Editing 1191: The Past
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there" is the opening line of "{{w|The Go-Between}}", a novel by {{w|L. P. Hartley|Leslie Poles Hartley}} (1895–1972), published in London in 1953. | + | "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there" is the opening line of "{{w|The Go-Between}}", a novel by {{w|L. P. Hartley|Leslie Poles Hartley}} (1895–1972), published in London in 1953. [[Black Hat]] notes that a country's past military tends to be less advanced than its current one, and that countries in the past had larger oil reserves as they had consumed less oil then. |
− | + | If a country from the past existed in its old state today, other countries would likely leap at the opportunity to exploit its oil reserves. | |
− | + | Or: Black Hat could be considering sending the modern troops of a country from today back in time to rob the oil from the countries in the past. It could be profitable to invent a time machine for just that. | |
− | + | "Mozart in Mirrorshades" is a short story by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner, which features the use of time travel to exploit earlier eras' natural resources. | |
− | + | Also, in the {{w|Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}} series, time has been exploited to use as energy. They say: "The Past is like a foreign country. They do things exactly the same there." | |
− | The concept of going back to the past to collect resources (or, at least, set up the collection of resources) shows up again in | + | The "If history has taught us anything" phrase is used to start several quotes: |
+ | :"If history has taught us anything, Arthur muses, it is that men with mustaches must never achieve positions of power." - Tom Rachman, The Imperfectionists | ||
+ | :"If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone." - Michael Corleone, The Godfather | ||
+ | The title text starts by fitting the usual pattern of this phrase, but in the second half humorously subverts it. It extends the "past as a foreign country" metaphor by implying that lessons learned from history can count as military intelligence to use against it. | ||
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+ | A more recent movie, Christopher Nolan's {{w|Tenet (film)}}, also deals with destroying the past. | ||
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+ | The concept of going back to the past to collect resources (or, at least, set up the collection of resources) shows up again in 2321 | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== |