A Time Travel Problem

     While reading ", A Man in His Time, the Best of Brian W. Aldes" I came across one of the most perplexing time travel problems I've ever encountered. Of course my first real exposure to time travel was "Back to the Future" starring Michael J. Fox. I'm sure I'd heard of, and maybe had read it, the famous story "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells by that time, but the DeLorean  ripping through space time to save Doc was bigger than life up on the silver screen. Since then, I've read 100's time travel stories and probably heard of just as many movies, but the title story of "A Man in His Time" proposes a time travel problem that is really hard to wrap your mind around. A quick set up of the plot and then I'm going to post the last part of the story I found on Archive.org.  

       In the story Captain Jack Westermark just returned from Mars. On the return, the capsule crashed on Earth, killing seven other astronauts. Jack survives, but has a big problem. He is living 3.077 minutes in the future. Apparently , stuck on "Mars time". The story involves Jack's mom, wife and counselor, Mr. Stackpole trying to understand how to interact with Jack. Here is the final scene in the story. If this doesn't melt your mind, I don't' know what will.

     "The sun had broken through, sucking moisture from the

damp garden. It was now unmistakably autumn. She rounded

the corner of the house, stepped round the rose bed, and

looked into her husband’s study.

Shaken, she saw he leaned half over the table. His hands

were over his face, blood ran between his fingers and dripped

on to an open magazine on the table top. She was aware of

Stackpole sitting indifferently beside the electric fire.

She gave a small cry and ran round the house again, to be

met at the back door by Mrs. Westermark.

‘‘Oh, I was just — Janet, what is it?”

“Jack, Mother! He’s had a stroke or something terrible!”

“But how do you know?”

“Quick, we must phone the hospital — I must go to him,”

Mrs. Westermark took Janet’s arm. “Perhaps we’d better

leave it to Mr. Stackpole, hadn’t we? I’m afraid ”

“Mother, we must do what we can. I know we’re amateurs.

Please let me go.”

“No, Janet, we’re — it’s their world. I’m frightened. They’ll

come if they want us.” She was gripping Janet in her fright.

Their wild eyes stared momentarily at each other as if seeing

something else, and then Janet snatched herself away. “I must

go to him,” she said.

She hurried down the hall and pushed open the study door.

Her husband stood now at the far end of the room by the

window, while blood streamed from his nose.

“Jack!” she exclaimed. As she ran towards him, a blow from

the empty air struck her on the forehead, so that she staggered

aside, falling against a bookcase. A shower of smaller volumes

from the upper shelf fell on her and round her. Exclaiming,

Stackpole dropped his notebook and ran round the table to

her. Even as he went to her aid, he noted the time from his

watch: 10*24.

Aid after 10*24 tidiness of bed

Westermark’s mother appeared in the doorway.

‘‘Stay where you are,’* Stackpole shouted, “or there will be

more trouble! Janet, you see what you’ve done. Get out of

here, will you? Jack, I’m right with you — God knows what

you’ve felt, isolated without aid for three and a third minutes 1”

Angrily, he went across and stood within arm’s length of his

patient. He threw his handkerchief down on to the table.

“Mr. Stackpole ” Westermark’s mother said tenta-

tively from the door, an arm round Janet’s waist.

He looked back over his shoulder only long enough to say,

“Get towels! Phone the Research Hospital for an ambulance

and tell them to be here right away.”

By midday, Westermark was tidily in bed upstairs and the

ambulance staff, who had treated him for what after all was

only nosebleed, had left. Stackpole, as he turned from closing

the front door, eyed the two women.

“I feel it is my duty to warn you,” he said heavily, “that

another incident such as this might well prove fatal. This time

we escaped very lightly. If an5rthing else of this sort happens, I

shall feel obliged to recommend to the board that Mr. Wester-

mark is moved back to the hospital.”

Current way to define accidents

“He wouldn’t want to go,” Janet said. “Besides, you are

being absurd; it was entirely an accident. Now I wish to go

upstairs and see how he is.”

