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	Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)
	Posted By: SiliconDream =PN=	Date: 12/15/01 4:05 p.m.
	In Response To: Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended) (Steve Levinson) : I would like to propose a slightly different interpretation of mental time : travel. First of all, I think that this only works for cybernetic beings. : My interpretation is that, when you interact with a pattern buffer, you : are downloading future memories from your cybernetic implants. From the : player's standpoint, you experience all of the different outcomes from : that point on sequentially, but in the end there is only one outcome. When : you die, your cybernetic implants communicate with the last pattern buffer : that was accessed. It is possible that the implants could be contacting : the pattern buffer at a time in the past, but I think that it is more : likely that the implants interact with the pattern buffer in the present. : The pattern buffer then transmits your memories back in time to a point : when or before you access it. It is the pattern buffer, then, that does : the mental time traveling - not you. Each time you reexperience a series : of events and then die, the pattern buffer appends the new memories to : those already stored. Thus, when you first access the pattern bufffer, you : will be downloading all of the memories from all of the alternative : outcomes, allowing you to ultimately choose a successful outcome. Of : course there is an element of chance involved, but negative outcomes, : since they are not successful, do not contribute to the final outcome. My only quibble with this would be that since we have other cases where you don't need the pattern buffer to time-hop, it behooves us to make the pattern buffer's importance in this form of time travel as minor as possible. But that's only an aesthetic opinion on my part. : I believe that this is a very different sort of time travel from that : involved in infinity, in which it is the Wr' that creates the chaos that : makes time travel possible on a much grander scale. However, in Infinity you're capable of time-hopping prior to the W'rkncacnter's escape as well...and since we know you become a god of some sort at the end, it'd seem that you must figure out how to time-hop by yourself if you don't know to begin with. : There are some obvious flaws in my theory, but these are no worse than those : present in the other theories presented. With so many pattern buffers to : be found, why don't we *ever* see anyone else using them? For one thing, : the pfhor are not themselves cybernetic - a seeming contradiciton, given : that they use cybernetics to enslave those they conquer - but there is a : reference in M2 that they have no cybernetic mechanisms whatsoever. But : then why don't the S'pht use them? With their abilities, you would think : that they could even download your memories of the future and use them : against you. Perhaps the temporal link is specific to you alone, but then : why would pattern buffers be everywhere? Well, in my theory, everyone else uses them merely for storage and later replication...and this takes sufficient time and resources that it's pointless to do it in wartime when you don't even know if your side is going to survive long enough to resurrect you. Plus, almost all the computer systems are constantly under attack...maybe it's futile to store your pattern when the data will probably be corrupted or lost anyway. (In my model this isn't a problem for YOU, since you're looking back through time to find that data). Also, how do we know that no one else uses them? You find S'pht near pattern buffers all the time, and occasionally humans and Pfhor as well. Just because they start shooting at you when you get there doesn't mean they weren't accessing the pattern buffer earlier. : And what about when we change levels? Sometimes this involves travel through : significant distances and time. How can we interact with pattern buffers : that are lightyears away or that we last accessed a long time ago? Are : there any limits to the process? This is a very good point, and I'd be inclined to say yes--perhaps the limit is that you can only access pattern buffers whose last saves are within your past light cone of spacetime. That would explain why you can't, say, return to the Marathon and save the colony after living through M2--you lost contact with those buffers when Durandal kidnapped you at FTL. : In any case, as pointed out, none of these theories fit with what we are told : in the actual game. Durandal in M2 even says that he uses the pattern : buffers on L'howon to upload your pattern to Boomer - but that is exactly : the opposite of what seems to happen. Clearly Bungie didn't think this out : as well as we have ;-) . In what sense is that the opposite of what seems to happen? It seems to fit with my theory. It doesn't matter if Boomer or the pattern buffer is later destroyed...that one instance of data storage in the past provides the beacon you need to time-hop. For that matter, we don't actually hear that Boomer's ever utterly destroyed, so it's consistent with your theory too...the future marine could be accessing the data in Boomer's pattern buffers even if the ship's mostly wrecked. --SiliconDream

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Replies:

	Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)	SiliconDream =PN=	12/15/01 3:34 a.m.
	Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)	Mark Levin	12/15/01 4:04 a.m.
	Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)	SiliconDream =PN=	12/15/01 3:40 p.m.
	Quantum Time Travel	Hippieman [B.Org]	12/15/01 4:48 p.m.
	Re: Quantum Time Travel	Steve Levinson	12/18/01 5:23 a.m.
	Re: Quantum Time Travel	SiliconDream =PN=	12/18/01 8:54 a.m.
	Re: Quantum Time Travel	Steve Levinson	12/18/01 12:49 p.m.
	Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)	Tru7h	12/15/01 4:40 a.m.
	Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)	SiliconDream =PN=	12/15/01 3:45 p.m.
	Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)	archon	12/15/01 8:33 a.m.
	Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)	Steve Levinson	12/15/01 12:54 p.m.
	Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)	[Tycho?]	12/15/01 1:28 p.m.
	Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)	Steve Levinson	12/15/01 2:47 p.m.
	Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)	SiliconDream =PN=	12/15/01 4:05 p.m.
	Re: Time Travel revisited (no pun intended)	Steve Levinson	12/16/01 11:09 a.m.
	Oops	Steve Levinson	12/15/01 1:01 p.m.
	Re: Oops	Jeff Nosanov	12/16/01 9:23 a.m.
	Re: Oops	Steve Levinson	12/16/01 10:42 a.m.
	Re: Oops	Grail	12/29/01 1:34 p.m.

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