Summer camps of content

As usual, Lil has been enjoying a range of summer camps from the long-lived Columbia Association Nature Camp to a couple weeks doing Ballet Intensives at her dance studio, Ballet Mobile. I loved when she achieved the next level of canoe instruction, which means she doesn't need a counselor.  I love the music and history from ballet that she brings up in the car when hearing a piece of music on the radio.

But when we arrived at Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) last week for the ending open house, we received a book of essays as the final product for Big Questions. Since the kids were doing presentations on various philosophical elements, I didn't get a chance to read it until that night. This isn't perfect, but it's pretty awesome to see what's turning over in her mind. We had fun discussing time travel, but I didn't know she had picked it for her essay topic. It turns out her instructor, Andrew Fyfe, had also written about time travel in a collection about J. J. Abrams, discussing Lost and Star Trek.

As I did, Lil is enjoying her time at CTY each summer. Sandy Spring Friends School is a great venue for it and she can't wait to return next year for her final year as a "Young Student." Maybe she'll head overseas like I did when I was 15 for an amazing summer abroad - SANS parents!

You Can’t Change the Past

Lily Coombs

§1. Introduction

There is no scientific consensus on whether time travel into the past will be possible for us in the future. But in this paper I aim to resolve the following question: “If time travel into the past turns out to be possible one day, will that mean we can change the past?” After all, if I could travel back into the past, it seems like I could then affect and change the past.

Before I get started answering whether backwards time travel makes changing the past possible, I need to lay out the several ways time travel could work. Then I will discuss in Section §3 whether on any of these methods changing the past would be possible.

§2. Methods of Backwards Time Travel

Here is a list of the three ways in which backwards time travel might turn out to work:

Method 1. It might turn out to be true that there exist parallel universes. Parallel different universes that unfold all the ways ours didn’t. If this turns out to be true, there will be parallel universe that are only slightly different from our universe and others that differ radically. One form of what we might consider backwards time travel would be to travel to a similar one of these parallel universes but arrive in their past. For example, to leave our universe in 2020 in our time machine and arrive at a similar parallel universe in the year 1939.

Method 2. Time travel might involve alternate timeline rather than parallel universes. Suppose I leave 2050 in a time machine and travel back to the year 1939. In doing this, I may cause a new timeline to splinter off from my original history. Now there will be two ways out universe unfolded, the original way from which I departed in 2020 and the new way which includes me arriving in my time machine in 1939.

Method 3. Maybe there don’t exist parallel universes for every possible way the universe can unfold. Maybe it isn’t possible for there to be more timelines beyond and alternate to the one we already know about. There is just this one universe and just this one timeline. If that is the case and if time travel turns out to be possible, then time travel would involve traveling back into the past of our own universe and our original timeline.

These seem to be the three possible ways backwards time travel could logically work if it turns out to be scientifically possible. Now I will turn to my central question concerning whether it could ever come to be discovered possible to not just travel back into the past but change the past. I can now answer this question by examining whether changing the past would be possible on any of the three methods time travel might turn out to work if time travel turns out to be possible at all.

§3. You Can’t Change the Past

It is clearly the case that you wouldn’t be changing the past if time travel turns out to work either in the way described by Method 1 or Method 2. The problem with these two methods of backwards time travel is that you are not changing your own past. In Method 1 you are changing the present of the parallel universe you went to. In Method 2 you are creating a new timeline with that new difference. But in each case, your original universe or timeline would still exist exactly as it always was before you engaged in your “time travel” antics.

So the only chance for changing the past is Method 3. In Method 3, time travel would involve traveling back into the past of our universe and be contained in the one and singular timeline of our universe. If time travel of the sort described by Method 3 turns out to be possible, couldn’t I then travel back into the past of my universe and timeline and change how it originally went? Couldn’t I go back in time from 2020 and delete the Holocaust from the history of the universe by assassinating Hitler in 1939? Sadly, no. Even on Method 3, changing the past would still be impossible.

