Time and Technicalities (Timewalkers Book 1)

by RP Halliway

  “Oh, true,” Evie said. That did change the odds.

  “One way to think of it,” Roger said, putting his hand at eye level with an outstretched arm, “Is to hold your hand out and spread your fingers like this.” Roger spread his fingers apart.

  Evie and Silas both copied Roger’s example and put a hand up with fingers spread at eye level.

  “Each finger can be thought of as a ‘multiverse set,’” Roger explained, pinching the middle finger of his raised hand. “Say the middle finger is the one we are all in right now, with all of the events that we would recognize as ‘normal’ history. There are trillions of trillions of cylinders that make up that multiverse set.

  “Now the ring finger,” Roger continued, pinching the ring finger on his raised hand, “that could be a multiverse set like Evie said—the Revolutionaries didn’t win in 1776, and there are trillions of trillions of cylinders in that multiverse set. And each finger, and an infinite number of fingers, exist all across the multiverse.”

  “Don’t forget the gaps,” Maggie said.

  “Right, the gaps between the fingers,” Roger said, grabbing a web between two of his fingers. “They are the potential multiverse sets where things aren’t very likely—such as when Evie said dinosaurs still exist, and so on. Everything you can possibly imagine has a universe associated with it, but many of those are more likely to exist than others. This is what I call the probability density function of universes or multiverse sets.”

  “And that’s only if observers exist in every universe in a multiverse set?” Evie asked.

  “Exactly,” Roger answered. “One of the axioms of the Fundamental Theory of Change is that everybody has the possibility to exist in every universe. Some people may not exist in some universes, but they all have the possibility to exist.”

  “Now,” Roger said, holding his hand out, but this time with the fingers closed, “This shows an example of the probability distribution of a single finger’s multiverse set. These are probability ‘hills.’ The most likely outcomes are higher than the others. The middle finger is taller, and this means that this is the most probable universe in the multiverse set—the most likely outcome in that entire set, but the others are somewhat close.” Roger wiggled his little finger. “Like this pinkie is me wearing white socks.”

  “That sounds like a lot of universes,” Silas said.

  “It is!” Roger said. “Trillions of trillions of possibilities, just for a single day!”

  “How does this apply to the memories of the kids?” Evie asked.

  “Ah, right, back to Professor Andrews,” Roger said. “Remember when I said to forget everything you knew about Time?”

  Evie and Silas nodded.

  “Now I am going to ask you to forget everything you think you know about the mind,” Roger said.

  “What is the mind?” Evie asked, giving Roger a sly smile.

  “Fast learner,” Roger replied with hearty laugh. “That’s good. Now suppose there are trillions of trillions of trillions parallel universes, and each of us exists in every one of those. Why does this universe we are in right now feel like the only one? Evie or Silas?”

  He waited for a response. But neither of them said a word.

  “Because, there could be a singular consciousness for each person,” Roger offered.

  “What does that mean?” Silas asked.

  “It means that each person can only feel the consciousness of one universe at a time, like this one right now.”

  “Sort of like multitasking?” Evie asked.

  “Pretty much,” Roger answered. “Even though a computer is technically ‘multitasking’ when running multiple programs, only a single one is being controlled by the user at any time. This is one of the great topics Jessica and I have discussed at length over time.”

  Roger waved for Jessica to take center stage.

  She rose from her chair. “I like the analogy of playing computer games,” Jessica said, walking over to the cylinder. “Suppose you’re playing a Sims game, but instead of one game, you are playing one hundred different games. Even though the computer can open all of the games at the same time, you can really only play one at a time. The computer would need to focus on that singular game, as do you. All the games show up on the task bar, but only the one being interacted with is actually changing and being controlled by you. You can switch between them, but only one can actually be directly controlled by you with the keyboard or mouse at any time.”

  “So out of all the universes, this is the one that is being ‘played’ right now?” Silas asked.

  “You can think of it that way,” Jessica said.

  “But who’s playing it?” Evie asked.

  “That’s another big question,” Jessica said. “I’ll give my answer, but other people would have their respective answers. It really boils down to a belief, or faith.”

  “Faith?” Silas said.

  Jessica nodded. “I’ve talked with Roger for years. Even before the Change theory took over. Then when he explained the multiverse set theory to me, it made a lot of sense, logically. But as a Christian, it didn’t really sit well, until we got to talking about what consciousness is. Trust me, we went back and forth. What is consciousness exactly? How is it controlled? The best answer I came to accept is that it is the connection to the Soul of a person. And the soul lives outside the multiverse—essentially watching the cylinders rotate. This is like the user existing outside of the computer, but the computer still creating and running millions of simulations.”

  “How does the soul control the consciousness?” Silas asked.

  “How indeed,” Jessica said. “How does a computer keyboard connect to the CPU? I imagine it’s like that—some sort of specifically created connection. Maybe there are brainwaves that serve as the connection between the soul and the body much like the keyboard cord and wires are. I don’t know the exact method—I don’t think anybody does—but I do think a connection exists.”

