Nine P.M., Pacific Daylight Time

by Ronald S. Bonn

Release: May 1969
Format: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

Mad scientist Maxwell Scheinst gives a science writer a paradox: If time travel is possible, then where are all the time travelers? Scheinst also provides an answer: They haven’t arrived yet because nobody has built a receiver . . . until now!

Mathematician Fred Galvin from Kansas University pointed us to this gem, which also got us wondering who was the first to pose the paradox. Both Clarke and Hawking have mentioned the problem, but where did it originate? We’re working on tracking that down. Let us know if you have any leads!

— Michael Main

I’d say the reason that no time traveler has ever arrived from the future is precisely the same reason that Galileo failed to discover radio astronomy.

DEBUT

“Nine P.M., Pacific Daylight Time,” in Venture Science Fiction, May 1969.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

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