A Guide To The Realm Of Temporal Physics

By Alastair Roberts

Please Read

This document is many many years out of date, and is due to be replaced in the next year with a new document which will complement the new edition of the TARDIS Manual. Several terms and concepts mentioned in this document (time twists, time-tangles, limelight, timelock, fating) are in fact © Copyright Earl Wajenburg, and are blatantly lifted from his excellent Time Riders manual.

This manual is the definite source book for all matters concerning time. Time travel, temporal theorys, dimensions, and everything connected with time is presented in this guide.

The book is also written for Game Masters (GMs) who would like to run a temporal scenerio but do not know how to control all the paradoxes the inventive Player Characters (PCs) think up. Eg, “Drax and I are going back in time to warn ourselves to prepare to travel into the future to fetch our earlier selves and then go back again after going back the first time to meet together to rebuild stonehenge in the past.”

1.0 Time

Before discussing anything else the definition of time must be understood. The ancients believed time to be a complex element while philosphers argue that time does not exist. In this manual the defintion of time is it is the fourth dimension of the space-time continuum. Time distiungues otherwise identical space-time events.

2.0 Temporal theory

For temporal theory and time travel, a GM has a number of options.

Simply disregard time travel altogether.
Allow Relavistic time travel only, i.e. by obtaining high velocities approaching the speed of light you can visit the future only, e.g. a one way trip.
Circular (linear) theory of time: The simplist of the temporal theorys. Includes the space-time vortex dimension.
Parallel (nonlinear) theory of time: An advanced form of 3. Time travel to the past is not predestined and absolute fating is not possible. Timelocks and Limelight do not exist apart from in the form of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect.
Complex nonlinear temporal theory: This states that time travel is predestined. Fating, Timelocks and Limelight can occur. History cannot be changed.
Complex nonlinear flex time theory: This is an advanced form of 5. It states that history can indeed be changed, but getting back to your original time is harder. It involves multiple dimensions of time.
Quantum singuarlity theory: This theory proposes that time travel to the past, future or present is allowable at sub light speed but changes in the ‘past’ or ‘future’ do not effect you as you made those changes in a parallel dimension. It is impossible to effect your own world.
Time wave theory: As above but the changes never catch up with you. You could blow the world up in 5AD but those changes would never affect you in your present. Time is regarded as a wave, the space-time contiuum is treated like a semi-flux meduim.

2.1 CIRCULAR (LINEAR) THEORY OF TIME

The following theory is based on the first draft of the TARDIS Manual's time travel chapter, with substantial alterations, ammendments and expansion on the original material. The TARDIS Manual itself no longer contains this draft, as its time travel chapter has since been completely rewritten.

The general theory of time travel that most events are regulated by is called the circular theory of time (travel). This theory requires one to picture the space-time dimensions as a 'laser disk', a circular plane with a start point at the centre (event one). As time passes everything moves out in a spiralling fashion until the end of the 'disk' is reached. At this point it is theorised that time runs backwards (the UET) and all event waves now head towards event one. The circular theory of time also allows the idea of separating your PEW from your origin wave and then skipping to another point in the space-time dimension. This is how many time-craft travel: through a dimension outside the 'disk' called the space-time vortex.

Using the 'laser disk' idea again, imagine each track of information, each groove, as a time track. Your PEW is the read head. As time passes your PEW advances through time (the read head spirals to the outer rim of the disc). Picture this and you have grasped the concept of time tracks.

2.1.1 The Significance of time tracks

Time tracks are essential for navigating the time dimension. To this end the TARDIS is equipped with time dimension tracker, a small tube like object that has a very delicate crystal embedded within. Now, picture again the laser disk. When the TARDIS dematerialises the read head lifts from the laser disk. It can now be placed on any track on the disk and at any position on that track. This is what happens when the TARDIS enters the space-time vortex. It looses its ties with time. When the TARDIS lands (the replacing of the read head on a different section of the disk) its link with the time dimension is restored. It is the time dimension tracker that controls the linking and de- linking with time. Your PEW (read head) must be replaced within the space-time dimension or else you will be displaced from your temporal signature and will exist in a different dimension of time than everyone else. The time dimension tracker deactivates all the TARDIS's links with its former time including the TARDIS exterior shell.

