(i) HG Wells' Time Traveller tells his dinner guests that his Time Machine moves too fast to be seen but it doesn't move anywhere. It remains stationary on the Earth's surface in a state of time dilation so it should resemble a statue. The "Time Traveller" does not travel anywhere or when. In The Space Machine, his sequel to The Time Machine and The War Of The Worlds, Christopher Priest explains that the Time Machine in transit is attenuated.
(ii) Doctor Who's TARDIS disappears into and re-emerges from the "time vortex" where, according to the villainous Master, E = MCcubed.
(iii) Poul Anderson's Time Patrol timecycles do not exist between departure and arrival. They disappear from one set of spatiotemporal coordinates and (re)appear at another.
When a timecycle appears/arrives, it might have disappeared/departed from:
15 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Ugh!!! More brain hurting complications! (Smiles)
Ad astra! Sean
For one thing, having the time machine be invisible really makes plotting easier.
That is the reason for it.
Of course, in "reality" that would depend on the nature of the time-travel mechanism. If it's instantaneous, like teleportation, then "invisibility" is natural. You don't see people teleport, they're just "here" and then "there".
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that some people think teleportation is possible. One of those "psi" powers?
Ad astra! Sean
A very great deal depends on the mechanism of time travel.
Paul: oh, completely. For example, in one of Poul's novels, you travel in a "physical" tunnel that literally bores through time.
Kaor, to Both!
THE CORRIDORS OF TIME, perhaps now one of Anderson's more obscure novels.
Ad astra! Sean
And that is one in which the characters do literally travel along time.
I found THE CORRIDORS OF TIME a gripping story.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I like CORRIDORS too! And I liked Brann a lot better than I did Storm Darroway.
Ad astra! Sean
While I was reading CORRIDORS, when I was at University, I began to to think that Lockridge had joined the wrong side. Of course we came to see that neither side was right.
Paul: yeah, Storm's people were more superficially attractive, until you investigated more deeply -- which was why the people from the far future dumped Lockridge where they did!
Kaor, Paul!
Of course there was much that was wrong in the cause Brann served, but he was still a better person than Storm, who reminds me a lot of Stirling's Draka.
Ad astra! Sean
Brann personally better than Storm. Agreed.
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