in time. "And I have to remember, that happened earlier, but later, and hasn't happened yet — and I usually end up writing angry notes to myself at the head of every page: she still thinks he's a murderer!"

Unlike Willis's historians, I can't go back in time — but I can do the next best thing, which is to visit Readercon , a speculative fiction convention that happens every year in Boston. If anyone knows about time travel literature, it's these folks. In fact, this year they held an entire panel devoted to time travel. Panel moderator — and occasional NPR contributor — K. Tempest Bradford is working on a time travel novel herself, "basically doing Shakespeare's Twelfth Night with time travel instead of shipwrecks," she says.

Turn The Clock Back (Or Forward) With Time-Traveling Tales

Part of the appeal of time travel, Bradford adds, is the lure of experiencing other times and places. But it's also a chance for a cosmic do-over. "I know that if I were to travel back in time, I might warn some people that they shouldn't do this or that thing, or they should maybe be careful who they trade blankets with."

Writer, bookseller and Readercon attendee Leah Bobet says the past is fascinating because it's the one place we can't go, "and there are so many ways time travel stories both question and reinforce the past-is-past paradigm. And so it's grappling with regret, it's learning to emotionally deal with the consequences of the one thing we can't really undo."

It tends to be the past that people talk about, when they talk about time travel. "And that's interesting," says Bobet, "because the future is always coming. The future's coming whether you like it or not, second by second by second — the past is never coming again."

Unless, of course, you have a time machine — and that brings us to the quintessential time traveler's dilemma: Assuming you could get to Berlin in 1937, should you kill Hitler? "Oh yeah," says Connie Willis. "That's the dilemma of time travel, is that no event is unconnected to every other event. And so you could bring about something much worse. Except that Hitler was so bad and so unique, I have a tendency to think that given the chance, yeah. You betcha."

Personally, I might go back to Sarajevo in 1914 and slip Gavrilo Princip a knockout drop instead. If I had a time machine.

1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology

Philosophy, One Thousand Words at a Time

Time Travel

Author: Taylor W. Cyr Category: Metaphysics Word Count: 1000

Time travel is familiar from science fiction and is interesting to philosophers because of the metaphysical issues it raises: the nature of time, causation, personal identity, and freedom, among others. [1]

It’s widely accepted that time travel to the future is possible, but the possibility of backward time travel remains hotly debated. [2] This article will sketch some models of backward time travel (hereafter simply “time travel”) before addressing the main objections to its possibility. [3]

1. Models of Time Travel

According to the standard model of time travel, time is linear so a time traveler’s journey may be depicted along a single timeline, with some events that occur earlier in the timeline’s being experienced as later by the traveler: [4]

On another model, time travel results in the creation of a new universe that branches out from the same trunk (shared past) as the original:

A third model of time travel maintains that there is a second temporal dimension, and so, in addition to times, there are “hyper-times.” [5] On this model, time is more like a plane than like a line, and a time traveler may, in returning to an earlier time, reach that time at a later hyper-time, with the result that the aforementioned time bears different properties at the different hyper-times: [6]

2. Changing the Past

It is natural to suppose that time travel would change the past, which many believe is impossible. Changing the past would require that the past have a certain property at one “time” and then lack that property at another “time.” This is incoherent on the standard model of time travel, which maintains that time is linear (there is no “second time around”), so the standard model precludes changing the past.

But time travel doesn’t require changing the past. We may distinguish changing the past from affecting the past, where the latter requires only that the time traveler’s travels have effects in the past. [7] For example, suppose a time traveler finds her younger self and attempts to convince herself not to time travel. [8] Assuming the standard model of time travel, she will fail to prevent herself from time traveling, but the attempt will affect how the past was “all along,” so to speak. From the outside, the scene will look like an ordinary conversation between two people, but, assuming the time traveler remembers the scene, she will remember an older version of herself trying to convince her not to time travel. [9]

Moreover, according to the other two models of time travel, one and the same time may exist in two different universes or hyper-times, and so it isn’t obviously incoherent to state that some past time may have a property at one “time” (either in one universe, or at one hyper-time) that it lacks at another “time” (in another universe, or at another hyper-time). [10]

3. Causal Loops

Consider some events from the television show Lost . [11] At one point, Richard gives a compass to Locke, telling him to return it the next time they meet. Locke then travels back in time, sees a younger Richard, and returns the compass, which Richard keeps until he gives it to Locke in the aforementioned meeting.

The Lost compass is strange. It was not created in the usual way—in fact, it has no creator! It appeared (with Locke) at time t1 (when it was given to Richard), remained with Richard at a later time t2, and then was given to Locke at t3, when Locke set out for t1, resulting in a “causal loop.” At each time t1-t3, there is a causal explanation for the compass’s presence by reference to the prior stage in the loop. But no explanation can be given for the loop itself. (Where did the compass come from to begin with? There is no answer.)

Now, if such cases are impossible, this might cast doubt on the possibility of time travel. As David Lewis says in response, however, such cases “are not too different from inexplicabilities we are already inured to” such as “God, or the Big Bang, or the decay of a tritium atom,” all of which are “uncaused and inexplicable” (1976: 149).

Note that this objection assumes the standard model of time travel, since these strange loops do not necessarily result from time travel on the other models. Moreover, it may be possible for there to be cases of time travel that don’t generate causal loops even assuming the standard model. [12]

4. Time Travelers’ Abilities

Suppose Tim time travels and attempts to kill his Grandfather before his parents are conceived. Assuming Tim has a gun, is a good shot, etc., it would seem that Tim can kill Grandfather. But Tim can’t kill Grandfather, for doing so would preclude his own existence. Tim both can and can’t kill Grandfather: that’s a contradiction, so we should give up the assumption that led to it, namely that time travel is possible.

This is the Grandfather Paradox, and it is the main objection to the possibility of time travel. Here are two responses, both of which assume the standard model of time travel. [13]

First, one might understand “can” claims like “Tim can kill Grandfather” as claims about what is possible in view of certain facts—and which facts are held fixed is determined by the context of utterance. [14] For example, in view of Tim’s possession of a gun, his reliable aim, etc., it is true that Tim can kill Grandfather. But if we also hold fixed the fact that Grandfather lives , then Tim’s killing Grandfather isn’t possible, and thus he can’t kill Grandfather. So, there is no contradiction; it is true that Tim can kill Grandfather holding certain facts fixed, and it is false holding more fixed, but the claim is not both true and false in the same context. [15]

A second approach denies that Tim can kill Grandfather. [16] This denial follows from certain independently motivated views of agents’ abilities, and it avoids the Paradox by restricting the freedom of time travelers.

5. Conclusion

Perhaps time travel is (metaphysically) possible, but it doesn’t follow that it’s technologically feasible, or that it will ever actually occur. Only time will tell.

[1]   While not the first philosophical discussion of time travel, David Lewis’s classic 1976 essay “The Paradoxes of Time Travel” popularized the subject in metaphysics. For a recent philosophical discussion of time travel—an excellent summary of several facets of the debate, as well as some new developments—see Wasserman (2018).

[2]   By “possibility” I mean metaphysical possibility—consistency with the laws of metaphysics, such as the laws of causation, identity, etc. For more on the discussion of the various senses of possibility we might be asking about in connection with time travel, see Wasserman (2018, chapter 1), and see the rest of the same book for a summary of the debate about the metaphysical possibility of backward time travel.

