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The Internet Time Travel Database

Calculating the Future

Time-Related Situations

Hindsight

by Jack Williamson
Years ago, engineer Bill Webster abandoned Earth for the employ of the piratical Astrarch far beyond the orbit of Mars; now the Astrarch is aiming the final blow at a defeated Earth, and Bill wonders whether the gun sights he invented can spot—and change!—events in the past.
— Michael Main
The tracer fields are following all the world lines that intersected at the battle, back across the months and years. The analyzers will isolate the smallest—hence most easily altered—essential factor.
“Hindsight” by Jack Williamson, Astounding, May 1940.

What You Need

by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
Reporter Tim Carmichael visits Peter Talley, a shopkeeper on Park Avenue who provides things that his select clientele will need in the future.

I don’t always include prescience stories in my list, but like Heinlein’s “Life-Line,” this one is an exception, both because of the origin of Peter Talley’s prescience and because it was made into episodes of Tales of Tomorrow (the TV show) and [work-142 | The Twilight Zone[/ex].

— Michael Main
By turning a calibrated dial, I check the possible futures
“What You Need” by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, in Astounding Science Fiction, October 1945.

Journey into Mystery #16

The Question!

by an unknown writer and Vic Carrabotta
Computer genius and jealous husband Paul Jessup builds a mechanical brain that can answer any question about the future. 
— Michael Main
The brain can foretell events for approximately 24 hours in the future!
“The Question!” by an unknown writer and Vic Carrabotta, in Journey into Mystery #16 (Atlas Comics, June 1954).

The End of Eternity

by Isaac Asimov
Andrew Harlan, Technician in the everwhen of Eternity, falls in love and starts a chain of events that could lead to the end of everything.
— Michael Main
He had boarded the kettle in the 575th Century, the base of operations assigned to him two years earlier. At the time the 575th had been the farthest upwhen he had ever traveled. Now he was moving upwhen to the 2456th Century.
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, August 1955).

Sex and Death 101

written and directed by Daniel Waters
Roderick Blac doesn’t realize what he’s in for when he receives a list of all the women he’s had—or will have—sex with. Alas, the list is calculated by an oracle known as “the machine,” so there is no real time travel.
— Michael Main
Lose the list: Burn it, bury it, whatever you need to do. If you let the list into your life, it will infect every fiber of your being.
Sex and Death 101 written and directed by Daniel Waters (Seattle International Film Festival, 15 June 2007).

The Thundermans (s04e04)

Max to the Future

by Dicky Murphy, directed by Trevor Kirschner
Superhero teens Phoebe and Max are applying as a team to the Z-Force. She has many special skills, but Max seems to have only one—creating gadgets—even though many have backfired. He creates a new one, the CrimeCaster.
— Tandy Ringoringo
It predicts future crimes so we can catch criminals in the act.
The Thundermans (s04e04), “Max to the Future” by Dicky Murphy, directed by Trevor Kirschner (Nickelodeon, USA, 14 January 2017).
as of 11:21 p.m. MDT, 16 May 2024
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