The Toynbee Convector
"The Toynbee Convector" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, and the title of a 1988 short story collection featuring the story. 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 of the title is 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.
Plot summary
In the story, the protagonist is Craig Bennett Stiles, a man from an economically and creatively stagnant community. Stiles claims to have invented a time machine (the titular Convector) and travelled forwards in time from the past - his present - day 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. However he also claims to have then destroyed the machine deliberately to prevent anyone else doing the same.
Initially, the people of the present day are skeptical of the protagonist'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 invent the machines the traveller saw.
When we reach the time the original traveller claimed to have visited, a now aged Stiles calmly explains, "I lied." Since he knew the people of his community had it in them to create a utopian world, he created a video of one to show them, to give them something to which to aspire. Because of the people's belief in the vision, the imagined utopian future becomes reality. After explaining his story to a 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.
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