What If You Were the First Time Traveler? | Unveiled

What If You Were the First Time Traveler?

In 1895, the first time traveller was born, when the legendary science-fiction writer H.G. Wells published a novella, “The Time Machine”, that changed pop culture forever. Today, almost everyone has dreamed that they might one day be able to move through time, and most of us have a bucket list of destinations that we’d like to visit. But what if those dreams became a reality?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; what if you were the first ever time traveller?

Time travel is an incredibly complex concept, and only travel to the future is really guaranteed with what we currently know about the universe. Check out our dedicated time travel playlist for more on how it could work… but, at its easiest, you can theoretically go to the future simply by traveling fast enough in a certain direction. Going to the past is wholly different, however, and may well require breaking the speed of light (according to most models of how it could, if ever, work). Suffice to say, we don’t yet know how to do that, or if it’s even possible.

Given the tremendous difficulty involved, then, time travel is a problem that may perhaps only be solved with two things: staggering amounts of time and money. In an alternate reality, this could mean a NASA-like organization or even a private company, but one that thoroughly researches time travel instead of space exploration. While the mad-scientist-discovering-time-travel-in-isolation is a popular plotline in science fiction, it arguably constitutes the least likely turn of events in the real world. Rather, the breakthrough would come via the pooled resources, time and budget of a collective effort. So, let’s imagine that time travel does lie in the hands of a government body, how would the first traveller be chosen?

Much like how it was with early space travel, it’s safe to say that only highly, specifically trained individuals would stand a chance of being selected. The first astronauts were all talented test pilots… and even today, while the astronaut selection process arguably isn’t quite as harsh as it once was, it’s not as though just anyone can hop a shuttle to see space! The key difference with time travel, however, is that the first temporal missions would most likely be strictly top-secret. Which means no public selection process, and no fanfare on departure or return.

While a trip to the moon served to broaden our horizons, a trip through time would serve to change our reality, and that’s bigger and potentially more devastating when it comes to making it public knowledge. This means that the first time traveller’s identity would be kept firmly under wraps, that they’d probably be a figure within the military (or an alternative, private group), and that they’d have to be extremely trustworthy and loyal. A rogue traveller could literally change history… so their freedoms would be severely limited, in that they likely wouldn’t be able to choose where they went, what they did, or who they spoke with during their trip. And, even after the trip, they’d live a life under constant surveillance, at least until time travel had been revealed to the rest of the world. What do you think… could you be that person?

The happier (though probably less likely) version of this reality isn’t quite so restrictive. Being the first time traveller is potentially much more fun if there isn’t tonnes of bureaucratic red tape to cut through, or top level government secrets to keep. The main character in Wells’ “The Time Machine”, for example, didn’t have to worry about anyone else. He was free to go wherever he liked, as an independent traveller. So, what happens next in this scenario?

If you or someone you knew were to develop time travel without the backing of a large organization, then the world (the universe!) is your oyster. You can go anywhere and do anything you like, at any point in history or the future. But there could also still be terrible consequences. Were you to trigger the wrong paradoxes, for instance, then you could feasibly wind up wiping yourself out of history, or trapping yourself in a never-ending loop.

If you were the first human to travel through time, then, even without a government dictating your every move, you’d most likely want to tread carefully. While your first thought may be to go back in time far enough to find out how Stonehenge was built, or forward far enough to see when the first cloud city is built, neither of those is the sensible option. What’s much more likely is that the first time traveller would make only a very small journey to begin with, just a few minutes or even seconds into the past or future. That way, if anything goes wrong, you’d at least be retrievable in the real world. One thing that could go wrong, for example, is fuel. It’s highly likely that your time machine wouldn’t run on an easy-to-find fuel source, especially if you needed it to break the speed of light. It might require infinite fuel to keep accelerating… or a new, exotic type of fuel (as per science fiction). Either way, maintaining a steady and reliable supply would be problem number one for the world’s first traveller. That, and maintaining a steady and reliable communications link with someone on your original timeline.

Ultimately, the somewhat disappointing likelihood is that a time machine’s maiden voyage wouldn’t be to anywhere that exciting – the risks would just be too great. A minute into the future, an hour into the past, but nothing more. And certainly nothing Earth shattering, on the first run. It might even be that backwards time travel isn’t possible beyond the date at which your time machine was originally switched on… so that’s another reason why your first journey could be unavoidably short.

But say you’re all set to become the first time traveller and you’re not beset by any of the potential problems and pitfalls we’ve listed so far. You’re working independently of a government or group so you’re free to do as you please; and there are no limits to how far back or forward you can travel, and no paradoxes waiting to trip you up. One thing we do know from our own reality is that wherever you end up, you’re going to have a hard time convincing anyone that you really, genuinely have travelled through time to get there.

Many have claimed to be time travellers over the years, and most have been largely met with suspicion. That isn’t to say that any would be travellers in today’s world are or aren’t telling the truth, only that most people haven’t believed their story. And should you be the first time traveller and you travel backwards to a time before time travel was invented, then you’d be in the same position. And, even on your return to your own time, you’d need some solid evidence from your temporal destination to prove to others beyond doubt that your time machine had worked. You’d need something that could only have come from the future, or only have come from the past.

And, finally, the world’s first time traveller has one more unfortunate possibility to contend with; that their ground-breaking, pioneering, never-before-seen trip won’t work. At best, this could be embarrassing. At worst, it could be fatal. It’s a sure bet that (if it ever happens) travelling through time will be dangerous. As with travelling through space, anyone that undertakes the first missions will be genuinely risking their lives to push science and the human story forward. On the one hand, they’d have the chance to experience something wholly new and unique; on the other, there are immense and unknowable risks. Could you ever be totally confident that you would make it to your intended destination in one piece? That you could exceed the speed of light and survive to tell the tale? One thing’s for sure, if you were the first traveller, you’d also have to be extremely brave.

Clearly, the problems and dangers are everywhere. You could be under the complete control of a clandestine government or top secret group; You could encounter a paradox and be trapped forever; You could find yourself continually running the same short trip of just a few seconds over and over again; You could run out of fuel and never return, lose communications and never return, or input the wrong data into your time machine so that you end up completely cut adrift from Earth itself… and never return. And, even if you avoid all of that and successfully make humankind’s first ever temporal voyage, most people probably won’t believe you anyway. But, apart from that, it would be seriously awesome! And that’s what would happen if you were the first time traveller.