My older brother graduated from college and got sucked up in the Time Hoover right away. He used to be able to accompany me in my past-time escapades but now every single bit of him is tied up and accounted for in the "grand plan" of some Fortuneteller 500 company. Sure he gets to be "right there" when their futures come out of beta, but is that really how you want to spend the rest of your life?

As you travel backwards in time there is less ephemeral life. The wavelengths are there - the things we’re always passing by but are really stationary, like watching the up and down of the telephone wires on a long car drive - but the pulse of life has passed on. Only the life forms with the longest beats - trees, then mosses, fungi, algae - still have tendrils into the past.