The China Model

According to their proposal, I should have reached the Earth’s past sometime 3.8 billion years ago, and the first time I heard this figure I burst out laughing: not even a billion years ago, at least to my knowledge, had anyone yet arrived. The trouble began when I met Eliza, a tiny little bookworm, bespectacled and seemingly without any charm. Scientists were still arguing after I brought them pictures of it evolving low overhead and sending up a thick trail of black smoke. It was of little interest to me, to be honest, because I had become a champion in one of the most popular sports, with all that that entails: money, fame and women. It seemed silly to me, but I kept quiet, because beyond all the science, the champion in me was gloating: I was going down in history as the man who had traveled the furthest into the planet’s past! The second group agreed that life had been inseminated from the outside onto Earth, but argued that this didn’t happen by accident, but was