The Toynbee Convector story
The reclusive Stiles, world famous for being the first time traveler, is interviewed on the day his past self came to the future, and plans to confess all to an eager reporter. Directed by: John Laing. Story by: Ray Bradbury.
16 total · 2 choice · 9 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| hope | choice | Stiles considered that, by bringing hope to the world, he inspired society to reform its ways and narrowly avert environmental disaster. |
| time travel | choice | The story concerns a man who allegedly traveled in time to the future and changed the, otherwise apocalypse-bound, world by bringing back news of marvels to come. |
| ecological destruction | major | Stiles said that the world he lived in when young was doom-bound in various ways, most of which were related to environmental destruction. In his television report about the 1990s, the journalist Roger Shumway described how ecological destruction had bringing society to the brink, highlighting such issues as smog alerts and oil spills. |
| journalism | major | Roger Shumway, a television journalist, was granted an exclusive interview with the scientific genius and savior of humanity Craig Bennett Stiles. |
| malicious hoaxes in society | major | Stiles staged bringing back photographs from a marvelous age 100 years in the future to spur present society to change its ways and reform itself. |
| noble lies in society | major | The utopian society of the year 2100 was based on the lie that Stiles had, a century prior, traveled to their time and brought back news of the marvels to come. This spurred the decaying society of the year 2000 to build the world of 2100 with confidence. In the end, Roger choose to perpetuate the lie. |
| pollution in society | major | Stiles said that the world he lived in when young was doom-bound in various ways, most of which were related to environmental destruction. In his television report about the 1990s, the journalist Roger Shumway described how ecological destruction had bringing society to the brink, highlighting such issues as smog alerts and oil spills. |
| self-fulfilling prophesy | major | At the center of the story is the idea that a man traveled to the future and brought back news of marvels, and that this in turn caused society to change its ways and reform itself into that very marvelous future that would otherwise never have come about. |
| time machine | major | The titular Toynbee Convector was a single occupant contraption built by the reclusive scientific genius Craig Bennett Styles. For the greater good of human-kind, Styles duped the public into believing that it was a working time machine. |
| to tell the truth vs. to offer a comforting lie | major | In the end, Roger choose to perpetuate the lie on which the prosperity of his society was founded. |