"'Of course, we only stage [a divine intervention] when we absolutely must, and the sooner we scramble, the better.'" (p. 115)
But there are rather a lot in the Time Patrol series. I will leave it to Anderson fans to count them.
"'No fancy dodging around in time, trying to fix things if this fails...we will not play games with causality and risk setting off a temporal vortex...'" (p. 116)
This or something like it is said a few times, e.g.:
"'Causal loops can too easily turn into temporal vortices.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Year of the Ransom" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 641-735 AT 3 November 1885, p. 671.
We need to be told what a temporal vortex is.
4 comments:
I would say it's probably a series of mutually reinforcing historical changes propagating at an exponential rate, so that the situation becomes hopelessly confused and can't be remedied, because any such attempt magnifies the random cascade.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
A kind of temporal storm or hurricane?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: exactly.
In the Time Patrol universe, usually time tends to "push back" towards the preestablished pattern.
I imagine a "time vortex" is a situation where precisely the opposite happens -- things tend to seesaw wildly.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
A temporal vortex might also be described as when a pre-established pattern LOOSENS instead of tightening.
Ad astra! Sean
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