I've been looking into the John Titor story a lot the last few days and it led me to watch the
Steins;Gate anime. Be warned this post will contain serious spoilers.
Steins;Gate is set in 2010 and involves an organization called SERN (aka CERN), it also has a character based on John Titor, and an IBN 5100 PC (aka
IBM 5100). It is truly a very fascinating anime that deals with the concept of time travel in a multiverse where anything and everything is happening
somewhere, as proposed by Titor.
They start off using a simple machine that can send mobile (cellular) text messages to a phone in the past, provided you know the number for the
phone. Then they created a time machine which allowed them to save a persons memories (as information), then they somehow used the LHC to generate a
mini-blackhole to compress the memory data and then literally plant those memories into your past self. So your mind essentially gets transmitted into
the mind of yourself in the past. At the end they use a full fledged time machine (get in it and go) but they didn't create it, it came from the year
2036.
As I watched this show I was fascinated by the complex concepts involved. It was interesting to see how Titors time line theory might work, and it
gave me a chance to look for flaws in the concept. It seems they did pretty well in writing a story about time travel that made sense. However, there
are a few things which they either didn't account for or just simply ignored. For instance when the main character sends his memories back in time
it's unlikely that he would suddenly disappear, but that's the impression I got.
If proposition #1 is correct it means that each time the main character uses a time machine to get himself out of a sticky situation, all he's
actually doing is creating another time line on which that situation no longer has the chance to manifest. He isn't erasing entire time lines to fix
the problems. He's simply creating new ones, but those new ones don't affect the present time line. It wouldn't even appear to work unless you
transmitted physical matter, only the person in the past who received the memories or text message would know it worked.
Proposition #1 - splitting a time line
The moment something from the future enters the past is when the time line gets split. It doesn't get split when you tread on a bug or when you kill
your own father. Your mere presence in the past is a change to that timeline, thus it must split from the original. The same thing applies for any
information sent to the past. The presence of that information in a time where it didn't normally exist is in fact a change.
Problem #1 - what's actually changing?
If proposition #1 is correct, then it wouldn't it be practical to send a text, or memories, or yourself, into the past. You could send the information
(or yourself) into the past, but doing so would cause the time line to split at the exact date and time the information entered the past. It stands to
reason that the change would only affect the new time line, but the original one would remain the same.
Proposition #2 - infinite sea of potential
There is an infinite or near infinite amount of time lines with endless differences and it's impossible to tell how your actions may fracture the time
line ahead of you. Thus you can't be sure of exactly where you came from if the path(s) which you followed to get to the past are now rearranged and
altered in a way that can't be monitored or referenced with anything else.
Problem #2 - where did I come from?
If proposition #2 is correct it means that once leaving your own time line the chances of getting back to your original time line would be virtually
nil unless you had a device which could specifically tune in to certain time lines. This isn't a paradox but it is a problem. The only practical way
to tell if you've entered back into your original time line is if you are missing from that time line.
Please note that problem #2 is not really a problem with the integrity of the time line theory, but it would be a problem for any time traveler that
wanted to make sure they could get back to where they came from. Once you leave home you better be prepared to get yourself tangled in a complex web
of time lines with people who might appear to be your original friends and family, but there's no real way to tell. Even if you are missing in that
time line there's more than one reason you could be missing.
Attractor Field Convergence
This is a theory presented in Steins;Gate, I'm not sure if Titor mentioned it in real life. Apparently many time lines share the same future state,
but the events leading up to the shared state are different. These common time lines form a "time rope". A rope is made up of many threads all winding
and weaving around each other. Each thread goes from the start to the finish of the rope, but every thread takes a different route to get there.
Common destination; different path.
If this theory is correct it would suggest that there are points in the overall time line structure where multiple paths converge into the same time
line. There may in fact be singularity points in time where multiple time lines simultaneously reach a shared state and "fuse" into one time line, one
reality. The time-wave zero theory shows indications that 2012 may contain a large time singularity. It's possible that our time line converges with
others quite frequently, but on a smaller scale (deja vu could be memories of your alternative self).
edit on 17-10-2011 by ChaoticOrder
because: (no reason given)