The Timestream

The timestream or time stream is a metaphorical conception of time as a stream, a flowing body of water. In Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, the term is more narrowly defined as: "the series of all events from past to future, especially when conceived of as one of many such series". Timestream is the normal passage or flow of time and its historical developments, within a given dimension of reality. The concept of the time stream, and the ability to travel within and around it, are the fundamentals of a genre of science fiction.
This conception has been widely used in mythology and in fiction.
This analogy is useful in several ways:
*Streams flow only one way. Time moves only forward.
*Streams flow constantly. Time never stops.
*People can stand in a stream, but will be pulled along by it. People exist within time, but move with it.
*Some physicists and science fiction writers have speculated that time is branching—it branches into alternate universes (see many-worlds interpretation). Streams can converge and also diverge.
Science fiction scholar Andrew Sawyer writes, "The paradoxes of time—do we move in time, or does it move by us? Does it exist or is it merely an illusion of our limited perception?—are puzzles that exercise both physicists and philosophers
Bob is sent to the future or past to help "someone important". When he arrives there, he finds that the person he has to help is him. After all, who else could Bob trust?
The type of 'help' given varies. It may be a rescue, it may be assisting in a battle, it may just be going back in time to tell yourself "Do NOT drink the punch!" This often plays out in reverse too, the hero is helped by an Anonymous Benefactor who he or she later realizes was (or will be, or had been — gah!)themselves all along.
When the Past self goes to the future, he may end up realizing he's a jerk in the future, and strive to change that when he returns to the past. If the Future self goes to the past, before leaving, he may impart some wisdom that will come in handy when the time is right, or be disgusted at how weak, evil, or stupid he used to be.
Note that saving your own life, or basically doing anything that enables you to travel in the first place, causes an ontological paradox.
Contrast Never the Selves Shall Meet. Compare Retroactive Preparation. Depending on whether or not it's a Bad Future, related to Future Me Scares Me. If while helping yourself, you get a little too friendly with yourself you may end up Screwing Yourself. Compare My Own Grampa. In that trope, you help your present self (in that you preserve your existence) by doin' the nasty in the past-y. 
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Category:Time Space
Category:universe