Story submission for the project (rough)

[Clavin12]

A universe is all-encompassing and everything, and therefore if you had more than one they wouldn't be universes.

[ScrapPool]

A universe is all-encompassing and everything, and therefore if you had more than one they wouldn't be universes.

Well that kind of unnecessarily twists the definition...
Multiverse

Just sayin.

I find it highly unlikely that there will be exactly the same thing happening in another univere. The parallel universe theorem is highly unlikely. Much more likely is that each universes are simply collections of galexies, the same way galexies are collections of stars, nebulae, planets, asteroids and other space debris, with paths between them.

Indeed. Yet in fact, because there are SO many stars in our universe and SO many galaxies, it is statistically likely that if one traveled far enough, one would find a solar system nearly exactly like ours. Perhaps even with humans etc. (Don't look at me, I didn't do the math.)

A time traveller couldn't tell us because it could cause a paradox.

Now here is my only quibble with this story. (as you may or may not be able to tell, Mr X's shares a LOT with mine haha) If time travel like this were possible and it were possible to cause a universe destroying paradox by using it, the math says that there are so many Type I & II civilizations in our galaxy alone (by the best, most accepted estimates of the Drake equation, up to 10,000 civilizations more advanced than our own), that some entity with less than good intentions would have already used said time travel to destroy everything, and we wouldn't be here.

SO, id like to think that

A: by some freaky weird "Law of Causality" (to physicists, the Novikov self-consistency principle), paradoxes cannot occur. AKA: Terminator time travel solution. This theory isn't really accepted by popular American culture because
1) you have to think about it a little bit for it to make sense and 2) Americans like to think that we can determine our own destiny. This is more an illusion than anything, unless you DON'T subscribe to Quantum Decoherence. Anyways...

or

B: that time travel like this is not possible.
(C: both)

Then again I never have been very good at suspension of disbelief.  

For anybody who is unfamiliar with terminator (specifically the recent ones) or you want me to explain the Terminator time travel solution i could...
Jeez im a dork...

[Clavin12]

I think that because time travel is so complicated and almost certainly impossible (except for the normal time travel from second to second) we should just leave it out of the story. It would be much easier to use teleporters because they've already been conceived in real life, and used in the game. Using time travel would take alot of talking, and reading in the game to explain it, and thus would inhibit your ability to get into the story.

[ScrapPool]

I think that because time travel is so complicated and almost certainly impossible (except for the normal time travel from second to second) we should just leave it out of the story. It would be much easier to use teleporters because they've already been conceived in real life, and used in the game. Using time travel would take alot of talking, and reading in the game to explain it, and thus would inhibit your ability to get into the story.

You know I really hate to be a know-it-all pain in the, uh, bum...
But time travel (at least into the far future) is very real, and we see the solutions to problems caused by time travel day to day actually.
In addition if it were possible to travel faster than light- the most likely solution IMO (featured in "Full Circle") is an Alcubierre Drive- one could travel back in time, but they would have to travel the distance light travels in the desired time away from their current space. <- It makes sense eventually. trust me. (ie: you couldn't travel back in time at one location unless you had a means to get "back" to that location via some kind of instant teleportation, ergo: wormhole.)
In a more down to earth way, when they were building GPS systems, satellites originally didn't work and couldn't sync properly. This is because time runs more slowly for the satellites. This effect occurs because of general relativity. The fact is: when you are closer to a gravitational well, things happen faster. Therefore, if you spent a long time in deep space (not near gravity wells) and came back to Earth, many more years would have passed for earth than would have passed for you. What was four years for you may have been 50 for those on earth. (The beginning of Aliens anyone?) AND SO, they now build clocks which run "faster" on GPS and other satellites so that they can produce an accurate approximation of your location, they account for general relativity. In a very real way, satellites are staying a little bit in the past compared to us...

Now that im done being a pain in the er, bum...

YES time travel is very complicated!
But in my opinion, it is very entertaining and a lot of fun to think about its possibility and epic stories which cross the boundaries of worn out Terran linear time.

If you want to just relax and watch some explosions, play IA or MP.

I should hope that we could make good use of the "full brief" function of BZ SP to explain these time travel shenanigans. That's what its for. And its not like we cant have good explanations drawn out in normal briefings or in game by voice actors. If I'm playing a campaign, I want it to be interesting and make me think, because that moment when I go: "OH MY GOD THAT MAKES SENSE AND IT IS SO COOL!" is really fun for me.

But that's me.

[Mr X]

Thanks ScrapPool,

One more thing:

If you have complicated explanations as part of the breifing, I'm sure the people who dont care could just skip reading that bit, I'm sure you wouldn't need to know it to get the plot. It doesn't seem difficult does it?

