Photo: Sapa, Vietnam in 2005.
First, imagine you have the power to instantaneously travel to any place on Earth, or even the Universe. Where would you go to? What would you do when you get there?
Second, imagine that you could also travel in time to the past or the future. When would you go to? What would you do when you get there?
Third, it would be disappointing if you teleported to an airless planet and asphyxiate yourself or catch the bubonic plague, so just to be safe, you are immortal. You would still feel suffocated or pain, but you wouldn’t die.
The above would be really cool, but what happens after that? Imagine that a thousand years has passed since you had gained the powers above. Would you still be travelling to when and where, all over time and all over the place? Yes, then how about after 10 thousand years? 100 thousand years? One million years?
Would you end up suffering from the common ailment of immortals – boredom and the fervent wish that someone would put you out of your misery permanently? I hope not.
Good thing you are not immortal. Though not having super powers sucks.
When I go through the exercise above, being anywhen and anywhere would in the end be meaningless. It may make me ecstatic temporarily, but eventually too much of such a thing would stop affecting me (hedonic adaptation). Besides, I can only focus on one thing at a time. Whenever and wherever I am, it is only the now and here to me. Even when I am nowhen and nowhere, I am still only experiencing the now and here.
“No matter where you go, there you are.” – Buckaroo Banzai
If you could be everywhen and everywhere, only the now and here matter in the end.