Ethics of Time Travel

Time travel. Sounds like the ultimate power. But time travel isn’t just about revisiting the past—it’s a Pandora’s box of ethical dilemmas  and moral paradoxes that shake up our fundamental ideas of what we consider to be right.

If we just take a peek at the idea, it seems like walking the road of time would let us prevent disasters, or meet people who are passed a long time ago. However, once you start tinkering with the timeline, things unravel faster than you can say “oops”. What if shifting the location of a chair leads to nuclear war? What if saving one life means sacrificing another? The ripple effect of even the smallest change could reconfigure history in ways we can’t possibly predict.

Take one of the more famous time travel stories out there: Flashpoint. The flash has had enough. He runs back in time, saves his mom from dying, and thinks, “finally, a happy ending for me!”

Nope.

There is now a war between the kingdoms of the sea and land, and the most famous superheroes of all time, Batman and Superman, are now dead.

Then there’s the question of responsibility. Why should the flash get to decide whom to save and who not to? Why shouldn’t he save someone else’s parent?

Also, why should we impose our ethical rules and morals on the people of that time period? This “changing the past” idea stems from the fact that humanity always considers itself to be superior than others. “This guy made this decision which was wrong, but the one I’ll make is right, so I should fix it.”

The past is not the only thing at stake. If we could glance behind the curtain in front of us, it would mean that the future is predetermined. Or would it mean that, due to the observer effect, the future that I witnessed is already erased from existence, along with the people of that timeline?

Time travel also raises questions about the nature of justice. If we could go back and undo a crime, would that erase the suffering it caused? Or would it merely shift the burden of that suffering onto someone else? And what about the potential for exploitation? The people with the power to manipulate time could use it to serve their own interests, enlarging the already gigantic gap between the rich and the poor.