Merau Varagan rescues his younger self. Chaim Zorach says that this is dangerous. Why?
Everard says that the dangers include:
"'...that he would make himself never have existed.'" (p. 281)
How?
Everard reflects that occupying two places simultaneously involves:
"...the chance of starting a causal loop that might expand out of control..." (p. 296)
How might bilocation start a causal loop and how might such a loop expand? A loop is closed, not expansive.
"'An incipient causal loop is always dangerous, you know. It can set up a resonance, and the changes of history that that produces can multiply catastrophically.'"
-"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Time Patrol, pp. 333-465 AT 1935, p. 449.
What is a resonance and how might it change history?
A closed causal loop is put forward not as a problem but as a solution:
"'The single way to make [an incipient causal loop] safe is to close it. When the worm Ourboros is biting his own tail, he can't devour anything else.'" (ibid.)
"'No, this is no slight ripple in the time stream. This is a maelstrom abuilding. We've got to damp it out, and the only way to do that is to complete the causal loop, close the ring.'"
-"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," p. 450.
Everard retrieves all of Stane's belongings:
"...except the fuel chest. That had to be left, so that up in the future he would learn of this and come back to stop the man who would be God."
-"Time Patrol" IN Time Patrol, pp. 1-53 AT 5, p. 42.
A loop that isn't closed isn't a loop.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
One way a closed loop might "expand" would be by thinking of it as something that stretches, like the rubber bands mentioned as an analogy in "Time Patrol."
Ad astra! Sean
Vaughn might make himself never have existed by producing actions by a future/past version of himself that would negate his existence (unintentionally).
The Exaltationist is recklessly brave, and has the added advantage that he doesn’t care about temporal collateral damage — if what he’s doing upsets future events, all the better.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling1
And these Exaltationists were callous narcissists. All that really MATTERS to any single Exaltationist was what he or she wants--and to heck with everybody or everything else!
Ad astra! Sean
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