First of all, shoutout to Adrianna86 for the good question, thanks for commenting. Secondly, for those of you who figure that this sounds remarkably like the plot of a certain Marvel series that recently ended, don’t worry. No Loki spoilers.
All right, here we go.
To start with considering this question, we need to define a few hard to define concepts. Namely, where the past ends and the present begins. Not to mention the past and the present themselves.
The present is a tricky thing. Most consider it the moment that you are currently experiencing, like me as I’m writing this and you as you read this. And usually, I would agree, except in this circumstance. Here, the present is more than a moment, it is a concrete amount of time that can have other, equally concrete amounts of time mashed into it.
So, for the purpose of this write up, I’m going to define present as a lifetime. So, for you, it starts the second you are born (or conceived, whichever philosophy you agree with) and ends the moment you die (disregarding all possibility of heaven or hell, for simplicity). That’s the present. One, finite lifetime.
Now we get the past. Similarly to the present, we’re going to define this as all the time before your lifetime, all the way back to the beginning of time. And where they meet, that would be where you are born.
All right. Now that our terms are defined, let’s jump right in.
What would happen if the past was spontaneously jumped forward into the present? Quite simply, I think that time would cease altogether.
Here’s why. Basically, we’re taking a (possibly) infinite amount of time, and trying to stuff it into this small box of present, a finite amount of time. As far as we can tell, the past goes back forever. Now, of course there must have been a beginning and all that, but for our purposes, the past stretches infinitely behind us.
But, our present is finite. As we define it, it lasts somewhere around 80-90 years, and then we die. At that time, our present, which has ended, becomes past.
So, even though it seems impossible to bring the past forward and making it the present, because we are trying to fit something infinite into something finite, the present is constantly being changed into the past, in the normal passage of time.
As far as anyone has observed, time is linear. Always moving forward. The past is the past, the present present and the future is the future. That’s not something we can change.
Now, it’s time to address time machines. I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately, and have come to the conclusion that the way Marvel presented time travel in Endgame was quite brilliant. Dr. Banner explains it briefly by saying that you can’t change the future by going into the past, because when you go into the past, that becomes your future. His wording is odd, but the standard reasoning actually makes some sense.
It has to do with the past, present and future and how we understand them. Basically, we need to consider the past unchangeable. We’ve all regretted that we couldn’t change something embarrassing. So, if we go into the past and say change something, steal a key object or whatever, if we use the traditional understanding, it creates a paradox. If we’ve stolen this object before it was important, how would we know to steal it?
That’s why linear time makes more sense. The past is a different version of the world, playing out set roles. Only in your present can you make choices that change the direction of the future.
Sorry that went a little long, it’s a big and complicated topic.
Just a reminder to everyone who’s gotten this far, email me at scribbler.collective@gmail.com and I will send you a free copy of Unidentified, Jillian’s book. Screenshot is available on Amazon, in print, and the ebook is available wherever you get ebook. Or send me an email and I’ll send out a copy.
Anyway, cheers, thanks again to Adrianna86 for a good topic and see you later!
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