What Time Travel Would Tell Us About The Future

The future is always uncertain, but thanks to the growing field of science known as time travel, we can make educated guesses about what lies ahead. Once seen as a myth, this branch of science has rapidly advanced in recent years. While there are still many unanswered questions and limitations when it comes  in the real world, it’s one of the most interesting subjects explored in science fiction. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most common types of used throughout popular culture. We’ll explore the advantages and disadvantages that come with traveling through time, as well as why these tropes persist in pop culture. With that said, let’s dive right in and explore some of the most common examples in media.

What is time travel?

It is the act of moving backward, forward, or both through time. In a scientific sense, it can be achieved through wormholes in spacetime or by means of a time machine. It is often an integral part of science fiction and has been used as a plot device in many popular works such as Star Trek and Back to the Future.

Classical time travel: Back to the future

One of the most common types of classical time travel. In this type of , the person travels back in time to a point before they were born but then returns to their own timeline. This type of time travel is often used in sci-fi movies and books where a character travels back in time to change their parents’ lives for the better. One famous example of this would be Michael J. Fox’s character Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy who uses a DeLorean car with a flux capacitor (a device that creates an artificial wormhole) to travel back in time and save his parents from getting killed by Biff Tannen.

Borrowed time travel: Star Trek

One of the most common tropes in science fiction is to borrow time travel from other stories. This practice can be seen often throughout popular culture, from Star Trek to Back to the Future. Usually, a character will go back in time and make changes that affect the future. They are then able to come back and find out how things would have been different had they not made those changes. This can be done either by altering their own timeline or by changing the timeline of someone else. One of the most interesting examples of borrowed time travel is when Marty McFly travels back in time and prevents his father, George McFly, from ever meeting his mother, Lorraine Baines.

Borrowing time travel has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, when Marty comes back and sees all the changes he’s made in the past, he becomes unhappy with himself as a person who went back in time and changed history for selfish reasons. The first major disadvantage is that it can be hard for characters to come back and see how their changes affected the future because there are many possibilities. But with each change that happens on Earth, it’s always possible for people like Marty to return and see what happened differently due to their intervention (whether good or bad).

Read More: What Makes Traveling Tales So Memorable

Slipstream time travel: The Terminator series

One of the most common types of time travel is slipstream time travel. This type of time travel can be seen in the Terminator series. In this type of time travel, the traveler is able to move quickly and seemingly effortlessly between their present and future selves. This allows them to prevent calamities in the past from coming to fruition, or change whatever they want in the future. The main difference between slipstream and other types of time travel is that there are no visible changes for those who experience it. Shifting back and forth through time allows people to do anything they need to do for their missions, but there are many limitations on where it can take them.

For example, in one episode, Sarah Connor learns that she must kill John Connor as a way to save humanity. However, she cannot go back too far because doing so would result in John not existing at all (due to his mother’s death). If she were able to go back further though, she could potentially prevent John’s birth altogether.

Geofictional time travel: Doctor Who, Warehouse 13 and more

Geofictional time travel is one of the most common examples of time travel in pop culture. It’s typically used as a plot device to explain the presence of a current event in history or the lack thereof. Geofictional time travel can be applied for personal gain by altering the past, or it can be done for survival purposes by trying to prevent an event from occurring. Geofictional time travel is often seen in popular science fiction shows such as Doctor Who and Warehouse 13. In these shows, time travelers must use artifacts, like a Tardis (a police phone box that travels through space and time), to get around in order to change history. Another example of fictional time travel would be the movie Back to The Future Part II, where protagonist Marty McFly travels back in time to prevent his father from being killed by Biff Tannen.

Conclusion

Taking a look at what time travel would tell us about the future, it’s clear to see the diversity in which time travel stories can be told. The future is a vast and complicated place, and the time travel stories that are out there reflect that. In fact, with time travel, the possibilities are endless.