The Last Great Invention - Maybe

I was flipping through the channels the other day and I caught a few minutes of the movie The Time Machine. I realized that if someone were truly able to build a time machine, then that person and their progeny would be the last great inventor(s). I don’t think that the answer here would be to jump 50 years into the future and see all the new technologies and bring those back. Our abilities to reverse engineer technologies are surely limited. Instead, I see it this way.

Our inventor, who already has his/her time machine, realizes a need. They need a device that does X. Instead of actually working on developing the device, the inventor can make some assumptions. Assuming it is possible to create such a device based on the technologies that are or will be available in the inventor’s lifetime, then it is reasonable to assume that, given the right amount of resources and time, that the device will eventually be invented. So, the inventor tells himself “When, in the future, you or someone else actually develops this technology, use the time machine, come back to the point in time 3 minutes from now, and tell me how to do it. In 3 minutes, future inventor shows up with the device and some instructions, and all is well. Then all that development time and those resources are saved. The danger of not being able to reverse engineer is alleviated because the jump to the future is moderate. All the inventor is doing is eliminating the time and resources needed to invent. Those time and resources are expended in a future which ceases to exist when the device is brought back to the present. So long as the inventor keeps the time machine invention quiet, our inventor will be last of the great inventors.

I also thought of a way to test this theory. I want to be the last great inventor. I make the assumption as I type this, that it will be possible in my lifetime, with the proper amount of time and resources, to invent a time machine. So, future self, when that development happens, whether it’s done by you or by someone else, come back in time to the moment 3 minutes from now, and let me know how to do it. Waiting…Waiting….Waiting…

No dice. This is clear and incontrovertible proof that time travel will not be invented in my lifetime. Or, at the very least, if it is invented in my lifetime, the inventor will be smart enough to not let anyone else know about it. This is exactly what I suggested. I suppose that it is only proof that time travel will not be invented by me. Bummer. But at least I know that there is no point in wasting the time and resources working on it.