It seems reasonable that if we place suggestions relevant to a future
society onto a forum where such messages will be archived for the next
300 to 400 years, i.e, anything which Google can get ahold of and
index, that future potential time travelers may be inspired by such
messages to go back in time to the places we suggest. Why? Because in
the future, as technology for time travel is perfected, past messages
regarding future time travel will become noteworthy, in a society
focused on time travel, and will be diligently studied.
For example. I recently wrote a story in which a person writes a
story and posts it on a Sci-Fi forum such as this one, with the
intention of influencing future time travelers. I should write this in
the first person, since I'm the one who both wrote the story and
appear in the story.
I strongly urged, (and although I'm repeating myself in this Post, I
know further urging won't be necessary), that future time travelers
consider the wisdom of going back to a time about 260 million earth
years ago, ten million years before the major mass extinction that
occurred +-250 M years ago, and to bring back with them a few
(living) Ammonites, or genetic material with which to hatch new
Ammonites in their "future" laboratory. These creatures are probably
well-known to you as the ancient precursors of the more modern
Chambered Nautilus, Squid and Octopus. The Ammonites were a prolific
feature of the ancient Devonian and Ordovician seas and coastal
waters. In one form, in which they vaguely resembled the modern
'tooth' shell, they grew to a length of 6 to 8 feet. In another, a
more snail-like shell housed a sea creature which was could be between
5 and 10 pounds in weight.
I strongly pleaded in my message that taking a few Ammonites, which
would, in their native habitat, shortly go extinct anyway, they would
be im****ting a new bountiful source of protein to help feed their
future population!
That same afternoon, not more than one hour after I posted this
message, I was walking down 16th Street toward the corner of Valencia,
in San Francisco's Mission District, and was drawn to a restaurant I'd
never noticed before. There was a fence that had gone up half way out
into the sidewalk in front of a storefront, with ony a tiny entrance
into the store, but I was confronted with a hand and fingers on a
black-on-white sign pointing toward the door. Just as I glanced in
that direction, a short Asian man stood at the door and beamed with
recognition, though I don't remember ever having seen him before, and
he smilingly gestured me inside, in such a way that I, quite bemused
and wondering what this was all about, couldn't say no. This was a
tiny restaurant indeed, I thought, as I was taken to a private booth
in back by a silk-clad and very slender waitress.
I received a pot of tea and a glass of ice water, and was expecting to
look at a menu and choose my meal. But instead a Chinese blue-and-
white patterned bowl was brought to me, and when I removed the top, a
white, slightly luminous, hot, steaming fish presented itself. But it
was not of the same texture as a fish, it was more like.. a giant
scallop. But it didn't taste like a scallop, as I was forced to use a
knife and form on it instead of chopsticks, it tasted more like
abalone... a giant two-pound chunk of abalone... the biggest abalone
in the world!
My mind began swimming and I nearly lost consciosuness, and perhaps
did, in fact, faint dead away, as I realized that I had bitten into
the hot, steamy meat of what could only an Ammonite, bred from
Ammonites retrieved from Devonian seas by time travelers from the
future, who had doubled-back in their own ineffable way, to treat me
to a taste of Ammonite steak, doubtless thanking me for having posted
that item about Ammonites on a group which would be archived for
hundreds and hundreds of years on Google and Google's successors, to
the date, in the distant future, when time travel, in a depleted and
care-worn world, had become an absolute necessity.
When I woke up, I was standing propped up against a concrete wall in a
little alleyway just off 16th Street, no more than 50 feet from where
I'd been munching on the white meat of an ancient Ammonite steak..I
felt a "buzz" of a feeling throughout my body, and warily walked
toward the sidewalk and traffic. The fence around the store was gone,
and I peered through the window at a Vietnamese restaurant, much
different from the place it had been, a few moments before... I
realized I'd been tricked, but it was a good trick. I went into the
restaurant and sat down and glanced at their menu.
"Do you have Ammonite on your menu?" I asked the dumpy little
waitress.
"OH! a...moan-ite?" She briefly looked puzzled and made a toothy
face. "No, no, here, here, look on the menu. I be back!"
I was half expecting that I'd wandered into a world that had Ammonite
steak on its menus, but now I knew I was back in contem****ary San
Francisco, and Ammonites hadn't gotten onto any menus, not yet, nor
had they existed in 250,000,000 years.
I was quite hungry that day in San Francisco and appreciate the fine
meal I got, delivered to me by mischievous, delighted time travelers,
who let me know, by their actions, that THE FUTURE WOULD BE JUST
FINE. And, that obviously, we would survive so that the future could
come about. With no visible evidence of actual time travel, however,
we might sometimes doubt what the future holds. But they've assured
me, by delivering that "Surprise" Ammonite steak dinner, that the
future is in good hands, and that Ammonites, as well as humans, will
persist into future millennia. Now I am in a slightly different jam,
I would love time-traveling friends to pay me another visit, and I
know that THEY know, what I need, since they can look back on my
whole life from their future viewpoint, and will do a little something
to help out!
--Ed Augusts
http://www.edaugusts.com
|