  “And the soul can only talk to one ‘body’ at a time?” Evie asked.

  “That is what I believe,” Jessica said. “Even though there are trillions and trillions of Yous out there, only one is ‘running’ at a time, giving you consciousness. The soul connects with a particular one and creates the awareness of living.”

  “If the task switching occurred fast enough,” Evie began, “It would seem like each consciousness is the only one.”

  “Very possibly,” Jessica said.

  “How does this apply to memory?” Silas asked.

  “Imagine you are still playing the computer Sims game. How much knowledge can you transfer into your character through the keyboard?” She paused but only for a couple seconds. “Not much. In actuality, you as a person know so much more than the Sim characters you are playing, but you are limited by the connection and the programming in the computer. You can’t just tell the Sim that you are going to make them walk around all day, or that you want them to build something. You have to click where you want the Sim to go, and keep clicking over and over.

  “Suppose a Soul sees all the universes, and knows everything about every one of them, but is limited to whatever information passes to any particular consciousness. Here in this universe—or any universe—you would have limited information, mostly what is gathered by physical experiences and learning, rather than relying on the Soul to pass along information to us.

  “The Soul could know all that is going to happen, but can’t give us anything more than what we learn,” Jessica said. “But maybe—on rare occasions—under perfectly ideal conditions, there is an opening to the consciousness, and stray information passes from the Soul. This could be one of the ‘eureka’ moments, or epiphanies, or just sparks of ideas, things like that. And sometimes, maybe this information connection is supposed to be for somebody else, not for you, but you end up receiving it. That could feel lik
e someone else’s memory.”

  “A glitch in the Matrix,” Evie said, nodding at the idea.

  “Why kids?” Silas asked.

  Jessica shrugged. “Maybe kids have better information receptors—especially when young. And they can connect in different ways.”

  “Is that something like the 100th monkey theory? Or Zeitgeist ether?” Silas asked.

  “What’s that?” Jessica asked.

  “They are different ideas, but have a common thought in that there is a kind of ‘internet’ for people all around—the Zeitgeist—a collective bank, or cloud, of knowledge,” Silas said. “There is a cloud containing every single bit of information in the universe around us. That cloud can sometimes be tapped into for knowledge, either consciously or subconsciously. For example, those ‘eureka’ moments could be when a ‘lightning strike’ from the information cloud strikes somebody and gives them a spark of an idea, or transfers knowledge.”

  “Very interesting,” Jessica said. “And some people are more likely to receive the lightning strikes than others?”

  “I would say that is probably true,” Silas said with a shrug. “It does seem that some people keep coming up with good ideas, maybe like Tesla, or Einstein, or Edison.”

  “And the 100th monkey theory?”

  “I’m not sure if this is just made up or a real thing,” Silas said. “But as I heard it, there is a theory that when knowledge becomes ‘common enough’, it is suddenly learned by everybody, or available to everyone.

  “The story says a researcher went to an isolated island with monkeys on it. The researcher taught one monkey to wash some food before eating it. The monkey learned this task and soon started teaching it to other monkeys on the island. More and more monkeys learned this task, and at some point—the 100th monkey tipping point— monkeys on other islands, islands with no connection to the isolated island, were performing that same task. The tipping point was reached and the knowledge was now available to every monkey, everywhere.”

  “Fascinating,” Jessica said.

  “I don’t know if it is true or not,” Silas said. “But it seems likely that some learned things are shared that way. Maybe there’s a bank of knowledge that is available to people that want it. Of course some people don’t have common sense—so maybe they don’t tap into that knowledge very often.”

  “Where do the Souls live?” Evie asked Jessica.

  “I can’t say for sure,” Jessica said. “But if I had to guess, I would say someplace outside of the multiverse, maybe like heaven. A place where they live forever, but can watch all of the universes at once.”

  “With the Soul sitting outside of the multiverse,” Roger added, “all kinds of information would be available for the Soul to pick up and send to the consciousnesses of people.”

  “Like ninety year old memories?” Silas asked.

  “Quite right,” Roger said, his face seeming to soften as he remembered his own struggle for that ‘how?’ question.

  “So there are rogue Souls outside the multiverse sending crazy memories to children?” Evie asked. “That doesn’t seem very nice.”

  “Or master level trolling, if you ask me,” Silas added, agreeing with Evie.

  “Not really,” Jessica added. “It would make sense—to me anyway, but without any way to prove—that each person only communicates with their own Soul.”

  “That is what I would also expect,” Silas said, nodding his head in agreement with Jessica. “So we are back to the same questions? How and why?”

  “What about sharing different lives then?” Evie asked. “Could a single soul be different people? At different times, of course.”

  “I have no idea what the truth is,” Jessica said. “There is no way to know the truth in that question, but the thought seems to be contradictory to my beliefs.”

  “Why is that?” Silas asked.

