Time has two dimensions
I think this is the basic assumption that needs to be made, in order to for full sense to be made out of the awesome story that is Rant.
There are no alternate or parallel universes. Just the one universe, with the regular three dimensions of space, but two of time.
Time having two dimensions simply means that going back in time and changing things, creates a new reality, from the old one, which becomes, to everyone who exists in the new reality, what appears to be the only reality there ever was. At least until the next whatever change gets made.
For example; A man named Charles Casey goes back in time and impregnates his own grandmother with a new version of his own mother who goes on to give birth to a new version of himself.
In this new reality, the new Charles Casey who goes back in time to impregnate his own grandmother is a different man to the man who originally went back in time and impregnated his own grandmother. That Charles Casey, along with the old reality he came from, no longer exists. He and it were just the precurser/cause for the new one. He would look different, have different memories as a result of experiencing a different reality, etc.
But possibly only slightly different. That he is still there traveling back in time and impregnating his own grandmother, means that there are still common elements, a kind of 'course correction' must be at work. So that in such a universe the reality isn't so fragile that it gets completely changed by the flap of a butterfly's wings, but "more like a chain link fence you can't hardly fuck up."
Especially if the current reality is something that has already been set up by other time travelers who have a vested interest in keeping things as they are...
Are you suggesting that those living in the current reality have no knowledge of previous changes? It could be argued that alterations to the timeline in the past would be futile unless there is some method of analysing their success?
The way to analyse it would be, if you find yourself rich and powerful, what you did must've worked.
Wouldn't that imply a degree of awareness as opposed to just being lucky in your current existence?
Absolutely. Awareness that time travelers are altering reality, including yourself if you are a time travel attempting to alter reality in your own favour.
So are you speculating that only a select few have the necessary awareness of their abilitites to change things in the past whilst the general population remains oblivious to anything other than their current existence? or are you suggesting that a universal understanding of time travel exists but most don't possess the specific knowledge to make it a reality?
To me, it sounds like the former but word is starting to get out......
Well yes, only those who actually time travel are aware that reality is being changed by time travelers. But still, even with the time travelers, once they have made a change, say something to do with their earlier selves, that change then becomes their own new memory of what happened to themselves, earlier. So you know what happened before, and what you want to do to change it more to your liking, but once the change is made, that is now what you know to have happened before.
And yeah, in Rant it appears that a group of people - ie Historians - have set things up to suit themselves, including keeping everyone else ignorant of their own ability to time travel and also that there are people who are time traveling and that reality is being (or has been) changed.
"I think this is the basic assumption that needs to be made, in order for full sense to be made out of the awesome story that is Rant.
There are no alternate or parallel universes. Just the one universe, with the regular three dimensions of space, but two of time.
Time having two dimensions simply means that going back in time and changing things, creates a new reality, from the old one, which becomes, to everyone who exists in the new reality, what appears to be the only reality there ever was. At least until the next whatever change gets made."
I've been thinking more about your assumption (see above). Whilst it seems logical to conclude that what you say is true, it must also be remembered that GTS offers us 3 separate explainations as to how time travel may work.
He says “ one theory of time travel resolves the grandfather paradox by speculating that, at the moment one changes history, that change splinters the single flow of reality into parallel branches. For example, after you’ve killed your ancestor, reality would fork into two parallel paths: one reality in which you continued to be born and your ancestor did not die, and one branch in which your ancester died and you would never be conceived. Each revision one made in the past, a subsequent new reality it created, theorists refer to as a ‘bifurcation’. P264.
I think this is at odds with the assumptions you have made. I guess at this point in the trilogy we simply don't know which, if any, of the 3 scenarios that GTS describes is accurate.
I think the bifurcation theory is fairly compatible with mine, as long as the reality where you didn't kill your ancestor is considered the former reality to the one where you did that takes its place as 'the' reality, ie, "a subsequent new reality"...
Hmmm, I'm not so sure. GTS suggests in his explanation that the single flow of time splinters to form two parallel branches. I don't necessarily think he is suggesting that the new reality replaces the old one, more that it exists along side it. That's how I interpret what he says anyway. Of course, his other two explanations of how time works are at odds with this theory anyway so it seems that we will have to hope that he reveals more in the next novel. All we can do for now is speculate which, if any, of the 3 is the correct theory!
Perhaps it needs to be intpreted in context with what else is said. For example,
Neddy Nelson: What if this? What if somebody went back and reworked the past, how would the rest of us know? Don't we only know the present reality that we know? What if reality gets reshuffled - in little, tiny ways - all the time?
This suggests to me that there is only one reality, the present, and that changes to the past effect it, rather than that there are a multitude of realities, presents, in separate universes, where those changes weren't made.
Two dimensions of time fits with Neddy's suggestion, plus the two realities could be considered to be "parallel branches" where there's the old time line that happened before the change next to the new one with the changes, it's just that the present now reality is only running up along the new one.
Neddy also says, "what if time's not the fragile butterfly wing that science experts keep saying? What if time is more like a chain link fence you can't hardly fuck up?"
So maybe the old reality even provides a stabilizing factor for the new one, like it's carved a riverbed that the new flow of water will eventually flow into, acting kinda like 'course correction' or something...
He then goes on to say, "I mean, even if you fucked it up, even ten hundred times - how would you even know? Any present moment, any "right now," we get what we get. You know?"
You know?
Nice theories guys. Real eyeopeners!!
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2070438,00.html
Visit me at Solarcide—A Writer’s Hideout: http://solarcide.com/fiction/nathan-pettigrew/