## "It's About Time" [WIP] [FF] [Back to the Future] * Author: u/notmy2ndopinion *Concent of Saunt Edhar** * URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2p5d7d/its_about_time_wip_ff_back_to_the_future/ * Score: 20 * Created: 2014-12-13T05:03:52 ### Post: Anxiety welled up deep within me, not knowing the sort of world we lived in. It's tough when the world as you know it explodes in a flash of sparking light and flaming tire trails. Now... (whatever THAT word meant)... *Now*, I didn't know whether or not the very fabric of the universe would unravel with an accidental bootstep unto the wrong butterfly. I had read about that in a Ray Bradbury novel. It disturbed me greatly that such an event could actually come to pass. Did my personal curiosity and gnawing hunger outweigh the threat I posed to ALL OF EXISTENCE? Surely not. Yet I couldn't live in an undeveloped neighborhood that wouldn't be built in the next five to ten years. I didn't want to starve to death because I was too afraid to walk into Lou's Cafe and order a Pepsi Free. I needed safe harbor. And if I was going to find a quiet haven where I could make the least impact on history, it would be here. I checked the address again: 1640 Riverside Drive, Hill Valley. I didn't bother to check the time on my watch. Time was irrelevant, irrevocably broken. Oops. --- --- I took my hands out of the pockets of my vest and flexed them several times. They were stiff and bone-white. Ever since I realized it was November 5th, in the year 1955, my hands were clenched tightly to minimize contact with the outside world. Now, I wiped them nervously on my jeans and walked up the dark driveway. Hesitating briefly, I rapped the door and stepped back, not knowing who or what to expect. The door flew open with such frenetic gusto that I knew even before laying eyes on him, that it was the Doc himself. "Listen, Doc..." "Don't... say... a word!" His eyes darted around his front lawn and he dramatically yanked me into his living room. Normal Doctors of Experimental Tinkering and Science wore starched white lab coats. Doc Brown on the other hand -- he wore a silvery nightgown. His frizzled white hair was barely contained within a device that could best be described as an inverted colander with colorful lights dancing along a geodesic framework of electrical wires extruding from various contact points. "I don't want to know your name, I don't want to know anything about you!" I knew better than to interrupt the Doc when he was in one of his moods. The wild look in his eyes sparkled with the manic light of someone who hadn't slept in a week. The best you could do was hang on and play along. He licked a suction cup and without my consent, he slapped it against my forehead. "I'm going to read your thoughts," he announced with bravura, as he fussed with some dials on an electrical monstrosity that sparked and smoked in equal measure. This device was apparently supposed to be an electroencephalogram. "Let's see now, you've come here from a great distance?" He grasped at his metallic helmet for cognitive support. "Even if you're only trying to pull more information out of me through cold reading, grasping at the high-probability straws, you're correct." "Quiet! Don't tell me anything." His brow furrowed in a mockery of concentration. "You want me to buy a subscription for the Saturday Evening Post?" "You were on such a roll! Just stay evasively general and reinforce chance guesses." "Not a word, not a word, quiet now!" Irritation curled his lips and his fingers as he waved me off. "Uh... umm... Donations! You want me to make a donation to the Coast Guard Youth Auxillary!" "Your persistence in highly specific statements are not serving you well." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Moreover, let's talk about your mind reading device. Have you even heard of Dr Hans Berger? In 1924, he recorded brain waves in an attempt to discover the powers of telepathy. He already invented this device. Now, neurologists use EEGs to detect sleep wave patterns and epileptic foci. But they have NEVER been able to detect surface thoughts. Especially not by using a small rubber suction cup and an electrical device more likely to trigger a seizure in your brain than it will read mine!" It shocked me. Was this really the brilliant mind that taught me the rules of rationality and the methods of scientific inquiry? Would this really be the scientist who would break the fourth dimension with backyard materials, Christmas lights, a DeLorean and a nugget of Plutonium? I was appalled, to say the least. I decided to end this farce of science. "Doc... I'm from the Future..." I announced, as I yanked off the suction cup. "I'm from the Future ... Scientists Youth Auxillary!" I amended, seeing his face starting to turn crestfallen. I was not lying per se. After all, I was his lab assistant in the year 1985. Or yesterday, by my biological clock. "Your device TOTALLY works and it TOTALLY won't give you a seizure." His goofy grin didn't waver against the face of sarcasm. "And I have a brief survey for my school project that I have been asking all of the Doctors of Experimental Tinkering and Science." "It's about time!" he said triumphantly. "I knew you would come." "You're right... it IS about time," I said slowly. I guided him towards his garage with blueprint plans in hand. "But not quite in the way you're thinking about. You won't get the recognition you deserve -- not for another 30 years or so, I'm guessing..." --- --- Together, we could discover whether or not I was a creature displaced from my time-stream in an alternate universe off-set by thirty years. Perhaps I was a fifth dimensional being with powers to see time in a non-linear fashion now that the illusion of causal time-event occurrences had been cast away from my reality. Perhaps the changes I