by Daniel Romm
“So what? That would be no great loss. What good would the rest of the universe be? To what purpose would galaxies, stars, supernovae and all the other celestial extravaganzas continue to expend their enormous energies and display their bedazzling ferocity if the theater is lacking an audience? Why continue the treadmill of creation — new stellar bodies arising from the dust of dying ones in eternal turmoil? What futility! What waste! Professor Richardson says there's no way out. Do you agree?”
“I don't see one — wait a minute! I just thought of something.” Ben's demeanor brightened, “Although Jim and I have given up on the possibility of time travel, this raises the stakes. Maybe the combined ingenuity of our entire faculty can find a way to do it. There is no time to lose, I must talk to the board ASAP!”
3
A Theoretical Glimmer of Hope
Ben and Jim's noteworthy paper proving tachyons come from the future vaulted them to the highest echelons of respect among their fellow scientists, so an excited Ben was immediately granted permission to address a joint plenary session of the entire rosters of relevant Corporation and Academy personnel.
Maintaining aplomb with difficulty he began, “After showing tachyons travel backward in time, Jim and I next began to investigate whether larger entities, i.e. humans, could do so. We quickly surrendered. The idea seemed too far-fetched and, though we made some progress, we couldn't overcome most of the difficulties. But now necessity, reputed to be the mother of invention, compels us all to jump-start the pursuit anew, this time with a much larger store of brainpower than we two alone possess. Why the urgency? Because if someone could travel into the past then the tragic destruction of our solar system, although inevitable, might not be a total loss.”
“How so?” Professor Noll asked quizzically.
“Quantum theory might provide a second chance for humanity,” Ben replied. “Tachyons enter our world from the future but they do so from a point in time sufficiently close to the present so that their arrival imposes no practical difficulties. But a human traveling backward in time and perhaps altering the course of history, including his, would be logically paradoxical. We surmounted this hurdle by conjecturing that Professor Ryan's version of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory would come to the rescue. If he is correct, as most of you believe, then anything as momentous as a human going into his past must be an event of sufficient magnitude to springboard a parallel universe into existence, one populated with prior editions of us.
“Although the time-traveler will be totally unaware of his trip into the past as well as all events that have occurred in our universe after the moment of his arrival in the new one, he could take along a manuscript describing our current situation. Armed with a warning about the risks of recklessly tampering with dark matter the residents of this new universe are bound to proceed more vigilantly and outlast us.
“Unfortunately, quantum theory dictates that only the new universe will be modified by the traveler's actions after he is thrust into it. The universe from which he came, ours, won't be affected and will still perish. But although our world must die, like the mythical phoenix a new one would be born from its ashes with the same features intact, but minus the black hole. Life's ingenious scheme of renewal would be perpetuated and again triumph in its eternal struggle to survive against the extinguishing forces of raw nature.
“Jim and I went so far as to discover that, in theory, mass can be converted to time but we couldn't figure out how. Perhaps all of us working together can. Even so there are other difficulties, such as how to build and power a time machine.”
Professor Ryan rose and enthusiastically took up the gauntlet, “I firmly believe Ben and Jim are right. Whenever an object of any sort, let alone a person, travels a measurable distance into the past and dwells there for an extended length of time, the old universe must be shielded from the possibility of propagating conflicting futures. I can conceive no other way than a parallel universe.
“Things that perish immediately upon arrival in the past or only traverse an infinitesimal time to get there, such as quantum tachyons, don't linger long enough to alter the future and the universe need only distort slightly. As the proposed time machine moves through each past instant it would slightly perturb the universe an infinite number of times on its way but no split would arise until it stops and joins some present. Thereafter, all of its ensuing effects would take place only in the new universe and not in ours.18
“But although the current deficiencies in the theory might be surmountable the engineering obstacles are indeed formidable, as has already been mentioned. Nevertheless, we can bring to bear the world's entire mental and physical resources since, given our imminent doom, expending them on anything else would be senseless. The near century remaining may provide just enough time thanks to the advanced stage and exponential growth rate of our current technology.”
Professor Richardson spoke next, “The optimal timeframe in which to land the traveler would be just before the parameters of our gravitational energy pump were set at too high a level. All human progress up to then would be preserved but the fatal miscalculation would be avoided and the fledgling new universe would enjoy the boon of plentiful, but not unlimited, energy without incurring the hazards of over-consumption.
“If we are able to convert mass to time then by integrating infinitesimal intervals of backward time we could calculate the amount of mass needed. With luck we can scrape up enough to traverse in reverse the time that has elapsed from the year I'm suggesting up to the time we launch the traveler.” After these confirmations the plan was approved and quickly set in motion.
