If I could turn back time – for peace, for love, …, for dinosaurs?

At the beginning of this year I accepted a challenge from fellow blogger John Persico, who writes the thought-provoking blog, Aging Capriciously.  I committed to writing on 3 topics of John’s choosing, and in return he’d write on 3 that I chose for him.

His first topic for me I didn’t find too difficult: What is the difference between wisdom and knowledge.  However, I have been struggling with his second topic for some time now. It’s time to at least make a start. I’m going to go through all the options I’ve thought about as possible choices so far and you can think about how you might answer this question yourself.

Challenge question #2: If you could go back in time and change 1 thing in the world, what would it be? Why would you change it? What difference would it make?

Maybe you can already see why one answer – and only one answer – to this question has continued to elude me.

You won’t be surprised to learn that the first thing I thought about was something significant that would make the world a more peaceful place for humans … and for animals, too, of course. What I really wanted to do was to think of one change that would make human beings more peaceful in nature. The only way I could think to do that would be if evolutionary forces could have been altered to make us less territorial, less suspicious and self-interested, and less violent. But I have to admit that those traits initially evolved to protect us, and I didn’t think that idea was going to fly. That is a very bitter pill for me to have had to swallow, but there you go.

If changing the evolutionary process wasn’t going to work, how about choosing one particular war that changed the course of history that I could “redirect”. Well, after reading Margaret MacMillan’s excellent book from 2020, War: How Conflict Shaped Us, I’d have to say that it would be extremely difficult to choose just one war. Her book is a reminder than mankind has been at war continuously for thousands of years; the only thing that’s changed is the use of technology: from spears to long bows to muskets … and on to long-range missiles and nuclear weapons; from warships powered by oarsmen to warships under sail to sailing ships with rudders (!) … and on to steam- and nuclear-powered warships; from riding horses to riding horses wearing armour to riding horses with stirrups (a huge advantage) … and on to tanks; from balloons to airplanes, and then add stealth bombers, drones and satellites.  If I chose one war to skip, another just would have popped up in its stead.  Read MacMillan’s book and weep for mankind.

It wasn’t long in thinking about this topic that Cher’s hit of old, If I could turn back time, started to play in my head.  She was singing about wishing she could take back words that had hurt someone she’d cared about (although, talk about provocatively violent video images). Many, if not most, of us can think of situations in which we wish we has had held back words or actions that damaged a personal relationship, or that we had said the important things we wanted to say to someone dear to us before it was too late. It would be nice to be able to undo one of those times of missed or misused opportunities.  For sure.  But it seems like something as powerful as changing ANYTHING that happened in the world should go beyond the personal.  We should be able to take care of those omissions ourselves.

One wish I’ve thought about long and hard was to change a personal loss.  For me that would be having my parents live to be in their 80s – or at least 70s – instead of in their 50s. I can’t say exactly how our families’ lives would have been changed, but I know it would have been for the better.

One change that might have helped the world, or at least some part of it, would be to replace an evil leader (one of so many throughout history) with someone who leads with natural authority and competence but with compassion and inclusiveness.  Someone like Nelson Mandela, for example. Just consider if someone of such character were currently leading Syria or Afghanistan or Myanmar, Yemen, Eritrea, or Russia. As most of you will know, the list is far longer than that, but any of these would be a good start. Think of the changes for the good to any of those citizens.

Another thought that crossed my mind that might have significantly changed the course of history would be if the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty didn’t make the astounding decision by the 1500s to stop interacting with the outside world and cease their exploration and exporting of goods and ideas. Prior to this decision the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) had built up an enormous fleet of sailing ships. There is some evidence that Chinese ships reached the Caribbean before Columbus. Way back in the Ming Dynasty they had a large standing navy and an army of approximately 1,000,000 soldiers.  What would the world order look like now if the last Ming Emperor had not closed the Chinese borders? That would be an intriguing choice to ponder.

Of course, there are also possible changes in nature and medicine. One change I thought of was to have somehow ensured that indigenous populations in the Americas had the natural immunity to protect them from the viruses that the conquerors brought with them.  Those diseases, like smallpox and measles, are thought to have killed off up to 80-90% of the population. How different would all of the Americas be if that had not happened? We’re talking about millions of people – civilizations – lost to new viruses brought by invaders. It certainly would have changed the balance of power.

Tikal ruins, Guatemala

Then I got another idea for an intriguing change.  What if the dinosaurs hadn’t been wiped out???! What if that massive asteroid or comet hadn’t hit Earth all those millions of years ago? What would our world look like now? Which species might or might not have evolved? What about Homo Sapiens???  Maybe this is the change I should explore most fully for my formal response to John’s challenge!

What do you think? What would you choose?

P.S. John’s response to my second challenge to him can be found at Persico Challenge Issue 2: How can we save the environment.