Time Travel

A knock on the head worked for Mark Twain. Or going through a door, a dream, walking through a mist, or staring into the eye of a supposedly extinct fish. A heart attack. Death. Anything violent. Rubbing an ancient coin. Step around a column of the Parthenon, and there you are in ancient Greece. Combine them: rub a coin, then have a heart attack. Get mugged in the Parthenon, knocked out; wake up and the builder is yelling at you.

I'm not absolutely sure about this - but what about human will through time regression? I don't know whether you've ever seen anything on "out of body" experiences where people have been able to will themselves out of their bodies and into the "spirit world". My idea would be an extension of that wherein the character would be able to work his or her mind back through time (maybe in a somewhat hypnotic situation induced by a natural event like falling rain or snow) and then at whatever point the character wanted to join the past - will himself/herself out of the body and into the period of time. One caution, from what I've read about out of body experiences (and from the one person I know who tried it), it's damned hard to get back. Puma

You can get around paradoxes by appealing to the "many worlds" theory of quantum physics. As for the you can't change destiny, that's rather old.

My mind jumped to a play by David Ives. Every time the couple (who were just meeting) said something wrong, a bell would ring and they would get a second or third chance to do the right thing.

Perhaps, you could give your character something that allows him not to just go back, change one thing, and return to the present, but jump back to a point and then relive everything (while retaining the same knowledge). Put a limit of times he can do this. Then, after he's used all his chances and he achieves the same fate, he realizes that fate is set.

katatonic said:

Yea, you're right the destiny thing is old but what isn't. Everything's been done. However, it will be fairly subtle in my story and only really emerges at the ending where it results in the same outcome.

I should also mention that this is a screenplay too and i don't want to make it all sci-fi'ish, if you get what i mean.

Cheers

Oh, Julie i was wondering where does staring into the eye of a supposedly extinct fish come from?

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Hmm, if it's not "sci-fi-ish" then the other big alternative is metaphysical. Perhaps have an angel take the person back. The angel doesn't have to say anything, just appear, and then in a whiff of Holy Smoke they're both at the desired place and time period.

Who's decision is it to do this? From what little context you've given, I'm thinking it might be the angel's. Just before disapppearing and leaving the character in the past, the angel might say "once you complete your task here, you will return home," thus the character knows he/she's got to do something.

Time Bandits had a map that led them to the holes in the universe. You could use something like that, on a localized basis.

If it works for your story, perhaps a talisman? Suppose he finds an old astrolabe or a compass (no, not the Omni from "Voyagers"), and if he twiddles with it exactly right, it will take him back-? Of course, there'd be a limit on how many times he could invoke it, and the device won't indicate its limit. So he never knows if it's hit its limit, so he could get stranded in 1740, or go back to his own time and be unable to time travel further...

Just a thought.

The movie Donnie Darko gives an interesting view on time travel. I suggest you watch it, it might be really helpful (if it's not, at least you'll enjoy a really good film).

1) Human Will Regression: Watch "Out of Time" with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

2) YOu could have the person be the one that seals the fate, and realize that if he hadn't gone back, the fate wouldn't have been sealed....

RG

Witchcraft.

At least that's what I'm running with.

Robert E. Howard wrote several stories about a character named James Allison -- a wheelchair-bound man from Texas who was but a shadow of his former self. In the story "The Marchers of Valhalla", Allison is visted by a goddess who unlocks his memories of a "Pre-historic Texas filled with barbarian hordes, lost cities, and that magnificent, beautiful, death-loving sense of wonder REH had."*

REH had several other stories that explored past lives and 'racial memory'.

Best,

Scott


*From a review at Fire and Sword.

Weird...I always get that title wrong...

So, how about the action is happening in the past, but there is some sort of opportunity to change the past, like in that X-Files re: the ship where Mulder just slips into the past? You don't need a mechanic unless it's realy important...

FR

FinbarReilly said:

1) Human Will Regression: Watch "Out of Time" with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

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It's 'Somewhere In Time' and I was thinking the very same thing. Plus, it's a very pretty movie. And it makes me cry.

Traversable wormholes have not been exploited enough in Sci Fi.

It is a true strong current theory.

Einstein proposed that a time machine IS possible but from the moment a special machine is made and engaged on. He believed in wormholes as the best way to go back in time.


