Time Travel movies and shows that are PC*
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Monday, October 22, 2007 05:45
VIEWED: 17773
PAGE 3 of 6
Quote:If you only watched the movie, it probably wasn’t very evident, but the book goes into an explanation for the time travel, basically dealing with the same issues I’ve discussed here, but not in a very convincing way. Crichton argues the multiverse concept. He explains that the crew wasn’t being sent back in time, which is impossible, but copies of themselves are sent into an alternative universe (Note he avoids the paradox of being in two places at once, by calling the people sent “back in time” as “copies,” which doesn’t seem really necessary because he’s invoking the multiverse argument anyway.) There are an infinite number of alternative universes each with all possible outcomes. Crichton gets around the obvious problem, by claiming that the act of sending a copy of a person into this alternative timeframe entangles the two universes so that any influence the copies have in the alternate universe is represented by alternate copies of you in your universe. Now where these alternate copies of you come from, I don’t remember if that was addressed, but it probably wasn’t. It made a fun story, but it still suffers from irrational time-travelling logic.
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Not so much that it disregarded paradoxes- I got that they were part of what had always happened- I disliked it because the last 20 minutes turned into a bad remake of the last 20 minutes of Army Of Darkness (a glorious film, that!).
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
He explains that the crew wasn’t being sent back in time, which is impossible, but copies of themselves are sent into an alternative universe
the act of sending a copy of a person into this alternative timeframe entangles the two universes so that any influence the copies have in the alternate universe is represented by alternate copies of you in your universe.
DANGER, DANGER! THAT DOES NOT COMPUTE!
Hooey Alert Chrisisall
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The only form of time-related stuff I have ever seen and though of as acceptable was Final Destination 1. Because it was just a setting that was almost immediately forgotten and the film itself was pretty good. (the sequels were not so much.)
Apart from that I doubt any tv show/movie will ever do time travel in a form that is really acceptable. Time travel opens up too many options, and they have to be forcibly knocked back.
That is not to say that good films will feature time travel - the first two Terminator films were rather good. The time travel aspects almost laughable.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
In fact, wouldn’t you return to a completely unchanged timeline?
The way time travel is usually presented with respect to the multiverse theory, is that, you would be affecting a universe infinitesimally different from your own, and following suit, the 'you' from another infinitesimally different universe would be affecting yours.
So: While you are not changing your universe's past directly, there is another you, essentially the same in every respect, who is affecting your universe's past.
Fun stuff.
A book I read a while back, The Sterkarm Handshake, dealt with this a different way. They created a 'time tube', where, you walked through one end here in the 21st century, and wound up in 17th century Scotland. They didn't know enough about the physics to change the date or location, but they did know that they weren't going into the past, per se. They were traveling between universes, so they could interact with the locals, even mine the natural resources, without affecting their own slice of the multiverse. Complicated stuff, but it was more a character drama than a techno-babble driven science fiction piece.
Anyhow, the way I figure it, time is just another dimension, existing outside-of-yet-intertwined-with our known three. Whereas we could see the extent of a Flatlander's universe, and could appear to randomly pop in and out of existence anywhere in it, a being who can move in four dimensions could randomly appear, not only anywhere, but anywhen, in our universe. Only a portion of this being would be apparent to us, since we could only perceive three of its dimensions.
We, as three-dimensional beings, can't perceive the flow of time, except in one direction. We feel its effects, over time (pun intended), and our existence is limited to a finite 'length' of time. We can perceive the past, but not the future (in most cases). We can't affect the past, only the present, and we can only plan to affect the future.
*whew*
Continuing, if we somehow were able to evolve the conscious capacity to perceive and/or affect the dimension of time, we could, theoretically, travel to any point in the space/time continuum. We would see the inherent problems with a finite exsistence, and might be able to do something about it. Although, since we would still have a physical form, we might be bound to the constraints of our lifespan, not unlike Quantum Leap, where Beckett was only able to leap to times when he was alive.
Continuing further... now entering the realm of the really really unknown... IF... IF... after billions of years, humans have evolved to the point where they have abandoned their traditional physical forms, and turned, not into energy in the three-dimensional sense, but... higher dimensional energy... say... tenth/eleventh dimensional... the entirety of the universe, in ways we can't even possibly begin to imagine currently, would be at our fingertips. If we had fingertips. Which we wouldn't. Regardless, the Universe = at our 'fingertips'.
But, that's just my theory.
______________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/citrusblast
The best way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.
- Oscar Wilde
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:And who is this other you? Where did he come from?
Originally posted by DTuck:
The way time travel is usually presented with respect to the multiverse theory, is that, you would be affecting a universe infinitesimally different from your own, and following suit, the 'you' from another infinitesimally different universe would be affecting yours.
So: While you are not changing your universe's past directly, there is another you, essentially the same in every respect, who is affecting your universe's past.
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
And who is this other you? Where did he come from?
Can't say, really. If Quinn Mallory's multiverse theory is correct, then ever possibly difference that CAN occur, DOES occur, creating an infinitely branching multiverse wherein every possible combination of every possible action is taken. Not just in the human decision sense, but in the sense that every single particle in the universe has an equally probable chance of acting in an infinite number of ways, and does so, in a constantly evolving, constantly branching multiverse of infinite... infinite-ness.
So, to long-windedly answer your question, a quantum particle's difference caused a tangent universe where everything else is the same, and the 'you' of that universe goes down the same path, entering your universe in the past and affecting it in exactly the same way that you affect the past of the universe that you travel into.
______________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/citrusblast
The best way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.
- Oscar Wilde
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:DTuck, did you used to write for Star Trek?
Originally posted by DTuck:
a quantum particle's difference caused a tangent universe where everything else is the same, and the 'you' of that universe goes down the same path, entering your universe in the past and affecting it in exactly the same way that you affect the past of the universe that you travel into.
I mean that in a good way Chrisisall
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
DTuck, did you used to write for Star Trek?
I'll take that as a compliment
But nah, I'm just a huge science geek.
I was the kid (everyone knows that kid) who bugged his teacher about why string theory wasn't taught in the curriculum.
...
In sixth grade.
______________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/citrusblast
The best way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.
- Oscar Wilde
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by DTuck:
I was the kid (everyone knows that kid) who bugged his teacher about why string theory wasn't taught in the curriculum.
...
In sixth grade.
In sixth grade I still believed that getting bitten by a radioactive bug could give you the ability to stick to walls...
ChrisisallNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
If quantum effects manifested themselves on a macroscopic level, I could tunnel into Miss Panetierre’s bedroom, now that she single and 18, and get entangled, with her consent of course, which she'd gladly give – because smart men who talk about time traveling on scifi boards are sexy!!!
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME