To Wayback or Not to Wayback

I guess its human nature, at some point in our lives we wish we had a Wayback Machine that could take us back in time to relive some past event and undo the choices we made. We find ourselves wondering “what if I had done this” or “what if I had made this choice instead of that one”.

The past has a way of becoming more attractive with age. Things that seemed unpleasant or even downright terrible at the time the events occurred lose their edge with time. Looking back we tend to remember the good parts and let the bad parts fade from memory. I’m not talking about traumatic events, like rape or death, but about relationships gone bad, family squabbles about inconsequential matters that are never resolved, breakups with high school friends that caused you to lose touch. We tend to remember “the good ole’ days”, even when they weren’t that good the first time around.

And then there are those past events that you look back at and say “What the hell happened?” Why did my life change course so dramatically? Why did I make that decision if I can’t even remember the reason now? What if? Why then? Where would I be now?

But we can’t go back, and if we did we have to consider all of the things that we might, or probably would lose by taking that other course. Other friendships might never have been made, career paths could have been totally different, even children might not exist. So it’s definitely a good thing that time machines only exist in the SciFi world. I don’t believe human beings have the moral and ethical strength to resist the urge to misuse such a device.