In 1137, Manse Everard tells a locally based Time Patrol agent, Otto Koch, that a temporal divergence will start later that same year but also that Everard and his colleagues hope to prevent it. Hopefully, at the turning-point moment, an agent will come to inform Koch that the timeline protected by the Patrol has been restored.
Everard: "'You won't remember anything you did thenceforth, because "now" you won't do those things.'" (p. 316)
Koch: "'You mean that while I am in the wrong world, I must know that everything I do and see and think will become nothing?'"
Everard (in reply): "'If we succeed. I know the prospect for you isn't quite pleasant, but it's not really like death. We count on your sense of duty.'" (ibid.)
I have a lot of difficulties with this dialogue. Whatever their ontological status, we must contemplate at least two timelines:
in 1137alpha, which Koch calls "the wrong world," Koch exists until he dies and does not at any stage "become nothing";
in the restored 1137, without the alpha divergence, Koch lives until the turning-point moment, is then informed that everything is okay and again continues to live until he dies.
Koch in 1137alpha may hope that there is a restored 1137 but he himself, this version of Koch, will have to live out his life in 1137alpha and will no more "become nothing" than does anyone else.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I think you touched on a rare weak moment in one of the works of Poul Anderson. A pity either he did not think of your argument himself or had someone suggesting it to him. Considering how mind numbingly difficult THINKING about time travel can be, it's amazing how few such weak moments can be found in his Patrol stories.
Sean
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