Space And Time Travellers

There is a particular kind of sf narrative in which the characters travel through space or time or both. The author is obliged to imagine a succession of places or times for his characters to arrive in. Although he is free to imagine absolutely anything, as soon as a particular scenario has been introduced and described, it ceases to be just "anything" and becomes specific, one possibility as against any of the many possible alternatives. And, if these temporary destinations are future periods, then each must follow from its predecessors with reasonable plausibility. Here, time travel overlaps with future history. Wells' Time Traveller has the advantage of witnessing events flickering past before he makes his first stop in 802,701 AD. Poul Anderson's nearest equivalent to that original Time Traveller is Martin Saunders in "Flight to Forever" who starts his journey in 1973, travels a century futureward and then surveys the whole future history of mankind on Earth and in the Galaxy. Like Manse Everard, Jack Havig and Malcolm Lockridge, Saunders is one of Anderson's time travelling heroes. 

(I must get back to that book in defense of life after death and then go out to a meeting. Retirement is a brilliant institution.) 

Extraordinary Voyages

I have begun to read an annotated 2009 translation of Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. (See image.)

I usually think of Poul Anderson as a successor of Mary Shelley, HG Wells and Robert Heinlein but Verne is somewhere in there as well. Think of the directions of exploration in the nineteenth century (in fact or in fiction):

beyond certain northern and southern latitudes

through the air

into the upper atmosphere (a Conan Doyle short story)

under the Earth

under the sea

through space

through time

Unless modern authors want to go retro, which they sometimes do, they are not going to describe journeys into a non-molten Earth's core, hollow Earth etc. Poul Anderson is at the space-time end of this list, particularly in Tao Zero and "Flight to Forever."

Activating A Time Tunnel

The Corridors Of Time, CHAPTER FOUR.

The longest of the time corridors extend for about three thousand years in both directions, each from its own particular individual activation point. 

"Every few centuries there is a portal, twenty-five years wide. The intervals cannot be less than about two hundred years, or the weakened forcefield would collapse.'" (p. 33)

In the twentieth century, Wardens led by Storm activated a tunnel into the Ranger heartland two thousand years later. There must have been a portal at or soon after the activation point because the Wardens intended to travel through the tunnel to attack the Rangers. However, two thousand years later, Brann of the Rangers was informed both of the existence and of the spatial location of this otherwise secret tunnel which would have had a portal into the Wardens' and Rangers' "present." (Both sides are prevented from using the tunnels to travel futureward so that, apart from their journeys into the past, they are confined to a shared "present" like non-time-travellers.)

It is wrong to think (if anyone does) that:

Brann waited for the corridor to arrive in his present;

at the same moment when the corridor was activated, the Wardens attempted to attack through it but were repulsed by the Rangers' counterattack.

If the corridor has in fact been activated in the twentieth century, then it does not arrive but already exists in the Wardens' and Rangers' period. Knowing the spatial location of the corridor, Brann needs only to make his way to it, either find a portal already in place or wait for the next one to begin its twenty-five year existence, then enter the corridor. Wardens and Rangers do not enter the corridor at the same moment in historical time although I think that they should enter it at the same moment in its own internal temporal sequence.

Life After Death

Good Morning. A philosopher has emailed me the text of his book defending life after death, asking for comments. It will take me a while to read it because my screen scrolls up and down too fast. This will take some time from blogging, especially since I intend to walk to the gym first. 

In Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys, a character is seen wandering in the hereafter. Survival after death is a major part of literature and fantasy fiction. I am skeptical because I see consciousness as originating in animal sensation which was a qualitative transformation of organismic sensitivity. However, I remain open to arguments and evidence.

A Hypothetical Causal Circle With Already Known Effects

The Corridors Of Time, CHAPTER FOUR.

Storm to Lockridge:

"'I sometimes wonder if, at the last, engineers will not go back sixty million years and build great space fleets, for a battle that wiped out the dinosaurs and left eternal scars on the moon....'" (p. 33)

The longest time corridors are about six thousand years long so sixty million years would need a lot of corridors. But we know that the "time wardens," successors of the Wardens and Rangers, use more conventional time machines so maybe such machines will be used in the time war before it ends? Killing the dinosaurs and scarring the Moon would have been a fitting conclusion. A time travel novel should explain both future and past events.

One More Causal Circle

The Corridors Of Time, CHAPTER TWENTY.

"It came to him what he must do. He sat moveless so long that Auri grew frightened. 'Are you well, my dear one?'

"'Yes,' he said, and kissed her."