[3]   There are other objections, but there isn’t space to consider all of them here. One objection concerns its likelihood rather than its possibility . As we will see below, there are certain things that it would seem time travelers cannot do, and so if time travelers attempted the impossible, something would prevent them from succeeding (perhaps the time traveler would have a change of heart, or perhaps she would slip on a banana peel, or…). Horwich (1987) argues that since backward time travel would result in such improbable events, this casts doubt on the likelihood of time travel. See Smith (1997) for discussion and a response to Horwich.

[4]   See the first figure. Reprinted from Wasserman (2018, chapter 3) with permission of Ryan Wasserman and Oxford University Press.

[5]   For developments of the hyper-time model, see Meiland (1974), Goddu (2003), and van Inwagen (2010).

[6]   If we graphed the two dimensions of time on a plane, with the temporal dimension along the x- axis and the hyper-temporal dimension along the y -axis, as in the third figure, time travel would amount to moving leftward (back in time) and upward (forward in hyper-time).

[7]   As Brier explains, “One cannot change the past or undo what has been done. Rather, what is at issue is whether one can affect the past; that is, by a present action cause something to have happened which would not have happened otherwise” (1973: 361).

[8]   For a simple example of this from science-fiction, see the film Interstellar . After leaving Earth, Cooper is able to send messages back in time, and he uses his first message to try to get his daughter to make him stay on Earth, as seen here .

[9]   For another example of affecting (but not changing) the past, see J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban . An especially excellent case of time travel occurs toward the end of the book when Hermione takes Harry back in time, allowing him to save himself from Dementors. In the film version, we see Harry attacked by (but saved from) Dementors here , and then we see Hermione take Harry back in time here , and finally, we see Harry save himself here .

[10]   It is contentious whether these models of time travel really allow for changing the past. See Smith (1997, 2015) and Baron (2017) for arguments against, and see Law (Forthcoming) for a response.

[11]   The first of these occurs in the third episode of season five, “Jughead,” from 39:44-41:19,  and the second scene occurs in the first episode of season five, “Because You Left,” from 29:30-34:34.

[12]   For example, suppose I travel back in time by twenty seconds but set my machine to a destination on the other side of the planet. Presumably, my appearance in the past will not have any causal consequences across the globe, despite its occurring twenty seconds earlier than my departure, and thus no causal loop will be generated. For a similar example, see Hanley (2004: 130).

[13]   On the other models, there is no reason to think that Tim can’t kill Grandfather, for doing so would preclude Tim’s future birth in the new timeline (the new branch or hyper-time), but Grandfather would not have been killed in the original, and thus Tim is still born in that timeline.

[14] See Kratzer (1977).

[15]   While Lewis’s (1776: 149-152) influential response to the Paradox also relies on the Kratzer semantics for “can,” his proposed resolution is slightly different, for he sees the fact that Grandfather lives as one that it would be illegitimate to hold fixed. Holding it fixed, he thinks, amounts to “fatalist trickery,” as such a fact “is an irrelevant fact about the future masquerading as a relevant fact about the past” (1976: 151).

[16]   See Vihvelin (1996).

Baron, Sam (2017). “Back to the Unchanging Past,” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 98: 129–147.

Brier, Bob (1973). “Magicians, Alarm Clocks, and Backward Causation,” Southern Journal of Philosophy 11: 359-364.

Goddu, G. C. (2003). “Time Travel and Changing the Past (or How to Kill Yourself and Live to Tell the Tale),” Ratio 16: 16-32.

Hanley, Richard (2004). “No End in Sight: Causal Loops in Philosophy, Physics, and Fiction,” Synthese 141: 123-152.

Horwich, Paul (1997). Asymmetries In Time: Problems In the Philosophy of Science . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Kratzer, Angelika (1977). “What ‘Must’ and ‘Can’ Must and Can Mean,” Linguistics and Philosophy 1: 337-355.

Law, Andrew (Forthcoming). “The Puzzle of Hyper-Change,” Ratio .

Lewis, David (1976). “The Paradoxes of Time Travel,” American Philosophical Quarterly 13: 145-152.

Meiland, Jack (1974). “A Two-Dimensional Passage Model of Time for Time Travel,” Philosophical Studies 26: 152-173.

Smith, Nicholas J. J. (1997). “Bananas Enough for Time Travel?” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48: 363-389.

Smith, Nicholas J. J. (2015). “Why Time Travellers (Still) Cannot Change the Past,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 71: 677–694.

van Inwagen, Peter (2010). “Changing the Past,” in D. Zimmerman, ed., Oxford Studies in Metaphysics , vol. 5. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vihvelin, Kadri (1996). “What Time Travelers Cannot Do,” Philosophical Studies 81: 315-330.

Wasserman, Ryan (2018). Paradoxes of Time Travel . New York: Oxford University Press.

Related Essays

Philosophy of Space and Time: Are  the  Past and Future Real ?  by Dan Peterson

Personal Identity by Chad Vance

Free Will and Free Choice  by Jonah Nagashima

Translation

This essay has been translated into Italian for the Italian cultural magazine  L’Indiscreto .

About the Author

Taylor W. Cyr is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Samford University. His main research interests lie at the intersection of ethics and metaphysics, including such topics as free will, moral responsibility, death, and time. His work has appeared in such journals as Ethics , Philosophical Studies , Philosophical Quarterly , and Erkenntnis . TaylorWCyr.com

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Viewpoints Radio

Award-winning reporting on current issues featuring America's leading experts.

The Appeal of Time Travel Stories (Late 2017)

Have you ever fantasized about going back in time and changing world history? How about your own personal past? If we could travel eternally through space and time, how would this power affect us, psychologically and emotionally? We talk about the appeal of time travel fiction with author Travis Langley who examines these questions in his book Doctor Who Psychology: A Madman with a Box, through an analysis of the longest-running sci-fi TV series of all time.

Dr. Langley says that time travel fiction provides a safe space to explore the emotions and consequences of all kinds of “what if” questions we all have, teaches us lessons that can we can apply to everyday life.

Guest Information:

• Dr. Travis Langley, author of Doctor Who Psychology: A Madman with a Box

Links for Additional Info:

• travislangley.info
• Travis Langley’s Books

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Is Time Travel Possible?

We all travel in time! We travel one year in time between birthdays, for example. And we are all traveling in time at approximately the same speed: 1 second per second.

We typically experience time at one second per second. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's space telescopes also give us a way to look back in time. Telescopes help us see stars and galaxies that are very far away . It takes a long time for the light from faraway galaxies to reach us. So, when we look into the sky with a telescope, we are seeing what those stars and galaxies looked like a very long time ago.

However, when we think of the phrase "time travel," we are usually thinking of traveling faster than 1 second per second. That kind of time travel sounds like something you'd only see in movies or science fiction books. Could it be real? Science says yes!

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxies that are very far away as they existed a very long time ago. Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Thompson (Univ. Arizona)

How do we know that time travel is possible?

More than 100 years ago, a famous scientist named Albert Einstein came up with an idea about how time works. He called it relativity. This theory says that time and space are linked together. Einstein also said our universe has a speed limit: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).

