This life isn't exactly balanced. There are parts of our lives that we may wish we could change, and there are times we may wish we knew where we were headed. Instead, we live in a never-ending cycle of surprises. No one knows tomorrow, really, even though there are aspects of it we could predict about the future.
If, somehow, time travel was possible, would you change the past or visit the future if you could choose one? What would you do differently, and why?
There are probably an unlimited number of ideas one could have if we were able to travel through time. The majority of them, for me, may center around correcting some mistake or averting one that I may make in the future. But I can only choose one direction to travel. With an opportunity like this, one needs to carefully make their decision so it counts.
They both are equally powerful chances to make significant changes in one's life, but the options need to be weighed carefully. Time travel, however, is a very delicate topic. There are direct consequences to our actions.
Back in time...
The concept of traveling back in time would mean going to a point in time that one has previously lived. With this privilege, one could act differently since one already knows exactly what will happen. One could avert the death of a loved one, or maybe say goodbye to them if they didn't get to do that the first time, buy Bitcoin when it was still tiny, weeny, and really cheap, or reverse a bad decision and make a better one. One could have their lives changed for the better with these little changes. Think of the joy one could have in their lives; think of the millions one could amass.
Conversely, however, one could have their lives change for the worse when they make changes in the past. This is because traveling back in time can lead to unintended consequences. There could be a ripple effect leading to unforeseen problems in the present. There may be other lives changed in the process, and it may not be for the better.
For example, reversing a decision would cause things to happen differently—in an order different from what one may remember. And then, that could cause one to live in a reality that's entirely strange to them. You could end up married to a different person than you previously were prior to the jump in time.
Forward in time...
This would be traveling to a point in time in the future. And as the popular saying goes, "no one knows tomorrow." In this case, however, one could actually know "tomorrow." The question is, "What do I want to know about my future?"
Knowing exactly how my life would pan out would be such an insightful experience, as would knowing the events that could happen around me. I could know my time of marriage, my wife, and how my life would turn out, basically. Better still, I could find out more and gather information like when the next bull run is, the death of anyone I care about—so I can avert it—and what the country would look like in a couple of years, so I could plan accordingly. One could make life-changing discoveries.
Here's the catch, however: the future is a very fragile place. It is so fragile that any slight change in the present could alter it drastically, making it inherently unpredictable. That is, the information about your life in the future could inspire you to make changes that, even the smallest of them, could alter the future you once saw, making it "unknown" all over again. What if one finds out one's death date or that of another? Yeah, one's number one priority may then be to stop it, but what if that speeds it up instead?
And also, one thing that makes life as exciting as it is the fact that we do not know the future; we only predict. Knowing the future could make one complacent and apathetic about the present, leading to a lack of purpose. Another problem is having unrealistic expectations, as the future is fragile, which can lead to disappointments.
Which would I choose?
This all brings us back to the question, "Would you change the past or visit the future if you could choose one? What would you do differently, and why?"
Having assessed the pros and cons of traveling through time, I would like to answer by saying that, if I could travel through time, I wouldn't. I wouldn't choose to do things differently, as enticing as it is. This is because if there's anything worse than making mistakes, it's not learning from them or not living in the present moment.
I believe life is a journey, and every experience of it shapes us into the person we are. If we change anything in the past, we risk changing the person we have become. Likewise, if we know too much about our future, we risk living an exciting life in the present moment.
[ See you in the next...]