"The Toynbee Convector"
 

We have just been told that petrol and Diesel cars will not be available after 2035. I think that there are parallels to be drawn with the Ray Bradbury story called "The Toynbee Convector".

Roger Shumway, a reporter, is invited to visit Craig Bennett Stiles, a 130-year-old man also known as the Time Traveler. This is the first interview Stiles has granted since shortly after his return from the future, 100 years previously. Stiles had claimed then that he invented a time machine.

Now 130 years old, Stiles recounts the story to Shumway. Stiles calmly reveals what really happened, simply stating, "I lied." Since he knew the people of the world had it in them to create a utopia, he created the illusion of one, to give humanity a goal, and hope. Because of people's belief in the illusion, the imagined utopian future became reality.

This is a heavily edited summary of the plot from W'Pedia, the story is so much better and very good to read. The conclusion to this thought is, read more Ray Bradbury.

"This is a heavily edited summary of the plot from W'Pedia, the story is so much better and very good to read."

I should hope so.

Silver Tongue.

Ray Bradbury was quite good at time travel stories. In his short story 'A Sound of Thunder' he invoked the paradox of travelling back in time and inadvertently making some tiny change.

He literally invented the 'Butterfly Effect.'