Einstein's theory of relativity says that space and time are linked together. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

What does this mean for time travel? Well, according to this theory, the faster you travel, the slower you experience time. Scientists have done some experiments to show that this is true.

For example, there was an experiment that used two clocks set to the exact same time. One clock stayed on Earth, while the other flew in an airplane (going in the same direction Earth rotates).

After the airplane flew around the world, scientists compared the two clocks. The clock on the fast-moving airplane was slightly behind the clock on the ground. So, the clock on the airplane was traveling slightly slower in time than 1 second per second.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Can we use time travel in everyday life?

We can't use a time machine to travel hundreds of years into the past or future. That kind of time travel only happens in books and movies. But the math of time travel does affect the things we use every day.

For example, we use GPS satellites to help us figure out how to get to new places. (Check out our video about how GPS satellites work .) NASA scientists also use a high-accuracy version of GPS to keep track of where satellites are in space. But did you know that GPS relies on time-travel calculations to help you get around town?

GPS satellites orbit around Earth very quickly at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. This slows down GPS satellite clocks by a small fraction of a second (similar to the airplane example above).

GPS satellites orbit around Earth at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. Credit: GPS.gov

However, the satellites are also orbiting Earth about 12,550 miles (20,200 km) above the surface. This actually speeds up GPS satellite clocks by a slighter larger fraction of a second.

Here's how: Einstein's theory also says that gravity curves space and time, causing the passage of time to slow down. High up where the satellites orbit, Earth's gravity is much weaker. This causes the clocks on GPS satellites to run faster than clocks on the ground.

The combined result is that the clocks on GPS satellites experience time at a rate slightly faster than 1 second per second. Luckily, scientists can use math to correct these differences in time.

If scientists didn't correct the GPS clocks, there would be big problems. GPS satellites wouldn't be able to correctly calculate their position or yours. The errors would add up to a few miles each day, which is a big deal. GPS maps might think your home is nowhere near where it actually is!

In Summary:

Yes, time travel is indeed a real thing. But it's not quite what you've probably seen in the movies. Under certain conditions, it is possible to experience time passing at a different rate than 1 second per second. And there are important reasons why we need to understand this real-world form of time travel.

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• Child Development

Nostalgia: A Mental Time Machine

We don't want to return to our past; we want our past to return to us..

Posted May 6, 2014 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

The appeal of a time machine that would allow us to travel through time has fascinated us in story and film for over a hundred years. If you could travel through time in only one direction, would you choose to move forward or backward? Curiosity and faith in progress would encourage travel forward to enjoy adventures in a utopian future. Moving ahead might be inspired by a desire to discover how your life unfolds and ends. On the other hand, travel to the past would allow you to trace your roots, relive your glory days or visit with loved ones you have lost. Perhaps, some would even be tempted to try to rewrite the past to correct mistakes, prevent disaster or restore lost loved ones.

Would turning back time be driven by a desire to be with certain people, to be in old haunts or to reclaim favorite things? What we miss most about our past reflects the aspects of our lives that have had enduring value. Some things seem so important while we experience them, but their significance fades as they are replaced by activities or objects more relevant to a later stage in life. For example, during childhood , many aspects of school command our energy and attention and are a central part of our satisfaction with life, our achievements, and sense of identity . Winning a competition , earning an award, or being recognized for superior academic talent or athletic prowess mean so much at the time, and we think we will treasure such memories for a lifetime. Even ordinary parts of school life from passing notes in class to exchanging Valentine’s Day greetings feel memorable while they are ongoing. As time passes, however, their salience retreats as they are replaced by more engaging concerns such as career advances, house hunting, and establishing professional and personal relationships.

Other aspects of our lives retain their value or increase in significance with the passage of time. As a young child, we took it for granted that Mom or Dad would be with us when we were ill. When an older sibling protected us from a bully , we might have felt grateful or a little embarrassed that we couldn’t handle it on our own. Looking back, such moments have become priceless. We treasure not only situations in which we were the beneficiaries. We come to recognize the deeper meaning of how we listened to a friend disclose their confusion during their parents’ divorce , how we remained loyal throughout a tumultuous friendship , or how we comforted our family dog as he drew his final breaths. As a child we might have resented being asked to help with household chores for an elderly relative or having to listen to much-repeated tales of life long ago. But now we might wish we had a time machine so we could do it all again.

Research on nostalgia for one’s past has shown that as adults we tend not to miss most strongly our childhood heroes or heroines, religious activities, school, or TV shows or movies. On the average, people miss most not having to worry, loved ones, holidays, things we did, family, the way people were, and not knowing sad or evil things. Some aspects of life are so central they rank among the most missed throughout the stages of life. Similar to adults over the age of 30, even young children (4 to 11 years old) and teens (12 to 17 years old) report missing someone they loved and things they did from when they were younger. The priority of other aspects shift as we age. For example, whereas toys are among the things most missed by children and teens (4 to 21 years old), childhood toys are among the things least missed by adults (34 years and older). By contrast, the music of our past is not deeply missed until later in life (34 years and older). For the most part, the expensive gift that once made us ecstatic is not what we want now. We wish we could take that walk through the woods with Mom, Dad or our brothers and sisters again. We miss sitting around the family table and sharing stories, jokes or memories far more than expensive toys or presents.

Research suggests that if a time machine were possible many people would want to visit the time when they were young. But visiting doesn’t mean returning for good. We don’t want to live again as a child, live the lifestyle of a child, or live in the world as it was when we were children. We wouldn’t want to leave behind our smart phones or large screen digital TVs. We don’t want to have to go to school, do homework, or receive an allowance. When we reminisce nostalgically, we want to bring the best of our past into our present. If we could travel back in time, we would want to visit with those we loved and lost, but how could we bear to leave them behind and lose them yet again? We would love to restore to our lives now the best of our past—those we loved, our family, being able to do the activities we once did, the way people were, our innocence in not knowing sad or evil things, and not having to worry. Childhood reflects the enduring desire for the ideal—life without cruelty, suffering, betrayal, or loss. As children we experienced life replete with possibilities, with dreams full of hope and promise and the freedom to enjoy being a son or daughter, grandchild, sibling or niece or nephew without conditions.

Nostalgic reverie is like a mental time machine. We can indulge in reflection on the ideal from the vantage point of childhood. From our contemplation of the best of our past we can find what we should now retain, restore, and rebuild. When we visit our past we discover that we don’t want to be rescued by heroes; we want now to be the hero, to be in control, to overcome what needs to be defeated. Disney movies still appeal to us, because we yearn for the magic of the victory of good over evil, the ability to destroy boundaries and explore without limits. Nostalgia doesn’t trap us in the past as long as we use the best of our past to rediscover what will continue to be truly meaningful.

Batcho, K. I. (2013). Nostalgia Inventory . App for iPhone and iPad. Okechukwu, U. F., developer. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nostalgia-inventory/id591429922?mt=8

Batcho, K. I. (2013). Nostalgia: Retreat or support in difficult times? The American Journal of Psychology, 126 , 355-367.

Batcho, K. I., Nave, A. M., & DaRin, M. L. (2011). A retrospective survey of childhood experiences. Journal of Happiness Studies , 12 (4), 531-545.