made here in 1955 would be reflected further down my time-stream in 1985 in ways I would become aware of through some sort of memory-altering sequence. Perhaps time existed only as a mathematical unit and I had only "rewound the clock" backward to a point in a static time-cone projecting both forwards and backwards in a timeless-physics model of reality. There was one thing I was certain of. Doc Brown's inspired hand was guided by rational mind at odds with his own irrational behavior. I often wondered why he picked me to be his apprentice -- if it weren't for his guidance, I'm pretty sure I would have been like all of the other high schoolers who enjoyed skateboards and cars. He would occasionally have me read very specific books, like the "Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury or neurology texts on EEGs that... that were hints, telling me he knew who I would become!!! Doc Brown was not the brilliant mind that had been grooming me to become a future scientist. I was grooming myself. It was future-me, in the past, directing him behind the curtain. A ruse, a long-con, preparing me for this very moment of realization. It would be a very long road until I could safely test my theories on time. I had twenty five years to break the news to the Doc that I was an accidental time-traveller. I had thirty years to save the Doc's life. In the meantime, I would avoid destroying the universe. ### Comments: > **u/mcgruntman** [+1] (11 hours later) > > Interesting interpretation. But.. is the narrator Marty? The tone is very different from Marty of the films. I think you'd get better results by writing normal!Marty struggling but trying his best to be rational than by writing rational!Marty dispassionately recounting events. > > The tone almost reminds me of Frankenstein, actually. >> **u/notmy2ndopinion** [+3] *Concent of Saunt Edhar* (12 hours later) >> >> Thank you! My only regret was not inserting the characteristic exchange of "Great Scott!" "Whoa Doc, that's heavy!" >> >> You're right that this isn't canon!Marty. The mere fact that he decides not to interact with the world vastly changes the tone. I envisioned an overly cautious time-traveler bootstrapping himself towards rationality. His only goal is to prevent himself from destroying the universe since he's not sure which "time-travel trope" his world operates in. >> >> I referenced as many time-travel theories as I could muster and I'm sure there are more. My original plan was to draw out the "survey questionnaire" as a series of Q&A about time travel to help Marty figure out what would happen if he threatened paradox... but I wasn't even sure how he'd be able to find out without experimenting. So I left it as a puzzle he'd have to figure out over the next thirty years. >>> **u/mcgruntman** [+1] (13 hours later) >>> >>> I should make a slight amendment, I think you'd get a better 'rationalised BTTF' using a normal!Marty doing his best. I didn't mean to say that writing a very different Marty would definitely make the whole thing worse, just less instantly recognisable. BTTF can still be a great setting for a rational exploration even with a different Marty. You do you your thing :-D >>> **u/xamueljones** [+1] *My arch-enemy is entropy* (15 hours later) >>> >>> You still can have both. Marty's bootstrapping himself into rationality right? But what about Doc? He's definitely learning some rationality skills so he can teach it to Marty. I'm interested in how someone who constantly acts irrationally can learn to be more rational. >>> >>> Also does anyone have any idea if the Doc from the original show has some sort of neurological disorder? All I can guess is some form of ADHD or maybe being bipolar. >>>> **u/notmy2ndopinion** [+1] *Concent of Saunt Edhar* (a day later) >>>> >>>> Only in the last paragraph of writing this WIP did I realize that Marty was bootstrapping himself to rationality. It hasn't happened yet (in 1955) to Doc yet, because rational!Marty hasn't been able to teach him yet. I do think that the next segment to write will be a prologue corollary where rational!Doc reveals the DeLorean to 1985-Marty. >>>> >>>> I don't think original Doc Brown has any neurological disorder. I do imply that he has bipolar disorder in my version when I reference bouts of mania when he works on some bizarre science project. >>>> >>>> I do think that Doc Brown has schizotypal personality disorder. He's quirky, weird, and reclusive enough in a funny but non-threatening way. >>>> http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizotypal_personality_disorder >>>>> **u/autowikibot** [+1] (a day later) >>>>> >>>>> ##### >>>>> >>>>> ###### >>>>> >>>>> #### >>>>> [**Schizotypal personality disorder**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizotypal%20personality%20disorder): [](#sfw) >>>>> >>>>> --- >>>>> >>>>> >__Schizotypal personality disorder__ (__STPD__) is a [personality disorder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_disorder) characterized by a need for [social isolation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_isolation), anxiety in social situations, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconventional beliefs. People with this disorder feel extreme discomfort with maintaining close relationships with people, so they avoid forming them. Peculiar speech mannerisms and odd modes of dress are also diagnostic signs of this disorder. In some cases, people with STPD may react oddly in conversations, not respond, or talk to themselves. They frequently misinterpret situations as being strange or having unusual meaning for them; paranormal and superstitious beliefs are not uncommon. Such people frequently seek medical attention for anxiety or depression instead of their personality disorder. Schizotypal personality disorder occurs in 3% of the general population and