Time
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Hi again,
now that i know how valuable time is,
I am willing to make the fullest of it.
I still pray that i will get into 3E2
So, here's a little story to show the importance of time, and the past.
"We don't want to change the Future. We don't belong here in the Past. the government doesn't
like us here. we have to pay big graft to keep our franchise. A Time Machine is finicky business. Not knowing it, we might even kill an important animal, a small bird, a roach, a flower even, thus destroying an important link in a growing species."
"That's not clear," said Eckels.
"All right," Travis continued, "say we accidentally kill one mouse here. That means all the future families of this one particular mouse are destroyed, right?"
"Right"
"And all the families of the familiesof that one mouse! With a stamp of your foot, you annihilate first one, the a dozen, then a thousand, a million, a billion possible mice!"
"So they're dead," said Eckels, "So what?"
"So what?" Travis snorted quietly. "Well, what about the foxes that need those mice to surviv? For want to ten mice, a fox dies. For want of ten foxes, a lion starves. For want of a lion, all manner of insects, vultures, infinite billions of life forms are thrown into chaos and destruction. Eventually it all boild down to this: fifty-nine million years later, a cavemen, one of a dozen on the
entire world, goes hunting wild boar, or saber-toothed tiger for food. But you, my friend, have
stepped on all the tigers in that region. By stepping on
one single mouse. So the caveman starves. And the caveman, please note, is not just any expandable man, no! He is an
entire future nation. From his loins would have sprung ten sons. From their loins one hundred sons, and thus onward to a civilisation. Destroy this one man, and you destroy a race, a people, and entire history of life. It is comparable to slaying some of Adam's grandchildren. The stomp of your foot, on one mouse, sould start an earthquake, the effects of which could shake our Earth and estinies down through Time, to their very foundations. With the death of that one caveman, a billion others are yet unborn are throtled in the womb. Perhaps Rome never rises on it seven hills. Perhaps Europe is forever a dark forest, and only Asian waxes healthy and teeming. Step on a mouse and you crush the pyramids. Step on a mouse and you leave you print, like a Grand Canyon, across Eternity. Queen Elizabeth might never be born. Washington might not cross Delaware, there might never be a United States at all. So be careful, Stay on the Path.
Never step off!"
Adapted from "A Sound Of Thunder", a short story by Ray BradburyAnd that's that, I guess.
If you want to know the ending of the story, tell me.