Batcho, K. I., DaRin, M. L., Nave, A. M., & Yaworsky, R. R. (2008). Nostalgia and identity in song lyrics. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2, 236-244.

Batcho, K. I. (1998). Personal nostalgia, world view, memory, and emotionality. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 87 , 411-432.

Batcho, K. I. (1995). Nostalgia: A psychological perspective. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 80 , 131-143.

Krystine Batcho, Ph.D. , is a professor at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York.

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Time Travel: Decoding the Space-Time Continuum

Illustration above entitled “ Back to the Future 4 : the journey ” by Tohad

——————————————————-

The timeless (pun intended) appeal of time travel to pop culture was reinforced with the news in August 2018 that British broadcasting giant Sky is taking another crack at time travel after it began developing a remake of H.G. Wells’ classic novella The Time Machine . Not to forget that 2017 was the 150th birth anniversary of H.G. Wells’, which spawned a number of time travel-related media productions. On the silver screen, the biggest Hollywood blockbuster of the year – Avengers: Infinity War – featured elements of time travel through a powerful ‘Time Gem’ (the green one) that can manipulate time.

But moving away from science fiction and into actual science, how feasible is time travel in reality? Since looking at this issue back in 2011 , it would be worth revisiting it to see if science and technology has advanced sufficiently for mankind to be any nearer to the possibility of time travel.

Time Dilation

First off, there does appear to be at least some scientific basis to consider the notion of time travel. In a well-known experiment going back to 1971, physicist Joseph Hafele and astronomer Richard Keating placed four atomic clocks on aeroplanes which flew twice around the world, first eastward, then westward. When compared with reference atomic clocks on the ground, their times were found to be different.

The Hafele–Keating experiment proved that the rate at which time passes is circumstantial and situational. If one is travelling close to the speed of light or near a black hole, the amount of time experienced is going to be less than the amount of time someone else experiences. This is referred to as time dilation.

A real-life example comes from astronauts living on board the International Space Station experiencing time dilation. They age a little bit slower than people on Earth because they move quickly and also because they are further from the Earth, which means they experience less gravitational effects.

Quantum Weirdness

According to Dr Kristie Miller, director of the Centre for Time at the University of Sydney, the idea that the past, present and future are all equally real is fundamentally important to the model of time travel. And that means that everything that ever did exist, does exist or will exist are all somehow out there in the space-time continuum.

Interestingly, the weird world of quantum physics could be the key to decoding the mysteries of the space-time continuum. This field of physics involves extremely small scales where the rules of classical physics learnt about in school break down, and the concept of space-time as we know it may not apply. In the quantum world, it might be possible for a particle to be in many places at one time, which means they could travel through time and exist in the past, present and future. Nothing appears impossible in the weird quantum world, considering that particles can even travel through walls!

Lights Will Guide You Home

A well-known theoretical physicist named Ronald Mallett from the University of Connecticut believes laser lights hold the key to time travel. As is known, Einstein believed the three dimensions of space were all linked to time, which actually exists as the fourth dimension. Thus the phrase – space-time. In theory, this means it could be possible to fold space-time, which makes it possible to travel huge distances instantly.

In a hands-on approach, Professor Mallet is working on a new machine based on the fact that light can create gravitational fields, as put forth in Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Mallet’s machine uses lasers to generate a circulating beam of light. The space in the “ring laser” would become twisted “like stirring a cup of coffee”. If this space is twisted strongly enough, linear time would be twisted into a loop, which presents the possibility of travelling into the past. If this idea of time travel does indeed prove to be valid, it would take a tremendous amount of energy to actually be able to twist space-time.

In case you missed it, check out my very own illustration rendition of “Back to the Future” where I stylized a motorbike instead , back in 2011.

Sidestepping time.

If these theories and experiments of time travel do not bear fruit, there is the option of sidestepping time by changing how the human body experiences time . The American Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) is currently developing biostasis , a technology that allows the body to be slowed down at a molecular level.

In the near-term, biostasis could be used for medical emergencies such as extending the “golden hour” – the time that wounded soldiers have to reach medical attention. It could also potentially prolong the shelf life of blood stores and other medical products like vaccines, antibodies and enzymes by slowing down the reaction times of chemicals.

In the long-term, this capability could be advanced to slow the metabolic rate and induce hibernation in astronauts for long-distance space missions to explore Mars and other space bodies. And nature may well provide the answers to achieve this. Creatures such as wood frogs possess a capability known as cryptobiosis, where all their metabolic processes apparently stop, yet they remain alive. This allows the frogs to survive even in a frozen solid state.

There are, of course, skeptics and disbelievers who think time travel is impossible. Whatever the result, it is more likely that mankind’s efforts to decode the mysteries of the space-time continuum will stand the test of time.

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Exploring the Paradoxes of Time Travel Literature: A Journey Through the Ages

Time travel literature has been a popular genre for centuries, captivating readers with its ability to transport them through time and space. From H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine to Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife , the paradoxes of time travel have been explored in countless works of fiction.

But what is it about this genre that continues to captivate us? Is it the thrill of imagining what our world would be like if we could travel through time? Or is it the philosophical and scientific questions that arise, such as the possibility of changing the course of history?

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Join me on a journey through the ages as we explore the fascinating and often mind-bending world of time travel literature. Examine the paradoxes that continue to intrigue and inspire us. From the classics to modern works, we’ll delve into the themes and motifs that make this genre so appealing and ponder the deeper questions that it raises. So, grab your time machine and let’s go!

Historical Overview of Time Travel Literature

Time travel literature has existed for centuries, with some of the earliest examples dating back to ancient mythology. In Hindu mythology, for example, the god Vishnu is said to have traveled through time to restore order to the universe. Similarly, in Norse mythology, the god Odin is said to have traveled through time to gain knowledge and wisdom.

However, it wasn’t until the 19th century that time travel literature as we know it today emerged. H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine , published in 1895, is widely considered to be the first modern time travel novel. The book tells the story of an Englishman who travels to the year 802,701 AD, where he encounters two races of people – the peaceful Eloi and the savage Morlocks.

Wells’ novel was followed by a slew of other time travel stories, including Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and Jules Verne’s The Time Machine , both published in 1889. These early works set the stage for the explosion of time travel literature that would follow in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Paradoxes of Time Travel – What Are They?

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of time travel literature is the paradoxes that arise from the concept of traveling through time. The most well-known of these paradoxes is the grandfather paradox, which asks the question – what would happen if you went back in time and killed your grandfather before he had children? If you did, then you would never have been born, which means you wouldn’t have been able to go back in time and kill your grandfather.

Other paradoxes include the bootstrap paradox, where an object or information is passed from the future to the past, creating a loop in time, and the butterfly effect, where small changes in the past can have huge consequences in the future. These paradoxes raise fascinating questions about the nature of time and the consequences of our actions.

Examples of Time Travel Paradoxes in Literature

Time travel paradoxes have been explored in countless works of fiction, from classic novels to modern films and TV shows. One of the most famous examples is Ray Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder , which tells the story of a man who travels back in time to hunt dinosaurs. When he accidentally steps on a butterfly, he returns to the present to find that the world has been drastically altered.

Another example is Stephen King’s 11/22/63 , which follows a man who travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. However, his actions have unintended consequences, and he must grapple with the moral implications of altering history.

