Ever since Science Fiction first gained popularity as a genre in the nineteenth century, time travel has been a prevalent topic of exploration. From a modern perspective, it is easy to assume that the concept of time travel is an idea that has always fascinated humankind; something even the Ancient Greeks would have speculated over. This, however, is not the case.
The emergence of “time travel” remains contested however some would argue that prior to the 1900’s “time travel” either only occurred through a dream, like in Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle (1819), or through fantasy, like in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843). Following the industrial revolution and the emergence of a new mechanized world, authors began to combine different elements of science and technology to invent wonderful fictitious machines that allowed people to explore the world in the past and in the future (Fitting 2010). Time travel as we know it, as well as the term ‘time machine’ itself was arguably pioneered by H.G. Wells’ 1895 novel The Time Machine (Pilkington & Brin, 2017). Since then; countless novels, comics, movies and T.V shows have been created focusing on this concept. But why is sci-fi so obsessed with time?
In his book Time Travel: A History, James Gleick wrote`;
“Before futurism could be born people had to believe in progress.”
This could be a reason behind the relatively recent prominence of time travel in literature. The newfound surge in our technology and scientific understanding fuels our belief in progress and fascination with futurism. Technology is advancing at an increasingly fast rate and reality is becoming what once was fiction. We live in an era in which there are quantum computers, driverless cars, robots and artificial intelligence; this progress brings to question if we could ever genuinely achieve the technology needed for time travel.
Not only does sci-fi question the idea of time travel, but it also explores the concept of alternate dimensions, which further confuses the notion of time. With the progress of technology, sci-fi has pushed the boundaries of our preconceived ideas of time. Authors have developed unconventional stories exploring time travel, communication with the future, time slips, and futurology; it is these stories that have captivated us. Some of the most popular sci-fi works ever created are stories that entail a protagonist with the ability to travel through time. Doctor Who, Futurama and the Back to the Future trilogy, in particular, have amassed cult followings. Perhaps the reason why sci-fi is so obsessed with time is simply because the public demands it.
One of the reasons why people might be so fascinated by time is because of its mystery. Time is an objective measurement and something that we live in and are bound to. Ultimately, time is something that we lack any kind of control over despite being limited and constrained to. Therefore, the idea that in fictional stories one is able to defy this force appeals to us; it is a concept that plays with our curiosity as humans. One could argue that sci-fi is particularly drawn to exploring the future because humans are drawn to what they do not have, and what they are yet to achieve. This is why people are obsessed with the concept of “the future” because of the uncertainty of it. Although there are many different ideas of what the future will hold, we will never really be able to predict it; we can only make guesses on what we believe the future might entail.
It is this hunger for answers and desire to see where our world may be heading that fuels sci-fi’s fascination with time, and with the future in particular. Sci-fi satisfies this hunger by depicting fascinating and insightful interpretations into our potential future. For example, the concept of having flying cars as shown in Back to the Future, Tomorrowland, Futurama and many other movies provides scope into where car technology may be progressing to (Wilson, 2017).
Real theorists have also joined the bandwagon of the obsession with time, joining the discussion on traveling into the future. Scientists have researched different dimensions within time and tried to discover whether tunnels in space, named wormholes, could act as time machines into these dimensions. Philosophers have postulated whether our future is determined by fate or by our free will, touching on the theory of determinism, which is centered around this debate. Technology and theoretical physics are constantly reminding us that our relationship with time is far from constant. Due to the development of our knowledge and the subsequent innovation that results from this, our ideas of the world around us change and develop (Howell, 2017). Yet we still have far from enough understanding of time to allow us to develop equipment that would allow us to manipulate time.
Even though time travel could be very beneficial for humans and the world around us, there still remains a question as to whether it would be safe. One argument against the idea of time travel is that we don’t know whether humans are built for the act of time travel and whether our bodies could even survive the forces that may act upon us. For example, g-force is a type of acceleration that causes weight: it is the feeling you have when pressed against the seat on a rollercoaster. G-force can provide thrill-seekers with an exciting experience but it can also be dangerous to us if we exceed the force our body is capable of taking. It is not known whether time travel would cause such forces to act on us, and it could be extremely detrimental for humans to time travel if the g-force was more than we could actually handle (Mellor, 2012).
To finish this exploration of time travel in science fiction, here are two of our favourite cult movies that question the notion of time.
Back to The Future (1985): This film was one of the first films to be made about time travel. It tells the story of Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, who travels to 1955 where he witnesses his teenage parents falling in love. Unintentionally, Marty meets his then-teenage mother and she falls for him. Marty has to make sure she falls in love with his father to ensure he exists in the ‘present’. The movie addresses some complications time travel could have, as well as its challenges and implications, in particular making the viewer think about The Grandfather Paradox. This film raises the questions; would traveling back in time before your existence change what the future holds? If so, would we have the ability to prevent certain things from happening? This film ties in with the ideas of whether people have free will to change time or if time is determined and cannot be changed. Also, this film is one of the main examples of why science fiction is obsessed with the future, which is because it is easy to manipulate fiction and time travel for humans is still fiction.