But on the other hand:

I think that because time travel is so complicated and almost certainly impossible (except for the normal time travel from second to second) we should just leave it out of the story. It would be much easier to use teleporters because they've already been conceived in real life, and used in the game. Using time travel would take alot of talking, and reading in the game to explain it, and thus would inhibit your ability to get into the story.

Clavin, you are now entering Sci-fi, kindly leave simplicity at the door. One of the things that I like about Sci-fi is that it can make you think about real scientific principles and the cool things that they could enable you to do.

[Clavin12]

I'd rather go for an excellent story than cool physics and gadgets.

[Mr X]

And I'd rather have both, and this we can do. 

[AHadley]

I'm afraid I skipped those last posts, but I can't think too much right now.

I must argue, SP, that you're fast becoming one of the masters of the storylines. So far the only ones I can think of off the top of my head are NK1 and Avatar, but there are surely more out there. It's nice to have guys like you around, especially when we can all bounce theories off each other and exchange advanced physics

I think that time travel may be possible in the future, but whether it will be or not makes little difference. Paradox is a problem, yes, but not as serious as everybody makes out because either multiverse will come into effect, the change will happen as it would anyway, or it will not.

Sorry to break it down there.

And I said I wasn't in the mood for much thinking.

[Angstromicus]

Depends on the theory. In quantum mechanics, I  believe, at any one time there are an incalculable number of possibilities happening at once. Being an observer, we only get to see one outcome while all the other outcomes "stem off" into alternate universes.

With time travel, you'd go back in time and create a essentially create a new universe exactly like the one you intended to travel back to, because due to quantum mechanics a different event would result in a different universe by the perception of the observer. There would be no paradox because no matter what you do, you' never affect your own past. Just don't try and kill your own grandfather - that's despicable .

[ScrapPool]

Depends on the theory. In quantum mechanics, I  believe, at any one time there are an incalculable number of possibilities happening at once. Being an observer, we only get to see one outcome while all the other outcomes "stem off" into alternate universes.

With time travel, you'd go back in time and create a essentially create a new universe exactly like the one you intended to travel back to, because due to quantum mechanics a different event would result in a different universe by the perception of the observer. There would be no paradox because no matter what you do, you' never affect your own past. Just don't try and kill your own grandfather - that's despicable .

HECK YES! this is a popular theory. it has sparked the infinite universes theory, which postulates that becuase there are such a great number of wave-function collapses on the quantum level as certain things are observed, there must be an infinite number of universes.
An example of this is that you can demonstrate in your home that when a photon passes around a peice of wire, it passes on both sides of it at the same time () creating an interference pattern with itself on the other side.

I prefer to subsribe to a less mind-hurting theory, Quantum Decoherence which says that wave function collapse is just a symptom of a lower level quantum interaction.

[bb1]

I would never argue with scrap pool... he's done his homework. You may contribute on what he says though

[Nielk1]

I prefer the complicated, more options. I surmised in an earlier posts the time portals would require an artificial quantum observance to establish their target. A literal brain inside the black box of the portal. What if that brain dies? Do we need to throw Simmons' brain in there? Will it then lead where we want or instead to a universe of his own making? Seeing as he was a living observer at one time would it go to any point he himself saw and thus established?

I like my explanations.
Like my questions more.

[bb1]

I've never been one for "Just because that's how it is" either. I want to know why my portals teleport me, why my tank floats and why my dropship puts me 3000 meters away from base site 

Losing focus... anything that should happen, it would be advisable to give somewhat a description why or else player may feel they are playing a rails shooter.

[Mr X]

The way I see it, f something is central to the plotline you owe it to the players to explain it.

[sabrebattletank]

Hmm, I think I have it. There is a part of biometal that changes with its position in the four dimensional universe. By using a correct sequence of energy impulses you can change this and in doing so link it to the other point (assuming that the other point is also occupied by biometal) and so when something touches one it leaps to the other. Because of the complicated movement of objects in the universe it is very complex to get correct. It is even harder to link it for two points in time because:

a) It is harder to know where the biometal was/ will be.

and

b) The part of biometal that deals with its point in time is far more complex to alter.

However, once two pieces of biometal are linked there is no known way to disconnect them.

I hope that this covers it.

Maybe one of the reasons the race was so small is that every time they created a time portal, they had to make it out of one of their own: a Aztec-style sacrifice to craft the portal and bind the bio-metal to a certain instance in time, the being's death. This would explain why there is a set number of portals, and why each portal only takes you to one point in spacetime, and why they were so keen on keeping the portals out of the hands of other races: not only are the portals dangerous, but they are religiously personal.

This also flows nicely with Nielk1's idea of a brain inside the portal.

Guess which brain.