These works, and many others like them, explore the complex and often unpredictable consequences of time travel, and the paradoxes that arise from it.

The Evolution of Time Travel Literature

As time travel literature has evolved, so too have the themes and motifs that define the genre. Early works, such as Wells’ The Time Machine and Verne’s The Time Machine , focused on the scientific and technological aspects of time travel, exploring the possibilities and limitations of this concept.

Later works, such as Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder and King’s 11/22/63 , focused more on the philosophical and moral implications of time travel. These works ask deeper questions about the nature of time and the consequences of our actions, and explore the complex ethical dilemmas that arise from altering history.

In recent years, time travel literature has continued to evolve, focusing on more diverse perspectives and themes. For example, Octavia Butler’s Kindred explores the experience of a black woman who travels back to the antebellum South, while Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life explores the implications of time travel on language and communication.

Popular Time Travel Books and Their Themes

There are countless examples of popular time travel books, each with its own unique themes and motifs. Some of the most well-known examples include:

• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: This novel tells the story of a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to travel through time involuntarily and his wife, who must navigate the challenges of their unusual relationship.
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: This series follows a World War II nurse who travels back to 18th century Scotland, where she falls in love with a Highlander.
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North: This novel explores the concept of reincarnation, following a man who is born again and again, retaining the memories of his past lives.
• All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai: This novel explores the idea of alternate realities following a man who travels from a utopian future to our present-day world.

Each of these books, and many others like them, explore different themes and motifs within the time travel genre, from love and relationships to the nature of reality.

The Impact of Time Travel Literature on Popular Culture

Time travel literature has had a profound impact on popular culture, influencing everything from films and TV shows to video games and music. Some of the most well-known examples include:

• Back to the Future : This classic film franchise follows a teenager who travels back in time to the 1950s, where he accidentally interferes with his parents’ relationship and must find a way to set things right.
• Doctor Who : This long-running TV series follows a time-traveling alien who travels through time and space, fighting evil and righting wrongs.
• The Terminator : This film franchise follows a cyborg assassin who travels back in time to kill the mother of the resistance leader who will one day defeat the machines in a post-apocalyptic future.

These and other examples of time travel in popular culture have helped to cement the genre’s place in our collective imagination and have inspired countless works of fiction and art.

The Common Elements of Time Travel Literature

Despite the diversity of themes and motifs within the time travel genre, certain elements are common to many works of fiction. These include:

• The concept of a time machine or other means of time travel.
• The exploration of alternate timelines and the consequences of altering history.
• The paradoxes that arise from time travel include the grandfather paradox and the butterfly effect.
• Philosophical and moral questions arise from time travel, such as the nature of free will and the consequences of our actions.

These elements help to define the time travel genre and make it a rich and complex field of study.

The Future of Time Travel Literature

As time travel literature continues to evolve, it’s clear that there is still plenty of room for exploration and innovation. With the rise of diverse voices and perspectives, we can expect new and exciting takes on the genre in the coming years.

One area of particular interest is the intersection of time travel and technology. With the rapid pace of technological advancement, it’s not hard to imagine a future where time travel becomes a reality. How will this change the way we think about time travel literature? What new questions and paradoxes will arise?

Only time will tell, but one thing is certain – time travel literature will continue to captivate and inspire us for centuries to come.

Time travel literature is a fascinating and endlessly complex genre, exploring everything from the scientific and technological possibilities of time travel to the philosophical and moral implications of altering history.

From the classics to modern works, this genre has captivated readers and inspired countless works of fiction and art. By exploring the paradoxes of time travel and the themes and motifs that define this genre, we can better understand the nature of time and the consequences of our actions.

Whether you’re a fan of classic works like The Time Machine or modern favorites like The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August , there’s no denying the enduring appeal of time travel literature. So, grab your time machine and let’s go!

Esther Lombardi

Esther A. Lombardi is a freelance writer and journalist with more than two decades of experience writing for an array of publications, online and offline. She also has a master's degree in English Literature with a background in Web Technology and Journalism. 

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How to Write a Time Travel Story Without Paradoxes

The concept of time travel has long been a popular theme in fiction and film. Traveling back in time to alter the course of history is an alluring idea that has enthralled not just fiction writers but scientists as well. Yet, if you've ever seen or read a time travel story, you're aware that time travel is a tricky concept to grasp. It might be challenging to stay faithful to your worldbuilding concepts while simultaneously incorporating suitable temporal paradoxes.

For this reason, we will explore different paradoxes and go through various tips to help you write a time travel story without the risk of paradoxes.

Where does the idea of time travel come from?

Traveling across time is a shared universal dream. But where did the fascination with time travel begin, and why does the concept appeal to so many people? The lure of time travel has deeper origins. Appearing in some of our oldest stories , it is woven into the very fabric of our language and imagines a world without constraints of time and space. Its roots may be traced back to ancient tales of time travel found in numerous civilizations throughout the world, giving the notion its distinct characteristics derived from different cultures.

We come across time travel stories in ancient cultures throughout the world , although we cannot claim to know where the concept originally came from and who pioneered it. However, we can observe that the genre rose to prominence in the nineteenth century. From this time period comes Charles Dickens' classic novella A Christmas Carol , in which Ebenezer Scrooge travels both ahead and backwards in time. Around the same period, H.G. Wells popularized time travel in literature with his timeless novel The Time Machine , which featured the concept of a "time machine," which featured a vehicle that could travel purposefully and selectively in time. Inspired by this emblematic icon, many beloved time-travel stories published after this have incorporated some form of the time machine. Such is the famous TARDIS in the long-running BBC classic series Doctor Who , a blue box that can transcend time and space. Doctor who interestingly explores time travel paradoxes, with time paradoxes taking a center stage for many of its episodes.

Time travel paradoxes

There are many logical contradictions when it comes to time travel. Here are some of the major paradoxes:

Bootstrap paradox

The Bootstrap Paradox is a theoretical paradox of time travel that arises when an object transported back in time becomes locked within an unending cause-effect loop. This occurs as the travel in time takes place as a response to a specific event.

Consistency paradox

Consistency Paradoxes , such as the Grandfather Paradox , or the Hitler paradox , a type of timeline mismatch that arises from the prospect of changing the past. These paradoxes change history in such a way that time travel into the past, which caused such action in the first place, is no longer possible. To simply illustrate the paradox, in the film The Time Machine , a protagonist builds a time machine to travel back in time in order to save his fiancé from death. Her rescue, on the other hand, would lead to a future in which the machine never existed since her death was the direct motivation for its creation. But then, how is it you can go back and save your fiancé if her death hasn't given you the push to create the time machine? It results in a paradox. The timeline is no longer self-consistent.

Butterfly effect

The Butterfly Effect is based on Chaos Theory , which states that seemingly minor changes may have massive cascade responses over extended periods of time and that even minor changes can fundamentally reshape history. The name "Butterfly Effect" originates from Ray Bradbury's short tale " A Sound of Thunder ," in which a character in prehistoric times walks on a butterfly, causing massive changes in the future.

How to avoid these paradoxes

The self-healing hypothesis.

Writers seeking to escape the paradoxes of time travel have devised a variety of inventive methods for presenting a more consistent picture of reality. The self-healing hypothesis is one of the most basic solutions to any time travel paradox, implying that no matter what is changed in the timeline, the principles of quantum physics will self-correct to prevent a contradiction from arising and sustain the existing flow .

