From: CXMP <CXMP@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA>
Subject: RE: Paradoxes
Organization: McGill University
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 22:37:58 GMT

In article <1da9qvINN5q1@bigboote.WPI.EDU> mikecap@lizardo.WPI.EDU (Michael Vince Caprio Jr) writes:
>
>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
>"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
>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.
>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.
>
I've copied the entire article because it *is* interesting.  However,
there is a simpler explanation, namely alternate timelines.  In Chris
Claremont's time travel stories, the characters would travel to or from
alternate futures.  If an entire alternate universe exists, then it is
academic as to whether there is someone who corresponds to yourself.
These alternate realities would come into being when an event occurs
that can change history.  Actually, this could in principle be any event
I suspect that a good rule of thumb is that it has to be a cosmic event
like the "death" of Phoenix.

The explanation I've just given doesn't address whether or not the
total number of particles in the multiverse is conserved.  Actually,
this need not be the case.  What *does* need to be conserved is the
total *energy* since energy can be interchanged with
particle/antiparticle pairs.  As long as you can bring in energy and
dispose of antiparticles (to the (a?) negative zone?) you can create
new particles.  Of course, the alternative is that the alternate
realities always existed and always were exactly the same as our own
until they diverged but this wiewpoint doesn't seem to be as appealing.
>
>P.S.  Can somebody crosspost this to rec.arts.comics?  I'm not sure how to do
>it, being inexperienced to the system and all.

rec.arts.comics is dead and the people on rec.arts.comics.misc don't
want to hear about mutants apparently.

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