1:27
For a few years now I have been toying with a story concept that I've been working with and developing. I haven't really started writing too much because I've been so obsessed with this one scene. I love this scene and I want to write an entire book for it. Well, it just so happens that I am currently taking a general science course. It's an alright course, some of the stuff just kind of numbs my brain. I would love to feign understanding and ability to function within a scientific setting, but all of the details and equations don't work well for a kid that sees the big picture. It's all much too methodical for me, much to step by step.
However.
This last unit we covered and are currently still involved with has to do with Einstein's Theory of Relativity and his study of light particles and such. I know what the problems are. I know that there are major problems with his theories due mostly to the fact that one cannot extend his theory of general relativity (gravity) to electromagnetic force having to do with atoms at the quantum scale. But I've been especially into his theories on how as you approach the speed of light, time reaches and infinity and distance reaches zero (length contraction people... you can't jump the space-time fabric, you just lose length according to the field of reference of someone who is not in motion). Although, it would be really cool to be able to jump the space time fabric, thus making both time and distance zero. But how would that work with the aging issue...
I digress and also refuse to go into that. I do not have nearly the understanding of such theories to even begin to dabble in alternate implications and such. However, what I have been learning has turned out to be invaluable to my attempt to create this story and turn it into something really interesting and cool. This is how it plays out:
First a little history on the situation: The whole idea started when I was thinking about the whole pattern of young child somehow travels to unknown world and thus bildungsroman ensues (Peter Pan [Wendy], Harry Potter, and I think also Golden Compass) and started coming up with one of my own. Young girl's mother mysteriously disappears, mother was kind of an eccentric, way into writing, daughter starts reading her mother's writing and realizes that her mother had been completely obsessed with the Land of Nod. Then we get to the huge chunk I haven't really thought through yet: girl is somehow transported to Nod (I'm pretty sure I want it to be through a clock, but a little foggy on the details) and starts search for her mother, realizes Nod is a huge mess and has to go on all sorts of quests that lead to more corruption in Nod and more having to look for her mother.
This all leads up to the scene I have been talking about: The scene with the Clocktower Men. Eventually my main character winds up in a strange room full of billions of clocks and has an experience talking to this very strange creature that calls itself the Clocktower Man (or maybe a few of them, I haven't quite decided yet). They/It is made entirely out of clocks and pieces of clocks, but is in humanoid form. The clocks, as my heroine finds out, each represent the life of someone on Earth. They have no link to the lives they mirror other than the time the person "ticks," starting from the moment they are born and wound up and ending, hopefully, when the clock winds down and has to be rewound. Of course, sometimes the Clocktower Man gets bored and smashes his clocks, but then rebuilds new ones. The idea is that he has no connection to the lives he has such power over other than time. He sees no morality just as time sees no morality, and likewise the same is present in issues of justice and intimate relationships with each life. He does not see the clocks as human lives, but as mere, impartial time pieces, and therefore feels no connection to them.
Of course, for this to work properly, time would have to be at a near standstill for the Clocktower Man in order for him to be able to carry out his function reasonably. Here is where Einstein's work comes in along with the Lorentz Factor.
Say the plain of existence in which the Clocktower Man lived was an isolated bubble and somehow able to move through reality at speeds only a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent away from the speed of light. Being so close, time would pass differently for the Clocktower Man. When at 99% of the speed of light, 15 years at this speed would in fact be 107 to those on the ground, imagine what this would be like at 99.999999....%. Time would not stand still, but it would go so slowly that the Clocktower Man would easily be able (theoretically) to move between his clocks and do his job. Also, the bubble would be difficult to reach and therefore would have to be entered through random probability, explaining how my main character could get there (seeing as death is not a constant in dream scapes, the force of something hitting you at nearly the speed of light would not be fatal, nor even damaging depending on the mind of the person). Therefore, time could slow and near infinity as well as distance, thanks to length contraction, could shrink down to nearly zero, therefore making it entirely possible for time within the bubble to be incredibly slow in comparison as well as for the bubble to whizz about unseen.
