Time out of Control

Primer uses time travel as a warning to the future about the advancement of technology, including but not limited to the concept of time travel. While Carruth's Primer revolves around time travel, the message is the same regardless of the type of human advancement: we cannot allow technology to escape our control. This is similar to the idea of artificial intelligence, in that even if we come to have the resources and knowledge to create something, if we cannot control its actions or its outcome, then mankind is better off without. We are at a point in our society where innovation is more about the improving conveniences in life, not purely for survival. Technology such as time travel is far too risky, because while it could benefit the human race, the consequences that could come from it are too great. Another way to look at time travel is sort of like nuclear weapons, because both are completely unnecessary, as well as catastrophic if everyone had the power to use them. Primer uses the butterfly effect in the same way that Ray Bradbury does in "The Sound of Thunder" where humans can go T-Rex hunting, and one man steps off the designated path and ultimately alters the course of history with his small mistep.