Wednesday 12 February 2014

Some Interesting Observations

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

Time Patrolman Stephen Tamberly's thoughts and reflections in 2937 BC include the following -

(i) Time travelers often underestimate people of past eras. That is plausible.

(ii) "Any cavalier spent his whole life in such physical activity that an Olympic champion would be flabby by comparison." (p. 686) What a thought!

(iii) A conquistador encountering time travel easily accepts it. He believes in miracles, knows of  "...revolutionary new discoveries, inventions, ideas" (p. 689) and is steeped in tales of enchantment. No scientist (or philosopher) has said that time travel is physically (or logically) impossible.

(iv) Timecycle controls use post-Arabic numerals but these are easily learned.

(v) Flying the timecycle by antigravity requires more skill than operating the spatiotemporal controls.

I would not have thought of any of these points but they all make sense.

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