Now, this needs more thought and editing, but so far it seems pretty cool. Feel free to pick out errors. I'll need a good eye.
However.
This last unit we covered and are currently still involved with has to do with Einstein's Theory of Relativity and his study of light particles and such. I know what the problems are. I know that there are major problems with his theories due mostly to the fact that one cannot extend his theory of general relativity (gravity) to electromagnetic force having to do with atoms at the quantum scale. But I've been especially into his theories on how as you approach the speed of light, time reaches and infinity and distance reaches zero (length contraction people... you can't jump the space-time fabric, you just lose length according to the field of reference of someone who is not in motion). Although, it would be really cool to be able to jump the space time fabric, thus making both time and distance zero. But how would that work with the aging issue...
I digress and also refuse to go into that. I do not have nearly the understanding of such theories to even begin to dabble in alternate implications and such. However, what I have been learning has turned out to be invaluable to my attempt to create this story and turn it into something really interesting and cool. This is how it plays out:
First a little history on the situation: The whole idea started when I was thinking about the whole pattern of young child somehow travels to unknown world and thus bildungsroman ensues (Peter Pan [Wendy], Harry Potter, and I think also Golden Compass) and started coming up with one of my own. Young girl's mother mysteriously disappears, mother was kind of an eccentric, way into writing, daughter starts reading her mother's writing and realizes that her mother had been completely obsessed with the Land of Nod. Then we get to the huge chunk I haven't really thought through yet: girl is somehow transported to Nod (I'm pretty sure I want it to be through a clock, but a little foggy on the details) and starts search for her mother, realizes Nod is a huge mess and has to go on all sorts of quests that lead to more corruption in Nod and more having to look for her mother.
This all leads up to the scene I have been talking about: The scene with the Clocktower Men. Eventually my main character winds up in a strange room full of billions of clocks and has an experience talking to this very strange creature that calls itself the Clocktower Man (or maybe a few of them, I haven't quite decided yet). They/It is made entirely out of clocks and pieces of clocks, but is in humanoid form. The clocks, as my heroine finds out, each represent the life of someone on Earth. They have no link to the lives they mirror other than the time the person "ticks," starting from the moment they are born and wound up and ending, hopefully, when the clock winds down and has to be rewound. Of course, sometimes the Clocktower Man gets bored and smashes his clocks, but then rebuilds new ones. The idea is that he has no connection to the lives he has such power over other than time. He sees no morality just as time sees no morality, and likewise the same is present in issues of justice and intimate relationships with each life. He does not see the clocks as human lives, but as mere, impartial time pieces, and therefore feels no connection to them.
Of course, for this to work properly, time would have to be at a near standstill for the Clocktower Man in order for him to be able to carry out his function reasonably. Here is where Einstein's work comes in along with the Lorentz Factor.
Say the plain of existence in which the Clocktower Man lived was an isolated bubble and somehow able to move through reality at speeds only a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent away from the speed of light. Being so close, time would pass differently for the Clocktower Man. When at 99% of the speed of light, 15 years at this speed would in fact be 107 to those on the ground, imagine what this would be like at 99.999999....%. Time would not stand still, but it would go so slowly that the Clocktower Man would easily be able (theoretically) to move between his clocks and do his job. Also, the bubble would be difficult to reach and therefore would have to be entered through random probability, explaining how my main character could get there (seeing as death is not a constant in dream scapes, the force of something hitting you at nearly the speed of light would not be fatal, nor even damaging depending on the mind of the person). Therefore, time could slow and near infinity as well as distance, thanks to length contraction, could shrink down to nearly zero, therefore making it entirely possible for time within the bubble to be incredibly slow in comparison as well as for the bubble to whizz about unseen.
Now, this needs more thought and editing, but so far it seems pretty cool. Feel free to pick out errors. I'll need a good eye.