is slightly more common in males. >>>>> >>>>> > >>>>> >>>>> --- >>>>> >>>>> ^Interesting: [^Schizophrenia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia) ^| [^Personality ^disorder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_disorder) ^| [^Asociality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asociality) ^| [^Index ^of ^psychology ^articles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_psychology_articles) >>>>> >>>>> ^Parent ^commenter ^can [^toggle ^NSFW](/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot NSFW toggle&message=%2Btoggle-nsfw+cmv4ayl) ^or[](#or) [^delete](/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot Deletion&message=%2Bdelete+cmv4ayl)^. ^Will ^also ^delete ^on ^comment ^score ^of ^-1 ^or ^less. ^| [^(FAQs)](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/wiki/index) ^| [^Mods](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1x013o/for_moderators_switches_commands_and_css/) ^| [^Magic ^Words](http://www.np.reddit.com/r/autowikibot/comments/1ux484/ask_wikibot/) >>>>>> **u/xamueljones** [+1] *My arch-enemy is entropy* (2 days later) >>>>>> >>>>>> Mental disorders are one of the scariest things I can think of. You literally can't stop thinking in ways that are actively harmful or disconnected from reality. The fact that we can treat a lot of them only barely eases the fear. >>>>>>> **u/Sailor_Vulcan** [+2] *Champion of Justice and Reason* (2 days later) >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Mental disorders are not all equally harmful. Some are significantly less severe than others. There are mental disorders that are catastrophic, and then there are mental disorders that are mere nuisances. The former is a lot scarier, the latter you can learn to live with and work around. And "disconnected from reality" in the sense that you seem to be talking about, or psychosis, is not a symptom of all cases of mental disorder. One example of a mental disorder I can think of that does not include psychosis as a symptom is Obsessive Compulsive disorder. I can see why the more impactful and less treatable disorders are so frightening, but there's no reason to be *that* afraid of the ones which are mere nuisances. Furthermore, some of the really bad disorders can become mere nuisances with the right treatment. >>>>>>>> **u/xamueljones** [+1] *My arch-enemy is entropy* (2 days later) >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> I agree with everything you just said, but this fear/worry of mine is not a product of logic. It's a visceral fear of my most important ability to reason being corrupted and destroyed. So even though you made some things clearer about mental disorders, I still shy away from my fears. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> However, since rationality is about learning to improve my decision making and mental behaviors, I'm taking classes in neuropsychology to learn more about how we can notice signs and deal with mental disorders. Wish me luck! >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> *For a final test, I should directly talk to sufferers of schizod-type disorders and Alzheimer's. >>>>>>>>> **u/Sailor_Vulcan** [+2] *Champion of Justice and Reason* (7 days later) >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Might be a better idea to talk to people with more mild disorders first before talking to those who experience anything as severe as full-blown hallucinations or delusions. I strongly suspect that people with more mild mental disorders such as obsessive compulsive disorder and ADHD will seem more "normal" on first impression and that will make it easier to relate to them and learn how they cope without getting overwhelmed by pity/horror/fear of "if it had been me"/etc. Not to mention, full blown hallucinations and delusions are probably much harder to work around, although I'm sure psychiatric meds help with that. Although I have yet to see a known example of a rationalist with schizophrenia, it seems like something that should be possible in principle, although I think it would be a lot more difficult. Also, as far as I know, it is possible to live with and work around Alzheimer's, though only in the beginning stages. Since it's the gradual destruction of one's entire brain, it's probably one of the mental disorders if not THE mental disorder that fits your fear level perfectly. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> So if you have an irrationally inflated fear of mental disorder in general and you're trying to fix that by making the fear become proportional to how harmful a disorder is, then starting with Alzeheimer's is a *bad idea*. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Also, something I should probably point out is that just as some severe mental disorders can become mere nuisances with the right treatment, some mere nuisances can become severe with a lack of or the wrong treatment. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> I would suggest starting off by talking to people who, aside from their disorder(s) and the direct effects thereof, seem normal in every other way. You've already talked to one, so you can check off "mild autism" and "ADHD". :P >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Also, my mother's a psychiatrist, so if you have any questions that I don't already know the answer to and if Googling the answer isn't sufficient, then I can ask her for you. >>>>>>>>>> **u/xamueljones** [+1] *My arch-enemy is entropy* (8 days later) >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> Thank you very much for the advice. I'll keep it in mind for the future. Interestingly enough, I don't feel any fear/unease towards autism or ADHD. I think it's because I have personally known people with one of the disorders who were very nice, if slightly hectic, to be around. ---