the ever-evolving time travel post

[roxybisquaint]

Happiness is...
An hour long discussion with the man about time travel.

I've always gone with the multiple timelines theory, but life_on_queen argues there's a single timeline in the TSCC verse. So after a brief "single timeline!" / "multiple timelines!" exchange, I took the discussion to real life and mentioned it to the man. He wasn't interested in talking

Comments

[zanpakto]

Is the timeline is changed everytime they send something back? Does that timeline that already happened get erased? Or can that possible future still affect the past by sending something back to a point in time. I get confused easy, I need pictures. I'd love to draw it out with T1,T2,T3 included someday. My dry erase might not be big enough.

Oh isnt it next week we find out terminators are sent way into the past? lol. benjamin franklin terminator.

[roxybisquaint]

The way I view multiple timeline theory, the timeline that the time traveler came from would not get erased. It would still exist, but the people in that timeline would never be able to access the new timeline that gets created when someone time jumps backwards. In other words, a new timeline starts at the point where the time jumper landed. The people from the original future could still travel back in their timeline, though.

That might make more sense if you look at the diagram I've added to my original post.

[roxybisquaint]

Actually, I've had to alter my thoughts on when a new timeline gets created because of time travel issues with T1. If you're up for it, I added a rather lengthy explanation in the original post.

[zanpakto]

It would be cool if they built more hidden time machines, weapons & bunkers like that. Because right now, they don't have a good plan to fight.

I just thought of this....If sarah and john jump too far back or forward, then they might get stranded. John needs to be there for the war at the right age he will be in order to send people, terminators, build time machines. Its not like the Delorean, where the machine goes with. If he ever does a major jump he needs a tech to go with him, or skynet might win in his absence.

[roxybisquaint]

Well I think the reason they aren't spending time formulating plans for what to do after judgement day is because they're focused on stopping judgement day. But I'm sure Sarah has contingency plans ("That's my mom. She always plans ahead." - John from T2).

Also, I don't think we have to worry about more time machines popping up. Having Sarah and John jump forward to get them to present day was a nice device to set the series up, but if they did more time jumping themselves, I'm sure there would be much eye-rolling among the fans. It's bad enough we've got new people and machines popping in all the time.

[trinfaneb]

In S.M. Stirling's T2 follow-up novels, Skynet believes the whole timeline situation exists because of "the persistence of "several alternative world-lines" coexisting in "a state of quantum superimposition." I haven't been able to grok everything into a unified theory myself, but this sounds better than anything else I've heard thus far.

[roxybisquaint]

I liked the sound of "several alternative world-lines" coexisting in "a state of quantum superimposition" so much that I had to go do some reading about it. That lead me to quantum superposition and multiverses, which is apparently the theory that I've been all into. At least now I know what to call it ;)

[trinfaneb]

I'm glad I gave you something to think about :) I wish I had the math ability to understand quantum superimposition myself. Very interesting diagram and theories. I wonder if the various Terminator writers have ever put this much thought into this issue? :)

[roxybisquaint]

Oh me too (wish I had the math ability to understand it). I find quantum mechanics fascinating, but can't grasp it the principles behind it.

Heh. If TSCC writers were concerned with timelines they wouldn't have screwed up simple dates so quickly in the series. But I get the feeling James Cameron put a lot of thought into it. I think he settled for a paradoxical loop in a single timeline, though. This has to happen because it did, kind of thing. The problem I have with that is it runs counter to "The future's not set. There is not fate but what we make." He wanted it both ways ;)

[miniglik]

Ah, mr miniglik and myself discuss time travel quite often. It's fun

[roxybisquaint]

Yeah, seems to me that any single timeline theory either has to go into the hokey Back to the Future idea (that changes in the past make instant changes in the same/original future) or it's a fate/predestination thing where you can't affect the future. I don't find either of those plausible.

Oh, good point about John not warning Sarah to destroy all the T-800 parts! That really never occurred to me. Then again, there are lots of things John could be telling Sarah via time travelers that he never does. But I agree that there had to be an original timeline to the story where Skynet does not develop from the hand and chip left at the Cyberdyne factory. I also think the first John Connor (who sent Kyle back) would have had a different father.

I updated my post to include a diagram if you're curious what we were drawing.

[spectralbovine]

Awesome.

My roommate and I once did this with 12 Monkeys. We used a whiteboard.

[roxybisquaint]

Oh man... 12 Monkeys. Now there's a mind twisting timeline. I can see why a whiteboard would be needed!