| disolitude said: Wow, interesting replies and ideas... I think it all boils down to ones beliefs about what time is and how it works. I personally believe time as we know it is a straight line and obviously goes only forwards. I don't see time as something that revolves around humans but vice versa. Tomorrow is going to always be tomorrow, however the things we do and who we are may change tomorrow. I don't think a split timeline is something that could happen since that would imply that time revolves around actions of each individual. With that in mind, I think that if time machine was invented in a persons lifetime who lost a leg in the past, that person would have to put the effort to travel back and stop themselves from losing a leg. Just thinking about doing it will not get his leg back. The moment he travels back and does enough to stop themselves in the past from losing a leg, he disappear from the past and never exist in the form and with memories he traveled back with. Puff! Gone! So I guess option 1 for me... |
Think about it though. How would it go poof? The future you is a collection of atoms. Matter doesnt just disappear, it gets transformed.
So where would the matter go? Your theory assumes just the time axis, so in that regard i guess that is normal to assume, but i dont think the person would go poof, theres no plausable reason for that to happen. The timeline he came from doesnt cease to exist, it ceases to be acessable if you understand what i mean. That future exists because without it the new restored future couldnt exist. That proves that the old future existed. It cant just disappear, its just lost. The you from the future that came from the past doesnt have the means to go back to the old timeline but he is on the present one. I dont see why he would go poof.
A good representation of it in the timeline would be a straw with a loop. The timeline goes in front but circles around and back to the starting point of the loop. The loop segment is no longer on the straight line to the timeline but it existed and it is there, just not in the straight line. Actually the storyline on Chrono Cross delves into this aswell because of the events on chrono trigger. Its an interesting subject.