2.1.2 Track Jumping

Track jumping is when you are displaced into the future without a true PEW (the technical name for the wave part of your temporal signature). Your PEW will no longer exist as a singularity. There will be your PEW which signifies your existence in your current dimension and the other true part which is lagging behind you. You have jumped a section of time and do not exist until your PEW has caught up with you. For example, you arrive at a unnamed planet but the time dimension tracker does not operate. You venture outside the TARDIS and may notice strange phenomena: you cannot make any physical impact on the terrain though you will still experience gravitational forces, you may see people but they will not see/hear you and you cannot hear or touch them. You will be experiencing a time in the future and may well see yourself. Until the time dimension tracker operates you will exist in the future and you will travel through time as normal (i.e. age etc). When the time dimension tracker operates your PEW will be returned to the time track and you will exist as normal. You will stay exactly where you are and there will be indications as where you have been since your PEW was displaced.

2.1.3 Track Skipping

This is the term given to the process when a timeship dematerialises from one point in space-time and rematerialises in another. In effect, the timeship is skipping tracks, travelling to tracks long past or journeying ahead of the event wave. Track Skipping is really another name for temporal displacement or ‘time travel’.

2.1.4 Track Repetition

Track repetition or, more crudely put, a time loop, occurs when an event wave travels in a nonlinear fashion. In track terms, a time loop is comparable to a faulty laser disk which constantly repeats the same section of the disk again and again. Track repetition can occur for a definite of infinite length of time. Track repetition can be engineered and can also occur due to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. The effects of track repetition can also be paradoxical; in this case the nonlinear theory of time must be used. For example, a planet's life was created by a time craft from the future which travelled to the age of creation and engineered the formation of essential amino acids. Paradoxical loops can occur when event waves repeat through the time dimension and coexist at two points of space-time in the same temporal period.

2.2 PARALLEL (NONLINEAR) THEORY OF TIME

This theory complements the circular theory by introducing the concepts of parallel time dimensions. Time, like space, has dimensions of its own. These extra time dimensions represent other worlds, worlds which alter because of time travel. By starting off with the circular theory, we could state that by displacing back in time and changing events, a new future is mapped out from the point of interference. This alternative time dimension could diverge little from established history, or it could be wildly different from the normal time. The difference is shown on a parallel time graph by the distance between the normal time dimension and the varied time dimension.

[Parallel time dimension graph showing three dimensions of time]

So by altering a past event, the events that did happen still occurred, but in a different dimension of time. Thinking back to the circular theory, it is like having two or more laser disks. These alternative realities, parallel time dimensions, whatever you may call them, are created when a Alternative Reality Wave diverges from the Normal Reality Stream.

When two time dimensions are existing in parallel, the dimension which takes priority is the one that is furthest away from the Normal Reality Stream, i.e. the lowest down. This is because event waves are effected by a time dimension warping similar to space- time warping that occurs due to gravitation. This may seem far fetched and unnecessary complicated but in fact this law is why there is the golden rule of time; 'never change history'. Because of this effect any changed made to history will effect the present and future of all individuals concerned. Once history has been interfered with and the meddler returns to his present, he will return to a parallel present which has diverged from the Normal Reality Stream. This is unavoidable as there is no way at present to work against this temporal 'gravity'. To make matters clear, refer to the diagram below.

[Diagram showing temporal 'gravity' at work]

3.0 Methods of time travel

This section details time ships, starting with the earliest experiments with time travel and ending with the futuristic craft which operate instantaneous temporal displacement.

1866 AD- THE ELECTRO-STATIC FIELD GENERATOR (RANK 2)
This represents the first attempt at time travel. Discovered in the late nineteenth century, this process used the principles of static electricity, electromagnetism and wave theory. The following extract represents the temporal theory.

   A mirror reflects a wave, does is not? So you may be standing in 
   one place, but may appear to be standing fifty feet away. 
   Following the new investigations by J Clark Maxwell into electro-
   magnetism and the experiments by Faraday into static electricity, 
   [we] tried to define the image in the mirror, and then to project
   it [into time].

   144 mirrors, subjected to positve electric charges were used. Like 
   charges repel, do they not? We attempted to repel the image in the 
   mirror. This was unsuccesful. We then tried negative electricty 
   but to no avail. Only with static electricity did our experiments 
   produce results...

