When the Cycle Was Finished

Laundry Day – a 100 word story

It was laundry day. Harry memorized the instructions ahead of time. He just knew he would be able to operate the washing machine with ease this time. Margaret watched him like a vulture. He shivered. One mistake and he is toast. He put the clothes in the machine, turned the knobs, pushed the button and watched as they started spinning. There was nothing to do now but wait.

Later, when the cycle was finished, he took out the clothes under Margaret’s watchful eyes, intending to hang them on the laundry line but… Oh, the horror! – they all turned out green.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

Episode 3, When the Cycle Was Finished

Time travel have kindled the imagination of science fiction writers for several decades now. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at time travel. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so – you’ve been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about time travel. We are actually traveling through time, every day, at the rate of a minute per minute, that is, it takes us one minute to travel a minute into the future. The questions are, can we travel faster? Can we travel backwards? Let’s say traveling backwards in time is possible, how come my future self haven’t come to visit me? It totally seems to be something that I might do. Science might have an answer to that. In order to travel through time, we need what is commonly known as a time machine, and time machines can only take us as far back as the time when the first time machine was invented. They might be wrong about that though. Wouldn’t be the first time. I might have to invent one myself then and see. Let me take a break then to check back on that time machine I’m building at my basement.

Paperclips – a 100 word story

They were a top notch paperclip making company. When they created the paperclip making robot, they instilled in him a sense of the utter importance of making paperclips. Paperclip making became his reason for being. The presentation went well. They turned him on, and he sipped from a pile of previously prepared materials, quickly converting them to paperclips, then he ran out of materials. First, the meeting room table went. The technicians tried to shut him off but he converted them to paperclips as well. He stormed through the building converting everything and everyone, then he went for the exit.

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Welcome back. This is embarrassing. It turns out that not only I’m not building a time machine in my basement, I actually don’t have a basement. Oh well. It might not be a good idea to meet my future self anyway. It might create a time paradox. Let’s say my future self accidentally pushes the wrong button and goes further into the past, then he somehow prevents my parents from ever meeting. This means not only that I wouldn’t exist, it means my future self wouldn’t exist either and wouldn’t be able to change the past in the first place.

You might solve this by throwing Schrödinger’s cat into that time machine travel box. Basically, opening that box would mean that when my future self prevents my parents from meeting, the universe would split into two separate universes. In one, my parents meet, I’m born, invent a time machine and travel into the past, never to be seen again. In the second universe I prevent my parents from meeting each other and then I go and get myself stuck in that universe unable to return to the original one. Oops… Maybe inventing a time machine isn’t such a good idea. I think I would leave that to other people. Let them get stuck in a different universe instead. This concludes episode 3 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget – I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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