We are trying to formulate a theory of time and time travel, nothing new but just enough to account for events recounted in this novel.
Base Timeline
There is a base timeline from which any and all time travellers disappear permanently.
Each moment (t0) is preceded by a single past but followed by one of many possible futures. Each subsequent moment (t1) actualizes only one possible future. Experience cannot be otherwise. If we experience the death of a friend, then we cannot simultaneously experience the survival of that friend. Mutually incompatible events cannot occur in a single timeline. But can there be multiple alternative timelines? Can t0 be followed by t1alpha, t1beta etc?
Alternative Timelines
Whether or not alternative timelines exist naturally, they do exist if there is time travel. Five Americans travel from June 25th, 2032 CE, to June 25th, 165 CE. Some moment (t0) on the latter date is followed not only by t1, history as we know it, but also by t1alpha, the arrival of the time travellers who have disappeared permanently from the base timeline. Their mere arrival changes the course of events, whether unnoticeably or globally. If they had been immediately killed for their valuable possessions and if that wealth had been merely squandered, then the change might have been unnoticed on a global scale. However, if they change the course of history, then the effects of their arrival are global.
That is all that we know about the theory. I think.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
All this makes me wonder what Herr Doktor Fuchs thought or knew about the theory of time traveling.
I al;so thought of Stirling's BLACK CHAMBER books. Our timeline in 1912alpha has US President Taft not dying, with history proceeding as we know it. But the BLACK CHAMBER timeline became 1912beta when President Taft did die in that year.
Ad astra! Sean
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