Some Real Beginner Stuff

_Oz

_Oz

Chrono Cadet
I wanted to talk about some things that may be pretty well known to some folks here, but to any outsider interested in time travel--hopefully this may dissuade them.It should be stated first and foremost that the common perception and connotations associated with "time travel" make occasionally more serious discussions more challenging.

Because of the numerous ways that, from a linear perception of events, gives the illusion of traveling backwards or forwards in time you will only really ever find me referring to them as "Travelers".

 
Traveling is the more appropriate word to use to describe to omnidirectional movements possible through shifting dimensions.

To try and help people conceptualize dimensional shifting as synonymous with time travel, is by having them imagine an infinite set of railroad tracks. When you're on board a train, there are infinite trains that are running very similar speeds to you & are at just about the same position in their track. At any given time the trains you're not riding on could speed up or slowdown or veer off in a different direction.

It is possible through certain means for you to jump between your train and other trains, but...some might see the problem here already--your new train is not your original train. Yes, you can go back to the same track and ride the same train at a different time---but it will never be the exact same as what was originally planned for you. I've told every single cadet that once they go through with their first jump...they're never going home.

 
So to give the illusion of time travel, imagine hopping from your train to a parallel train that JUST SO HAPPEN is running a little bit of behind you. So if you were normally jump from Train A to Train B from Cart A...it's reasonable to assume you'll end up landing in Cart A on Train B.

But what if Train B wasn't running exactly parallel? If you jumped from Cart A on Train A you could arrive at Cart J on Train B. To an observer on Train B sitting in Cart J...someone from a foreign Cart is now intermixed.

You're not actually traveling backwards or forwards on your cart. You're moving infinitely sideways to give the appearance of moving from Cart A -> Cart J.

 
So why can't people ever just return back home to their original Train and original Cart and it like they never left?

To state simply, it's because of entropy. To help conceptualize this--imagine the train hopping scenario, and that on each train you're given a new ticket stamping that you're a passenger. You cannot refuse the ticket from being given to you, and no matter which train you're riding currently--you're going to also carry with you the tickets to all the other trains and carts you've ridden in.

It's not impossible, but it's so improbable that it's best regarded as "Once you jump you can never go home"

This causes may cadets to re-evaluate their decisions, since the prospect of dying to your home universe and everyone you know to never know what happened to you...means to some, they realize time travel is no joke. Whatever train you're currently riding in, if it's not your original train--those passengers are not the same passengers. The lives they try and return to become hollow because they know that "these are not my Train A families"

 
Regarding what can and cannot change:

When train hopping you may find that you can have very similar discussions with each train's passengers, but that no matter what--your discussions all take place within a single cart. You can move with relative freedom within each Cart, but you cannot change what positions those carts are on a moving train. During basic training, this is how I always introduce the concept of "Anchor Points"

The different carts (A, B, C, etc) are thought of like fixed events. Things like the fall of Rome, the Invasion of America, Pompeii, etc...Someone might be able to go back to one of those time periods and interact differently with citizens...but no amount of little interactions at the base of Pompeii would have changed what happened. When fighting other Travelers, having an understanding of anchor points and how to use them--means the difference between life or death or capture. Knowing "Which Cart am I on, and "what are the spatial limitations I have to move around?" are the essentials to always ask yourself. You can find yourself trapped between anchor points by another Traveler, or use the knowledge of those anchor points to avoid the snare.

 
I've written a lot in these posts, and they are primarily only being put out here to help my squad help remember things.

I'm open to answering a few questions, if anyone has any.

 
If you can never go "home", what would be the purpose of time travel? Simple curiosity?

You can never change your original timeline, so what would be the point? Seeing the future or the past? It wouldn't be the "correct"

future or past and you couldn't get home to report it.

 
If you can never go "home", what would be the purpose of time travel? Simple curiosity?
You can never change your original timeline, so what would be the point? Seeing the future or the past? It wouldn't be the "correct"

future or past and you couldn't get home to report it.
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Purpose of time travel - people will engage in the practice for different reasons, almost always starting with curiosity or greed. Some continue engaging in the practice out of a sense of duty.