This device cannot transport any device through time. It is impossible to use electric charge to manipulate light waves as electromagnetic radiation is uneffected by electric fields. However, this device acted as a primitive beacon, creating disturbances in the sub-space dimension. As a freak side effect, small ‘holes’ could be opened up within the space-time continuum which allow time corridors to operate with a greater range. It was superceeded by the time polarity control.

1975 AD - TIME POLARITY CONTROL (RANK 3)
This device was sucessfully built in a prototype form in 1975. It’s function was to accelerate a local region of the space-time continuum. For those inside the region, time outside will seem to be running in ‘fast forward’ or even ‘reverse’. Those on the outside see everything in an opposing view to those inside. If those inside saw the world in fast motion, then the world would view those inside as acting in slow motion, and vice versa. Depending on the Frame of Reference, time is running at different speeds. In effect, this device operates a parallel time continuum. Another form of this device worked in reverse: the time continuum within a very small area could be accelerated or reversed, those outside the area would notice nothing although local time would be subject to side effects such as finite looping.

c5000 AD - DOUBLE NEXUS PARTICLE UNIT (RANK 4)
The discovery of the double-nexus particle lead many scientists to believe that STL time travel was possible. This was not true; there were many flaws with the DNPU, but only it’s advances will discussed here. The power consumption was small, the physical size was that of a small cabinet and it could actually ‘travel’ in time, i.e. temporal displacement. The side effects were that it rearranged the travellers cells producing molecular destabilisation and extreme stress. This device was the first to the use the dimension dubbed the space-time vortex.

- TIME CORRIDOR (RAND 5)
Time corridors are passages through the space-time vortex. Time corridors acted as one way portals to a certain space-time event. They had their limitations: they were controlled at one end only, they were immobile and the passage of time displaced was limited by the powering device at the controlling end. The accuracy of the entry point location was also poor. Many forms of time corridor were availible including time contours which are an even cruder form of transport.

c20000- STANDARD TIME CRAFT (RANK 6)
These craft can travel freely through time although the journey is not without its problems. The journey can cause stress and fatigue. These craft are usually powered by energy crystals or power banks. A SIDRAT would be an example of a rank 6 machine.

- SUPERIOR TIME CRAFT (RANK 7)
These craft would be able to traverse all four dimensions freely. The TARDIS would be an example of a superior time craft.

- TEMPORAL TELEPORTATION (RANK 8)
A machine that can teleport a being instantaeously (with respect to the beings time) from one time to another would be in this class. Early versions required a sender and a reciever, advanced units could operate open ended.

- TELETEMPORT (RANK 9)
This term is used to describe a device that can transfer a cargo anywhere and to anytime virtually instantaenously. The Time Ring would be an example of this.

- SUPERIOR TELETEMPORT (RANK 10)
This supreme rank is reserved for beings that can traverse through time and space freely, without limitations.

