Say you might have changed some things in the past of your forward/causal/time-specified life. Okay. You regret.
You deeply regret. You ate a poisoned doggy biscuit and then pitiably fall dead the next day. That really sucks. You shouldn't have died.
You say, I don't want to die! I want to live! I want to not have eaten that doggie biscuit! I want to fix this state of affairs.
Well, doggie, you can do it in a number of ways. We can rewind the tape. You'll be dead doggie T minus one day. That's great! Don't eat the biscuit this time. But you do. Because this time you are still hungry. And you still didn't know that biscuit was poisoned. Who would?
No, you want to do it a different way? Okay. You're saying you want to go back and know that this is a poison cake. Sure, do that. But after this turn, you can never reasonably assume that any doggie biscuit won't make you choke. That sucks. Your friends are really bewildered; they ask, why is that dog not eating biscuits all of a sudden? But you've changed. In fact, it's hard to eat anything. You have new knowledge, but you're a different doggie - not as carefree as you were that time you died. Life is something else now entirely. (But is life ever not?)
Not acceptable. You need it all back, and nothing else can change. You need to intervene without engaging the system. Through a wormhole you jump to T minus a day and a half and land on the bad biscuit. With a swipe of the paw, you slide it into a furnace. Hide in the bushes for a day. A naive doggie trots along, sniffs some crumbs and leaves. You never see him again. And you're still dead. But where was the dog whose poor life I just saved? You float toward him. He's licking another biscuit. He doesn't recognize you. He doesn't even act like you, because you act like dead.
Is there such a thing as regret?
(Or time travel?)
Can you ever wish to have known? Can you ever wish to change things? Can you tell that I want to watch Lost again?
