It was July 21, 1988. I had an enquiring mind, and my mother had an e-mail account (mind!shari@princeton.edu — a “bang” e-mail address). I wrote the following message to a “Space” listserver:
Is it possible that if you travel faster than the speed of light in space, and come back to earth, you would be able to see yourself in the past?
I think it is possible because when you approach the speed of light, time slows down, and if you travel the speed of light, time stops. But, if you return to earth, after traveling in space faster than the speed of light, would you be able to see yourself before you left?
I was pretty naive when I was 12. My only response came from Dave Hinson, Time Lord at Large (HINSOND%UNCG.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu), who said:
This is a very intriguing question but I’m afraid the answer is disappointingly simple: If time travel were possible, wouldn’t someone have told us by now? Think about it..
How disappointing for my first internet research project.
It’s a shame no one keeps archives of Usenet posts that old, I wonder what great things I came up with on the newsgroups.
How is it that you still have a record of this?
I did a search for my name online.