Time Travel Narratives | OTIS

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Human Sustainability and Evolution

Do you ever wonder what the outcomes of our actions will manifest as? What about how our actions will affect the future? Will humans even be alive in a couple hundred thousands of years? Or will we evolve into a superior (or inferior) race? If so how will we adapt to these new changes and for what reasons?

The Time Machine is a book about time traveling while also touching on issues such as evolution and human sustainability. Evolution and human sustainability play a vital role within the context of the story because it helps us visualize the evolutionary cycle free from the preconceptions. Wells makes a salient move in challenging our notions of the expectation that the future holds a race on the top of the evolutionary pyramid. The race you probably would assume to be on the top is nowhere to be found and this is what is so interesting about the evolutionary cycle found with the book. But before we continue to discuss the human we must first define it.

The human is a hard term to define because although humans are distinct amongst the species, we do share commonalities with many other creatures of the earth and even more closely with the mammalian kingdom.

Within the book, Wells makes certain assumptions that help us clearly define the human. Within the book, the time traveler explains to Filby that to be human is to have an innate weakness in regards to perspective and more specifically to the neglect of the fourth dimension, Time (duration). He goes on to explain that humans don’t acknowledge the fourth dimension because it only exists within our minds. He states:

“…any real body must have extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness, and––Duration. But through a natural infirmity of the flesh...we incline to overlook this fact…There is, however a tendency to draw an unreal distinction between the former three dimensions and the latter, because it happens that our consciousness moves intermittently in one direction along the latter from the beginning to the end of our lives.”

He later extrapolates on the idea by stating the fourth dimension is “fixed and unalterable”. This was a nice way to explain the human existence because it infers that a human has no choice whether he/she wants to grow up because nature is inevitable. Meaning we can’t stop the laws of nature but live within them and therefore have no control over the fourth dimension of time. Although, this seems to be much like many other animals that live within the limits of time, humans have a heightened sense of awareness within time. This extreme self-awareness within time is a defining characteristic.

If we are humans and the fourth dimension is “fixed”, can we travel within this fixed dimension? You’re probably thinking, of course not, but what about our ability to recall events from the past through our memories. They are at times just as vivid and visceral in remembrance as they were when they first occurred; so to answer the question, YES according to Wellsian theory. This is what sets us apart from other living organism, our ability to travel within this dimension through our memory (long and short-term). The time traveler explains,

“…For instance, if I am recalling an incident very vividly I go back to the instant of its occurrence: I become absent-minded, as you say. I jump back for a moment. Of course we have no means of staying back for any length of Time, any more than a savage or an animal has of staying six feet above the ground…”

So we do have the ability to travel back in time but what about our ability to travel forward? This is the precise question the time traveler is trying to answer. What else defines the human?

The human race also becomes pronounced by our sense of civilization. We are ‘civil’ and have evolved to obey certain unwritten laws such as not eating our own kind and using garbage cans. As a race, we have come to a consensus on many of our behaviors. Although our behaviors vary depending on the culture, their still exists this set of higher laws. For example, in America eating beef is generally accepted, but in India it is forbidden because of the sacred presence the cow represents within Hindi religion (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sacred cow). In this case, American and Indian cultures don’t agree but we can say that they both believe wearing clothing is essential. We can believe this to be true because we know that both cultures wear clothing even there exists extreme variance in materials, coverage, and color.

Another defining characteristic is human’s ability to receive and express a full range of emotions. Humans feel fear, surprise, happiness, love, sadness, anger and many other mixes of emotions.

This stands out amongst the thousands of species because it is such a feat to be able to understand and express emotions. It takes a certain kind of creature, one that has a complex sense of value and motive besides the primitive motive of simply surviving. The Time Traveler instantly notices the Eloi’s lack of ability to experience and express emotions. They are living beings and they do express emotions but they seem to have a devolved sense of fear. As we read further the Eoli do experience fear but their awareness of it is distorted by years of easy living. What can we attribute to this lack of emotional awareness found within the Eloi?

The “human” being is also represented in “The Time Machine” as a figure of physics, specifically, entropy. Entropy is the law of thermodynamics that states that an object in motion eventually runs out of momentum and soon stops (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/entropy). Applied to the humans in “The Time Machine”, it shows humanity as a species that eventually runs out of energy as shown in the Eloi. Basically all they do is exist and not much else. It can be applied to the world later on as the sun is being eclipsed, the air is thin, and there is nothing but a vast empty wasteland. With this idea, it shows humans as a temporary species that will ultimately run out of steam and cease, but not just humans, all life. Wells makes a grim point about humanity by saying that we are all destined to lose our forward momentum and eventually stop. This will be the time when humanity loses its dominance and a new being takes momentum in the grand scheme of things.

In “The Time Machine,” the Eloi seem to be the perfect inhabitants of an advanced age. They are compact, well clothed, and vegan, but the Time Traveler soon discovers that the advancements of civilization have enfeebled the Eloi. Although the Eloi seem advanced, they lack many facets of the human façade. They are similar to the overly pampered rich people who don’t really work, mainly because they don’t need to, and become lazy as a result. Since their society is so easygoing, they have a sort of atrophy (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/atrophy). Atrophy in this case takes form as the Eloi’s decreased mental capability due to disuse. The Eloi are no longer using their brains or body to its maximum potential therefore they evolved accordingly. With no real challenges for survival, they have become weak, lazy, and stupid. Stupid in the sense that they have become impaired emotionally. Because they have no stress to survive they no longer needed to experience certain emotions such as fear. This explains their blissful, almost mindless exterior presence. Evolution has problems in application to the world of mankind, since man changes his environment as he himself changes. Therefore, the changing environment may not always produce desirable changes in man, and Social Darwinism's argument that those who succeed in a given environment are naturally superior is not valid (http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/fancher/SocDarw.htm).People do not grow into perfect beings, just into beings more suitable for their environment. There is a sense of irony in the Time Traveler’s actions in the future.