Because events would adapt themselves, a paradox would not occur. So, changing the past will trigger another alternative chain reaction that will keep the present unaltered. This effectively states that the likelihood of a paradox arising in any given circumstance is zero. The self-healing hypothesis simply indicates that no matter what a traveler has done in the past, the end outcome is the same in terms of global conditions. This does not rule out the possibility of changing the past, but it does eliminate the prospect of minor changes having the power to generate massive ones. Most crucially, as an author, you are not obligated to describe the particular events that repair time. It is enough to affirm that they take place and ensure that your event sequences and their conclusion are consistent.

Time traveling monitor

Another way to avoid temporal paradox would be creating the time traveling monitor that would follow the timeline protection hypothesis , which posits that any attempt to create a paradox would fail to owe to a probability distortion. The monitor would adjust the probability in order to avert any damaging events occurring, which would also give you free rein to come up with creative scenarios. Nonetheless, to prevent an impossible event from taking place, the universe must favor an improbable event occurring.

Balancing the timeline

The paradoxes themselves are intertwined and they can as well occur simultaneously. No one knows if a real-life paradox would result in a large-scale timeline alteration, or if the closed-loop is kind of automatically self-correcting since everything works out equally in the end. Going back to the Consistency Paradox, yet another approach to avoid it is to acknowledge, regretfully, that you can't and shouldn't attempt to change the past. That is unless you can rule out any chance of a bad domino effect as a result of your activities. In this manner, you can attempt to alter the past while keeping the chronology intact. This means following up the time-change event with another change that balances out the activities and ensures that the outcome remains the same despite the intervention.

The notion of a time loop is one of the most prevalent strategies to get away with time travel in science fiction. You may travel through time here, but any changes you make are predetermined. For example, suppose you were pushed out of the way of a car one day. You return to your timeline from the future and realize that that person was in reality you.

Paradoxes are avoided with this method of time travel, but everything is predetermined. If you wish to prevent a tragic incident from occurring in your past, there's nothing you can do since even if you could, it would still happen in the time loop. Whatever you did, the key events would just re-calibrate around you. This could be the solution for the Grandfather Paradox — that would mean that the event propelling you back in time would happen regardless of your actions, providing your younger self with the incentive to go back and stop it. To put it another way, a time traveler could make adjustments, but the original conclusion would still occur — perhaps not exactly as it did in the initial timeline, but near enough.

Parallel universe

There is also another possibility: creating a parallel universe . The future or past you visit might become a parallel reality. Consider it as a huge fortress where you may construct or demolish as many castles as you like, but it has no bearing on your primal stronghold. When you travel back in time, the future is gone, it never happened, and the universe will evolve anew, even if you do nothing to influence it. It does not affect the future you experienced, but it does affect the future of the reset world. That can entail creating a scenario in which the protagonists travel to the past and discover themselves in a parallel world or multiverse, with no change to their original chronology.

Countless science fiction stories have examined the conundrum of what would happen if you could travel back in time and do something that would jeopardize the future. Please note that you are free to make your own rules for it. This is your work of fiction. The universe will be as you will design it in your story. If the paradoxes do not exist in your story, then you may make up your own rules around it. You can as well bypass the rules your worldbuilding has established if you have a valid cause for doing so and if this is what your writing demands.

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The Scribe of Siena – Outlander Fans Will Enjoy this Time Travel Romance

Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book from the publisher. I was not financially compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.

The Scribe of Siena Official Synopsis: 

Accomplished neurosurgeon Beatrice Trovato knows that her deep empathy for her patients is starting to impede her work. So when her beloved brother passes away, she welcomes the unexpected trip to the Tuscan city of Siena to resolve his estate, even as she wrestles with grief. But as she delves deeper into her brother’s affairs, she discovers intrigue she never imagined—a 700-year-old conspiracy to decimate the city.

After uncovering the journal and paintings of Gabriele Accorsi, the fourteenth-century artist at the heart of the plot, Beatrice finds a startling image of her own face and is suddenly transported to the year 1347. She awakens in a Siena unfamiliar to her, one that will soon be hit by the Plague.

Yet when Beatrice meets Accorsi, something unexpected happens: she falls in love—not only with Gabriele, but also with the beauty and cadence of medieval life. As the Plague and the ruthless hands behind its trajectory threaten not only her survival but also Siena’s very existence, Beatrice must decide in which century she belongs.

The Scribe of Siena is the captivating story of a brilliant woman’s passionate affair with a time and a place that captures her in an impossibly romantic and dangerous trap—testing the strength of fate and the bonds of love.

If you love time travel romances, then you’ll probably enjoy The Scribe of Siena . It’s quite a bit like Outlander  just with less explicit content and with an Italian Medieval setting instead of Scotland. Still, the book has a unique enough voice not to be derivative of Outlander and other time travel romances that came before. In all, it’s a wonderful read – especially if you love the Humanities and Art History.

Melodie Winawer also proves she’s a new author to watch out for. Her attention to historical details gives the book an authentic quality necessary for a successful historical fiction book. And overall, while I think there’s room for improvement, Winawer succeeds with her entertaining debut.

RELATED:  Carrie Welton Book Review: A Historical Fiction Novel with a Fascinating Female Protagonist

What I loved most about the novel was the romance between Beatrice and Gabriele. Their love story has a magical soulmate quality that reminds me of the classic film romance, Somewhere in Time . I also enjoyed the suspenseful addition of The Black Plague. If you’re going to be sent back in time to be with a swoony leading man, the worst time in history might just be Siena right before the deadly outbreak. The time and setting, however, build the romantic suspense which makes for a more engaging read.

If I had a criticism, it would be the narrative style and pace. Every time the story would get interesting, the narration would switch to characters I wasn’t really interested in reading about. Most notably, the somewhat bland villain – whose motivations weren’t always convincing. I would have been more interested in the leaders of the Black Plague conspiracy idea than with a puppet who only wants to please his villainous father. And I would have much preferred if the narration stayed with the perspectives of Beatrice and Gabriele. That would have given the book a quicker pace.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, while I didn’t love the novel, I still really liked it. Winawer shows great promise as an author and I look forward to her future work. So, if you’re looking for an entertaining historical romance, The Scribe of Siena would be a perfect choice!

Adaptation Recommendation

The Scribe of Siena would make a fabulous limited series with a high budget. Perhaps on streaming (like Netflix) or on Cable. A beautiful artistic setting, a captivating romance, mixed with the appeal of time travel, would make this a wonderful miniseries for period drama fans!

Content Note: There are a couple of sex scenes in the book but not overly explicit. The book is PG-13-like.

Have you read The Scribe of Siena ? What are your thoughts on this time travel romance? Let me know in the comments!

OVERALL RATING

“Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce

me. Aren’t you?”

ROMANCE RATING

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My

feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me

to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

Amber works as a writer and digital publisher full-time and fell in love with stories and imagination at an early age. She has a Humanities and Film Degree from BYU, co-created The Silver Petticoat Review, contributed as a writer to various magazines, and has an MS in Publishing from Pace University, where she received the Publishing Award of Excellence and wrote her thesis on transmedia, Jane Austen, and the romance genre. Her ultimate dreams are publishing books, writing and producing movies, traveling around the world, and forming a creative village of talented storytellers trying to change the world through art.

