Tuesday, May 5, 2009

THE AMAZING HOUDINI


How did Abe walk into the U-Haul and disappear right before the eyes of Abe and Aaron? The timer read 6 hours at 3:00pm, so Abe reemerged into the timeline at 9:00am. What did this Abe do? Since it is a new timeline, he can do anything. He could continue in the exact same course and leave at 3:00. Or he could simply keep himself away from Aaron and Abe. He could be across the highway, watching Abe and Aaron standing by the truck.

Abe learns this point when he says, "I think we broke symmetry". When Abe saw that Aaron had his cell phone, he realized that Aaron should not have exited the box with the phone. Unless the time traveling Aaron has already exited the box with his forgotten phone. In that case, it is essential for Aaron to get in the box with the phone. The problem is there is absolutely no way of knowing exactly what Aaron exited the box with, to avoid a potential paradox later. It is strictly impossible for Aaron at 3:00pm to be exactly as Aaron at 9:00am. One is 12 hours older. They cannot be identical.

Do these types of events simply regulate themselves? Did Aaron forget to take his phone out of his pocket because he has already exited the box with it?

Aaron answers his wife’s phone call in the prior timeline and then, doesn’t answer it in the next timeline. This means that Kara should have no memory of contacting Aaron since that part was rewritten. Except that the time travelers have had no contact with Kara in the rewrite, which means her memory of the first timeline should remain intact. Only if Aaron talks to her should her old memories be replaced with the new ones. Abe wonders what has changed. He tries to see things from Kara’s perspective. Are Abe and Aaron really rewriting every event or are there two sets of Abe and Aaron co-existing? If we don’t see our duplicates, how do we know if they exist? (To put it plainly, the two phone calls to Aaron are really just one call at the same time. Abe and Aaron are yet to figure this out.)