The movie trilogy ‘Back To The Future’ was set in 1985 time but leapfrogged (time travel) backward and forward across time. In that sci-fi adventure Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) repeatedly warned against any interaction with characters from the past that could interrupt the (Time Continuum), it would likely change history. Not a problem while traveling in the future as that future was yet to unwind. A time traveler could go back and interfere, causing history to veer off an already established course to an unpredictable result (the rule of unanticipated consequences). Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) almost kept his parents from falling in love. If they had not fallen in love, Marty would have never been born and who would have cared? Doc Brown would have been without a sidekick.
‘Time Continuum’ is a profound idea. If you went back in time you could be armed with information on events and their outcomes before it happened. While in the future, Marty McFly bought a sports book with scores and winners so he could bet on them when he returned to (his time). But the book ended up in the wrong hands and a monster-bully-autocrat was created who never lost a bet and had so much money he could buy respectability for his blatantly corrupted self. The misappropriated book was the catalyst for all of that (unanticipated consequence). The bottom line would be, even a seemingly insignificant interruption to the (TC) has the potential to serious, far reaching, long lasting consequences.
From ’Back To The Future’ its a short leap to ‘Back To The Past.’ For Marty McFly, his parent’s hook-up was iffy and unlikely with any number of alternate possibilities but for Marty it was the difference between a life and never been born. Who misses or even has second thoughts about the child who was never conceived? It begs the question, over countless generations, it took all of them, just the way they unraveled for me to be created. Times that by 9 billion people on the planet and the ‘Butterfly Effect’ doesn’t sound so farfetched. That would be, from Tokyo Japan the disturbance created by a butterfly flitting between flowers, compounding over time, might determine the exact point of landfall for a future hurricane in North America.
Nature is an incredibly complex, dynamic system made up of many other complex, dynamic systems that all give and take between competing forces. The greater system is of its own necessity pushing and pulling, all the time, on everything in an effort to create ‘Stasis’ or equilibrium (balance). The odds against planetary equilibrium are so great it is universally understood that stasis will never happen. That’s how nature works. Think about it, a planet with a fractured crust that floats on a core of molten iron while rotating on its axis and revolving around the sun, absorbing radiant energy at constantly changing rates: and we (humans) busy ourselves on the surface like so many fruit flies on a great peach seed; really. I question (doubt) man’s self ordained high place in the overall scheme (the jewel in creation’s crown). It should be enough that we are functioning pieces in a grand puzzle.
Still, the idea of time travel (Back To The Future) is irresistible. Knowing what I know now, ff I could go back to the 3rd grade again my life would have taken a decidedly different route. I would have certainly been more focused on work ethic and material wealth. But who knows if I would be any happier than I am now or healthy or even be alive. I think the human tendency is for short sighted, too good to be true schemes and no plan B.
‘Time Continuum’ is a profound idea. If you went back in time you could be armed with information on events and their outcomes before it happened. While in the future, Marty McFly bought a sports book with scores and winners so he could bet on them when he returned to (his time). But the book ended up in the wrong hands and a monster-bully-autocrat was created who never lost a bet and had so much money he could buy respectability for his blatantly corrupted self. The misappropriated book was the catalyst for all of that (unanticipated consequence). The bottom line would be, even a seemingly insignificant interruption to the (TC) has the potential to serious, far reaching, long lasting consequences.
From ’Back To The Future’ its a short leap to ‘Back To The Past.’ For Marty McFly, his parent’s hook-up was iffy and unlikely with any number of alternate possibilities but for Marty it was the difference between a life and never been born. Who misses or even has second thoughts about the child who was never conceived? It begs the question, over countless generations, it took all of them, just the way they unraveled for me to be created. Times that by 9 billion people on the planet and the ‘Butterfly Effect’ doesn’t sound so farfetched. That would be, from Tokyo Japan the disturbance created by a butterfly flitting between flowers, compounding over time, might determine the exact point of landfall for a future hurricane in North America.
Nature is an incredibly complex, dynamic system made up of many other complex, dynamic systems that all give and take between competing forces. The greater system is of its own necessity pushing and pulling, all the time, on everything in an effort to create ‘Stasis’ or equilibrium (balance). The odds against planetary equilibrium are so great it is universally understood that stasis will never happen. That’s how nature works. Think about it, a planet with a fractured crust that floats on a core of molten iron while rotating on its axis and revolving around the sun, absorbing radiant energy at constantly changing rates: and we (humans) busy ourselves on the surface like so many fruit flies on a great peach seed; really. I question (doubt) man’s self ordained high place in the overall scheme (the jewel in creation’s crown). It should be enough that we are functioning pieces in a grand puzzle.
Still, the idea of time travel (Back To The Future) is irresistible. Knowing what I know now, ff I could go back to the 3rd grade again my life would have taken a decidedly different route. I would have certainly been more focused on work ethic and material wealth. But who knows if I would be any happier than I am now or healthy or even be alive. I think the human tendency is for short sighted, too good to be true schemes and no plan B.
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