More posts by this author.

2 thoughts on “The Scribe of Siena – Outlander Fans Will Enjoy this Time Travel Romance”

My wife and I read the book and loved it. We’re in Siena wondering if anyone had set up a Scribe tour yet. That would be interesting.

That would be interesting!

Comments are closed.

The Wayward Home

Can YOU Afford to Live in an RV? 10 Expenses You Might Not Think About

Posted: April 29, 2024 | Last updated: April 29, 2024

The appeal of full-time RV living is on the rise as more people look for ways to break free from the daily routine. Yet, transitioning to life on the road isn’t without its challenges.

If you’re thinking about adopting an RV lifestyle, a crucial question to consider is: How much does it cost to live in an RV?

You’re in the right place to find out! In our slideshow today, we’ll break down the costs associated with RV living to help you figure out the budget that works best for you.

Let’s jump right in!

1. How Much Does An RV Cost?

To help us calculate the costs, we enlisted an RV owner’s help. This RV owner lives in a 2021 Sunset Park RV Sunlite Classic 18RD . 

Here are their average monthly costs:

• Vehicle Insurance: $188
• Vehicle Payment: $500
• RV Insurance: $100
• RV Payment: $300

Before any additional expenses, the Total Monthly RV cost is roughly $1,188

Of course, your monthly baseline will differ depending on your choices regarding RV type and insurance provider. It’s also important to remember this is just the baseline. 

You will incur additional costs, too. Let’s look at those next…

2. What Are The Additional Costs Of RV Life?

Now we’ll discuss all the additional costs you can expect after your RV-related expenses. Here’s a list of all the other things you need to factor in if you decide to live an RV lifestyle:

• Campsite Fees
• RV Repairs and Maintenance
• Medical Insurance
• Miscellaneous

Let’s take a deeper look into each factor!

3. Camping Fees

After purchasing your RV, you need to find somewhere to park it. Generally, camping fees are the most considerable additional cost of RV living.

The average cost to park at an RV campsite is $25 to $60 per night. However, luxury sites can cost up to $100. 

Therefore, the cost for RV site rental for a month is approximately $500 to $1,200.

You can cut the costs, though! For example, investing in a portable generator will allow you to camp without a hookup. Alternatively, camping with friends can minimize costs.

This is what our RVer had to say about this:

“I’ve helped cousins with home renovations from San Diego to Tennessee in exchange for a free place to camp. Sometimes, they even offered a roomy shower or a night in a non-RV bed!”

Your fuel expenses will vary. Your costs might range from almost nothing to thousands . The most significant factors to consider are how much you travel and gas prices in different locations.

Regarding gas, your best bet is to use GasBuddy to find affordable prices. You can also keep fuel expenses low if you keep your RV in one location.

Our expert RVer told us:

“I’d recommend overestimating how much you might spend on a road trip. When I plan long trips, I always round up to the nearest dollar when estimating fuel costs, primarily because they fluctuate so much from state to state.”

Our expert RV owner sets a monthly budget of $300 to $400 for food and drink . However, your situation might be very different. 

If you travel with a partner or children, you can expect your food budget to be bigger. On the other hand, if you travel alone, you might spend less. Of course, you need to consider your unique diet and eating habits.

You can also expect to spend more if you shop in smaller farmer’s markets and local stores instead of large-chain supermarkets.

6. Utilities

Potential utility costs for RVs include propane, internet, phone expenses, and full hookups at RV parks. It’s also worth noting that some RV parks may or may not include electricity.

Some RV parks charge for electricity based on how much you use, which is usually added after the rental fees. As expected, costs can vary massively. 

When we asked our anonymous RV owner how much he spends on utilities, he said:

“Adding everything up, I spend between $150 and $200 on utilities each month. Most of that is my phone plan and propane, as I tend to utilize free Internet at campsites or coffee shops as much as possible.”

7. Recreation

Of course, you need to budget for fun activities as well. Your budget will depend on what you like to do. For example, one person might budget for outdoor activities such as kayaking and boating, while others might spend their money on tours and museum visits.

Our RVer usually allocates $150 to $300 a month for recreation . Depending on where they travel, this might change, but they also budget for more than they hope to spend, so there are no surprises. 

8. RV Repairs and Maintenance

On average, RVers spend $100 to $200 monthly on general RV repairs and maintenance . 

Having an emergency budget is also important in case something unexpected goes wrong. Take these words as a warning:

“Within the first six months of towing my single-axle trailer, I had both tires blowout on the interstate. Luckily, the blowouts didn’t cause any additional structural damage, and replacement tires for my small camper aren’t expensive. But it was still a cost I didn’t expect when leaving Texas in mid-July.”

9. Medical Insurance

If you work for a company that provides insurance, you don’t need to factor medical insurance into your budget. However, if you aren’t so lucky, you’ll have to find a suitable plan for your needs and requirements.

Unfortunately, we can’t offer a specific budget for health insurance because it differs so much from individual to individual. However, you could read our Health Insurance Guide For Full-Time RVers for advice.

10. Miscellaneous

Adding more to your budget for unexpected costs is always a good idea. Adding approximately 10% to your expenses should be enough for any unforeseeable needs.

When we talk about unforeseeable needs, we refer to things like extra tools you need, souvenirs you want to buy, and additional camping supplies you might need to purchase.

11. What’s The Total Cost Of RV Life?

So, now we’ve been through all the additional costs, what is the total cost to live in an RV? Drum roll, please…

After additional expenses, the total monthly cost of living in an RV is approximately $1,600 to $4,000.

It may surprise some that the cost of RV living can be similar to leasing an apartment in some US cities. However, RV life does offer more flexibility for keeping your budget down.

Let’s also not forget how much freedom comes with RV life. You can move around the country whenever you like, and you’re never tied down to a lease agreement.

12. Our Top 3 RV Budgeting Tips

To help you keep track of your budget while living in an RV, we’ve compiled a simple list of our 3 best tips. Here they are:

• Stick to your monthly budget . It sounds pretty simple, but many people don’t do this. Laying out everything so you know exactly how much you’ll spend helps you keep within your budget. It also lets you calculate how much you have to put towards other expenses. It also gives you a target to stay under, which can help encourage you to spend less.
• Track your other expenses . There’s nothing worse than going to pay your taxes and realizing you haven’t saved enough throughout the year. Luckily, you can use this Google Sheet to track all your monthly costs so you know exactly where and when to cut back. 
• Stay away from takeout food . As delicious as takeout food is, it’s an absolute budget killer. Avoiding takeout food on a road trip can sometimes be difficult, but RVs have a kitchen for a reason. Cooking your own food is an easy way to keep food expenses down.

13. How Do You Make Money Living Out Of An RV?

Did you know you can live and work out of an RV? You can, and there are more possibilities than you can imagine!

Thanks to remote working opportunities, RV life is now possible for millions of Americans. There are thousands of companies offering remote working roles, and there are countless freelance and self-employed opportunities to make the most of.

