We should consider:
The Time Machine by HG Wells
The Time Patrol series by Poul Anderson
Starfarers by Poul Anderson
"Beep"/The Quincunx Of Time by James Blish
There is no intertemporal communication in The Time Machine? Sure. But there is a tabletop model Time Machine which is sent into the past or the future, the Time Traveller is not sure which. That strikes me as a precursor of the small desktop message shuttles used by Anderson's Time Patrollers. They must send typed messages. They cannot speak to other times. That happens in the remaining two works listed above. Onward then.
6 comments:
Moving information is, I understand (I think) the same as moving physical objects, temporally speaking.
NB: I'd expect the little 'time shuttles' the Time Patrol uses to just record messages. That would be easier, and it would make interception by people outside the Patrol harder.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I can see that, safer than physically written messages temporal criminals might intercept. Unless the criminals could crack and decode those recorded messages.
Ad astra! Sean
But the message capsules disappear in one Time Patrol office and appear in another.
Paul: yup. You might hijack the message capsule -from- the recipient office, though.
Kaor, Paul!
You raised a good point, which Stirling responded to. I can imagine the cleverer, most sophisticated time criminals infiltrating agents into Patrol offices and high jacking those message capsules.
Ad astra! Sean
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