TEMPORAL PHENOMENA

TIME WINDS: Blowing through the space-time vortex, time winds are a deadly energy which is are thought to be primarily made up of delta particles.
TIME CONTOUR: Time Contours are what creates time tracks. They can be used for a primitive form of time travel.
TIME DESTRUCTOR: A rank 3 time device, the time destructor operates on the reverse priciple of the time polarity control. The area of effect was increased to a terrestrial level. This device was created by the Dalek race and was powered by tarranuim.
TIME RAM: The result of when two objects dematerialise from any dimension into an identical event. Can have disatarous effects.
BLINOVITCH LIMITATION EFFECT: This combines the effects of Timelock and Limelight. The Blinovitch limitation effect exists in order to make flex-time gameing possible. It states that it is impossible to keep going back to try and correct events. This is because movement in the fifth dimension is uncontrollable and that it is impossible to remove a time-stream diversion. In practice, it operates as follows. Imagine a situation where the outcome of some war was undesirable to a time travelling party. They discover that the death of one key man started off the chain of events that led to a full scale war. The group decides to prevent the death of this man by protecting him at all time, acting as unseen body guards. They try to protect the man but a hidden sniper catches the time travellers off guard and kills the VIP. There is instant outrage on both sides and the war quickly develops. The travelers have failed but when they return it is in history that a group of travelers appeared about the time of the sniping. Anyway, they go back again to try and change history. However, personal history can never be changed
DIFFERING JOURNEY TIMES: The converse of a Temporal Inrush. An journey back one unit of time is quicker than a journey forward one unit of time from the same point. In practice this means reaching the begining of the universe is quick but reaching the end takes nearly forever. This is because as an object travels forwards in time, the time tracks widen out.
OBJECT DUPLICATION: This occurs where two identical objects from different times are brought together. In essence it is similar to meeting yourself. For example, you travel into the future and get your copy of this book. Taking it back to your time machine you arrive back to your present. You now have 2 copies of this book. This is allowable but note that the future object will have disappeared from it’s space-time event and that the object is effectively acting as a interference in the past. This trick does not work conversely, i.e. you cannot take an object from the present to the future as all future objects are linked to present objects and all present objetcs are linked by the past object. In practice: A traveller decides to go into the future (one day) and empty his bank account. This he does and upon returning to his present delights on now having twice as much money. He puts his extra money into his account and then waits and sees what happens. After a day he checks his account balance. His account would be back to normal! The lifetime of a future object is up to the date when it was removed from the futuere. Object duplication can also happen with people. The same applies here. For example, I go into the future one minute and take a friend back into my present. There are now two friends, one from the future and one from the present. Upon reaching the time where I took my friend from the future the original friend will dissapear and the friend stolen from the future will be back in his normal time-stream.
TIME-TWIST (LINEAR): When people have met you before but you have not met them and vice versa. Eg, you meet your long lost cousin for the first time in Loch Ness. Then, you travel back in time and meet him again (this time in L.A - he travels a lot). This would be your second meeting for you and your first meeting for him. Like relativity, none of you are right. It is neither the first or second meeting. It is relative to the individual. When you return back to your present your cousin will now claim to have met you the number of times you have met him. This is normal. Only when someone is living outside his present will timetwists occur.
TIMETWIST (NONLINEAR): When people have met you before but you have not met them (yet.) As the Linear Time-twist except the confusion is two-way. Using the first example, you meet your cousin in Loch Ness. He claims that he has all ready met you although you have never seen him in your life. You then travel back in time and meet him earlier. He now claims this is your first encounter yet it is your turn to insist that it is the second!. The nonlinear timetwist occurs with only the complex nonlinear temporal theorys.
FATING (NONLINEAR): A more extreme version of time-twisting. As the above example except when you meet your cousin in Loch Ness he claims that you have cut off his arm. When you arrive in L.A you some how cut off your cousins arm, so fulfulling fate. This only happens with the complex non-linear theorys.
LIMELIGHT: Natural oppostion that prevents time travellers from visiting important events in history (past and future).
TIMELOCK: A more powerful effect of Limelight, timelocks are impossible to get pass. They are also very dangerous.
TIME LOOPS: When event A happens because of event B and event B happens because of event A. Technically, the causality of events if being turned on its head. Cause is effect and then suddenly the effect is the cause of the original effect! In practice, time loops can occur under any temporal theory although technically they cannot exist under the loop theorys of time. In practice, however, the Blinovitch limitation effect can stipulate a time loop within a parallel theory of time.
TRACK REPETITION: Not to be confused with a time loop, track repitition is often an artificial effect that is either purposely created or is a side effect of a primitive temporal device. The consequence of a repetiton is that time will repeat itself. A ten second track repetition would mean that after ten seconds from a predertimed point, time would ‘replay’. Looking at a clock in the area, you would see: 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 00, 01... Track repetition can be definte or infinite, with side effect repetition tending to be definte and purposely created repetition tending to be infinite. Local inhabitants do not usually feel the effect of a track repetition: only those who are outside the field of effect or existing inside but have their origin wave outside the area will notice this phenumina.
TEMPORAL INERTIA: The effect that minor interferences in time will have a neglible effect of future events. Taken to the extreme this could mean that changing history is not as easy as it seems (Take The Aztecs, for example)
TEMPORAL GRAVITY: The fact that event waves travel down the ‘lowest down’ reality stream. See above.
THE ELASTIC TIME EFFECT: Changes in history will die out and will have no consequence in the far future. This also means that combined with temporal inertia, history will change as little as possible.
TEMPORAL INRUSH: When travelling back in time, the closer you get to Event One, the harder it is to slow down. Once past a critical point, only an infinite magnitude of force would resist this pulling. This effect is thought to be the effect of narrowing time tracks. See also DIFFERING JOURNEY TIMES.
INFINITE SPEED EFFECT
PAST REALITY STREAM CREATION
SAVING APPEARENCES