Why would the time machine be able to create a timestamp in the present synchronized with the time branch it just created in the past? That sounds silly to me and unscientific.
Not silly at all when it's a wormhole. For instance, if you go through a wormhole and it takes to the other side, it won't change the time it took to get the other side, nor will time alter from the start point to the end point.
So if the wormhole puts you in another place, the same amount of time that passed from the start to the end will be consistent no matter what the time dilation may be like at the end point, even if the end point is in the past or in the future or in a completely different dimension.
Imagine it like a linear plot graph, like each time zone is on a line, and each point is a node of time progression, like this:
1984
--------------------------------------------------------------------->
2029
--------------------------------------------------------------------->
Now imagine that in 2029, Skynet sends the T-800 back at a specific node:
2029
--------------X------------------------------------------------------->
Terminator goes back at the 'X' point
On the plot graph, he would arrive at that same point in time in 1984, like here.
1984
--------------X------------------------------------------------------->
Now it takes him a cycle of 24 hours to complete his task, so we'll count that as 24 nodes and label it as 'Y'.
1984
--------------X-----------------------Y-------------------------------->
Sarah dies on 'Y', and the Terminator arrives at 'X'. Since time is linear and progressive, it neither stops nor ends in either time zone, it's moving concurrently. So in 2029, Sarah would still die on 'Y', 24 hours later in their present, since time neither stopped in 2029, nor has it progressed past 24 hours since the arrival of the Terminator. So Reese, has between 'X' and 'Y' on the 2029 linear graph to get back to 1984 and stop the T-800.
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Heisenberg (6639)
3 years ago
Great explanation, but I don't see why there would be a tether from the past to the present relating to anything that is NOT being sent throught the time machine.
Matter is never created nor destroyed. You can only push it here and there, altering its position or state. So, what would these time events practically do?
This time machine breaches this continuum, and creates a passage through which it switches some matter (takes some past matter and exchanges it for present one- the present one contains the T800). There would be a tether created from the T800 in the past, and its action, affecting the matter that was switched in the present.
It should Not affect everthing else that matter interacts with because there is not such tether. Once the T800 is in the past, he is part of the past.
It's kinda blowing my mind right now.
But I'm basing my theory on quantum teleportation and the way they apply it, since it's the only practical example we have on how such space/time continuum-breaking laws apply:
you have these tethered quantums, what happens to the original one happens to the other one even if distant/through walls etc.
In Terminator, you have a present T800, he goes back in time. What is he being tethered to? Why would the whole reality be tethered to the T800's new reality (our past) and be affected by its actions?
Is THAT what the time machine actually does? (tethering our reality with that moment- hence the T800 is actually THE tether?)
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cyguration (3951)
3 years ago
Wow.... those are some really profound questions. Great questions, too.
I've never had to think about this stuff before in this way, because we're dealing with the metaphysics of quantum manipulation, and not necessarily just time travel per se.
Matter is never created nor destroyed. You can only push it here and there, altering its position or state. So, what would these time events practically do?
Let's see... I think I can only explain this in relation to your next question, which is...
Is THAT what the time machine actually does? (tethering our reality with that moment- hence the T800 is actually THE tether?)
That's a really, really good explanation. I like that.
In many ways, I think this is what creates the paradox of the parallel linear-time progression loop between 1984 and 2029.
The T-800 doesn't belong in 1984, and thus is tethered between the two time lines. Whatever it does or does not do could affect what happens in 2029 (depending on the kind of time travel hypothesis we're working with).
In a closed loop, anything the T-800 does in 1984 would presumably be tethered to 2029. So let's say he does kill the real Sarah Connor in 1984, completing objective 'Y' on the plot graph. We could assume that the prime time-line of 2029 would cease to exist... in a closed loop. It would just stop at the point of 'Y', and would loop back to whatever progress happens after 'Y' in 1984.
This is assuming that we're working with the paradigm that the T-800 or Reese (though I would argue the T-800 since he went in first) is the tether between the two points in time. So whatever actions taken by the T-800 would change the outcome as time progresses.
Of course, this does take us back to the 2029 conundrum -- does John prime just see the entire world fade away? Does he just fade away? Or does all of that matter/energy simply loop into the starting point from 'Y' on the 1984 graph?
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Heisenberg (6639)
3 years ago
Been mulling it over...
So all that famous energy for the time machine is used to create this tethered reality.
Our new present after that works also in relation to what the T800 does in the past.
So yeah, your parallel action does make perfect sense: it goes out on X, makes a significant change on Y, the Y in the present line changes accordingly. Not before.
Here is how: John should disappear in front of everybody.
He existed till Y, he does not after.
I don't know what else would change right there for the others.
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cyguration (3951)
3 years ago
Oh no, I just thought about something...
When you mentioned the first rule of thermodynamics, it made me realize a new conundrum about the persistence of the 2029 timeline after event 'Y' takes place.
Let's say that the T-800 does complete his task, and does kill Sarah Connor. What if John prime does not disappear in 2029 after event 'Y' because his energy wasn't created, and thus couldn't have been destroyed -- his progenitor was destroyed (i.e., Sarah), so his energy was never manifested. What if the closed loop cycle simply cycles his energy to another compatible host in the timeline of 1984?
So Sarah Connor(s) in L.A., die, but another Sarah in the U.S., gets pregnant after 'Y' takes place on the timeline and maybe she does look like Sarah Connor from L.A., (hence the picture from Mexico). What if she later gets married to a guy named Connor and has John. She unknowingly fills in the blanks within the loop to keep the paradox running and John's relativity of simultaneity consistent from the 1984 timeline with the 2029 timeline? This is since John technically never died in 1984, Sarah did.
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Heisenberg (6639)
3 years ago
No, I think you are seeing from the wrong angle, if I get what you mean.
The breach created, with the switch of the T800 with something else from 1984, is what the energy is used for. This breach manages to do this little swap of matter that creates a connection between 1984 and 2029. After that, the machine is not needed anymore because the tether it created with the breach is what will cause the changes from 1984 to transfer parallelly to 2029. It's an inherent property of such tethering.
So, while the possibility of somebody else becoming John in the new reality is likely, that will require no extra energy, it will simply be a ripple of the chain of events that the Y event creates in the tethered 2029.
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cyguration (3951)
3 years ago
After that, the machine is not needed anymore because the tether it created with the breach is what will cause the changes from 1984 to transfer parallelly to 2029. It's an inherent property of such tethering.
Ah okay, I see what you mean. The tether creates a permanent continuity bridge between the two points.
So, while the possibility of somebody else becoming John in the new reality is likely, that will require no extra energy, it will simply be a ripple of the chain of events that the Y event creates in the tethered 2029.
That makes sense.
How do you feel about the idea of somebody else becoming John as a replacement after the Y point if the T-800 is successful?
If we follow that line of reasoning, the T-800 self-terminates after terminating that Sarah, and a new John emerges in order to maintain the continuity of the events taking place in 2029, even while events in 1984 have changed. Similar to how when players debug a game, kill an NPC before a cinematic is triggered, but when the cinematic does get triggered, the script creates a new actor to fill in for the NPC that died in order to maintain continuity.
Or, do you think that 2029 John simply vanishes, like you said, and events carry on as if he never existed?
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