“Just before you go, may I point out that what happened

was not an accident — or not as we generally define accidents,

since you saw the results of your interference through the

study window before you entered. Where you were to

blame ”

‘‘But that’s absurd ” both women began at once. Janet

went on to say, “I never would have rushed into the room as I

did had I not seen through the window that he was in

trouble.”

“What you saw was the result on your husband of your later

interference.”

In something like a wail, Westermark’s mother said, “I

don’t understand any of this. What did Janet bump into when

she ran in?”

“She ran, Mrs. Westermark, into the spot where her hus-

band had been standing 3*3077 minutes earlier. Surely by now

you have grasped this elementary business of time inertia?”

When they both started speaking at once, he stared at them

until they stopped and looked at him. Then he said, “We had

better go into the living-room. Speaking for myself, I would

like a drink.”

He helped himself, and not until his hand was round a glass

of whisky did he say, “Now, without wishing to lecture to you

ladies, I think it is high time you both realized that you are

not living in the old safe world of classical mechanics ruled

over by a god invented by eighteenth-century enlightenment.

All that has happened here is perfectly rational, but if you are

going to pretend it is beyond your female understandings ”

“Mr. Stackpole,” Janet said sharply. “Can you please keep

to the point without being insulting? Will you tell me why

what happened was not an accident? I understand now that

when I looked through the study window I saw my husband

suffering from a collision that to him had happened three and

something minutes before and to me would not happen for

another three and something minutes, but at that moment I

was so startled that I forgot ”

“No, no, your figures are wrong. The total time lapse is only

3*3077 minutes. When you saw your husband, he had been

hit half that time — 1*65385 minutes — ago, and there was

another 1*65385 minutes to go before you completed the

action by bursting into the room and striking him.”

“But she didn't strike him!” the older woman cried.

Firmly, Stackpole diverted his attention long enough to

reply. ‘‘She struck him at 10*24 Earth time, which equals io*20

plus about 36 seconds Mars or his time, which equals 9*59 or

whatever Neptune time, which equals 1 56 and a half Sirius

time. It’s a big universe, Mrs. Westermark! You will remain

confused as long as you continue to confuse event with time.

May I suggest you sit down and have a drink?^’"

       I don't drink, but I may sit down and have one myself. The half time part makes no sense and just thinking about living 3.077 minutes in the future while the rest of the world goes on around you is very difficult. Drop a comment if you'd like to explain this last scene in the story.  

Science Fiction Predicted a no Deal Brexit in 2005

       Sometimes science fiction stories offer alarmingly accurate predictions of future events, attitudes and gadgets. Written in 2005, Peter F. Hamilton's short story "Foot Vote is just such a story. Another example is George R.R. Martin's "Unsound Variations," published in January 1982, which mentions how the house of an obsessed and time traveling evil chess genius is outfitted with a voice-activated stereo that plays all the songs you could desire. There are countless other examples of foreshadowing  in the vast expanse of SF writing, including the famous Star Trek communicators, which inspired flip phone technology, and the many SF stories that mention "slates," apparent models for touch tablets.  

      In the case of Peter F. Hamilton's "Foot Vote," it's downright scary — and arguably humorous, depending on which side of the issue you fall on — how close the story comes to predicting one of the most politically disruptive events of the twenty-first century: Brexit. In this story, however, instead of leaving the EU by means of a vote and prolonged parliamentary process, UK citizens leave via a wormhole in this short but climactic story.

Stranger than (science) fiction

      When Hamilton wrote "Foot Vote" in 2005, the idea that a large portion of the UK population would want to pick up and leave their relatively safe reality in a dramatic, globe-rattling fashion was so far out there it was science fiction, literally.

