Time Travel

Episode #760

August 26, 2023

My first Time Machine was a VCR. It was an alien machine born of the technology of the time.

The face of the VCR flashed 12:00 – 12:00 – 12:00 – 12:00 – 12:00 – 12:00…

The technology was so new that I did not know how to stop the message.

My niece Mary Lynne, who was 10 years old at the time, said to me:
“Uncle Rick, your VCR flashes 12:00.”
“Yes it does Mary Lynne,” I replied. “Can you fix that for me?”
She dashed back to the living room. There was silence for 5 minutes, then the sound of a cartoon.

I walked into the room and there was Mary Lynne on the couch with her little brother, watching a Bugs Bunny tape on the TV.
The VCR was not flashing 12:00. The time was correctly set.

Technology belongs to the young.

That VCR was my first Time Machine. Before the Time Machine, television programs had to be viewed when they were broadcast. What was in the past stayed in the past. The VCR shifted time forward so that I could watch a show when I wanted.

The recordings were linear so I labeled the VCR cartridge with a directory. Noted titles and time stamps allowed me to fast forward or rewind to the show I wanted to view. Later, DVDs and DVRs allowed for scrubbing through the content or jumping to a given time stamp.

As long as I subscribe to them, VODs (Video On Demand) and PPVs (Pay Per View) allow me to pick from any point in the media broadcast timeline and view what I want, when I want.

Time Machines have come a long way. And… they can even be operated by an old guy like me.

My photo service is iCloud photos. These time shifting features are included with iCloud in the Photos app on my Mac:

• Each photo and video has captured a moment of the past and can be retrieved at will.
• My photos and videos appear on all my devices… iPhone, computers, on-line browsers and Apple TVs, so I can access the past wherever I want.
• I can organize my media into easy to view categorical albums, like the old paper photo books.
• Content can be shared to common groups, other Photos accounts, Mail, Airdrop, Notes, Messages, Reminders, File Sharing services like Dropbox or the wallpaper of my computer screen.
• From time to time iCloud photos sends me a Memories slide show. The slide show, complete with music, is a collection of photos and video from a day, year or topic of my past life.

The Internet is also a Time Machine. Search for “history of time.” Google will find 15 billion solutions in under half a second. The first of these solutions states: “The measurement of time began with the invention of sundials in ancient Egypt some time prior to 1500 B.C.”

The second Google search solution is Steven Hawking’s fabulous book, “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes.” The forward is written by Carl Sagan. The audio book is read by the legendary talk radio host, Michael Jackson (no, not the singer). I highly recommend listening to the book for free, here.

Having read Hawking’s book, you are now smarter than your children.. an irony of Time.
I guess this bLog is a Time Machine too.

PLEASE BUY MY BOOKS:
“Skydivers Know Why Birds Sing” by Ricki T Thues is now available on Amazon.
It is a Love story of Rick and Paula Thues and their 35 years of Skydiving.

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ALSO AVAILABLE:
“Technically Human” by Ricki T Thues, the iMentor, is available on Amazon.
It is a compilation of selected episodes from this bLog which tell the story of Humanity through the eyes of the iMentor.

Click HERE to buy the paperback or Kindle ebook at Amazon.
The ebook version of “Technically Human” is also available on Kobo. Click HERE.
For you Barnes and Noble Nook readers it is available for Nook. Click HERE.
The “Technically Human” ebook is also available on Apple Books . Click HERE.