The Timestream
Created | Updated Apr 19, 2002
The timestream is a fun thing to look upon, even funner to be stuck in. Imagine a gigantic, double sided nerve ending... or a tree with roots at both ends. Transform it into transparant, whirling, liquid orange glass, and you've got the timestream. Time itself is nothing, a unit of measurement by the literal definition, an illusion. The actuality of time is that there is a Past, a Present, and a Future. The past is what has already occurred in all the myriad timelines. The present is where all the timelines thread together - the present is always just a nanosecond, and when it ends it's in the past. Similarly, we're almost always at the future; the roots at the top of the tree, if you will. Now, the trick to time travel is escaping the nanosecond in which we are imprisoned in the present, and going to one of the infinitude of branches in the past or future. By present Earth quantum theory, this is not only impossible, but not the least bit desirable - after all, what are the odds that you'll be able to get back into the present when you're done? But as we all know, Earth standards are as subject to change as the mucus color of a Vorlian slimedevil.
