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The nature of time, sound redirection, and other squigglies

Okay, this one is probably going to be more of Alloni's odd philosophy, rather than more of Alloni's odd sense of humor. Cope. It's all wierd, anyway, so does it really matter?

First, the nature of time. I am (re)reading a series involving time travel in a sort of inconsequential way (it's about a modern engineer who gets transported back to medieval Poland, and, knowing that the Mongols are due to invade in 10 years, sets out to stop them, by creating an army, guns, literacy, a high standard of living, aircraft, steamboats, kites, and a whole bunch of other things. The time travel is present, but it's mostly unimportant other than the basis of the premise. A few comments that "by doing this, he's creating a new universe! No one has ever done this kind of thing before!" from the time travelers who accidentally started the whole mess and who are watching him. Not great literature, but a good read. By Leo Frankowski.) and it started me thinking (while taking a shower) about time travel and the nature of time.

Now, first of all, I'm going to assume the "every decision creates a new universe" viewpoint of time. I like it, and it does allow for time travel. (By decisions, I don't necesarily mean human decision - an atom "deciding" to go left instead of right qualifies as a new decision path as well.) Now work with me here.

If you add time travel to the mix, things change. Each decision path suddenly gains a whole new dimension - not only the normal, every day decision paths, but the decision paths created by a time traveler going back and changing things. You get things like while you're deciding what kind of tea to drink, you also add in the whole other trains of decisions leading from a time traveler appearing, destroying the tea cup with a laser, eating your shorts on rye bread, and vanishing again (with all of the decisions implied there - he eats your grandmother instead of your shorts, he prefers white to rye, and so on). Now. Do these universes exist from the beginning? When the point is "first" reached, are the decision points for your grandmother's (closed casket) funeral included, or are the universes born when the time traveler arrives, or when the first time machine is invented, or what? And does this means that time machines are actually misnamed universe creators? Was our universe created when the first time traveler (call her The Creatrix) went back to the beginning to see how it came to be created?

Now, going back to the first paths branching bit, you would presumably need something for the paths to branch out in. Which means, getting to the "time is the 4th dimension" theory, that time must also be the 5th, and quite possibly 6th dimension as well (giving us a nice, round, 3 spatial and 3 temporal dimensions - not to imply that these are the only ones, just the only ones I'm discussing now). So the 4th dimension would be forward/backward through time, 5th would be left/right through alternate universes, and 6th would be up/down through other alternate dimensions (possibly up/down would be through other types of alternate universes, like where carbon is the most common element in the universe instead of hydrogen, but I tend to think that the "closer" you are to "where" you started, the more similar the universes are).

I don't know why I bring this up. I just felt like telling y'all.

And you know what else?

I was driving to work this morning, listeing to music ("Spinal Meningitis Got Me Down" by Ween - a beautiful song), and a driver in front of me was irritating me. I don't know how. Oh, yes, he was driving very slowly in the exit lane with his left blinker on, intending to leave, but never getting around to it. It doesn't really matter. So since the notes were bouncing around in my head (listen to the song some time, it's good notes bouncing around in your head music), I created a sound mirror in my head and bounced the notes out at the driver. IMMEDIATELY he SWERVED out of my way, waited until I drove by, then carefully drove back in again. It was very strange.

I'll have to try it again next time something angers me while I'm driving.

AND I have chocolate in the office. I didn't even have to buy it - a co-worker (I don't think she has ever orked a cow, and even if she has, I like her enough not to spread it around) gave us all chocolate eggs (with toys in the middle). I like her. I have chocolate.

That about covers it for the time being. I'll get back to you later.