I would first go back to Sandefjord, Norway, 1800, to meet my forebears and thank them. Then I would continue back to different generations and see how my tribe progressed. I would keep going to the 9th century and meet Harald Fairhair, from whose line I have sprung! What a thrill that would be.
Cool idea. See the family tree. I knew you were a Viking but I didn’t know you were royalty. Imagine a world with no electricity. That would be an adjustment. 🤣
This reminds me of an old sf story. A historian specializing in the rise and fall of ancient Carthage was trying to get an appointment on the national time viewer, which was expensive, huge, and limited to one person viewing at a time, so booking an appointment was excruciating. The historian met a physics researcher who was working on his own time viewer. The researcher vanished with no warning, but the historian found his lab and the prototype time viewer. He used it to discover the researcher had been snatched by government agents who were trying to keep the time viewer science a secret. So the historian sent the plans to newspapers around the world [yes, the story was written pre-Internet!] and started trying to do research on Carthage. But it didn't work — the viewer could see anywhere in the world, but not much earlier than a few years ago. At this point the government agents burst in. The lead agent tells the historian that the national time viewer is a fraud, because the government wants to suppress the discovery of a cheap, easy-to-build viewer that can see anywhere in the world — so there's no such thing as privacy any longer. The story ends with a line like, "Welcome to everybody living in a goldfish bowl, doctor, I hope you like it!"
The reminder came because if Era can take photos of people over 50 years, regardless of their location, then what he really has is a personal teleporter that also travels through time. And can put him into places impossible for normal people to enter. Perfect for spies. Or assassins!
So what's to keep a traveller from transporting into a certain locked nursery say, 79 years ago, and facilitate a baby dying of SIDS... or whatever... 🤔
Time-travel stories are conundrums that alway break down. If you could travel anywhere and anytime, you could just go back and fix/prevent/destroy anything at anytime. So writers have to invent rules like you can only go back at the same location, or only back in time, or you can’t meet your old self, or you can’t change history (it will always find a way), or you can’t interact with anyone or you will change history, or infinite timelines, or things that cause paradoxes, or time machines that can be stolen or broken, etc.
I have a time-travel Western in the drawer that I may serialize on Substack someday. We'll see.
Good job on this one, Mark! I hope you will revisit it from time to time.
Thank you, Richard. A time-travel western sounds really cool.
That's the plan. 🤓
Loved this one Mark!
Thanks, Jim. 🤓
I would first go back to Sandefjord, Norway, 1800, to meet my forebears and thank them. Then I would continue back to different generations and see how my tribe progressed. I would keep going to the 9th century and meet Harald Fairhair, from whose line I have sprung! What a thrill that would be.
Cool idea. See the family tree. I knew you were a Viking but I didn’t know you were royalty. Imagine a world with no electricity. That would be an adjustment. 🤣
This reminds me of an old sf story. A historian specializing in the rise and fall of ancient Carthage was trying to get an appointment on the national time viewer, which was expensive, huge, and limited to one person viewing at a time, so booking an appointment was excruciating. The historian met a physics researcher who was working on his own time viewer. The researcher vanished with no warning, but the historian found his lab and the prototype time viewer. He used it to discover the researcher had been snatched by government agents who were trying to keep the time viewer science a secret. So the historian sent the plans to newspapers around the world [yes, the story was written pre-Internet!] and started trying to do research on Carthage. But it didn't work — the viewer could see anywhere in the world, but not much earlier than a few years ago. At this point the government agents burst in. The lead agent tells the historian that the national time viewer is a fraud, because the government wants to suppress the discovery of a cheap, easy-to-build viewer that can see anywhere in the world — so there's no such thing as privacy any longer. The story ends with a line like, "Welcome to everybody living in a goldfish bowl, doctor, I hope you like it!"
The reminder came because if Era can take photos of people over 50 years, regardless of their location, then what he really has is a personal teleporter that also travels through time. And can put him into places impossible for normal people to enter. Perfect for spies. Or assassins!
So what's to keep a traveller from transporting into a certain locked nursery say, 79 years ago, and facilitate a baby dying of SIDS... or whatever... 🤔
I read and watched a bunch of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. A woman "travels through the stones" in Scotland from the mid 1900s to the 1700s.
Fascinating and fun to think about.
She does try to influence history without success.
Also loved reading The Magic Treehouse book series together with my son when he was young.
I love time travel shows, although they all collapse under their own time-travel "rules." I think my first was The Time Tunnel when I was a kid.
Time-travel stories are conundrums that alway break down. If you could travel anywhere and anytime, you could just go back and fix/prevent/destroy anything at anytime. So writers have to invent rules like you can only go back at the same location, or only back in time, or you can’t meet your old self, or you can’t change history (it will always find a way), or you can’t interact with anyone or you will change history, or infinite timelines, or things that cause paradoxes, or time machines that can be stolen or broken, etc.
But the idea of time-travel is fun.
I would enjoy seeing the caves in Northern Spain being drawn in 30,000 years ago....
You could do your own drawing! 😉
I will!!