Have you ever wanted to go back in time and just change things? It would be nice to know what was going to happen ahead of time around the world and in your personal life. I guess it's sort of like why kids dream of being invisible. We would all like to have the edge for once over our circumstances, or over others. If we could back-step into the past to effect change in ourselves, great power would be ours. But we couldn't have everyone taking trips back in time. That wouldn't do. We couldn't have people stepping back into their past whenever they wanted, because then the act would be stripped of all its power. If everyone were invisible, where would be the advantage of it?
Maybe it's not about power for you. Probably you are just the nostalgic type who wants to go back and see whether your grandpa smoked Lucky Strikes or Camels. You in your unselfishness would study artists like Van Gogh or Renoir and view the genius as it leaked out onto the canvas. You would re-interpret history with your own knowledgeable spin. Or maybe you would unselfishly dedicate your life to rescuing historical figures from their untimely deaths and placing them all together on an island one thousand years in the future. Or you could stop Hitler before he ruined Europe, and help a young Napoleon get over his short man syndrome.
So what if you found yourself face to face with a younger version of yourself? It could be tempting to give that kid some information to empower him to get rich or at least make him more intelligent. If you knew what you were really made of, you could search the mind of that kid and help push him over his hurdles.
Growing up, I was never in good health. My dad was an athlete. I wanted to be him. Buried in comic books, I let my imagination soar. I wanted to be Superman, and smash the walls that choked me. If only I could fly like Superman. One day I picked up a Superboy comic, and I read how Superboy, half super and half human, could jump halfway around the world, but could not fly. He was tough, but he couldn't stop a bullet; he lay vulnerable to his enemies.
