Just another dimension?

Saturday, May 12, 2007
Time Loop -vwv vvw

After reading SQ's thought experiment on a falling swimming pool, I was reminded of a hypothetical time travel question I posed to friends many years ago.

This is how the story goes. A young man meets an elderly time traveler from the future. The latter teaches the former the formula for time travel. After twenty years of work, the young man, who is now old, completes his time machine. He uses his time machine to travel twenty years back to pass the time travel formula to his younger self. The question was this: how many times did the event where the character learns the formula occur?

I had about ten responses and their answers were divided. Half the people said once. The other half claims infinity. Interestingly, nobody said twice.

In a way, nobody was really wrong. How many times the event occurred depends on whose timeline you are following. If you following the timeline of the majority of the universe, the event happened once. Suppose the story took place in the year 2000. Then the event took place in 2000. Not any other year, only once in 2000.

If however, you choose to follow the timeline of the character of the story, it happened twice. Once when he was the young student and once when he was the old teacher. Like I said, strangely, nobody chose this point of view.

But for the event to happen infinite times, one must have chosen the point of view of an imaginary entity that got caught in the time loop. This entity is also infinitely old since it has experienced the event infinite times and will experience the event infinite times more. If the formula was written on a piece of indestructible paper, then this piece of paper would be such an entity as it has changed hands infinite times. But since I never mentioned any physical object being passed in my story, I find it very peculiar that so many people would rather choose the point of view of an imaginary entity that was never even implied. I never could understand why people would see things this way.

So now I wonder, what if I had modified my story then. What if instead of sending himself into the past, the character merely sends a radio broadcast of the formula into the past so that his younger self would receive it? It is essentially the same story. But would I still have gotten the same results? Equally divided between one and infinity?

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Yiheng made 1:48 PM

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Categories MyLife Opinions OnTheNet Shows Miscellaneous RandomKnowledge Links My Sister S & M Jiangzheng Yiheng's Photos Shuquan's Photos Pei Yee's Photos Yun Qin's Photos #!/usr/bin/girl Archive February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 November 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009	Saturday, May 12, 2007 Time Loop -vwv vvw After reading SQ's thought experiment on a falling swimming pool, I was reminded of a hypothetical time travel question I posed to friends many years ago. This is how the story goes. A young man meets an elderly time traveler from the future. The latter teaches the former the formula for time travel. After twenty years of work, the young man, who is now old, completes his time machine. He uses his time machine to travel twenty years back to pass the time travel formula to his younger self. The question was this: how many times did the event where the character learns the formula occur? I had about ten responses and their answers were divided. Half the people said once. The other half claims infinity. Interestingly, nobody said twice. In a way, nobody was really wrong. How many times the event occurred depends on whose timeline you are following. If you following the timeline of the majority of the universe, the event happened once. Suppose the story took place in the year 2000. Then the event took place in 2000. Not any other year, only once in 2000. If however, you choose to follow the timeline of the character of the story, it happened twice. Once when he was the young student and once when he was the old teacher. Like I said, strangely, nobody chose this point of view. But for the event to happen infinite times, one must have chosen the point of view of an imaginary entity that got caught in the time loop. This entity is also infinitely old since it has experienced the event infinite times and will experience the event infinite times more. If the formula was written on a piece of indestructible paper, then this piece of paper would be such an entity as it has changed hands infinite times. But since I never mentioned any physical object being passed in my story, I find it very peculiar that so many people would rather choose the point of view of an imaginary entity that was never even implied. I never could understand why people would see things this way. So now I wonder, what if I had modified my story then. What if instead of sending himself into the past, the character merely sends a radio broadcast of the formula into the past so that his younger self would receive it? It is essentially the same story. But would I still have gotten the same results? Equally divided between one and infinity? -- permalink -- Yiheng made 1:48 PM 0 Comments: Post a Comment	Previous Posts Who deserves the seat? -vwv Spontaneous Human Combustion -vwv Yunnan Trip Photos are online -vvv vwv If you ever go to Kun Ming -vvv Do I look that old? -vwv Pulau Ubin Cycling Trip -vvv Free Hugs Ain't Free -vwv The Future Is Dismal -vwv Random Picture -vwv Upgrade! -vwv Current Read 七侠五义 Last Three Books 道德經 The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology Arthur Cotterell, Rachel Storm Momo Michael Ende Those Before 孫子兵法 Paycheck: And Other Classic Stories By Philip K. Dick Mirror Mirror: A Novel Gregory Maguire American Gods Neil Gaiman Maya 5 Fundamentals Garry Lewis, Jim Lammers Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J. K. Rowling