It was simply a matter of recording enough information. Time travel has been with us internally, imperfectly, as long as memory, and with more and more clarity since writing, recording and interconnectedness. With enough information and a way to store it, time travel was just a matter of accessing the recordings. When Brin turned on Perception on January 1 2064, where all interconnected perception devices began to be recorded, with all newborn beings being chipped to access and stream, with all humans online, with the ring of satellites in place, the very next moment became the first moment time travel became possible for those with access to Perception - at first an elite, in time, through revolution, all. As some had predicted, and fought for, an expected consequence was universality, life was able to be lived through any given access point, anyone could be anyone else, or anything else that was perceiving, the planet united in experience, should it be desired to leave Now. Humans became just another way to experience existence and we were able to forget who we were.
And once the novelty wore off, the past became - as it always was - a burden, a huge drag on the Now, an infinite (well, as far in at the switching on) morass of scrutiny and blame. Someone had to pull the plug.
