crimmin@tle.DEC (DTN 1-2015) (12/12/85)
Returning to the discusion on time-travel: Last night on Star Trek, Capt. Kirk and his crew were zapped into the past, where they approached a planet they believed to be the Earth. [Like Buck Rogers in reverse.] Later, they nearly crashed into the atmosphere of the planet. Their only means of escape was an emergency start of the Enterprise's engines. This tactic worked, and also zapped them back to the present at the moment when they were first sent into the past. As a result, they had lived for three days in a time-frame that existed independently of their own. When they returned, they picked-up from where they had left off; with a net gain of 3 day's time. The sketch recalls Isaac Asimov's science fiction, and the way he approaches the idea of time travel. In books like, The End of Eternity, he envisions a parallel dimension wehre it is possible to step outside of normal, causal time. In this dimension, called Eternity, biological time continues, but it is possible to move to any point in real-world time and to step back in at that point if desired. Previous suggestions in the .net have focused on traveling at, or near, the speed of light to move into the future. But, as noted, this can't work backwards. What about the idea of existing in another dimension that is independent of real-world time? Is it just a goofy idea, or does it suggest possibilities? Piter (New Hampshire)
gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>) (12/16/85)
> ... What about the idea of existing in another dimension that is > independent of real-world time? Is it just a goofy idea, or does it suggest > possibilities? I would say it's just a goofy idea. Perhaps if you would define your terms, this could be turned into a discussion about physics.
martinl@molihp.UUCP (Martin M Lacey) (12/18/85)
In article <1727@decwrl.UUCP> crimmin@tle.DEC (DTN 1-2015) writes: > > >Returning to the discusion on time-travel: > >Last night on Star Trek, Capt. Kirk and his crew were >zapped into the past, where they approached a planet >they believed to be the Earth. [Like Buck Rogers in reverse.] > >The sketch recalls Isaac Asimov's science fiction, and the >way he approaches the idea of time travel. In books like, The End of >Eternity, he envisions a parallel dimension wehre it is possible to step >outside of normal, causal time. In this dimension, called Eternity, >biological time continues, but it is possible to move to any point in >real-world time and to step back in at that point if desired. > >What about the idea of existing in another dimension that is >independent of real-world time? Is it just a goofy idea, or does it suggest >possibilities? > >Piter (New Hampshire) Piter: I have often pondered such possiblities and discussed them with many of my more imaginary friends. It has also been touched on by several time/space shows on BBS. My own thoughts are all basically prefixed by the *what if* clause. It goes something like this: Imagine my and your world (3D). Now imagin that you exist in a 2D world as a 2D object. Everything would look fine to you, having only height and width, as you do. Now, you in your two dimentional plane exist as a subset of many 2D worlds; each separate entities. This subset would be the 3D world you and I live in. We can manipulate each of these 2D *worlds* by many means. Now, a 2D creature exists on this plane which we can pass through, being creature of 3D. The 2D creature would se a hole (a nothingness) in his world as we passed through it. Now onto the superset of our dimention. Each moment in our time is a discrete element in a superset dimension. A being exists in this *world* which has each moment of time as an element to be viewed. This means that at each moment in our time, we are a point in a line for this superset. This creature can at any moment perturb any item of our time. Now, an interesting thought is what if we could create a join between two of these time frames, and walk through. I suppose it would be possible to eliminate your own existence; at least for the time line associated with the time frame you came from. But since you obviously exist you must have perterbed more that one time frame, or become a permanent part of the superset demention. I *could* go on forever, but won't (Wild applause...). Confusing, and very hard to imagin let alone refute. But it is food for thought. Martin the Magician.