When characters in a detective novel explicitly discuss sf ideas, we are unable to forget, as in this case we are informed inside the dust jacket, that the author, Poul Anderson, was:
"Already well established as a science fiction writer..."
Keith Deacon, my suspect, says that any theory involving him in the murder:
"'...has to be straight out of science fiction,'" (p. 89)
- and elaborates:
"'I wish I were enough of a scientist to invent a time machine and be in two places at once...'" (ibid.)
Readers unfamiliar with the implications of time travel might ask, "Time travel gets you into the past or the future but how does it let you be in two places at once?"
If I travel a year into the past, then I necessarily coexist with my one-year-younger self;
if I travel a year into the future and do not return to my starting point, then I do not co-exist with any older self;
however, if, after spending some time in the future, I do return to my starting point and then remain alive for more than a year, then I will co-exist with my younger, time traveling, self.
Robert Heinlein elaborates this paradox in three classic works whereas the characters in CS Lewis's "The Dark Tower" argue that:
it is impossible for any material object or particle to be in two places at once;
time travel would allow an object or particle to be in two places at once;
therefore, time travel is impossible.
On the contrary, if time travel were possible, then it would be possible for an object or particle to be in two places at once.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Both C.S. Lewis and Keith Deacon should have thought thru the possibilities and implications of time traveling more carefully, I agree.
Lewis died in 1963 and we know he was a fan of science fiction, even if his "understanding" of that genre was often unsatisfactory. He might have come across some of Anderson's early Time Patrol stories, or even have read the first collection of them. So I wonder what he might have thought of them.
Sean
Sean,
I don't think Deacon gets anything wrong about time travel.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I have only just started rereading PERISH BY THE SWORD, so I have not gotten to that part of the book. But I thought Deacon's comments about using a time machine to be in two places at once showed he needed to think thru time traveling more carefully.
Sean
Sean,
But I tried to show that a time traveler could be in two places at once.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Then Deacon could be where he "is" now but if given a time machine, go to the past ten years and be in a different place/time at once. I think I get it now. Maybe!
Sean
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