Looper (2012): Looper raises questions about what some of the implications of time travel would be in terms of government if it were to be invented. The movie is set in the future, in 2044, and confusingly also in 2074, the year in which time travel is created and immediately made illegal. The protagonist, Joe, works as a ‘looper’, secretly traveling backward and forwards in time in order to assassinate criminals, who have been sent back in time to be exterminated. However, because of his job, once Joe’s career is over he must go back in time and kill himself to make sure all the information he has accumulated is kept safe. The future presented in this movie is by no means utopian, and raises questions such as what would your present you change if you knew your future self? It also paints technological advances in a pretty negative light making the viewer question whether we actually want this technology in our lives (McCarthy, 2017). 
Human beings are inherently curious and we long to find the answers to the questions our world presents us. The future is something we can’t be certain about and will probably never be able to predict or control. This could be part of the reason that we are so obsessed with it, as we always desire control and this is one aspect of our lives we will unlikely to ever be able to command. Humans are capable of understanding the concept of time travel but this is not enough for us to acquire the ability to perform it. But the limits of the universe are unknown, and maybe this fascination of ours with trying to test the limits of nature is part of the reason for science fiction’s obsession with time travel and the future. Sci-fi allows us to escape the limits of the reality, push the boundaries of what is natural and satisfy what we lack in ability and knowledge, even if it is with fiction.
Time for the Future 
Your blog post is good, but it would benefit in terms of clarity if you were to slightly improve the structure – setting it out with some kinds of headings, or setting the rhetorical questions apart from the rest of the body of test, would give
the reader a much better idea of what each part of the blog was attempting to do and address.
The evidence is good, and the number of sources is okay but a few more would probably benefit the blog – hyperlinks rather than sources tend to work best, as it gives the reader somewhere to easily go. In the virtual world, convenience is key. Your sources do include several academic ones, which is good and helps add weight to the argument, but be wary of using sources that the average reader may find difficult to understand.
The key point/take away message is somewhat unclear – it would probably be helpful if this was stated a bit more clearly near either the start of the end – again, improving the structure would probably solve this.
Make sure you’ve referenced the images you’ve used, and maybe you could look at adding in a video clip to your blog as well? As example of this could be when they mention flying cars – I’m sure somewhere on YouTube there is a ‘Flying Cars Compilation’ video that you could link in.
Overall though, really good blog, just a few key areas to address.
– Group 8
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Thank you for your insightful input, we’ve taken them on board and made the improvements we felt necessary!
Group 11
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Group 10 Comments:
To get the readers engaged in the blog, it’s got to have an impactful introduction – try to keep it relevant to the rest of the blog, do the Ancient Greeks fit in here? Within the main body of the blog, it would be great to have more media, this will help make your blog more accessible to all types of readers, e.g children,and other people who prefer visual imagery to help aid their understanding. Even some hyperlinks or maybe an embedded video might work.
It might be useful for the reader if there were a few sub headings to break up the blog to help guide the reader. The explanation of why we are obsessed with time is there but what about having more information on the challenges sci-fi expresses about time. For example one conventional idea of time is that we cannot get it back, How does this relate to the theme prevalent in some science fiction movies and books that we see today? It would be nice for there to be some examples alongside things like ‘but discusses some issues about time travel and the effects’ and ‘challenges and implications’. The reader is left thinking what effects, what challenges and what implications? It Is implied throughout the blog but it would be great to explicitly state the main idea surrounding time. What do we think? What do scientists really know about time? Is it linear/nonlinear?
When you give an example such as A Christmas Carol and Rip Van Winkle, it would be great to elaborate, tell the reader why they’re relevant. To maintain interactivity with the information, it would be great to, as said previously, to have hyperlinks and then have sources where you got the information from.
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Group 11
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I like the trajectory your blog takes of explaining the appeal of time travel and then onto the grittier aspects of whether it is actually possible. However the style is a little bit dry, I think you should maybe break up the first half with more pictures and multimedia material so it reads less like an essay. There is little context given to the sources you use, for instance you talk about the amount of g-force created by time travel. Here I think you should maybe talk about the proposed mechanism of time travel and maybe explain how travelling in time could create such an effect. If you cannot find sources which adequately explain this then maybe you should just cut this section.
I also think that in the section where you talk about both the films there should be more linking back to the original question. You seem to give a brief overview of the films but not explain how they are relevant to people’s obsession with time travel. For instance you could take a personal stance at this point and talk about why you chose them to exemplify your point, maybe talk about how they made you feel about the idea of time travel when you first watched them.
I like your use of integrated sources throughout the blog, perhaps you could add one which explains the G-force issue I mentioned above!
Group 9
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Thank you for your insightful input, we’ve taken them on board and made the improvements we felt necessary!
Group 11
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Group 6
This was a great first attempt – well done!! You have some strong points that have been backed up by solid evidence, and the use of rhetorical questions to lead the reader through your argument is quite effective as well. Your point is quite passionately argued which made it a very interesting and engaging read. However, we believe that there were some slight problems with the expression of your argument – seems quite confused at times because of your use of extremely long sentences. Perhaps, you could have included more detailed relevant examples that were more specifically related to your argument.
Additionally, we found that there was a repetition of a the same thought process in the conclusion and you made the error in assuming that the readers understood the entire content of your argument in your conclusion – which isn’t the best thing to do as this may incite negative comments from the readers… Another important detail is the referencing and the inconsistencies in your expression, especially with the terms ‘Sci-Fi’ that were written in varying ways throughout your blog. Please be mindful of your use of punctuation, grammar and the word limit (you were quite a bit over the 1500 word limit) as well.
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Thank you for your insightful input, we’ve taken them on board and made the improvements we felt necessary!
Group 11
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