The Butterfly Effect of Time Travel

Through the years I've been fascinated by the idea of time travelling, especially given the ways movies portray it, which often leads to the place of imagination, where I wonder what it'll feel like to be a time traveler myself, whereby I can travel back in time to experience how some historical occurrences unfold firsthand or into the future to know what it has in store for me. In recent times people have been longing to go back in time to change a thing or two about their past, such as correcting mistakes and the like, and this act, although yet to materialize, has raised eyebrows regarding if it's ideal, conventional, or ethical. Concern also includes what kind of impact such would have on humanity and our world, and below I'll be stating my take on it.

You see, while I admire the possibility of time travelling, it's worth noting that I don't like the idea of altering the past, because I believe a simple change in the past can cause a huge unpredictable consequence in the present or future, some of which could be as simple as erasing some memories or as severe as rewriting history, or even far worse, like erasing some people's existence. We all know even single actions we take are part of a bigger picture that shapes our reality. So changing something in the past can be so damaging that it'll alter some people's reality, whereby they don't have the current life they have, never meet their current partners, never get to marry, or have a child whom they already had in the actual timestamps of our reality, where nothing is altered from the past.

So all I'm saying in essence is that when we time travel into the past and change or correct something about our past, it's worth noting that we're not only influencing our own life by that act, but also that of many others who have managed to reinvest their lives towards the right direction, learning from their mistakes and using those setbacks as a motivation to keep pursuing resiliently until they make the rest of their lives the very best of their lives. Basically what I'm saying is that mistakes are part of life that shape our growth and the lessons we carry about; without those errors we made and pains we endured, these lessons won't have been learned and we won't have grown, so we should learn to embrace them rather than trying to go back in time to change them.

In my opinion, the actual beauty of life is in its imperfection that comes from our mistakes, stumbles, learning, and the ability to move forward, so what I think we need is to learn to use the lessons we've learned from our mistakes to create a better present and future for ourselves. It's not about changing the past; after all, the past is behind, and the present and future are ahead, open for us to live in the best way possible.

Also, it's worth noting that an act that involves altering the past is in no way ethical; in fact, it's a dilemma, because going back in time to change something about your own past would in one way or another alter the lives of others without their consent. So answer for yourself if that's ethical or not. Also, when such an act is allowed to exist, I believe it'll leave the world void of history, because when people keep changing things after things about past events, it means most of the history books we've got will become irrelevant or incorrect, given the fact that history is built on cause and effect.

So in a nutshell, mistakes are important to growth, because they push us to not only reflect but also to improve and evolve into a stronger version of ourselves, and that's why I said changing the past would be detrimental to human growth. I understand erasing all errors will make us live in a world engulfed with perfection, but regardless of that, such a world will be shallow in wisdom.

All photos are taken and edited on canva.