time travel.

The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed.
- William Gibson

for the first time last night, this quote took on a different meaning for me. i was watching blog reactions and video clips of the Tamil protest that was, at the time, shutting down the Gardiner Expressway in both directions, and i realized: if this is an issue of distributed future, those protesting are basically time travelers.

unevenly distributed future means that some places have less of the future than others. this isn’t a judgment (although it could be framed as one) it’s a statement of fact. immigration at this point becomes time travel - you get into a machine that flies or floats, and when you exit, you are in the future, or at least future as metaphor for imagined better situation.

the problem being, you can’t bring everyone with you. and you can still communicate, giving the past enough of a glimpse to know that the future you have, and they don’t, is immensely better than one could expect.

time travel is an inherently disconcerting concept, i think.