I've recieved 25 requests so far....to save mail time, I'm just gonna post
it to the ML. After all, it does indirectly relate to a few 'fics. :)
Please note that all of this is theory, not gospel. I reserve the right to
be completely, mind-bogglingly wrong.
This entire argument was concieved over a 5-hour period in a cafe in
Nephi, Utah. We had been trying for hours to find a place that sold
caffenated coffee, and once we did, one thing led to another.
_______________
A PRACTICAL THEORY OF TEMPORAL MOVEMENT
or, Time Travel is Fun and Easy
by Devon Edwards, Mike "Niccolo" Loader, and Susan Incledon
Written by Mike Loader
Troubleshot by the Friday Night Insomniacs
--------------------------------------------------------
PROLOGUE
"So what's time, uh, made of?"
"Made of?"
"How do you, you know, travel in it?"
"Well, picture a river."
"Okay..."
"A big river, with lots of ducks and bullfrogs. And the river has
all these little sidestreams, see, and all the sidestreams have
sidestreams. Oh, and salmon."
"Excuse me?"
"It's got lots of salmon in it."
"Oh. Okay."
"Now, can you visualize the river? I mean, really see it?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I got it...."
"Well, time travel's nothing at all like that."
"But....but...."
"The river bit's a great way to relax, though."
- The Aberwyvern Chronicles
Every time I hear the tired old river bit, I want to scream.
Just about every novel I've read that contains time travel
makes the horrible mistake of trying to explain HOW it's done.
And just about every fictional explanation has at least one hole
big enough to drive the Space Shuttle's launch vehicle through.
Contemporary science holds that Time Travel is impossible.
This is a good view for contemporary science to take, as it helps
insure that a functional time device will never be invented.
The biggest argument against time travel is that it spawns
paradox like a tenement spawns roaches. A humble example:
You go back in time and shoot your own grandfather, before the
old bugger met your grandma. This means that you will never have
been born, which means that you can't go back and plug grandpa.
BUT, this means that grandpa lives, and you ARE born, and you can
go back and shoot him, which means...
See the problem?
The following theory solves for this.
----------------------------------------------------------
PART ONE - BITE ME, ASIMOV
One of the biggest pitfalls that sci-fi time travel has is the
We-must-not-divert-the-time-stream line. Some people even
make it impossible for history to be dramatically altered.
I've got news for you. History has nothing to do with time
travel.
Let's say someone went back in time and had the south win the
civil war. This would be a major change in the time stream, yes?
No. It wouldn't.
We are talking physics here. The universe could give a damn
whether or not the south or the north wins. In fact, the _entire
existence of man_ has NO, I repeat, NO impact on time theory.
A change is a change. The universe operates on the smallest
level of change, aka the quantum level.
Statement 1 - The slightest change in the universe, anywhere, is
a change, and alters reality. A "minor", "unnoticeable" change is
just as important as a "major" change.
Not so that you'd notice, of course.
The smallest change (that we know of) that can happen is shown
in a state vector. What's that? Well, basically it's a
mathematical expression that describes one of two or more
states that a quantum system can be in.
For purposes of this argument, the entire universe is the
quantum system under discussion.
But it's awfully hard to do an example using the entire universe,
so we'll pretend that it consists of very few potential changes
for them.
-----------------------------------------------------------
PART 2 - LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING
Let's pretend that the universe consists of four particles, who
can either be in state A or state B. It looks like this at the
moment:
P1 - A
P2 - B
P3 - A
P4 - A
In this pretend universe, this is a static view. Nothing changes.
Because of this, time literally does not exist.
Statement 2 - What we refer to as time is nothing more that the
movement of reality from one quantum system to another.
Let's imagine a second universe, like the first, except that this
new one has the potential for change in the state of the particles.
For the sake of simplicy, let's call each quantum system a frame.
Frame 1 Frame 2 Frame 3
P1 - A P1 - B P1 - B
P2 - B P2 - B P2 - A
P3 - A P3 - A P3 - A
P4 - A P4 - A P4 - A
The change in a single element of the system is the smallest
unit of what we perceive as "time".
You can't really go "back" in time, because there is no "back".
There is just the quantum system, aka frame, that is currently
reality.
Note that a infinite universe contains an infinite amount of
potential changes on the quantum scale. Measuring the change rate
of frames is meaningless, as a frame is the smallest possible
unit of time. But let's look at it from the feeble, limited human
perspective.
In a classroom full of students, a couple of trillion trillion
trillion etc. changes are constantly occurring every nanosecond.
Statement 3 - It is impossible to measure or define a frame
without seeing, at one eigenstate, the entire universe, including
the thing doing the seeing. And since this theoretical seeing is a
couple of trillion trillion etc. changes itself, it becomes
impossible.
-----------------------------------------------------------
PART 3 - THE CHEESY WAY OUT
According to the Everett-Wheeler-Graham Model, everything that
Can happen Does. The model supposes an infinite number of
eigenstates, that is, potential quantum systems, existing at the
same time. For purposes of this paper, we will assume it's
correct, although Mike prefers Capra's theory of
Superdeterminism, and Susan and Devon are partial to the
Copenhagen interpretation.
So, if one were to build a device that let you travel from one
eigenstate universe to another, you could shoot grandpa.
Universe 1 "history" Universe 2 "history"
Grandpa is in position to be shot Intial Eigenstate - you arrive
Grandpa marries grandma Grandpa is in a position to
You are born be shot, you kill him.
Eigenstate - You go "back in time" The universe2 you is never
born
In other word, the E-W-G model assumes that there are a infinite
number of universes based on every state vector that has ever
been. Travel to a specific one of these, one that resembled a past
frame of your universe, would be to you like time travel.
It wouldn't change anything in your old universe, of course.
Another, even more impractical way would be to alter the
eigenstate to resemble a past frame, change things, and let
history turn out different. Unless you happen to be God, good luck
trying that method.
----------------------------------------------------------
PART 4 - AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS....
As one can see, time travel, or something resembling time
travel, is possible. Just not very likely.
Have a nice day.
_____________________
So which of the two was used in Smoke and Mirrors?
Neither. The Nanban Mirror, being magic, doesn't have to be logical, or
obey quantum physics.
So there. :)
- Mike of No Particular Title or Handle
===/\=====+==================================================================
/ \ l Mike Loader - Lincolnite, Amberite, Illuminatus, Discordian,
/ () \ l Journalist, Author, Traveler, Historian, Java Fiend.
/ \ l Trier - LA - LV - Kiev - Reno - Hong Kong. Fnord.
-------- l mloader@scs.unr.edu
==========+==================================================================