Time Travel Rant - Part 1

So, I was listening to this Escape Pod podcast, featuring the story The Grandfather Paradox. At the end, they mentioned that some people hate time travel stories, but they did not know why. I am here to tell you why I do not particularly care for them.

Each of us has a particular view of the past. We have experiences that we remember, and those may reverberate into other people's remembrances. Look at the movie It's a Wonderful Life. You can see from that movie the impact one person has on so many other people. If you change even the minutest detail of someone's life, that could reverberate to so many other people's experience. If my view, you simply cannot change the past without dire consequences  (IE paradoxes will arise).

As Sean Carrol puts it, there is an arrow of time. If we look into the past, that arrow is pointing at us. We live in a world of increasing entropy. Thus, if we are reading or writing Science Fiction, we expect it to somewhat obey the laws of science -- at least as we currently understand them. If you want to get the idea of how time works, perhaps you should read Dr. Carrol's book From Eternity to Here. It is on the nature of time. He talks about why remember the past, but not the future. He is a leading authority of space/time, and he states that you cannot change the past. Thus, science fiction, which is suppose to be moderately scientific, should not include things that are patently unscientific.

I will note that I know that time travel is possible. We are traveling in time right now. However, like the arrow of time, we only travel in one direction. We are traveling in time at 1 day per day. It is pretty amazing!

Einstein theorizes that we can move faster than 1 day per day. It is complicated relativity stuff. It involves moving faster than our point of reference, etc. There is complicated math and junk involved, so I will not delve into the traveling forward in time business. We know it is possible and how that part basically works. Thus, stories that work in that direction are fine.

However, the realm of science fiction has great quantities of time traveling stories. Individuals travel back and forth in time and space. The Grandfather Paradox, mentioned above is one such story. Doctor Who is another example. He travels throughout time and space -- having all kinds of adventures. Nevertheless, these are all wrong!

In order to travel against the arrow of time, the science fiction author must overcome one particular paradox. It is often referred to as the Grandfather/Grandmother Paradox. That is, if you could travel back in time, you could travel back to meet your grandfather or grandmother. If you could do that, you could kill said grandparent before your parents were born. Thus, preventing your own birth. However, if you were not born, you could not travel back in time. Hence, you could not kill your grandparent before your parents were born. However, if your grandparents do not die, they can have your parents, and thus you. Hence, you can exist to go back and kill your grandparents. This can go on and on.

If you are going to write a science fiction story, you must explain how you get past this particular paradox. At the very least, you should gloss over it. You should not highlight the impossibility of your story's entire premise. For instance, the Doctor is often saying he is the last of the Time Lords. Why does he not go back in time to when Time Lords existed? He seems to be able to go to any place in time and space. Why he cannot go back to visit his grandmother is a mystery.  I have heard various reasons -- Time Lords live outside of time and space. Rubbish!  If he can take someone who does live in time and space -- IE his companion -- then they exist in time and space.

What I am saying is that when we look at things in the past, they are set -- set in stone. The past is always the same. Once we look into changing the past, we run into these types of paradoxes. You simply cannot get away from them. Each action, no matter how seemingly insignificant, will be part of the series of events that lead up to you now. Further, all of the science points to this being true.  Time is a one-way street.

While it may be great to go back into time and kill Hitler before he becomes Chancellor of Germany, we simply cannot do it. Further, we never will. World War II happened, and there is no changing that. Therefore, any story about this type of thing is based upon an impossibility, and we should stop doing that. In general, science fiction should be based upon the possible scientific realities. We know these types of time travel are impossible, so we need to stop relying upon them. Good or bad, we got to where we are right now because of the past occurrences -- even the bad ones.

We got here because of Hitler and the war, and not despite of them. What happens with the A-Bomb if there is no WWII? What happens with all those people that do not die fighting the war? There are simply too many permutations that would be different for that one event to not happen. Lots of people's parents met because of the war. You cannot take that away...

Now, you may be thinking, going faster than the speed of light is scientifically impossible. Is that out of the question for science fiction? Some would say that it is. However, it is just a shortcut to get interesting stories. Thus, if your time traveling story is interesting, then I am usually willing to give it a break. Interesting stories is what drew me to the current incarnation of Doctor Who.

I really liked Christopher Eccleston's doctor. They told some really good stories. Many of David Tennant's episodes were really good too. However, in my opinion, they got really lazy. How many times do they have to kill every last Dalek? I know many long time fans like them, and they are compelling opponents to the Doctor. However, if they can come back every season and every last one can be wiped out -- again, then so can other Time Lords. Thus, you end up in paradox territory.  It revels in its paradoxes rather than gloss over them and tell compelling stories.

I am not like the mundane science fiction people, I do not necessarily mind the scientific impossibilities in my science fiction. However, I would like a bit more plausibility. Quite frankly, I find this sort of time travel very implausible. If you cannot convince me otherwise, then I am not interested in your story.  If I think, oh no -- another one of these, you have lost me.  In fact, if I was reading the Grandfather Paradox podcast, I would not have made it past the first 100 words.

Having said all of that, I do have a theory of time travel. I would find my version (naturally) acceptable, and many stories could be adapted to this newer better model of time. However, that will have to wait, as I have ranted long enough. Next time!