In Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series:
a time traveler can travel from the present of reality A to the past of reality B, then forward into the present of reality B;
the transition from reality A to reality B can be caused either by a time traveler or by a quantum fluctuation.
Can someone in reality A anticipate and prepare for a transition to reality B? In Anderson's The Shield Of Time, Guion of the Time Patrol tries to do this by questioning people like Manse Everard and Wanda Tamberly who tend to be involved in unusual chronokinetic events. Guion wants to find a clue to the hypermatrix of the continuum by learning how their experiences felt to them. He suspects a larger meaning than the Exaltationists. The possibility of a quantum fluctuation in space-time-energy has not yet been realized. Whether Guion's efforts towards comprehension are successful might have been the subject of a further Time Patrol volume.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And this reminded me of Frank Tipler's book THE PHYSICS OF CHRISTIANITY yet again, with its discussion of alternate or parallel worlds.
I like that idea, that Poul Anderson might have written a Time Patrol story focusing on Guion and his investigation, rather than either Manse Everard or Wanda Tamberly.
Ad astra! Sean
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