      But the UK did it. Voters passed Brexit. They went to the polls in 2016 and were so angry, frustrated and disillusioned by their state of affairs that they voted to leave the European Union, to cut their umbilical to the European mainland, to undock the UK escape pod from the enflamed EU mothership, to ride a time machine back to a better — or let's say "greater" — UK, to create a giant dimension ripping wormhole and travel to an unknown alien planet.

      Wow, that last one is extreme, but when you really listen to pro-Brexit Brits, it is not hard to believe that many would prefer trying their luck in an interdimensional wormhole than sticking to the status quo.

     In "Foot Vote" — featured in "The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume 22", compiled by legendary editor Gardner Dozois — Bradley Ethan Murray opens a wormhole in downtown London on January 1, 2003 for two years so all "the decent people" still living in the UK can leave to a better home known as "New Suffolk." The quick, engaging story jumps between an afternoon narrative about a recently divorced couple and long diatribes from Bradley Ethan regarding who and what is allowed on his new world.

     After picking up the kids from mom Janette for what she thinks is a regular parent exchange, the dad, Collin, scoops up his girlfriend Zoë, loads his new BMW and horse trailer with all the supplies they'll need on their new planet and drives straight to the wormhole. In the meantime, Mom meets up with a protestor friend and heads to the “racist fascist wormhole" to protest all her fellow country people leaving. Sorry, no spoilers, but the piece comes to an unexpected climax at the base of this giant rip in space time. 

       Meanwhile, expressing his disillusionment with modern society, Bradley Ethan Murray — the creator of London’s three-hundred-yard wide spherical, shimmering white wormhole — declares unequivocally that New Suffolk will be based on an "English ethnicity." The quantum colony would have socialized medicine and universal education, but no unemployment, he said. If unemployed, you'd be given five acres and crop seed to become self-sufficient.

       There would be no metric system or traffic tickets. Members of "extreme political parties" like the Labor, Conservative, and Communist parties would not be allowed on New Suffolk. Trade unionists, tabloid journalists, EU bureaucrats, traffic wardens, stock brokers, weapons manufacturers and TV soap stars all need not apply to join Murray's new home, where things like prisons and frivolous lawsuits are banned, and filing a frivolous lawsuit would get you five years in a "penal colony.” If one did run afoul of the law, you would only get access to a public defender three times in your life. Luckily, you’d be able to choose when you use your get out of jail free cards. No "compensation culture" or death tax would be tolerated on New Suffolk. Lastly, there would be no religion allowed in this UK interdimensional “paradise” — perhaps it's greatest saving grace.

Actual wormholes?

       "Wormhole Theory" was first proposed in 1916 by Ludwig Flamm while reviewing Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Flamm noticed different solutions to Einstein's equations that hinted at the existence of "white holes," a time reversal of a black hole. Later, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen used the theory to explain that it was possible such holes could be opened in space time. These "holes” could theoretically be opened in different locations and could be connected by "bridges," allowing travel between places that are extremely far away from each other. Despite Einstein's theories pointing to the possibility of wormholes, scientists haven’t found one yet. Many believe if wormholes did exist, they'd be very small and short-lived, and it would be impossible for humans to travel through such an orifice due to the enormous pressures found in such space time locations.

Sorry UK friends, you're stuck with Brexit for now

      It’s looking like at this point in our own space time, it may be easier for Boris Johnson and the rest of the UK to create a wormhole than come to an agreement on Brexit. In the recent EU elections, the Brexit Party picked up thirty-two percent of the UK’s seats (the largest chunk held by a single party). However, three parties supporting a second referendum — Green, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National Party — add up to thirty-six percent. Throw in the non-committal Jeremy Corbyn's Labor Party and the embattled pro-Brexit Conservative Party, who both lost seats in the election, and we have a political concoction more complicated than any exotic matter needed to create a wormhole.

      Time will only tell if the United Kingdom leaves the EU via a "no Deal Brexit," but Peter F. Hamilton offered up another option years ago for the UK to consider in his fortuitous story "Foot Vote" — just as soon as quantum physics catches up.