There are a lot of ethical, moral, and logistical problems involved in time travel. I was in a local eatery this evening, and got to thinking about it. My girlfriend, Lindsey, ordered a strawberry-custard milkshake. Unfortunately she has an aversion to food items with chunks or bits of fruit in them, owing to an unfortunate summer-camp incident involving regurgitation by a camper in her care. So, she gets her shake and all is well and good, until she hits the first chunk of delicious real strawberry. As she was trying to pawn off her milkshake on anyone who will listen--including trying to get me to trade her my deliciously-chunk-free chocolate shake--I began to think of ways of solving the problem. The first idea that popped into my head was to ask the giggly girls at the counter to remove the offending chunks with some sort of device that I am sure they have on hand for just such occasions. Recognizing the impracticality of that I began to weigh other options.
It was at that point that I hit on the idea of a time-travel device. However, it was quickly clear that there are a lot of problems attendant to time travel. My first thought was that we could simply go back in time and buy a shake of a different flavor. That would only solve the problem for the future Lindsey, and the present Lindsey would still be stuck with the offending dairy product. My next idea was to have the future Lindsey come back to warn her past self about the chunk-filled beverage. This brought up the question of what, exactly, would happen if Future Girlfriend came to talk to Present Girlfriend. Would the traveler of time disappear as soon as the course of the present was changed to, say, a vanilla flavored drink? Because it would be unnecessary for the trip to have happened if the past were altered and the shake were not a problem. And then, as Doc Brown can tell you, all sorts of other changes in the future might occur as ripples from this seemingly insignificant change. All in all I think it is a very sticky situation and time travel should be left alone, at least until we can reasonably predict the repercussions of changing the past.
That being said, I think it is worth mentioning that it has been quite a long time since I have written here. In fact, I am sure that there are a great many of you for whom it will take a long time to realize that I have started writing on this little device again, but let me tell you, by way of explanation, why it has been so long...if you care.
First and foremost, I have met a lady and I have been spending a lot of time with her, wooing her and whatnot. This is a very good thing, but it has changed my daily thought-process about how my time is spent. Secondly, we have come to the part of the season in College Basketball where it is important to watch a great deal of that sport on the television in order to know who to pick in the tournament bracket that we are all likely to fill out, but few are destined to win. Finally, and perhaps most importantly my college career is soon coming to an end and I have been spending a lot of time agonizing over what my future can, should, and will look like. I know, I know, I have had the better part of a decade to figure all of this out, but until recently that fact has not really sunk in for me. So, if any of you have any career openings that you would like to offer me, I am open to anything at the moment, and trying to get my shit together. Okay, thank you for listening (or reading), and I will do my best to make this a more frequent occurrence this summer.
Also, summer travel plans are in the process of being made, so if any of you have some suggestions I would love to consider them. Just let me know. Word...
-A.R. Leith
Quote: "How much art can you take?" -Patty
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