History has already happened, you can’t change it! After all, if you were successful in changing the past of this universe and our timeline and thereby eliminating the holocaust from the history of the universe then why did you come back from the future and kill Hitler in the first place? If you kill him there would be no Holocaust and so no reason to kill this random person! You came back from the future because the Holocaust did happen (in some universe or some timeline) and you wanted to stop it for some other universe or in some other timeline. But it makes no logical sense to eliminate it from your own universe and timeline. It must exist in your universe and timeline because that’s why you are time traveling in the first place!

So how would time travel work if it turns out to work in the way described by Method 3? Wouldn’t it have to be possible to change the past if I could travel back into the past of my own universe and timeline? So let’s imagine that backwards time travel turns out to exist and that time travel turns out to work as described by Method 3. Further imagine that you enter a time machine in 2050 on a mission to stop Wilkes from shooting Lincoln. You come into the Ford’s Theater booth with your period revolver in order to fit into the era. Wilkes is getting his pistol ready. Then Wilkes gets ready to shoot, but notices something wrong with his pistol. He cocks his head to the side just as you shoot. You miss. It turns out that you shot Lincoln this whole time. Historians got it all wrong because Wilkes fled the scene. Wilkes just didn’t want to be blamed for what happened.

As my example shows, you might be able to travel back into the past of your own universe and timeline to try and change the past by preventing the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but whatever you do will inevitably end up being something you already did in history. If you go back to stop the assassination of Lincoln, we know you fail because we know how the history of our universe and timeline unfolded. But perhaps we have it a little wrong. Perhaps it was a time traveler with bad aim that killed Lincoln. But no time traveler can change the past even if a time traveler might already be a part of our past.

§4. Conclusion

In conclusion you can’t change the past when you time travel. You can only do what you were destined to do (or else you must be really changing the past of some other universe or timeline). In the Lincoln case you were destined to kill Lincoln instead of John Wilkes Booth killing him. Also even if there aren’t alternate timelines or parallel universes, time travel can still exist but any way time travel turns out to work then it will still turn out that changing the past is logically impossible.     

Scheduling Summer

Now that school's out, I'm having a toddler-like reaction to the craziness of summer.

Ah, summer - time to schedule all those appointments - no need to worry about school! Yay!

On the very first Monday, I slammed two into one day. Unintentionally. My calendar on my computer is not synced with my phone. Lil wanted to go to the pool with her Nature Camp friends, which conflicted with her original dental appointment. Quick call - Monday, 4:15? That's PERFECT. Whew. Crisis avoided there.

Until the following day when I received a reminder from her orthodontist about her appointment at 4:50 on Monday.

So I prayed to the traffic gods that play with our lives on Rt. 29 everyday starting at, um, when does morning rush hour end? 10:30 AM? Can we make it from Atholton to Ellicott City in less than 15 minutes?

Also, who wants a dental cleaning followed by wire tightening? Irrelevant question, ok?

Luckily I showed up at the dentist at 3:45 and there had been a cancellation, so my crazy plan was accommodated.

Luckily for Lil, no tightening - just a check to see they can be removed. But then when to schedule that appointment? Oh, the day of her show at CCTA? Uh, no. She's Peter Pan in one of the scenes (there are multiple Pans so they can learn lines quickly in six days).

I choose 10:30 - put it in the phone, cc my husband, who actually never looks at what I send him, just accepts as "Tentative" - and move on.

Oh, right, I have a doctor's appointment that day that I didn't see on my phone.

Did I mention Disney is due for his annual exam next week? Which the hubby refuses to attend because he's afraid of the vet scolding us for how portly our 15 month old cat is...

I'm thinking of going back to paper.

Information *under*sharing

As I picked up my daughter from Drama Camp on Friday, the counselor gave me a sheet and said this sheet replaces everything that went out in the parents' meeting and the follow-up email.

Oh, really?

Let's step back a few months...

During the early spring, parents (moms, mostly) try to figure out how to occupy their young'uns during the long "When does school start again?" hot summer. We plan with poster size calendars for the 3 months on our hands and knees, armed with colored pencils, large erasers and camp catalogs spread out on the floor. Well, maybe not poster size calendars, but I do find the scheduling sheet in the Columbia Association catalog VERY helpful. Some people choose full summer-long camps to make it easier and provide consistency and stability for themselves and their children. That's not how Lil & I roll - we see tons of opportunities and choices and like to experiment.

