If I could build a time machine, I would set the date for 2050, or thereabouts. I think it would be really fascinating to be able to go to the future and see what they’ve done. Would we finally have flying cars, like those shown in so many movies about the future? And would these cars all be powered by something like water or vegetable oil, since, by that time, we’ll probably have run out of petrol. What will the movies and music be like? Will I be ridiculed for the clothes I’m wearing, because the new trend is neon-coloured rubber jumpsuits? Or will clothes from the 60s or 80s have come back into fashion by then? And will everybody walk around with purple hair, piled 2 feet high on their heads?

On a more important basis, would there be a cure for some of our worst diseases, like AIDS, malaria, and maybe even the common cold? Will the crime rate have decreased, or become worse than ever? And what about wars? Will countries have decided that war is a brutal and pointless waste of time? Or will they simply have found more effective killing machines with which to fight their new wars? In fact, will their even be an Earth when I arrive there? Or will we have completely destroyed this beautiful planet with our technology and selfishness?

I guess that, if  we ever do want to see a better future, if we were ever to build a time machine, we’d better start working on the sort of future we want it to be now.