The Toynbee Convector

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"The Toynbee Convector"
Author	Ray Bradbury
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	science fiction Short story
Published in	Playboy
Publication type	Periodical
Media type	Print (Magazine)
Publication date	January, 1984

Cover of a reprint of The Toynbee Convector which collects the story

"The Toynbee Convector" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury. First published in Playboy magazine in 1984, the story was subsequently featured in a 1988 short story collection also titled The Toynbee Convector. It was also made into an episode of The Ray Bradbury Theater starring James Whitmore (as Stiles) and Michael Hurst (as Roger Shumway).

The Toynbee Convector itself is a machine whose name was inspired by "a historian named Toynbee," probably Arnold J. Toynbee, who proposed that civilisation must have a challenge to respond to in order to flourish.

It has been speculated that this short story may have helped inspire the anonymous creator of the Toynbee tiles found in the streets of several major cities.

[edit] Plot summary

The protagonist is Craig Bennett Stiles, also referred to as the Time Traveller, a man from an economically and creatively stagnant near-future society. Stiles claims to have invented a time machine (which he privately refers to as his Toynbee Convector, although he does not reveal the name of the device to anyone until much later) and travelled forwards in time from the past - the story's present - and then returned. As evidence he has films and other records showing that man has developed an advanced civilization with many marvellous and helpful inventions and a restored natural environment. He also claims to have then destroyed the machine deliberately to prevent anyone else doing the same.

Initially, the people of the past are skeptical of the Traveller's claims, but they are unable to explain or disprove the authenticity of the records brought from the future. Inspired by the vision of the utopian future, many people begin projects to fulfill the vision and create the world the traveller saw.

As he recounts the story to a visiting reporter - the first interview he has granted since soon after his return from the future - a now aged Stiles calmly reveals what really happened, simply stating, "I lied." Since he knew the people of the world had it in them to create a utopia, he created the illusion of one, to give humanity a goal, and hope. Because of people's belief in the illusion, the imagined utopian future became reality. After explaining his actions to the reporter, Roger Shumway, Stiles dies. As a pyrotechnic display appears overhead - the supposed past version of Stiles arriving via his time machine - Shumway resolves to travel to the future himself and carry on Stiles' legacy. Although Stiles wanted the reporter to tell people the truth so that they would know they had saved themselves, the reporter decides to maintain the illusion and not expose the secret, destroying the evidence which Stiles had left for him to reveal.