I was putting this under Sooth's topic of Time, but this is so far off from his point that it would just be silly. As a warning, this will be long, with much narrative of my thoughts. But if you read and absorb, this may blow your mind as much as mine...

Things are clicking into place in my head lately, again. Between books, movies, and reality. The latest, most profound WTF involves Time. I had asked Sooth if he'd yet seen the trailer for the new Bruce Willis movie, 'Looper', and he watched it, following up with a time loop question email that pretty much killed the movie... much like discussions have destroyed the coherency of the Terminator series. But this isn't ultimately about movies, just bear with me. About a week ago, we watched 'Rise of the Planet of Apes' and I enjoyed it, BUT was left with wondering how the "reboot" would fit with the original story, so I set about doing a marathon of all 5 of the original movies. Aside from the social and political statements, there was much there about the theories of time, and changing the future. And then...

In the third movie, when a few of the apes fix the spaceship and come back to our time, it was 1971. No big deal. At one point after the apes earn celebrity status, they are taken on a shopping spree, and the female (Zira, for anyone who remembers) sits while models at a dress shop parade dresses in front of her to choose. I'm watching these dresses from 1971 swish by on the screen, these god-awful fashions, these skirts made of tablecloths and blouses of wallpaper hypnotically blasting my brain with olive greens, maroons, and canary yellows... suddenly my brain flashes me an image of THAT video that went stupid on youtube about the old 1920s movie, some Charlie Chapman film I think, wherein they believe a person in the background can be seen walking down the street talking on a cell phone. I'm not going to post the video, as there's hundreds like it now (I seem to remember), but if you haven't seen it, go take a look, and give a chuckle. Yes, in a GRAINY, frame-skipping (1920s...), black and white film, there's just no way a person might be holding a small rag with an ice cube or something to their cheek as they walk down the street.

BUT, why did I get a flash of that image all of a sudden during the 1971 dress parade? I went back in the film to the start of the scene, wondering if I hadn't seen something subconsciously that reminded me of it. Nope. All good. The only thing I saw from the future was someday that woman's dress would be a carpet design.

So, time. Time travel. Here we go. Why would someone from the future want to come back to the present or past? Observation? I can read a book about the Civil War, and know I don't want to SEE it. Alter an event? Everyone knows the theory of changing time creating ripples that will eventually destroy everything, so why would a society capable of time travel want to risk it? Maybe like the show Quantum Leap, it's an accidental thing and it's okay to change the futures of people that won't ever be major players? Well, that also isn't the point... Let's just say the technology is there, and people can come back to our present or our past. Let's say, like the leprechaun, we want to catch a time traveler in the act. What could we do? Not we as a society or a race. I'm talking about individuals...me, you, Bob from down the hall.

I want to force a person from the future to come back and interact with me. Do I commit murder? Nope, been done. Do I try to eradicate an entire race of people? Nope, been done, and despite movies and games about it, nobody has gone back to stop it BEFORE it happened. IF there was some kind of time patrolling agency, what deeds would they watch out for? What BEHAVIORS? If it's possible to have records of everything we do, then every action is pre-ordained, for them who have access to these records. So I'm thinking the trick is to make a hiccup in those records. A red flag that would pop up in the future histories.

We make a lot of decisions on instinct or trained behavior. We drive the same routes, without thinking about it, out of habit and demands on time or fuel. Toilet seats, jobs, movies, eating... all things which theoretically could be recorded in some future archive. So what if we start analyzing those things we don't think about? Start thinking about them, and trying to determine how often we can bump those behaviors? Turn left and take the short cut because it's always the way... but instead force yourself to turn right. That's a bad example, but they're all bad examples. Like changing an eating time... in this day and age there really isn't anything SET. BUT... YOU have 'predictable' and 'recordable' behaviors. How can we tweak those just enough to make a future someone say "We need to figure out WTF they're doing"???