Tom Barlow has projected himself five hundred years into the future, to 2497. He was the first discoverer of "...the superenergy state..." (p. 58), which is well understood by the time of his arrival. One of his welcomers confirms that there is no way for him to return. Barlow accepts that pastward time travel is "'...an obvious absurdity.'" (p. 60) Ability to return to 1997 is not necessary for the story so the complexities and paradoxes of travel to the past can be avoided.
"'All I did was give myself a jolt of energy, a vector along the time axis rather than through space, and so increased my rate of existence several millionfold...'" (ibid.)
What does this mean? All that is necessary for this single short story is a brief scientific rationale for Barlow's temporal displacement. Did he move along time instead of through space? The theory that accounts for time as a fourth spatial dimension stipulates that we do not move but extend in that direction. If physical motion along the temporal dimension is assumed, did he accelerate, move several million times faster than everything else? If so, then he would have left everything else behind.
HG Wells' Time Traveler spoke of accelerating along Time whereas in practice he did the exact opposite. He slowed down his own psycho-physical processes so that his entire environment, the rest of the universe, fast forwarded around him. If Barlow did this, then he should have been visible and tangible as an immobile body for five hundred years but it is clear that this has not occurred:
"'This place was readied special for your coming.'" (p. 59)
So he appeared as if from nowhere on arrival as fictional time travelers usually do.
As I say, this does not really matter for story purposes but it is always interesting to analyze the theoretical basis of sf stories involving time travel/time dilation/temporal stasis etc.
11 comments:
Hi, Paul!
Tom Barlow declared in "Welcome": "All I did was give myself a jolt of energy, a vector along the time axis rather than through space, and so increased my rate of existence several million-fold." One thought this comment inspired in me was wondering if this should mean Barlow AGED several millionfold. Which would seem to mean he should have immediately aged PHYSICALLY and died.
Julian May used a similar idea in her SAGA OF PLIOCENE EXILE books. That is, if the time traveling device in the series was used to bring someone or an animal back from the past who did not use a similar device at that end, they aged at once and died.
I well remember Poul Anderson's short story "Welcome," because of how the ending was such a suprise and shock to me. Esp. since he took such pains to show how the people who welcomed Tom Barlow really did seem, in many ways, to be pretty decent men and women.
"Welcome" belongs to a group of stories and novels by Poul Anderson with skillfully worked out and surprising, even shocking endings. Two others being "Eutopia" and WORLD WITHOUT STARS.
"Welcome" also, in my opinion, could also be understood as a cautionary tale. Tha is, the horrific situation we see in that story might be what will happen to us if we follow THIS line of development or policy rather than THAT course. Here I also have in mind "Murphy's Hall," of what happens if we fail to get OFF Earth in a decisive way. If we don't move into space, something like "Welcome" might be the best we can hope for. Ugh!
I'm reminded of this paragraph from the "Commentary" Poul Anderson wrote for SPACE FOLK: "It is my considered opinion that, without access to space, without opening space for people to use, industrial civilization does not have much longer to live. At best, our near-future descendants will revert to the norm of history, which Alfred Duggan described as "peasants ruled by brigands." And it won't matter if the brigands retain a certain amount of high tech. At worse, our species will go the way of the dinosaurs--who enjoyed a far lengthier day and left the globe in far better shape."
Sean
Hi, Paul!
To be clear, I should have added these words to the end of the last sentence of the first paragraph of the note I wrote above: "...and died after leaving the super energy state."
Sean
Sean,
You will see that I have made the same point in my next post.
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
Yes, I noticed. Perhaps we both saw a possible flaw in "Welcome"?
Sean
Sean,
I think not a flaw in the premise or plot but certainly an incoherence in the exposition of the idea.
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
Yes, that makes sense, "Welcome" contains an "incoherence" in describing how time "leaping" by Tom Barlow would affect him. Whatever device or means he used for this "leaping" should have had a similar device at the "future" end so Barlow would not be physically affected by aging several millionfold in half an hour.
But "Welcome" is still an interesting story!
Sean
Sean,
I think that all we need to say is that Barlow's rate of existence was slowed down several millionfold but Anderson mistakenly wrote that it was increased or speeded up.
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
And you think, for the purposes of this story, that it would have made sense for Barlow to somehow slow down the rate during which he existed so that he would "leap" time? I dunno, somehow it SEEMS better to think that leaping time INTO the future should speed up Barlow's rate of existence several millionfold.
I think, regrettably, "Welcome" does contain a rare "incoherence" in of Anderson's stories. But a master like Poul Anderson can afford an occasional weakness in expounding or working out an idea!
Sean
Sean,
Barlow experienced less than half an hour while the world endured for five centuries so surely it was he that slowed down? Although "leap" suggests acceleration. There is a clash between what is logically implied and what we intuitively think and Wells got it wrong big time, saying that the Time Traveler was speeding forward but also that the Sun was racing across the sky and that even the slowest snail was too fast for him to see.
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
And, of course, the point of "Welcome" lies in how Barlow is repeatedly jarred or even shocked the more he founds out what the World Federation of 2497 is LIKE. Shocks which also clashes with how he is treated by the leaders of that future world. And then, of course, came that single word shock ending at the conclusion of the story.
I would say that Anderson's focusing on developing this plot is why he missed the incoherence in describing how Barlow "leaped time."
Sean
Perhaps Barlow merely traveled in space, near the speed of light, for a while, and Relativity did the rest.
It's just a thought.
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