After we figure out the calendar, I begin registration...deposits, forms, blood donations, etc. I read & re-read information packets so I have an idea of what to expect. I am like a Bounty paper towel when it comes to sponging up this kinda junk. In college, when the course schedule/catalog would be released at Maryland, I'd find a quiet spot in Cole Field House to absorb the possibilities.

Details, I WANT details, which I was already late to because despite having paid & registered months ago...I had gotten nothing. I began to have a feeling that something was wrong. And yes, they had lost the registration (although NOT my money surprisingly). They said they'd had an IT problem...and it had happened to at least one other child. They were about an hour away from Luke opening up a can of *** on them. But my can seemed to work and I was ensured everything was fine & I got the camp packet! Hurray!

So when this camp had a parents' meeting on the 2nd day, I sat there hoping for loads of really useful information! Well, no...

Some moms had sent their moms. That's fine. But then they should educate themselves and not ask questions that have already been addressed, i.e. times for the show. It's like showing up late for a meeting & expecting it to be restarted. Not acceptable.

But I didn't learn much at the parent meeting besides "Your kid needs a white shirt to tie-dye" because that'll be the costume. So I looked at Macy's, no luck there unless I wanted to buy 3 boys' undershirts. I figured I'd check Target later in the week. Good thing I waited...

Because in addition to the tie-dyeable shirt, the list NOW includes ANOTHER white shirt, black pants/capris AND bright pants/capris. Do you know how hard it is to find plain white shirts? So, they have sparkles on them and that'll just have to work.

But my point is - they've DONE THIS BEFORE. This ain't the first summer they've held camp. Could they not have told us white t-shirts & black pants are often needed? Back in March, when I registered? And also, to let people know that not only are they paying the $$$ for camp, additional supplies/materials will be necessary?

Do I need to pay someone to listen in on their phone calls and check their emails so I can get a few days' notice before slogging through summer clearance at Target?  Paging Edward Snowden...

hocoblog@@@

Choosing positivity for once

For those of you who know, know that I get annoyed...easily, often & spanning many elements of my life.

But let's be positive for a moment...even now, when lots of people are sans electricity & unsure when it'll be back.

The month of June was wonderful! (Until Friday night, but I can call that July, right? Because Sunday was July?)

We got our brick (yes, it was placed in May, but dedicated at the Columbia birthday celebration in June!) at the Lakefront right in front of Clyde's where my hubby & I had our first date. (OK, yes, we kinda got together in front of our co-workers at Arthur Andersen at the end of August at the weekly happy hour on Water St. Stop it, Calendar Police!) We're nearby another blogger who is an original Columbian. But I think 15 years is pretty good!

As school ended, we left on a Friday morning to head west to St. Louis for my cousin's wedding. I chose to go the scenic route through West Virginia. Up & down the mountains we went. The weather was perfect. We did see a lot of poverty though as well as some enterprising gas station owners, charging 70 cents more than what we paid in a more populated area. Hey, I get it.

My cousin got married in beautiful Graham chapel on the Washington University campus. The service was very nice & it was followed by St. Louis barbecue at the Third Degree Glass Factory. This was a very cool idea - during the cocktail hour, while the wedding party was getting pictures taken, we got to watch a glass-blowing demonstration.

While the journey was 28 hours in 4 days of driving, it was a great road trip listening to audiobooks & looking at scenery. The St. Louis Zoo may not have pandas, but from our brief trip there Sunday morning, we liked it a lot. It's an easier walk than the National Zoo.

The following weekend was the kick-off of the annual Columbia Festival of the Arts at the Lakefront. We saw Cirque Carpe Diem do their trapeze act 4 times. We got schooled in sidewalk chalk art. I had no idea what was required when I registered for it. I get it now. And next year, I'll have the proper equipment.

But I'll take back something about Friday. On Friday, I went to the pool with a new old friend. We beat the heat & talked. So Friday afternoon was definitely part of the best June I've had in a while.