Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.xbooks
Subject: Re: Paradoxes
From: Ernie Oporto <EAO102@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 21:46:15 EST
Distribution: world
Organization: The Pennylvania State University

In article <1da9qvINN5q1@bigboote.WPI.EDU>, mikecap@lizardo.WPI.EDU (Michael
Vince Caprio Jr) says:
>
>Actually, paradoxes bring up a quite interesting point.  Say, for the sake of
>argument that time travel is possible.  O.k. fine.  Now the atoms that make up
>your body have existed for a long time - in fact, they have ALWAYS existed.
>This means that no matter when you travel through time - YOU WILL MEET YOUR
>PAST SELF.  Think about it.  If the particles that you consist of have always
>existed, then aren't you DOUBLING the number of particles of you that exist
>at that moment when you travel in time???  If this was so, then theoretically,
>you could keep time traveling to one spot until an infinite number of "yous"
>existed there.  Meanwhile, the particles that were you in your present have

Well, that is if the tomatoes and what-not I ate last week are still in their
original form.  Those particles didn't always exist together in the form I now
call "me."  So there are no "me"s to meet before 1969, unless I am counting on
meeting the multitude of things that came to make "me."  And we lose parts of
ourselves (skin flakes for example) everyday.  Those were only part of us for
a little part of our existence.  And what about after I die?  The only "me"
left will be part of some worms.  True, the particles would keep adding up,
and they'd be conserved throughout the timeline, but not as infinite "me"s.

>"vanished".  However, the total number of particles in the timeline is
>CONSERVED.  When your particles move through time from one point to another,
>some of the universe ceases to exist at one point and moves to another.  What
>is the implication of this?  An infinite number of "yous" exist across all of
>space and time - all existing at once.  Essentially, this means that there is
>a quantization of time *somewhere*; there must be.  If this is so, then with

Whoa!  Thats a big leap there!  How do you connect quantized time with many
"you"s?  I don't see it...that came out of the blue at me.

>every passing moment a new universe is created - one different in some respect
>from the one that came before it a quantum of time ago.

That could be, but it also might not...

>This is what Marvel does when time travel occurs.  Since all possible
>realities
>and all the "yous" in them exist all at once "time travel" involves skipping
>across the different realities.  Apparently the technology in the Marvel
>universe now only allows "time travel" by travelling to alternate realities,
>including the natural powers of mutants.  It could be that the natural laws of
>the Marvel universe only allow that kind of travel - we know that Dr. Doom
>acquired time sequencers from another dimension (probably somewhere else in
>the
>Omniverse) that did allow intra-dimensional time travel.  These devices may
>have operated under different physical laws.
>At any rate, the situation is that Cable is a time-traveler, and there may be
>an alternate realities juncture involved.  At any rate, it is entirely
>possible
>for two of the same person to exist at any time...at the same time, even
>within
>the Marvel wimp-writer time travel clause.

Of course, it's a story.  The writer makes it whatever he wants.
I understand what you're trying to say about how Cable and Stryfe could be the
same person, but the Q/timeline thing doesn't seem to fly...
---
"I've got a bad feeling about this...."
  _____)           ______        _)       _)  EAO102@PSUVM.PSU.EDU
                               __       __    OPORTO@CORVETTE.ECE.PSU.EDU
______    ______            ___      ___      Ernie "SHOKK" Oporto
                               __       __    Computer Lab Attendant
(_______ _      _ ________ _     _) _     _)  for PSU's CAC Department
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.xbooks