Disruptions to the space-time continuum exist in our everyday lives. It can happen anywhere, anytime and especially when electronic devices are nearby.
Whether it’s the Black Hole of research into a never-ending spiral of related links, or a specific search that runs off course. It happens all too often. It starts simple enough.
Moving along in the story, typing away, not looking at the screen because I’ll have to stop and fix every single typo and I can’t because I’m on a mission. The dialog is playing out in my head, and I need to concentrate on hearing the character’s voices over the clacking keys. Then it happens – the moment when I realize I don’t know some obscure fact like the rotational speed of the earth, which plays a part in the alchemy of time travel. Or rather the return to the starting place.
Maybe I should explain, or maybe I’ve made it too complicated. Whichever, I’m too far into this now to change it so you’ll have to bear with me. Isabelle is from the 21st century – sort of. That’s the first point of beginning for her time traveling anyway. How do you guarantee a safe return flight or fall back to the future from the past when the mage is a bit scatter-brained to begin with?
My finger hovers over the tab, do I research or do I not? My throat goes dry, my pulse quickens. I wet my lips, hesitating, weighing the possibilities. Do I type blindly ahead knowing that some fact geek such as myself will find this flaw and discount all my writings for a hack, or do I find the facts I need and lose valuable writing time?
It’s like a drug. The subtle seduction of truth just a click away, with the risk of potential danger. My skin is flushed, my palms sweaty – it”s a heady mix. In a single second – a hasty decision, I open google.
According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, gravity is a curve in space-time and astronomers regularly observe this phenomenon when they study light moving near a sufficiently massive object. Particularly large suns, for instance, can cause an otherwise straight beam of light to curve in what we call the gravitational lensing effect.
Any event that occurs in the universe has to involve both space and time. Gravity doesn’t just pull on space; it also pulls on time. Speed also plays a role in the rate at which we experience time. Time passes more slowly the closer you approach the unbreakable cosmic speed limit we call the speed of light. For instance, the hands of a clock in a speeding train move slower than those of a stationary clock.
There’s nothing in Einstein’s theory that precludes time travel into the past, but the very premise of pushing a button and going back to yesterday violates the law of causality, or cause and effect. But what if time travel into the past and future depends less on speculative space propulsion technology and more on existing cosmic phenomena?
As made popular by everything from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” to “Donnie Darko,” there’s also the equally theoretical Einstein-Rosen bridge to consider. But of course you know this better as a wormhole.
Einstein’s general theory of relativity allows for the existence of wormholes since it states that any mass curves space-time. According to astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, wormholes may exist in quantum foam, the smallest environment in the universe. Here, tiny tunnels constantly blink in and out of existence, momentarily linking separate places and time like an ever-changing game of “Chutes and Ladders.”
Yada Yada Yada, get to the good stuff here. This is about the time that the related links catch the eye. Ooh shiny! Doctor Who! Doctor Who blooper outtakes. Red Dwarf smeg ups! Tongue Tied!
I glance at the little clock in the bottom corner of my screen. 12 pages later, three videos, and the phone call that snapped me from my glazed condition, I’ve lost nearly two hours. Knowing that my deadline looms before my like a monstrous storm cloud on the horizon, I really didn’t need this excursion into the black hole. Head-desk!
You know what? I think magic combined with fate can manage to return Isabelle to her proper time. Prophecy is much more powerful than mere physics can explain. No one’s going to be lost in the quantum foam during my time travel. I am master of this universe, and in this world Love is the most powerful force there is. With the help of a little magic of course.
Write on my friends, write on!
quotidiandose 