The concept of Time Travel always fascinated me. Just imagine – being able to go back in time – for a minute, for a day, for a year, for a century… wouldn’t that be amazing? I am yet to come across someone who would not want to change some thing from his / her past. Science fiction is rife with stories on time travel (HG Wells ring any bells?). Even serious scientists have started fiddling with time travel. But is time travel – going back or forward in time really possible? Let us try and think this through.
Let us say that the way science is pushing the boundaries of knowledge, especially over the last 50 odd years, we can start with an assumption that at some time in the future time travel would be possible. Now if that were so, almost definitely, people from yonder would travel back in time (other wise what is the point?). So logically speaking we should have in our midst, people who have come back from the future. Now, why would someone want to come back? One could be sheer curiosity (imagine the tourism industry boom!!). One reason could be to change bits of history which are not palatable to the powers that be in the future.
However this second one clashes with logic. The most famous example is the Grandfather Paradox. Picture this: a time traveler goes back in time and attempts to kill his grandfather at a time before his grandfather met his grandmother. If he did so, then his father never would have been born, and neither would the time traveler himself . Then how did he travel back in time in the first place? How does one explain this?
Traveling forward in time, however, at first thought at least, does not appear to present any such logical fallacies. But then it's well past midnight... and all I can think about now is travelling (in person and space)to my bed... so goodnight guys... will complete this later.
This is a subject that I have never ceased to think about ... in fact invisibility, boons of riches and time travel are my favorite thoughts on the commode ( ok ... there was no intention to disgust anyone ... just an honest confession). Anyway, many Hollywood movies in the 80s like Back to the future ( and its contemporary disastrous Bollywood counterpart Love Story 2020)have delved on this topic but there was one romantic movie - critically acclaimed but box office disaster produced by Chrishtopher Reeeves and one of his personal favorites too ( as per an old interview of his that I had watched) - "Somewhere in Time" which deals with this topic very beautifully and also is pertinent to the logic stated in this blog. Highly recommended - a must watch since you have some time in these Puja Holidays ;)
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