  “Because the Bible talks about us being judged by our actions, at the day of reckoning,” Jessica said. “And who would be judged then? Would it be person A? Or person B? I think that would lead to a lot of confusion.”

  “Well, if that’s the case,” Silas started, “How does that work with multiple lives? Is it the ‘last’ lifetime? Or the collective actions of all of the lives? Or the ‘best’ lifetime? I don’t think any answer to that would be consistent.”

  “Those are really hard questions to answer,” Jessica said. “Because of the unknowing nature of the whole spiritual realm.”

  “So when Professor Andrews said that we needed to look to the supernatural for answers,” Evie said, “he wasn’t too far off?”

  “Not at all,” Roger answered. “There is no scientific way to prove or disprove anything other than what is physically here in the natural world. There are some very challenging questions yet to answer in the realm of quantum mechanics and theoretical physics, but I don’t think any of those discoveries will be able to explain any of what is going on here.”

  “So it is religious?” Silas asked.

  “Non-physical, or supernatural, or religious,” Roger answered, laughing. “But yes, you are pretty close.”

  “Then there is no answer,” Silas said.

  “No. There is an answer,” Jessica said slowly. “But each answer might reduce to a personal one, much like all of life’s questions.”

  “How so?” Evie asked.

  “If my answer is to believe that a Soul exists outside of the multiverse,” Jessica said, “and someone else believes it is more of a ‘collective’ or Zeitgeist, rather than a soul, and someone else believes the consciousness is inside of us. Each of those answers is unknowable, and depends on faith.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Evie said, not really convincing herself.

  Roger stood up and started talking, unable to control his excitement. “And the coolest thing is that the multiverse ties in with everything, and leads to a big finale where everything pops out. Jessica is here to give a feel for the spiritual side, and the Soul concept makes a lot of sense. But, what if the different universes left traces of one onto another? Or interacted in some way?”

  Silas and Evie thought about that for a minute, and Evie spoke up first.

  “Memories from one universe life could carry over into another one?” Evie asked.

  “That is definitely an option,” Roger said. “Why don’t we do a ‘connect the dots’ multiverse style.”

  “Step 1,” Roger began. “There is no such thing as Time, only Change. And Time is the result of the Observation of Change.”

  “And Change requires an observer,” Maggie added.

  “Exactly. Step 2: Without Time, and with Change needing an observer, everyone ever conceived is alive somewhere in their own life cycle in all of the universes.

  “Step 3: There might be something ‘outside’ of the multiverse that can observe everything in all of the universes.

  “Step 4: Universes of the multiverse sets, and possibly beings outside of the multiverse itself, have the ability to interact with each other and possibly with people.

  “And that should do it,” Roger said. “If something occurs, I believe the multiverse theory covers it.”

  Chapter 11

  Evie sat tall in her chair. “What about ghosts?”

  “Ghosts,” Roger answered, eagerly accepting Evie’s challenge with a smile. “I would first say that some people have never seen ghosts, and probably never will, while others see ghosts with some regularity. Ghosts could be the remnant of a past ‘lap’ of Change that someone connects to. Since only some people have seen ghosts, I would say that those people have a higher chance to connect to different memories or fragments of the cylinder, or even to other universes.”

  “Or they could be all hoaxes,” Silas said.

  “Absolutely. There is no way to prove ghosts exist yet—at least in any repeatable scientific wa
y. The people who see ghosts may have ability to interact with different cylinders and get fragments of information to pass between them. I have attended many psychic conventions trying to figure this out, and it seems there is a slight connection like that. People who see ghosts may interact with different, and close, universes within a multiverse set—a finger, if you will.”

  “And some could pass to other fingers?” Silas asked. “Completely different universes?”

  “It is not outside the realm of possibility,” Roger answered.

  “Did Nostradamus see the future of this universe?” Evie asked.

  “I think Nostradamus saw things using mind altering drugs. But his writings were also quite cryptic, and ended up so generic it is hard to say what his true visions were. Although I can’t ignore the possibility that some people may be able to slide backwards and forwards along a single cylinder, I don’t see any way to use that information if the cylinder is ‘preset’ to run from beginning to end. But a psychic may have a different answer.”

  “Do you know any we can talk to?” Silas asked.

  “Of course! I’ll give you the name and address of one not too far away.”

  “Is she a real psychic?” Silas asked, hoping to find out more about the dreams.

  “As real as any psychic can be, I imagine. The whole psychic idea is hard to prove or disprove, as all of our emotional biases take over when dealing with claims of spirits from beyond.”

  “What about mind altering drugs?” Silas asked. “Do those shift consciousness and universes?”

  “Drugs that allow for entering ‘altered states’ could be gateways to being receptive to the fragments and maybe even traveling along the cylinder,” Roger said. “These drugs might enhance the connection to the soul, or between the community knowledge, and allow for more data to be sent. This would mean that possibly everybody has some connection to the other universes, such as the Soul connection, and the drugs just make it a bit easier for that connection to be made.”