there's also the tricky nature of time machines. let's say you're stranded in time, but you know how to make a time machine. you could:
(a) write a note to yourself to be found/delivered in the future, and then come back and rescue yourself.
(b) make a new time machine and just go from there.
(c) make a new time machine and come back and rescue yourself.
(d) have a spare time machine stashed somewhere handy, service it regularly (in your own time, of course...), take it when you need it, and then just make sure to put it back the instant after you took it.
(e) leave yourself a diary of where and when you're going, and make sure to update it and check on yourself regularly. if you see that you've been gone too long, you may want to go look for yourself.
actually, what i've always wanted to do was to build a time machine, go back in time, teach myself how to build a time machine. do a lifetime's worth of research and learning, go back in time, teach myself as quickly as i could, spend another lifetime learning new things, go back in time, teach myself... it would take just as long to learn the actual sbjects, but i'd have the advantage of new discoveries and i'd be able to skip over all the wrong turns and mistakes and failed trials. it would speed up scientific research immeasurably.
so, i just have to figure out how to build a time machine...
in any case, my point was that wells could have as many time machines as you wanted him to have. maybe even the same one multiple times. time travel does funny things...
Paul
