Let's all be grateful to this guy right here.
Medium-sized spoilers ahead.
What I know of quantum physics I
learned from Neil deGrasse Tyson’s reboot of Cosmos last year. I had
Physics in high school, but I did not pay attention. I was too busy… not paying
attention. Interstellar is a film
about travelling through a black hole, and putting the theory of relativity
through practical paces. There is no time travel per se, and what I gleaned from
it was merely an observation about the entire idea of time travel.
So, it is a bit of a tease that I
wrote about this movie. Sue me.
McConaughey’s character, an
astronaut on a mission to find another habitable planet, unexpectedly finds
himself adrift through a black hole. During a sequence that is sure to break
some brains, he observes his daughter from decades before. (I kinda saw this
coming. ) It is time travel by observation only, and the slightest of interaction. What Interstellar
and the science behind black holes does is alter our perception of time. It is, as mentioned it the film, another
dimension; one that can be manipulated and bent.
That is the physics behind what we
have theorized about the mechanics of time and gravity. What is also understood is that there is no backwards. There are no working theories behind
travelling backward through time. As of
today, it is a concept. An idea. A fiction.
That’s where I come in.
I’ve watched all of these movies and
read a sizeable stack of books about time travel. One thing is clear, the way in which time
travel works is completely up to the writer. Can you go back and kill Hitler or not? What
happens when you come back? Can you come
back? We don’t really know if it is anything
more than an idea, so we can shape that idea to fit our narrative. There is no wrong way to do it
scientifically. It only makes sense if
we make some sense out of it for the reader.
Harry Potter’s wand can shoot out
spells, remember spells, have relationships with other wands, and, it knows
exactly who is wielding it. We know this
because Jo Rowling said so. Those are
the physics of this magical stick that doesn’t exist. George Lucas created a
laser beam that just stops in midair after about 3 feet. It is a lightsaber, and we bought it. I have to try and sell my version of
disturbing space-time.
I am attempting a story of my own. It is big and it is made out of a few other
projects that stumbled or ran out of steam.
I have to make a very big decision how the time travel will work. I get
to do it. I get to create time
travel. It is like creating a tiny
system of governance for one small world. It has to be consistent, and obey the
laws that I establish. I get to also
make the laws and decide when to disclose them. I am the creator! My ego
aside, I am hesitant, because it needs to be just right for the story I want to
tell.
Loop
time travel? Single string? Consciousness time travel won’t work. A combination? Can combinations work?
Every
single idea of time travel is fraught with paradox. It is one of the reasons we
can’t get our heads around it. It is a
zero in the denominator. It is
undefined. I have to make an excuse for the paradox, or accept that there is no
way around it. I have to remember that this is fiction first; I’m not trying to
prove my favorite flavor of travelling through time would actually work.
So
there was a method to the madness of writing all these blog things where I
break down time travel stuff. It’s all a
bit of research.
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