A glimpse into the future
The boy pushed the lever until the desired year appeared. Upon its release the world moved around at a snail’s pace, the second’s hand on his watch struggled to move, his body felt extreme pressure and felt like a water balloon about to burst into a million pieces. The ordeal didn’t last long as he soon arrived in the year 3024.
He expected to see flying cars, aliens, cyborgs but it was a deserted grassfield. No sign of any human, animal or a robot. He thought the time travel was indeed a hoax, this doesn’t look futuristic. He called out anxiously hoping someone would respond. But the place looked like it has been like that for centuries, a sea of undulating grasses stretched out as far as the eye can see with trees scattered around.
He runs like a madman in every possible direction, screaming and calling to locate any human being but is disappointed. Maybe humanity was wiped away, we are extinct in the future he thought to himself. His stomach churns, legs tremble, overcome by fatigue and hunger he faints.
The crackling sound from the fireplace emanates as a woman wearing dark robes gently places the wood logs and brings a plate of food and places next to the boy who is still asleep. She gently caresses his hair and whispers quietly indicative of hymn to heal him.
“Who are you?”, the boy enquired feebly
She stared at him for a while and spoke finally, “My name is Kiran”
“What year is this? Where am I?”
“Didn’t you enter 3024 in the time machine? Where do you expect to arrive then? You are in currently in a town T2546.”
“How do you know about the time machine?”
She didn’t reply but pointed to my watch that cleared the mystery. It was clearly set to the year 2024.
“Tell me everything about the future, what is everyday like, do you fly cars or did we colonize Mars…”
“Calm down.. the future is not as it was predicted centuries ago. It’s nothing like you imagined.
But that’s not necessarily terrible. Come and I will show you”
She took him to her vast farmland, the scene looked familiar as if he had traveled back to the past, the place was surrounded by large mustard and wheat crops as several men and women plucked them by hand and deposited them in their bags hanging from their shoulders.
“I don’t understand, they are farmers in the past too”
“Yes and it has survived the countless calamities, wars and destruction”
“Does it mean humans survived the last millennium?”
“The future is unknowable, what you observe is one of the possible states of the infinite possibilities. Maybe in one of those you might get to see aliens, or cyborgs.”
The boy grew silent on hearing this. If the future is unknowable and nondeterministic then how is time travel possible? His head hurt thinking about it.
“I know what you’re thinking”, she smiled and continued, “wait till I tell you about the year 4024”
