All Write, Already!

"Well, the universe is actually lots and lots of universes," he said, and his voice trembled because he knew how completely futile it would be to tell anyone about it. And yet he still tries. "And they're all like, one universe. One and many. Your experience through life, your experience through time, is your position within the greater universe. Think of it as your fourth dimensional location."

"What the hell are you talking about? Are you seriously going all Doctor Who on me?"

"Well, no, not exactly. Doctor Who is full of paradoxes and contradiction."

"But wait, you're saying you time travel, right?"

"Well you could call it that."

"Then isn't it supposed to be full of paradoxes and contradictions?"

"Well, the logic used to justify that position is based on a linear reality."

"Well, isn't time linear?"

"Well, time doesn't exactly exist. What you're calling time is actually merely the angle which you are limited to perceiving space and motion."

"And I suppose you're going to say that you aren't limited in this way?"

"Well, no, not exactly. I'm just as limited as you are, except I can change my position in what you would call space-time."

"Okay, now you've lost me."

He rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. "Look, I'll put it into simpler terms. I can travel through space and what you call time."

"Without any paradoxes?"

"Correct."

"Can you please explain that?"

"I can try. See, look here," he said, and grabbed a marker and wrote on her white board. "This is your angle. This is your existence, from the birth of the universe to this moment. (Well, more or less.) But anyway, here you are," and he drew a dot on the line and wrote 2013 above it. "Let's say you were to go forward in time by one year," and at this he drew another dot and wrote 2014 above it, then he drew the line up, diagonally toward the end of the timeline to split it into a second timeline, and he circled the corresponding point on the new timeline. "See, on the original timeline, you cease to exist, and you essentially create an alternate reality where you begin existing again in 2014. The original timeline plays out like it would have anyway, while the new one plays it all out with you in it again at 2014. Like branches on a tree."

"So every time you travel in time you are expanding the number of realities in the universe?"

"Well, technically, it's all the same space, but you could look at it that way, yes, for the sake of clarity."

"Okay, so can you travel backwards along the same line?"

At that very moment another instance of him appeared beside him - seemingly out of thin air -and said, "Yes, but it's no longer the same line at this point. We have now created-" and the original instance of him finished the sentence "-a new timeline that will diverge from the original. The original still exists, so that I can eventually decide to come back to this point in time." The 'copy' spoke again, "But in that timeline, my timeline, I decide to come back here and therefore stop existing in that timeline altogether." The original then said, "To prevent that from becoming an issue with the original you, I'm going to do the same thing and revert to that timeline to explain it better to him," and he vanished, leaving only his alternate.

"So you're an alternate reality version of yourself?"

"Well, from your perspective. Of course, my consciousness exists in all it's varying forms as a single entity."

"Well if there are so many realities, where do you draw the line between yourself and someone else? Surely there are versions of you, for instance, that are nearly half me, for instance."

"Well, you draw the line arbitrarily, encompassing all the instances of you that you give a damn about. The truth of the matter is, we're all pretty much the same consciousness. We just occupy different spaces of it depending on your fourth dimensional position in reality."

"Now you're going all New Agey on me."

"Perhaps, but I CAN travel through time, so you have to give me some points. I could give you a different perspective on it, but then I'd have to talk about probability as a natural law and that could take several days."

"You know what? I think I'll take your word for it."

"It's better that way."