He becomes a borderline savage in order to repel the Morlocks. He uses blunt objects as weapons such as the lever and uses fire to defend himself against the Morlocks. He essentially has to devolve in order to be dominant in an evolved world.

The White Sphinx is a landmark in the future. The Morlocks stow the Time Machine inside its enclosed bronze pedestal, so it becomes both a symbolic and literal obstacle for the Time Traveler, as the sphinx blocked the entrance for the Greek hero Oedipus. But the sphinx has a direct relationship to the Time Traveler's struggle. It is a symbol of futurity and of man’s submission to God. The Time Traveler, on the other hand, must in some ways defy God by embracing rational science as he gains mastery over time, and he must also break into the sphinx to escape from the future and go back in time.

An additional connection to Oedipus is the riddle of the Sphinx: “Which creature in the morning goes on four legs, at mid-day on two, and in the evening upon three, and the more legs it has, the weaker it be?” Oedipus answered, “Man” (http://people.hsc.edu/drjclassics/texts/Oedipus/sphinx.sht). It is human life to grow weak according to Wells, relating to entropy again. The riddle that the Time Traveler is trying to figure out is, what is “Man” in the future? What is “human”? When Oedipus answered correctly, the sphinx threw itself off a cliff and died. It is my contention that when the Time Traveler embarked into the future again, he discovered the answer to what is “human” and died. Perhaps he answered a more extreme question and threw himself off of a cliff that hasn’t formed yet.

As the staggering progression of evolution carried on, what can be said about the human race in relation to the Eloi and Morlocks? Do the Eloi exhibit humanistic qualities? Are the Morlocks capable of human thought patterns? Do the Eloi and Morlocks show emotion as humans do? These are not simple questions to answer, but we can speculate from our observations. First off, we must consider the Eloi and Morlocks in comparison to a human of the present, such as the time traveler, in order to get a valid result.

One-thing humans and Eloi do have in common are their innate abilities to learn and form language. Eloi have a language that seems to be coherent and understood amongst the race. Language is a more physiological characteristic of the human race and of other animals that usually have large brains, such as dolphins (http://knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Dolphin_brain/). From this fact, we can conclude that both Eloi and humans are intelligent. Another thing to note is the Eloi’s ability to show emotions. Although they seemingly cannot show the full spectrum of emotions as stated earlier, they do show signs of fear, anger, and affection. They can experience and express emotions but it is impaired due to atrophy. For example, when Weena, an Eloi, becomes upset with the time traveler for asking questions about the Morlocks. Weena presents one of the most definitive characteristics of the human emotion when she begins to shed tears from her eyes. This is a “human inheritance” as the time traveler puts it. This if nothing else, is a sure sign of human life.

Another point to make is the Eloi and Morlock’s use of hierarchy within society. Hierarchy has always been a motivation and concern amongst the human race. We use hierarchy as a way to provide structure for a society and most commonly as a way to suppress one group as a means to elevate another (usually the minority of the population). Within the year AD 802,701, the structure of the Eloi and Morlock seem to be a little undeterminable at this point but we later find out what caused this distorted class system. We find out that the ancestors of the Eloi once ruled the Morlocks and were forced to work underground.

The Eloi are human-like and therefore possible descendents of the humans because they exhibit emotions, civilization, and hierarchical classification. We can infer that the Morlocks are descendents of the Eloi because they exhibit similar characteristics but have devolved to a more savage nature. The Morlocks have regressed to eating their own kind.

Cannibalism persists and our innate ability to avoid carnal desires in regards to a voracious action on our own kind becomes out of date. The vegetarian Eloi only come out in the day in fear of being devoured by the Morlocks. The race has become devolved to the point where they can only hide from their predators, but does this devalue the evolution of the human race? Does the human persist or does the species regress because of its arrogance? Will we die off?

The human being always persists. It is human nature to persist, to move forward, and change and adapt. The human being never ceases to persist and that is why the Time Traveler embarks to the future even after his struggles. According to Gnostic Anthropology, a true Human Being is an individual who has conquered the animal nature within and has thus created the Soul. (www.gnosticteachings.org/component/option,com_definition/Itemid,10262/index.php) Nearly every religion believes in the existence of a soul as a defining, if not, THE defining characteristic of being human. Even in the future, the religious symbol of the sphinx is present, showing that perhaps, some aspect of the soul remains intact, even if the definition of “human” has changed.

Some philosophers argue that a soul must be earned through struggle and the Time Traveler has certainly had his share of weird struggles. He is the ultimate underdog, stepping into a world where his civilization, his characteristics, his existence are things of the past. His entire being is an obsolete concept to the future, yet he persists and he struggles to survive. The “human being” of the future does not seek to determine the meaning of its existence, it does not want to know about tomorrow, and its only reason for being is to exist and to survive. The forward momentum of the Time Traveler’s industrial age is building a road to nowhere. The Time Traveler cares not. He sees that he is human and blessed to pursue his ambitions, to traverse time itself! He is human, and at least has the mental capacity to recognize it. He has the tools to persist, the momentum to move forward and strength to grow and adapt. Aristotle said that the greatest trait of being human and what is best for humanity is that, “it is possible for him to achieve.” The human being persists because the human being of the time traveler persists. It is the achievements of his struggle against the warped future that shows that he his human. He fights to survive, to thrive, to live, and to grow. He was able to survive in a world where there was no place for him. It is the human being’s ability to triumph and to achieve that allows humans to persist.

Nuggets Of Human Nature