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[JW Schnarr]

Yeah, but then they used the same theory on Star Trek, and I lost all respect for it. I can't quite deal with the notion that an entirely seperate universe is called into existence just because (as one of my characters once put it) "you order the eggs benedict instead of the pancakes." Seems like a terrible waste of resources.

It was explained to me like this: classic physics states that every decision you make is the sum of every previous decision you have ever made, even influenced by decisions made before you were born. Although you THINK you are making the choice of your own free will, you are, in fact, simply unaware of the complex equation being worked out for your mind to complete the decision for you. In short, you are NOT deciding on the eggs or the pancakes, because that decision has alrerady been worked out long before you came to this point in your life as a person who either a)decided he liked eggs that particular morning or b) liked the thought of pancakes.

in quantum physics, you made both decisions and they both exists simultaneously until acted upon by you. Since the decision is made at the point where it interacts with other decisions (ie the answer to the equation is solved at the END of the puzzle and not the beginning) this means that indeed, you have at some point, eaten eggs AND Pancakes both for breakfast (though seperately), and you had both ketchup and not ketchup on your eggs, and syrup and not syrup on your pancakes...ad infinitum, lol. The paradox is not unlike Schrödinger's cat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat

As you can see from that example of a cat being both alive and dead until acted upon, so too can your decision for breakfast.

[Thom Brannan]

but Schrodinger's cat was just an exercise to show how wacky quantum physics can be applied to non-quantum things. ad absurdum, not ad infinitum.

[Rob Pegler]

It was explained to me like this: classic physics states that every decision you make is the sum of every previous decision you have ever made, even influenced by decisions made before you were born. Although you THINK you are making the choice of your own free will, you are, in fact, simply unaware of the complex equation being worked out for your mind to complete the decision for you. In short, you are NOT deciding on the eggs or the pancakes, because that decision has alrerady been worked out long before you came to this point in your life as a person who either a)decided he liked eggs that particular morning or b) liked the thought of pancakes.

That would be Determinism, yes? There's no such thing as free will because the universe is a series of causes and effects, and every decision you make is an effect being influenced by a cause? Or something?

[Thom Brannan]

so sayeth the Merovingian.

[Thom Brannan]

oh, i'm sorry . . . wrong film franchise.

[frank]

It was explained to me like this: classic physics states that every decision you make is the sum of every previous decision you have ever made, even influenced by decisions made before you were born. Although you THINK you are making the choice of your own free will, you are, in fact, simply unaware of the complex equation being worked out for your mind to complete the decision for you. In short, you are NOT deciding on the eggs or the pancakes, because that decision has alrerady been worked out long before you came to this point in your life as a person who either a)decided he liked eggs that particular morning or b) liked the thought of pancakes.

That would be Determinism, yes? There's no such thing as free will because the universe is a series of causes and effects, and every decision you make is an effect being influenced by a cause? Or something?

Or that might just be how free will works.

We might like to feel that it acts without constraint in the moment of choice because that's when we notice it.  While in fact it has what we might call, baggage.  And is constrained by what we happen to be aware of in the moment as well.

In a sense, our freedom (or its absence) does not reside so much in what we may or may not will, but more in what we may or not be aware of.

Paying attention?  It's a choice.

[Rob Pegler]

Paying attention?  It's a choice.

So sayeth the Architect.

oh, i'm sorry . . . wrong film franchise.

Just barely.

[Lane Adamson]

As far as the mechanics of time travel goes, here's an interesting notion I had about 30 years ago that I've never seen anything to shoot down.  I hope to use it in a story some day.

You're familiar with the quantum nature of light?  That is to say, light behaves as both a wave and a particle (that is to say, a wavicle), depending on the circumstances?  Well, time operates in much the same fashion.  We experience time as a liner wave--always moving outwards from the original source--but that wave needs a particulate carrier substance.  A sufficiently advanced technology (which would be "indistinguishable from magic," as fans of the late Arthur C. Clarke all know) would be able to isolate a particular point on the timewave and transport a person (or persons) forward or backward to that point.

Now, if I could just think of a good, catchy name for the time wave-particle.  Chronicle would be the most logical, but is out of the running for obvious reasons.

[Thom Brannan]

ZOMBIE THREAD!!!

i firmly believe the day science figures out teleportation, we'll also have time travel.

back on-topic, what Pete said about the intensity of time travel in the Terminator universe sounds really good, as does the circumstances surrounding the initial attempt on Sarah Conner's life. the humans had won, and this was Skynet's last act of defiance. and that is why it seems that T1 is block universe (time is a loop) and the sequels are all... not block universe (the times, they are a-changin').

i've been thinking about time travel for a while now, sparked by the odd juxtaposition of The 4400 and the Ancient Astronaut theory in a conversation i had with someone i work with. and that made me think about the mutability of time and events, and what was said about a historian watching someone making a decision and coming to give them information that would change it.

it would be fucking spectacular if this was happening all the time, like some agency decided on a Timeline Prime that should not be deviated from and seeds agent through the continuum to make sure the right decisions get made. how hellish would that job be? like the Doctor, finding out Pompeii was all him. and what would the messengers be taken as? in olden times, angels, obviously. HAH.

hibbity bibbity.