"'You cannot go back into the past and change what happened, no matter what you do. But your actions can be part of what did happen." (p. 398)
The quantum intelligences called holonts form and stabilize gigantic nuclei which are deformed and spun by electromagnetic forces, thus causing spatiotemporal warps through which energetic gamma-ray photons, modulated to convey information, can pass.
Nothing shows more clearly that Poul Anderson addresses every option:
in the Time Patrol universe, you can go back into the past and change what happened;
in The Corridors Of Time, There Will Be Time and The Dancer From Atlantis, your actions are part of what did happen;
in Starfarers, only messages can be sent.
It is difficult to conceive of a multiverse that can incorporate all these universes although we have also speculated about a megamultiverse.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I would prefer to avoid any risk of readers mistakenly trying to morph together the often very different kinds of stories Anderson experimented with. While he did experiment with linking some of his series together, he wisely did so only in very limited ways. Because any really serious attempts at linking them all together could too easily have led to the kind of mess seen from Asimov's attempt at uniting his Robots and FOUNDATION stories.
Ad astra! Sean
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