Under duress human creativity knows no bounds; the kinks in a theory of time travel were ironed out in a few decades. Perhaps it was only a remarkable coincidence they even could be but Professor Richardson speculated otherwise. “It's more likely that an extended version of the anthropic principle holds true than that time travel turns out to be possible by happenstance. As paraphrased by Stephen Hawking19, the original principle says that ‘things are as they are because we are.’ It reflects the extremely improbable fact that our universe's initial parameters and boundary conditions were set in one the very few ways that would enable life to exist instead of any of the virtually unlimited number that would preclude it.
“Why couldn't this principle be expanded to include physical laws as well as parameters and boundary conditions? If so, then a theoretical way to convert mass into time would have to be possible to ensure not only that humanity currently exists but also that it can continue to do so. And so it has turned out. Fortuitously, or more likely due to this expanded anthropic principle, the energy-to-time ratio allows a manageable fraction of the Earth's disposable mass to take a traveler back to the target year I proposed.
“Unfortunately, an expanded anthropic principle, if true, only ensures the universe is constituted so as to allow us to develop a sound life-preserving theory, which we have done. It doesn't cover whether or not we can put this theory to practical use. That is up to the ingenuity of the engineers and theory provides no guarantee they can succeed.”
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18 Ironically the new world will in a sense be both older and younger than ours: older in that it will survive longer even though it originated at the same time; younger in that much of its adult life was born from the womb of this one.
19 In Black Holes And Baby Universes
4
The Time Machine
Guided by the theoretical roadmap, the engineers proceeded with gusto. In the nick of time they designed and constructed a time machine that might be capable of transmitting a human into a prearranged bygone era. In simplest terms it consists of an insulated container within a mass-to-time transformer pointing in the backward direction of the spacetime continuum and fueled by a large reservoir of expendable mass. Pushing the start button located on the control panel within the container activates the process of converting mass-energy to time so as to
convey the vehicle along the desired path until all the mass, including the container, is consumed and only the container's contents, in this case the unknowingly morphed traveler and a manuscript, remain when the process comes to a halt.
Being the Academy's fittest and most experienced astronaut, Ben was the logical and unanimous choice to pilot the craft. At a mere two hundred and forty years of age he was in the prime of life and the pinnacle of health. The one and only experimental test of the machine would be the live run carrying Ben inside. Only he would have an opportunity to know if it worked and even then only for the duration of the journey since if and when he alights he will be unaware the vehicle ever existed. Poignantly, all other inhabitants of the current universe who unselfishly contributed the tremendous worldwide expenditure of effort that went into building the machine could only hope it hadn't all been in vain.
But even if it had they were glad to have made the sacrifice. For once something had been undertaken solely for the benefit of posterity, in this case their own parents’ offspring, paradoxically consisting of themselves in only an ephemeral sort of way. Never before had any of them worked so hard only for the sake of others, with no possible payout that they would be aware of in their current lifetime: and it felt good. In the literal sunset of civilization arose a spirit of worldwide love, kinship and fraternity unlike any before. It seemed as if every individual soul had merged into a single collective consciousness that belonged to one large congenial family — a truly noble condition. Perhaps all eternity, at least in our universe, had conspired to elevate mankind to its zenith and having reached the goal was now proudly content to have us exit the arena. Rather than bemoaning their fate, the last specimens of an extraordinarily heroic human race exulted in the realization that they were the chosen ones, the culmination of evolution's effort to perfect the species.
Unquestionably, the contents of the all-important manuscript would have to be patently clear, carefully selected and concisely worded. The board convened a panel of leading scientists to draft it. An easy decision was to include, along with some introductory remarks regarding our current plight, the missing risk analysis that would persuade the denizens of the new universe to set the parameters at a lower level.
What else? The first suggestion in the ensuing debate was to catalogue and explain all significant discoveries from then until now but it was rejected on the basis that by swelling the manuscript to an inordinate size no one would endeavor to read it. Moreover, the knowledge would be superfluous since our erstwhile selves, possessing the same capabilities and relevant education as we did at that earlier point in our lives, would undoubtedly match or surpass our most prodigious breakthroughs without any help from us.
The one notable exception is to include, along with the risk analysis, the underlying theory of time travel and the blueprint for constructing a time machine since otherwise one might never be built. After all Ben and Jim, two of the brightest physicists of their time, had concluded time travel was impossible. Facing such dismal prospects the journey leading to the invention of the time machine might never begin in a new universe whose future would unfold without the motivating emergency — the formation of the black hole that compelled us to seek a way out no matter how improbable the task.
Why is this important? The panelists foresaw the stunning implications of a time machine — if the underlying theory was right then Darwinian evolution, which had always been thought to refer only to the perfection of species, would now also apply to the perfection of universes with humans doing the selecting rather than mother nature! Education would no longer be limited to progeny: it would also be available to past civilizations. If and when the populace of a given universe made a serious irreversible error it could send a message into the past to warn a prior generation, guide them around it and thereby give birth to a new branch on the tree of universes — one hardier than the previous one in that it would be equipped with a prophylactic antidote against a recurrence of the same egregious blunder.
