There can be a timeline, Timeline A, in which my parents met, I was born and grew to the age of thirty.
There can be another timeline, B, in which the man and woman who would otherwise have been my parents were prevented from meeting so that I was not born and did not grow to any age.
But surely there cannot be any timeline, X, in which I was born and grew to the age of thirty but then, having reached the age of thirty, ceased having existed until the age of thirty within that timeline? Thirty years of my existence and thirty years of my nonexistence can occur in alternative timelines but cannot fit into a single timeline?
We are contemplating two temporal sequences here. Within Timeline A, my birth happens before the first year of my life which happens before my second year and so on. In the experience of a time traveler who sees me reach the age of thirty but then travels thirty plus years into the past to prevent my parents from meeting, Timeline A, in which I was born and grew up, happens before Timeline B, in which I was not born and did not grow up. So there are two temporal relationships of before and after which need to be differentiated, not confused.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
With some effort I can keep the distinctions you make straight. But I sure as heck don't pretend to understand time traveling per se.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But surely the distinction between a temporal sequence within a timeline and a temporal sequence between timelines is clear enough?
If someone looked at our temporal dimension entirely from the outside so that he saw every moment of our history from beginning to end simultaneously, then he would see in one go what we experience successively. But he would have to experience some duration. Our single temporal dimension would be like a fourth spatial dimension to him. His temporal dimension would be at right angles to ours just as our three spatial dimensions are at right angles to each other. Over a period of time as he experiences it, he might see our entire timeline changed into or replaced by another one but we would not be aware of that change. We experience only the three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension of our single timeline.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And when I read these arguments you make I can keep them straight. EVen better would be to copy them into my CODEX ANDERSDNIANUS for quick reference. And I like these arguments for another reason: it means "deleted" universes are not arbitrarily snuffed out, they simply became inaccessible.
Ad astra! Sean
In the TIME PATROl universe, if you go back and prevent your parents from meeting, you -never- existed. You have -memories- of having existed for thirty years, but the memories don't correspond to anything outside your head.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I would have a darn hard time (to coin a phrase!) grokking such a phenomenon! Because I would KNOW * I * physically exist and have those memories of a past life. To save my sanity I might cling to the notion I came from alternate timeline I could no longer access.
Ad astra! Sean
Or just accept that causation is very different when time travel is involved.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That would not be much consolation for me, in such a scenario, but it would be an option I could choose.
Ad astra! Sean
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