Would You Rather? TIME TRAVEL

Back in 2012 I was working on a novel for NaNoWriMo called Love Songs from the Outskirts of Generation X. Catchy title, yeah? The protagonist, Valerie, is a low level marketing minion in a huge company. Think: Bridget Jones from the first half of the first movie. Her life isn't going the way she'd hoped and she's made a lot of mistakes. Her job sucks. Her boss is a skeeze. She eats regret for breakfast. She's living the American Dream!

Then she gets the chance to change it all. Her best friend is a quantum physicist and is looking for volunteers to test a "Quantum Time Travel Device." Lorraine jumps at the chance to go back in time and make different choices. Sadly, Lorraine's writer (me) never got around to finishing the story. So, the following is all there is, for now.

"Ticking away the moments that make up the dull day . . ."

Something’s Happening, Lorraine

     “So, Gordon gave you the Duran Duran show, just like that??

     “Just like that.” Valerie said, staring down into her gin and tonic.

     “Why aren’t you bouncing off the walls then?” Lorraine asked. “This is what you’ve been working for, isn’t it?”

     “I’m still on about all the other things that have been happening lately. It feels kind of like a hollow victory, doesn’t it? What am I going to do after this? Go home to my cat. I get to meet my idols, but is that really some sort of an accomplishment? I’m lonely and I’m bored, Lorre.”

     “You are a difficult one, aren’t you?”

     “I just have a lot of baggage. A lot of things I wish I could change. This is not really what I thought I would be doing with my life at this juncture, you know?”

     “What’s not to like? You’ve got a good job, friends, security.”

     “Adventure. Love. All that other cliché romance novel bullshit.”

     “Yeah, there is that.”

     “I don’t feel intellectually stimulated, Lorraine. They pay me stupid amounts of money to do a job that isn’t really all that hard. I feel like I want to do more. See more. Give more. Learn more.”

     “School?”

     “Maybe. I need an adventure.”

     Lorraine fished the olive out of her dirty martini with her thumb and forefinger, popped it into her mouth, and smiled. “Adventure, you say? You should be careful what you wish for.”

     Valerie looked intrigued, but cautious. “What are you on about?”

     “You know that WiiSaeSo is looking for test subjects for our new product, don’t you?”

     “I was not made aware of this, no. I’m marketing. We hear all about it when it’s ready to sell. What’s the project?”

     “I am heading up a team of scientists who are working on a quantum time travel device.”

     “A time machine.”

     “No, a quantum time travel device. Think Quantum Leap.”

     “And you don’t want to make like Scott Bacula?”
     “Bingo.”

     “How many test subject are there going to be in the study?”

     “Well, this little project is kind of off the books right now.”

     “Oh God, why? Is it dangerous?”

     “We don’t think so, but we wanted to have someone in the system before sending it to the patent office for approval. We want to iron out any kinks.”

     “What kind of kinks are we talking here, Lorre?”

     “Oh, nothing serious. We just want to make sure that it is a user friendly interface with an easy extrication mechanism.”

     “You want to make sure no one gets stuck in the past?”

     “Yes.”

     “So, how does this device of yours work, exactly?”
     “It’s kind of a lot to get into right now.”

     “I got time. You want a guinea pig, don’t you?”

     “Touché. Alright. Maybe it’s not such a lot. See, we aren’t going to be transporting your corporeal body. In this way, it’s not an actual time travel vehicle. What we are attempting to do is switch your present consciousness with your past consciousness at some point in your own timeline. After the switch has occurred, your past consciousness is then stored in stasis in your present corporeal body. Meanwhile, your current consciousness will have complete control of the corporeal form of your former self. When you want to end your journey into your own past, the consciousnesses will be replaced at the exact same place on the time line that they were extracted from. Therefore, your past self will have no memory of what occurred, and your actions in the past can in no way effect your present. It will be as if it only happened in a dream. In theory.”

     “I assume the “in theory” bit is why you need someone to test this out.”

     “Well, yeah.”

     “So, why am I a good candidate for this cloak and dagger project?”

     “Well, if it turns out you can change your past, we’ll just send you back to a time when there was something you would want to change. Then, if we fail, you would still win, and if we are successful, you’ve neither gained nor lost anything really. And it is sure to be an adventure. Think of it! Valerie Melies: Intrepid Inaugural Time Traveler!”

     “And where will it say that, exactly? It’s not like I’m going to get any press for this little endeavor.”

     “You might once we go public. Never say never. And there’s a decent salary that will go along with it. You’ll basically be joining our research team.”

     “What about my job at the agency? How am I going to have enough time for all of this?”

     “You’ll have all the time in the world. No one loses time, remember? It’ll be like you popped downstairs for a soda, for all the bosses will know.”

     “Who’s paying me, if this is all “hush hush”?”

     “We have a silent partner.”

     “Bruce Wayne?”

     “Not exactly. Let’s just say this type of “virtual reality” technology has the potential to make us all very rich.”

     “Virtual Reality? I thought you said it would be real reality.”

     “It is, but if we make it so that traveling there does not effect the present, then no one has to know it’s real.”

     “So, what’s the point? Why is this marketable?”

     “The revenue from the bereaved alone will be in the millions. “I never got to say goodbye”. Now they can. Or, at least they will, if this works out.”

     “Well, what have I got to lose? Where do I sign up?”

I realize that this needs a lot of work, but it's still interesting, no? I hope to get back to it sometime soon. I don't like short stories as a form, but I'm thinking I might be good at short science fiction. Call it a hobby.

I bring this up because today's VEDA question was: "Would you rather go to the past and meet your ancestors or go to the future and meet your descendants?" Needless to say, I would rather do neither.

Last week I posed a similar and yet decidedly different question on Facebook: "Which would you want more: An interplanetary spaceship or a time machine? Why?" Apparently, a good deal of the people I know would rather go back and fix some things. While the answers were split evenly between spaceship and time machine*, those who chose the time machine were looking to go back and make some changes. There was talk of lost loved ones and redoing things. Apparently, this is a very human desire.

The things that Facebook gets me into . . .

*One person said neither because there are too many unknowns. One person wanted a Tardis, which I thought was clever. One said he'd do time travel until he got bored with it, then he'd go on to explore other galaxies. The last one said he'd take the time machine if a spaceship were not currently a reality that he might go forward in time in order to acquire one. As for me, while I say that I don't want to live on this planet anymore I am more interested in space travel in theory rather than practice. I saw Une Voyage Dans La Lune. I know what's up.