Pondering Over the Impossibility of Time Travel: What Drives Our Desire for It?

Exploring the Fascinating History of Time Travel in Western Culture

The concept of time travel in Western culture has a rich and intriguing history, spanning from ancient religious and mythological stories to its prominent role in modern science fiction. This fascinating journey through time has significantly influenced philosophy, literature, and popular imagination.

Historically, ideas resembling time travel first appear in ancient religious and mythological traditions across cultures, including Western contexts. For example, some Jewish Talmudic stories recount figures who experience time passing differently, such as Honi HaMe'agel, who sleeps for 70 years and wakes in a changed world. Similar themes appear in the Abrahamic traditions with Moses visiting the future and the Quranic story of the Seven Sleepers who sleep through centuries. These narratives reflect early Western conceptions of altered time or temporal displacement, often with divine or supernatural causes [1].

The modern cultural impact of time travel emerged more clearly with philosophical reflections on time and causality, and later with fictional treatments primarily in science fiction. Time travel became a popular literary motif from the late 19th century onward, significantly shaped by works like H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895), which introduced time travel as a scientific possibility, not just a supernatural event [1]. This presaged a long tradition of science fiction dealing with temporal paradoxes, alternate histories, and the ethical dilemmas of changing the past.

The impact of the time travel concept in Western culture includes:

Philosophical inquiries into the nature of time, free will, and determinism, stimulated by paradoxes arising from temporal displacement (e.g., grandfather paradox).
Literary and cinematic genres, especially science fiction, where time travel serves as a device to explore human experience, social change, and speculative futures.
Popular culture and media, influencing countless stories, films, and TV shows (e.g., Back to the Future, Doctor Who), shaping public imagination about time and history.
The idea of universal standardized time itself, while not time travel per se, reflects Western developments in understanding and regulating time, such as the adoption of Greenwich Mean Time in the 19th century to coordinate railways and communication, illustrating how time perception became more scientific and precise [3].

In addition to these impacts, notable figures like St. Augustine and physicist John Archibald Wheeler have contributed to the philosophical discourse around time. St. Augustine said, "What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know. If I wish to explain it to one that asks, I know not." Wheeler, on the other hand, stated, "Time is nature's way to keep everything from happening all at once."

Stephen Hawking also delved into the subject with his "Chronology Protection Conjecture" in 1991, asking why we are not inundated with tourists from the future [2]. Furthermore, Stephen King, Woody Allen, and the television series Outlander explore time travel in their works.

The Internet and other new technologies are changing our perception and experience of time, further blurring the lines between past, present, and future. Scientists are drawn to the subject of time travel due to its romantic and sexy appeal, despite the likelihood of it never being solved. In fact, more than 50 scientific papers on time travel are published each year [4].

In conclusion, time travel’s origins in Western culture stem from religious and mythological narratives about time's fluidity, evolving into a key philosophical and fictional trope instrumental in shaping modern Western views on temporality, identity, and history [1]. Its impact is visible not only in intellectual discourse but also in the cultural imagination and technological frameworks related to timekeeping [3].

[1] James Gleick, Time Travel: A History (2016) [2] Stephen Hawking, "The Chronology Protection Conjecture" (1991) [3] Tom Standage, The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers (1998) [4] John T. Cramer, "Time Travel and the Nature of Reality" (2016)

In the realm of science, physicist John Archibald Wheeler posits that time is "nature's way to keep everything from happening all at once," suggesting his thoughts on time's role in controlling the universe.
The narrative of Honi HaMe'agel, found in Jewish Talmudic stories, exemplifies ancient Western conceptions of time alteration, as he experiences 70 years of sleep and awakens to find a changed world.
The idea of universal standardized time, like Greenwich Mean Time, is a testament to Western advancements in timekeeping and understanding, as it was adopted to coordinate communication and railways in the 19th century.
Contemporary contributions to the time travel discourse include Stephen King, Woody Allen, and the television series Outlander, demonstrating how the fascination with time travel continues to permeate various forms of media and stories.