By Sehjot Singh

Have you ever looked back in history and thought to yourself, “I could have done this better”, or, “if someone just changed this one detail, everything would have been better?” If only the world had a time machine, people could have gone back and stopped major catastrophes like the holocaust by killing Hitler. Time travel is, without a doubt, one of the most exciting and intriguing topics in the realm of science. Believed by many as something that could become a reality in the future, going back to the past is not merely as simple as a trip to your local grocery store, considering that ripping the fabric of existence isn’t usually on anybody’s  shopping list. Of course, everybody knows about how complicated time travel is, presenting several contradictions, better known as paradoxes.

One of the most famous examples of a time paradox is the Grandfather Paradox. If someone travels back in time before they were born, what would happen if they killed their grandparents? Doing so would be inadvisable for a time traveller. For one thing, murdering your own family member isn’t really the nicest thing to do no matter how annoying phone calls from relatives can be, but it also defies logic and reason.  If that person kills their grandfather for example, one of their parents would not have been born, which means the person themselves would not have existed and consequently they wouldn’t be able to go back in time and do the deed in the first place. 

The more complicated version of this paradox is that anything the time traveller changes can have enormous effects that they do not intend. Take for example, this time traveller goes back to 1665 and chops down an apple tree to clear the land and build a house. One year later in 1666, there is no apple that falls onto Isaac Newton’s head that gives him the idea to speculate about gravity, and every school’s physics syllabus would be forever changed. The time traveller had no intention to ruin this discovery. It was all just a coincidence. However, that is one of the main threats that a time traveller faces. Coincidences are impossible to plan for and any tiny detail may result in a ripple effect that results in large changes in the future. Stopping one catastrophe may result in an even bigger one later.

The biggest flaw when travelling back in time may be the act itself. So if at any point in the future, the ability to travel to the past is invented, it may just end up not being used at all. The risk is just too great as we do not understand the way it works. Perhaps it is better to just look back (see what I did there?) and learn from humanity’s previous mistakes, rather than interfering and causing a maelstrom of chaos. As Norman Rockwell once said, “The secret to so many artists living so long is that every painting is a new adventure. So, you see, they’re always looking ahead to something new and exciting. The secret is not to look back.”