Here are some of the best jobs you can do if you want to work remotely and follow an RV lifestyle:

• Freelance writer
• Photography
• Campground host
• Virtual Assistant
• Travel Nursing

So, what do you think? Is the RV lifestyle perfect for you? Or are you going to stick with stationary life? The decision is all yours!

8 Must-See Cheap Truck Campers for Thrifty Explorers

For those interested in getting into truck camping on a budget, starting your search with the best cheap truck campers is natural. I started my truck camping journey by installing a camper shell on a Tacoma and sleeping in the bed, but I couldn’t help but feel a little envy every time I passed a true truck camper on the road. 

• Read More: 8 Must-See Truck Campers for Thrifty Explorers

13 Gorgeous Luxury Campervans for Glamorous Travel

Are you looking to add some luxury to your outdoor adventures? We’ve rounded up the best luxury campervans we could find. There’s no reason to go off-roading without one of these beauties.

• Read More: 13 Luxury Campervans for Elevated Van Life Adventures

More Articles From The Wayward Home

• Best RV For Full-Time Living: How To Pick Your Perfect Rig
• 19 Space-Saving RV Storage Ideas for your Camper Kitchen

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Could Trump Go to Prison? If He Does, the Secret Service Goes, Too

Officials have had preliminary discussions about how to protect the former president in the unlikely event that he is jailed for contempt during the trial.

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By William K. Rashbaum

The U.S. Secret Service is in the business of protecting the president, whether he’s inside the Oval Office or visiting a foreign war zone.

But protecting a former president in prison? The prospect is unprecedented. That would be the challenge if Donald J. Trump — whom the agency is required by law to protect around the clock — is convicted at his criminal trial in Manhattan and sentenced to serve time.

Even before the trial’s opening statements, the Secret Service was in some measure planning for the extraordinary possibility of a former president behind bars. Prosecutors had asked the judge in the case to remind Mr. Trump that attacks on witnesses and jurors could land him in jail even before a verdict is rendered.

(The judge, who held a hearing Tuesday morning to determine whether Mr. Trump should be held in contempt for violating a gag order, is far more likely to issue a warning or impose a fine before taking the extreme step of jailing the 77-year-old former president. It was not immediately clear when he would issue his ruling.)

Last week, as a result of the prosecution’s request, officials with federal, state and city agencies had an impromptu meeting about how to handle the situation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

That behind-the-scenes conversation — involving officials from the Secret Service and other relevant law enforcement agencies — focused only on how to move and protect Mr. Trump if the judge were to order him briefly jailed for contempt in a courthouse holding cell, the people said.

The far more substantial challenge — how to safely incarcerate a former president if the jury convicts him and the judge sentences him to prison rather than home confinement or probation — has yet to be addressed directly, according to some of a dozen current and former city, state and federal officials interviewed for this article.

That’s at least in part because if Mr. Trump is ultimately convicted, a drawn-out and hard-fought series of appeals, possibly all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, is almost a certainty. That would most likely delay any sentence for months if not longer, said several of the people, who noted that a prison sentence was unlikely.

But the daunting challenge remains. And not just for Secret Service and prison officials, who would face the logistical nightmare of safely incarcerating Mr. Trump, who is also the presumptive Republican nominee for President.

“Obviously, it’s uncharted territory,” said Martin F. Horn, who has worked at the highest levels of New York’s and Pennsylvania’s state prison agencies and served as commissioner of New York City’s correction and probation departments. “Certainly no state prison system has had to deal with this before, and no federal prison has had to either.”

Steven Cheung, the communications director for Mr. Trump’s campaign, said the case against the former president was “so spurious and so weak” that other prosecutors had refused to bring it, and called it “an unprecedented partisan witch hunt.”

“That the Democrat fever dream of incarcerating the nominee of the Republican Party has reached this level exposes their Stalinist roots and displays their utter contempt for American democracy,” he said.

Protecting Mr. Trump in a prison environment would involve keeping him separate from other inmates, as well as screening his food and other personal items, officials said. If he were to be imprisoned, a detail of agents would work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, rotating in and out of the facility, several officials said. While firearms are obviously strictly prohibited in prisons, the agents would nonetheless be armed.

Former corrections officials said there were several New York state prisons and city jails that have been closed or partly closed, leaving wings or large sections of their facilities empty and available. One of those buildings could serve to incarcerate the former president and accommodate his Secret Service protective detail

Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington, declined in a statement to discuss specific “protective operations.” But he said that federal law requires Secret Service agents to protect former presidents, adding that they use state-of-the-art technology, intelligence and tactics to do so.

Thomas J. Mailey, a spokesman for New York State’s prison agency, said his department couldn’t speculate about how it would treat someone who has not yet been sentenced, but that it has a system “to assess and provide for individuals’ medical, mental health and security needs.” Frank Dwyer, a spokesman for the New York City jails agency, said only that “the department would find appropriate housing” for the former president.

The trial in Manhattan, one of four criminal cases pending against Mr. Trump and possibly the only one that will go to a jury before the election, centers on accusations he falsified records to cover up a sex scandal involving a porn star. The former president is charged with 34 counts of felony falsifying business records. If convicted, the judge in the case, Juan M. Merchan, could sentence him to punishments ranging from probation to four years in state prison, though for a first-time offender of Mr. Trump’s age, such a term would be extreme.

If Mr. Trump is convicted, but elected president again, he could not pardon himself because the prosecution was brought by New York State.

Under normal circumstances, any sentence of one year or less, colloquially known as “city time,” would generally be served on New York City’s notorious Rikers Island, home to the Department of Correction’s seven jails. (That’s where Mr. Trump’s former chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, 76, is currently serving his second five-month sentence for crimes related to his work for his former boss.)

Any sentence of more than a year, known as state time, would generally be served in one of the 44 prisons run by New York State’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

The former president could also be sentenced to a term of probation, raising the bizarre possibility of the former commander in chief reporting regularly to a civil servant at the city’s Probation Department.

He would have to follow the probation officer’s instructions and answer questions about his work and personal life until the term of probation ended. He would also be barred from associating with disreputable people, and if he committed any additional crimes, he could be jailed immediately.

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.

William K. Rashbaum is a Times reporter covering municipal and political corruption, the courts and broader law enforcement topics in New York. More about William K. Rashbaum

Our Coverage of the Trump Hush-Money Trial

News and Analysis

The criminal trial of Trump featured vivid testimony about a plot to protect his first presidential campaign  and the beginnings  of a tough cross-examination  of the prosecution’s initial witness, David Pecker , former publisher of The National Enquirer. Here are the takeaways .

Dozens of protesters calling for the justice system to punish Trump  briefly blocked traffic on several streets near the Lower Manhattan courthouse where he is facing his first criminal trial.

Prosecutors accused Trump of violating a gag order four additional times , saying that he continues to defy the judge’s directions  not to attack witnesses , prosecutors and jurors in his hush-money trial.

More on Trump’s Legal Troubles

Key Inquiries: Trump faces several investigations  at both the state and the federal levels, into matters related to his business and political careers.

Case Tracker:  Keep track of the developments in the criminal cases  involving the former president.

What if Trump Is Convicted?: Could he go to prison ? And will any of the proceedings hinder Trump’s presidential campaign? Here is what we know , and what we don’t know .

Trump on Trial Newsletter: Sign up here  to get the latest news and analysis  on the cases in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.