Chrono Continuum Notes
A Theory on the Fourth Dimension: Time
By Cain
These notes really have little to do with the storyline. If I do create story-based notes, it will be after I finish the story. However, these notes will explain my theories on the nature of time and time-travel. Please note that many of these theories are accepted in the scientific world, but some of this comes straight from me. These notes will hopefully explain the many time-related events in my story. If you have any other questions about the story, please feel free to mail me.
Main Entry: con·tin·u·um
Pronunciation: k&n-'tin-yü-&m
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural con·tin·ua /-yü-&/; also
-u·ums
Etymology: Latin, neuter of continuus
Date: 1646
1 : a coherent whole characterized as a collection, sequence, or progression of values or elements varying by minute degrees <"good" and "bad"... stand at opposite ends of a continuum instead of describing the two halves of a line -- Wayne Shumaker>
2 : the set of real numbers including both the rationals and the irrationals; broadly : a compact set which cannot be separated into two sets neither of which contains a limit point of the other
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We live in every dimension, whether we know it or not.
Imagine a line, from left to right. A person occupies space along that line. If you looked along the line, you would see it move on infinitely, with one area occupied by, say, you. This occupied area would, for the sake of this demonstration, be a darkened section of the line. Add infinite lines horizontally, and you see exactly how much of the first dimension you take up.
Now imagine a vertical line. It can be placed perpendicular to the original line or lines at any point. If we place it intersecting part of the area you inhabit, you would see that you take up an area of that line as well, and that the intersection point has you centered around it. Add infinite vertical lines, and you see your entire two-dimensional area. The result would be a cartoon-like version of you. This area would have height and width, but no depth. Try placing a hand over one eye, and you can see the entire world like this.
Now, create a line that no one existing only on the first two dimensions could see. They might recognize it, but they could never really view it. It passes through any intersection point between the first two dimensions' lines, so that it runs infinitely on toward and away from you. You can find what area along that line you inhabit. Add infinite third lines, and you can see the space you take up in the third dimension.
Of course, no cartoon would be able to see something on the third dimension, their knowledge being limited to the first two dimensions. (Take the Simpsons' Sixth Halloween Special, for instance) That's how you have to think of time, as those knowing only the first two dimensions would think of the third. As a dot, perhaps. Never moving in any visible way, but always changing, perhaps in color if you can't imagine looking into the cross-section of the fourth line.
Add infinite fourth lines, and you can see how much of the fourth dimension you inhabit, and can now observe changes along this dimension in relation to your area. Your fourth dimension area is set, presumably, being your lifespan, but along this plane are alterations in your three-dimensional area. Age and such.
It takes some thought and careful consideration, but I believe this is how time could best be pictured.
Notice that this does not discount time travel. Although each dimension has a set area, matter can move through them. For instance, you can (and do) move your arm up and down. You have a set amount of matter in the first three dimensions, but you are allowed to move this matter.
It could, then, be possible to move part of your area along the fourth dimension in any direction, as long as whatever was in that area replaced your displaced area along the plane. This is the reason Chrono Trigger's gates are two-way. When the team travels to a new time, an equal mass of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other assorted things would go through the gate the other way.
If a way could be found to temporarily disassociate one's self from his place in the fourth dimension long enough, if he could step outside of his area, and switch with something of identical area, in all dimensions, then he would find himself traveling through time.
That would mean, of course that past, present, and future exist at once. Time only means something, from one direction to the other, to us. To anyone beyond us, (God, basically) time would merely be one part of a huge tapestry. If one became disassociated from the "time stream" long enough, he might become immune to changes that might happen to his original area. (Lucca remembered her mother's accident, although it had been stopped from ever happening. Lucca had become disassociated well enough for her area as she knew it to remain unchanged) This could be considered a safeguard against paradoxes. This is also the premise for a lot of what happens in my story.
Speaking of which, paradoxes don't exist in nature. We can't create them. There are too many things that will happen regardless of our actions, and many ways that time would stabilize itself, if such a thing were to happen.This could be considered destiny, but it's really just stabilization of reality. Things will happen as they must.
If you see the future, and then reach that point in time, and then change what is there to oppose your vision, several things could happen. One, your vision could be altered in the past, so that you would bring about its fulfillment. If you opposed that one too, time would continue to stabilize until it found a path in which no paradoxes would be created.
These alternate paths, however, do not exist, for all intents and purposes. If you see the future, and worry about causing a paradox by changing what you saw, you need not worry. The fact that this course of events is taking place tells you that no paradox is impending, or this wouldn't be happening. The universe would cease to exist if such a delicate balance depended on human beings.
However, don't believe that time is completely set. It could always be that you were given such a vision so that you would fight it.
Create your destiny.
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"Nearly everyone who isn't a Shadow escapes the Shadows."
-Janus/Magus, The Origin of Mount Woe
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