If I wrote a time-based sci fi I would go back in a wormhole, make Einsteins machine and come back. I think under that theory, I would come back to just prior to the time I went back since I would have to program the machine before going back in the past.

The complications resulting from tht scenario are awesome. Hey, maybe I wil write one lol.

benbradley said:

Hmm, if it's not "sci-fi-ish" then the other big alternative is metaphysical. Perhaps have an angel take the person back. The angel doesn't have to say anything, just appear, and then in a whiff of Holy Smoke they're both at the desired place and time period.

Who's decision is it to do this? From what little context you've given, I'm thinking it might be the angel's. Just before disapppearing and leaving the character in the past, the angel might say "once you complete your task here, you will return home," thus the character knows he/she's got to do something.

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Or the Ghost of Christmas Past could shove them into the scene...

katatonic said:

Hey everyone,

I'm having a little trouble coming up with ideas on how one could time travel without a time machine.

I guess i'm looking for a new, original way that doesn't require a time machine or some sort of device/mechanism.

Any input would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

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I'm currently reading a novel - Time Lottery - in which characters "travel time" when scientists and doctors help them subconsciously revert to places in their memories. I can't explain it eloquently, but the "travelers" are able to change their past by the decisions they make and, potentially, choose to say there. Check it out! I think it's done feasibly, in a fascinating way.

I read an article in one of those Science magazines (Not an SF mag, a Science mag) where someone wrote that time travel is scientifically possible -- IF you go forward in time. According to the article, going back in time is an impossibility.

The methods the article listed included everything from flying in an airplane (they say you travel ahead in time depending upon which direction, East or West, you travel in a jet liner), to traveling forward in time using a Supermassive Black Hole, etc.

Of course, I don't know where to find this information, so you'll have to do some digging to find this article. I do seem to remember this article being located in an Astronomy magazine, and in fact, it might have been named 'Astronomy' Magazine. So you might want to start your search there.

I hope this helps you out to some extent. Best wishes with your manuscript.

The impossibility of going back in time depends on how you define it.

It is a reasonably strong scientific theory that if you could be on a planet 100 light-years "right now" and had the technology to see earth with something like a big-ole-hairy telescope, you would be observing earth 100 years ago.

hence the wormhole theory. hop a wormy and you are on planet 100 and get you a Hubble X 1,000,000,000,000 and you are observing The Chicago Cubs Defeating the New York Giants (yes NY) 4-2 to get into the World Series with Detroit in thier last World Champ year.

Kind of makes ya wanna do it huh?

rtilryarms said:

The impossibility of going back in time depends on how you define it.

It is a reasonably strong scientific theory that if you could be on a planet 100 light-years "right now" and had the technology to see earth with something like a big-ole-hairy telescope, you would be observing earth 100 years ago.

hence the wormhole theory. hop a wormy and you are on planet 100 and get you a Hubble X 1,000,000,000,000 and you are observing The Chicago Cubs Defeating the New York Giants (yes NY) 4-2 to get into the World Series with Detroit in thier last World Champ year.

Kind of makes ya wanna do it huh?

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There was a book written, I think it was called Macroscope, by Piers Anthony, maybe? Anyway, it had that idea. Only problem is, there would really be no resolution to actually see anything of that detail from such a distance, regardless of how powerful the telescope.

Go to Amazon and read the description of a book called House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier. Some interesting time travel caveats in that book.

There was some book, can't remember the exact title, something about an exile, where a scientist built a time machine that only worked in one location on earth, only could send people back in time, and only went to one particular time period. Adding lots of twists and complications to something like time travel makes for a better story. Seems like the time traveler's wife did that as well.

Deb Kinnard said:

If it works for your story, perhaps a talisman? Suppose he finds an old astrolabe or a compass (no, not the Omni from "Voyagers"), and if he twiddles with it exactly right, it will take him back-? Of course, there'd be a limit on how many times he could invoke it, and the device won't indicate its limit. So he never knows if it's hit its limit, so he could get stranded in 1740, or go back to his own time and be unable to time travel further...

Just a thought.

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I like that idea. Another would be to have some Da Vinci fanatic going through his notes and finds some diagram of a device with only a few criptic notes by Da Vinci. He tries building the device and it causes some version of time travel.