Through a continual stream of course corrections each mutation would be a healthier version of its predecessor and supersede it along the road to perfection, the road toward Teilhard de Chardin's ‘omega point’20. The indefinitely proliferating branches would each have their own separate eternity, giving rise to an expanded multi dimensional ‘eternal time’ consisting of an eternity of eternities within which the ordinary time of each ‘brave new world’21 would unfold.
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20 In The Phenomenon Of Man
21 Cf. “O brave new world, that has such people in't!” Shakespeare, The Tempest
5
Our Finest Hour
The determinant of a man's quotient of happiness is how he feels when he escapes the muck and mire of everyday life. Everyone wondered how society would function now that the gloomy denouement was approaching. Inasmuch as human nature is only concerned with near term events, things would probably remain calm enough while the end was still nearly a lifetime away. However, by the same token the possibility that a different generation might survive if the fantastic time machine panned out would probably provide little solace. As time elapsed widespread panic and depression were expected to prevail despite the consoling influences of religion and psychiatry.
Planned euthanasia was officially sanctioned as a coping mechanism in 2411 due to the vibrant and pugnacious David Young's successful campaign to squelch the notion that theologians had jurisdiction over the moral question of whether or not we have the right to choose when and how to die. He argued, “Theologians assert that since there is no morality without God22 only He can sanction euthanasia. However all but the most scrupulous of them ignore the flip side of their mantra — is there morality with God? Stated differently, although the teachings of Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, Mohammed and the other founders of prominent religions confirm they were highly moral, must it follow that God is?
“Human history would seem to indicate just the opposite. It is common knowledge that religious wars, persecutions and inquisitions have pervaded our past and caused untold misery. If He (or She or It) were truly moral why would He permit so much suffering and carnage to occur in His name? The enigmatic question of how evil can exist in a world governed by an omnipotent and presumably moral God23 has been thoroughly debated since the biblical time of Job and nothing remains to be added. Instead we will move on and, for the sake of argument, reluctantly concede God is moral.
“Even so, the question endures; must a moral God be posited before we can have a meaningful concept of human morality? Nietzsche argued otherwise.24 He asserted morality is defined by society, not God. Adam Smith also argued otherwise.25 He asserted all morality springs from natural human sentiments, primarily empathy. The list of other equally prominent thinkers holding kindred views is long indeed, but let us leave the field of enlightened speculation and turn to concrete cases.
“Almost every questionable practice has been condoned in some society that at the same time worshipped a god or gods: including, but not restricted to, cannibalism, incest, polygamy, human sacrifice, suicide bombings of civilians, and witch burning. Who is to say whose morality should prevail or whose gods are supreme? — Clearly not fanatics or the so-called ‘moral majority’. We would be hard pressed to find a modern notion of morality in the mighty Roman Empire, arguably the most advanced civilization of the entire millennium during which it flourished yet whose incestuous gods included seducers, rapists, murderers and the like. In the formative years of the United States even the ornery mavericks of the lawless and savage western frontier had their own peculiar ethical standards that forbade shooting anyone from behind but permitted murder.
“So even if God is moral it would seem that He has intentionally exited the arena of human morality and has left it for us to fill the void (perhaps He wants to see if we would be up to it). And if God apparently takes no overriding interest in directing our efforts, clearly His task force, the theologians, ought to follow His exam
ple.”
This attack alleviated any reservations against the enactment of legislation on the question of euthanasia. It was legalized and soon thereafter elevated to the status of an art form that sought to create ever more pleasant ways to die, using potent psychedelics as its primary medium.
But to everyone's surprise few resorted to it when the last act began to unfold. Although some felt there was nothing left to live for now that the machine had been completed, they were in the minority. Most people discovered a deep hidden well of untapped strength that only began to surface once they were forced to behave in a way no one ever had.
The incentive that never previously existed and spurred them on to finally emerge from the cocoon that had constrained them and all of their predecessors throughout history was the presence of a single common goal for all mankind: the building of the time machine. Universal teamwork turned out to be a magic elixir that transformed humanity into the butterflies they were always meant to be. As the end approached, the prospect of viewing the final awesome spectacle eradicated all traces of gloom.
To take a particular case, although it was yet another glorious summer morning in Seattle and she had just finished a wholesome workout at the gym, Jenny was in the dumps — and with good reason. She had managed to stay upbeat despite knowing for 97 years about the impending total destruction of human life but now the event was only a few months away. Making matters worse her adored husband was leaving tomorrow to begin preparations for his mission from which he would never return. They had agreed not to converse after he left in the morning so as to neither lessen his resolve nor lower his spirits when the time came.