Another short one. This time, it’s H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. It’s an interesting read because it doesn’t deal with paradox at all. The opening makes time travel sound plausible as a concept, after which the main narrative begins. Wells uses the time machine to conjecture the ultimate destiny of a capitalist world: humanity splits into two classes (the worker and the capitalist who profits from them) and then into two distinct races (the workers are forced underground, while the capitalists lead idle lives).
Wells advances some other interesting ideas. The time traveller notes that although the future humans appear to have conquered nature, resilience and other good qualities of ‘modern’ man come from struggling against hardship. Without anything to struggle against, humanity degenerates. In my experience, I have noticed that I cannot be idle for any significant length of time. There comes a point after which I resort to distractions such as games and the internet.