The idea of a “multiverse”—an infinite number of universes existing in parallel, reflecting all possible outcomes since the beginning of time—has been around for a while, sprouting from the fringes of quantum physics and string theory, and blossoming into a near-infinite number of cheesy science fiction plot twists.
Whatever you think about the various ideas of multiverses—personally I think they all belong solidly in the realm of metaphysics rather than science—most of us have occasionally wished that we could step back to an earlier point in time, knowing what we know now, and do a few things differently. Modern computer and router operating systems let you do just that. Sort of.
Luciano Floridi, president of the International Association of Computing and Philosophy, talks about the System Restore used by Windows XP and Vista. By recording restore points, “…software lives in parallel universes. Shadow paths are created whenever there is a significant system event. Made a mistake? Simply switch to another possible world where that mistake has not occurred.”
“It is not time traveling,” Floridi continues, “it is the power of memory, but who cares? The outcome is indistinguishable.”
Similar to Microsoft’s restore points, both Cisco Systems’ IOS-XR and Juniper Networks’ JUNOS keep track of a series of previous configurations. If you make a configuration mistake or simply want to wipe away the changes you’ve made, you can use a rollback command to “jump back” to some previous reality where your configuration changes have not yet happened.
Given the propensity of most of us to make the occasional dumb mistake, the rollback feature is far more than an opportunity to inject a little metaphysics into our operational lives. It is a valuable risk mitigation feature that I hope begins showing up in many more router operating systems.