-CHAPTER TWENTY, p. 190.

This is an Andersonian moment of realization. Lockridge has realized what he must do but the reader must wait and see although not for too long because the novel ends on p. 204.

Lockridge, Auri and a group of her kin have been able to escape because the village where they were being oppressed has been attacked by a fleet. Now they must travel back in time and become that fleet. The battle has already been won but they have yet to fight it.

We have reread far enough to remember this final plot twist but are unlikely to reread any more this evening.

The elements have been playing their usual role:

"For some time Lockridge prowled the hall. The night was noisy with wind, but he heard a thrusting silence."

-CHAPTER NINETEEN, p. 178.

"Rain started before dawn. Lockridge awoke to the sound of it..."

-CHAPTER TWENTY, p. 180.

Rain gives way to mist which hides the approaching fleet...

See also:

Dimensions, A Realization And Circularity

Understanding Conflict

 

The Corridors Of Time, CHAPTER FOUR.

When Storm asks whether a man from Lockridge's past could:

"'...really feel what the basic difference is that divides East and West in your time?'" (p. 34)

- Lockridge replies:

"'I reckon not... In fact quite a few of our own don't seem to see it.'" (ibid.)

What that means is that Lockridge has his opinion and other people have theirs but Lockridge's way of expressing this is to claim that he understands the East-West division whereas the others do not! It would probably be difficult to get him to accept that there are more than two perspectives on the issue. 

In 1916, Irish Republicans proclaimed, "We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland!" I cite that as a (perhaps) less controversial way to make a point. When many people have been persuaded that there are two and only two sides, it is possible to claim allegiance to a third. Again, "England's disadvantage is Ireland's advantage..."

Lockridge is taken far away from the Cold War, first into the Wardens-Rangers conflict of the future, then into the Bronze Age.

Conflicts In The Time Corridors

The Corridors Of Time, CHAPTER FOUR.

When Lockridge asks Storm whether the Wardens and Rangers know their own future, she replies:

"'No. When the activator is turned on to make a new corridor, it drives a shaft equally far in both directions. We ventured ahead of our era. There were guardians who turned us back, with weapons we did not understand. It was too terrible.'" (pp. 33-34)

She also relates that the Wardens drove a new passage from the twentieth century into the Ranger heartland:

"'But the moment the corridor was finished, Brann came down it with an overwhelming force. I do not know how he got word. Only I escaped.'" (p. 36) 

Two groups, the corridor guardians and Rangers led by Brann, had advance warning that a time corridor extended into their era. As soon as they had access to a portal into the corridor, they entered that corridor and moved down it to repel those attempting to advance up the corridor from its activation point. The rival groups did not simply travel along the corridor without encountering each other which is what usually does happen to time travellers throughout this novel...

Free Choice And The Future

 

The Corridors Of Time, CHAPTER NINETEEN.

Storm to Lockridge:

"'Don't talk to me about free choice...unless you think every war should only be fought by volunteers.'" (p. 177)

Robert Heinlein thought that. He opposed conscription. Free men fight. I saw a comic strip adaptation of Starship Troopers in which a general called for more conscription! A travesty of Heinelin's message. Not that I support Heinlein's militaristic message but nor should it be travestied.

Storm reminds Lockridge and us that Wardens and Rangers do not know their own future because the "'...corridor guardians...'" (p. 167) prevent them from travelling futureward. They learn their future only day by day like those of us who do not have time travel. If Storm had succeeded in mounting an attack through a new corridor driven into the Ranger heartland, then that attack would have taken Brann by surprise. However, treble-agent Lockridge warned him. Lockridge's role is crucial.

Koriachs And Corridors

The Corridors Of Time.

Storm's title is "'...Koriach of the Westmark.'" (p. 136)  Wardens believe that a Koriach is "'...an actual immortal incarnation of the Goddess...'" (p. 137) Neither elected nor selected, she choses her successor (p. 155), making for even more power politics. A Koriach has even more absolute authority over the Wardens than a Director has over the Rangers. (p. 138)

There are two mysteries about time corridors:

(i) Why does everyone who enters a corridors not enter it simultaneously in terms of the internal chronology of the corridor?

(ii) Given that that does not happen, what does determine the order of events within a corridor?

The Warden Hu seems to think that there is a correlation between his biographical time and corridor time. (See "Now.") Having recently, in biographical terms, been involved in the capture of Director Brann, he thinks that that capture will decrease the probability of him encountering Rangers while passing through a corridor but how would that work?