Imagine that scientists were able to devise a means by which humans could relive any point in their past as if experiencing it for the first time. Working on the premise that more detailed memories of every moment we have ever encountered are embedded in our subconscious than was previously realized, we could reconnect to them with such potency that they seemed real in every way. We'd see, hear, feel, and taste with a clarity so vivid it would virtually be time travel, except that it'd be happening only in our minds.
If such a thing were possible, how many of us would then stop seeking new experiences in the future, instead preferring to relive previous ones from the past in the here and now? Never mind going to the dancing on weekends and trying to chat up some brash, drunken nymphet - you could re-experience that night sixteen years back when you pulled the best looking girl at the work's dance and got up to some hanky-panky in a stationery cupboard. You could read again any comic you ever had as a child, faithfully recreated from your memory-banks for you to peruse any time you felt like it.
Deceased friends and relatives could be 'resurrected', and once again you could sit and converse with them just as you did when they were alive. Any conversation, any kiss, any holiday, any vanished toyshop from childhood could once more be as real to you as it used to be in bygone years. What's more, in your mind, you'd be the same age that you were when any incident you wish to relive first happened. You could spend a day as a seven year old, with all the vitality and enthusiasm that was yours when you were that age.
The only drawback would be that it happens in 'real' time. For example, every moment you 'relive' of your past would require the equivalent time in the present. That is, an hour would take an hour, a day would take a day, etc.
So, would you spend your future reliving various memories of yesteryear in your mind (but which felt entirely real), or would you rather spend your tomorrows experiencing new sensations in the flesh? The past or the future beckons to you from the present.
What would your choice be?
2 comments:
Such a thing could be potentially more addictive than drugs (or TV, or the Internet). In Isaac Asimov's story "The Dead Past," scientists build an illegal chronoscope, and one subplot involves a woman who becomes obsessed with seeing her dead daughter again. (There are other dangers, too. At the end of the story, it becomes clear why the government has been suppressing the technology.) No wonder the Time Tunnel had to be Top Secret.
And here was me thinking I had an original idea. Now I'll have to read Asimov's story to find out what happens. Thanks for commenting.
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