On the point / not changing your original timeline - Your original timeline may not be altered, but the worlds you visit are. This is one reason why I mentioned in the other post that traveling requires a lot of brain power and shifts in perception...especially regarding the nature of winning / losing / what can be changed / what cannot. From one frame of reference you can win a struggle, while at the same time causing 1,000 universes where you failed (that are equally valid). It's best to focus only on what you have in front of you, even if it's not your original timeline. To some like myself, the purpose is to preserve balance and some semblance of an established chain of history.

-->Even if you can never go home, you would still report to everyone in your current timeline like normal. Best thought of as your new home.

-Oz

 
Your original timeline may not be altered, but the worlds you visit are
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Do you feel this timeline has been affected in that way? Seems a bit unfair for people from other timelines to come crash ours.

 
Do you feel this timeline has been affected in that way? Seems a bit unfair for people from other timelines to come crash ours.
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This timeline is a mess from my frame of reference. There's a lot of travelers who have left their signatures on the established chain of events here. It is unfair, and is another reason why greedy / out of control travelers must be held accountable. The multiverse is big enough that everyone can have their own sandbox, but "ruling your domain" comes at the expense of countless individuals losing a little bit of their free will.

-Oz

 
This timeline is a mess from my frame of reference. There's a lot of travelers who have left their signatures on the established chain of events here. It is unfair, and is another reason why greedy / out of control travelers must be held accountable. The multiverse is big enough that everyone can have their own sandbox, but "ruling your domain" comes at the expense of countless individuals losing a little bit of their free will.
-Oz
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I'm unsure why, but that answer scratched an itch in my brain.

 
Oz, some of us have experienced timeline changes and/or glimpses into other timelines.

Could this be the result of "travelers" and their manipulations?

 
Oz, some of us have experienced timeline changes and/or glimpses into other timelines.
Could this be the result of "travelers" and their manipulations?
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Very much so. For those that experience the sensation of chronosthesia, and are simultaneously aware of the past / present / future -- they would certainly feel a "shift" whenever a large change occurred. The larger the change the more extreme the shifting experience feels. I would also say that when a shift is ongoing, you'd be more likely to glimpse other timelines. Similarly, the smaller the change the smaller the shifting sensation is. Small changes do not alert anyone, but reckless changes will cause everyone's spidey sense to tingle.

-Oz

 
Very much so. For those that experience the sensation of chronosthesia, and are simultaneously aware of the past / present / future -- they would certainly feel a "shift" whenever a large change occurred. The larger the change the more extreme the shifting experience feels. I would also say that when a shift is ongoing, you'd be more likely to glimpse other timelines. Similarly, the smaller the change the smaller the shifting sensation is. Small changes do not alert anyone, but reckless changes will cause everyone's spidey sense to tingle.
-Oz
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I went to a small town post office once a few years ago and it was suddenly located a few doors down further and had a/c, when it never did before. I asked the clerk about the changes and she said “This has been this way for at least 5 years”. The next time I went, it was back to its original configuration.

 
Perhaps that is what time actually is, a sequence of consciousness "shifting" from parallel reality to parallel reality. We usually do not notice any differences between the parallels because we are shifting to realities that are almost exactly like what we remember... But making larger jumps requires significant mental abilities or sufficiently advanced technology.

 
I went to a small town post office once a few years ago and it was suddenly located a few doors down further and had a/c, when it never did before. I asked the clerk about the changes and she said “This has been this way for at least 5 years”. The next time I went, it was back to its original configuration.
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Here's how the Titor Foundation explains it.

Time travel is for 2 purposes. 1, to have another you in another similar universe bring things that you lost in your universe to your universe. If the multiverse is like a fun house of mirrors, if you are traveling to another universe, a copy of you in another universe is traveling to your universe. You can always travel back to your original universe.

2, to go and live in another universe and with your foreknowledge, make small changes and live there until you hopefully die a happy old man.

 
Here's how the Titor Foundation explains it.
Time travel is for 2 purposes. 1, to have another you in another similar universe bring things that you lost in your universe to your universe. If the multiverse is like a fun house of mirrors, if you are traveling to another universe, a copy of you in another universe is traveling to your universe. You can always travel back to your original universe.

2, to go and live in another universe and with your foreknowledge, make small changes and live there until you hopefully die a happy old man.
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There are more purposes than just those two, but that does hit pretty close to home. I suppose I normally fall into the 2nd group.

There is of course, always a sense of duty as well. Sam Raimi put it pretty well "With great power comes great responsibility"

-Oz

 
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