| The Marginal Invisibility Time Loop Universal Relativity Relative Universe | Sci-Fi TV Series Time Travel Magnetic Fields Message from the Future Parallel Universes - UFO |
Message from the Future
Receiving
radio broadcasts from the future and the past
Changing
the future/the timeline
by
This report on the Net: www.themarginal.com/messagefromthefuture.htm
Download a doc version:
www.themarginal.com/messagefromthefuture.doc
rm@themarginal.com www.themarginal.com
TABLE
Solution 1 - Signals being
reflected back at us from space
Solution 2 -
Movie Frequency - Magnetic Fields of the Earth going in Space and back -
Past and Future communicating together in Real Time
Solution 3 - It just happens while trying a new
Communication Experiment using high Frequencies
Solution 4 - Subspace
Communications
Solution 5 - Tachyon Particles
Solution 6 - The Next Generation Radio Signals
Solution 7 - Slowing down and accelerating Signals that are always there in the Air
Solution 8 - Quantum Communications
Solution 9 - Two Times
co-existing - Passing in a particular area with an ordinary Radio
Solution
10 - Using a wormhole or a micro-wormhole to send a message (Stargate SG1)
Is
this a Real Message from the Future?
Has this book really come from the future: A message from Future Generations
Solution 1 - Signals
being reflected back at us from space
You could
always say that signals are bouncing back from an asteroid made of a strange
metal capable of sending back a signal to us. Only good for signals from the
past. It is quite unlikely though, and to my knowledge we never got back our
own signals after they bounce back a celestial body.
Apparently
there have been occurrences of people picking up radio broadcasts of programs
from years ago. It has been suggested that the sound waves could have bounce
off of outer space bodies such as stars. The closest star is Proxima Centauri
and it is 4.28 light years away (not to be mixed up with the closest Galaxies
called Andromeda - 2,200,000 light years away - and M33 -
2,400,000 light years away). What we would pick up would be broadcasts of at
least 8.56 years ago (we have to take into account the time it would take for
the signal to come back).
This is what
they did in Contact, the signal was the opening of the German Olympics, the
first very strong signal sent into space. And then, Aliens had to send it back
to us from the system Vega. We cannot justify in the science of today any
signal being bounced back from a star by itself. But if you wish to pursue this
idea because someone would be sending the signal back to you (that someone
could be anywhere in the Universe), here is some info about Alpha Centauri
(note that it is only good for signals from the past):
Brightest star in the
constellation Centaurus and 3d-brightest
star in the sky; also known as Rigil Kent or Rigil Kentaurus; 1992 position
R.A. 14 h 39.1 m
, Dec. 60°49. It is a yellow main-sequence star of the same spectral class (G2 V) as the sun and of about the
same size and mass; its apparent magnitude is 0.26. Actually, Alpha Centauri is a
triple-star system, the components being designated A, B, and C. Alpha Centauri
C is also called Proxima Centauri because it is the closest star to the
earth (other than the sun), at a distance of 4.28 light-years, components A and
B are currently 4.34 light-years away. Proxima Centauri orbits about the common
center of mass of the system with a period of more than 250,000 years, so that
in about 125,000 years it will be more distant than A and B.
Solution
2 -
Movie Frequency - Magnetic Fields of the Earth going in Space and back - Past
and Future communicating together in Real Time
Could we get
a broadcast from the future? Perhaps a news broadcast of something catastrophic
that will happen? The movie Frequency touched that subject:
A father
communicates with his son in the future, they are 30 years apart and all this
is justified by the physicist Brian Greene who wrote a very interesting book in
the likes of Stephen Hawking called the Elegant Universe. You might want to
read it along with HyperSpace of Michio Kaku. Kaku also wrote a book called
Visions about future scientific gadgets we can expect.
How they do
it in Frequency, they use a very particular radio system called HAM Radio. It
is an old system not in used today and there would be little interest in using
it today since nobody is using it anymore. On top of this, you need a license
to operate one. The son found the old radio of his dad and plug it in one night
they were bored. He picks up only one signal, the one of his dad 30 years ago.
How? There is a spectacular sky storm known as aurora
borealis in which the magnetic field of the Earth goes into space and comes
back to the Earth with usually a 10 years gap, but in the movie it is 30 years.
This is how they can communicate in real time and change the future.
Like in the
movie Frequency, the characters of your show can use a very particular radio
system called HAM Radio. It is an old system not in used today and certainly it
would not be used in the future. They could plug one and discuss with someone
from the future, someone who also found an old HAM radio and decided to use it
for fun. (That would be copying the movie Frequency completely, so you might
want to use another solution.)
So you would need the characters to find a
HAM radio and they would need to hear something sent by someone in the future
using a HAM radio. In the comments on the DVD they tell stories of many users
of HAM radio who did communicate with people in the future and the past because
the signals were going in space and were coming back years later. The signals
were following the natural magnetic fields of the Earth that - at certain
times - goes much further in space before coming back. So it is a known
phenomenon.
Solution 3 - It just happens while trying a new
Communication Experiment using high Frequencies
You can have
some signals from the future reaching your characters while using one of their
new communication experiments, and then pick up again another signal to find
out they changed the future. Then the radio dies out without them ever
understanding how they did this and have only partial suppositions about how
this was possible.
Or you could
have them invent a new type of radio that could revolutionize broadcasting
forever and they could use that radio later during the show whenever they
travel in the future or the past. How would you go and invent that radio?
They could try to use different high
frequencies that no one ever uses for radio signals because it is damageable to
the health, too close to the microwaves frequencies. But then they could have
found a way to make it safe somehow by inventing a safety device of some sort.
And obviously in the future they would also have found a way to use those
frequencies without damaging our health.
Solution 4 - Subspace
Communications
In Star Trek they use subspace
communications, I also heard that in Stargate. It means that they are getting
out of the fabric of space in order to send messages almost instantly across
the galaxy. Out of space means somewhere where time and space are not clearly
define. Note that on long distances across the galaxy they still need subspace
beacons everywhere in order to boost the signal and make it instant through space.
Destroy one of these beacons and suddenly your message takes longer.
The characters could experiment and invent
a subspace radio, and in the future they could be using a similar system. It
would certainly be a wonderful invention since at the moment the whole
bandwidth spectrum is overuse by mobile phones and radio signals of all sorts.
The only thing is that subspace is still theoretical and we are no where near
making it a reality. On the other hand, Star Trek has made it famous and
everybody knows what a subspace signal is (in theory).
Solution 5 - Tachyon
Particles
In Star Trek they use these Tachyons
particles that are going faster than the speed of light, I also heard that in
Stargate. So in theory you could pick up a
signal from the future. You would then have the characters doing
experimentation with a Tachyon Radio that could in theory pick up radio and TV
signals sent from the future or sent in the past. You could also communicate
with someone in the future or the past. It would be hard to justify, but like
in Star Trek you don't need to go beyond saying that the tachyon radio is
capable of receiving any signals sent in any time.
(tak´eon)
, hypothetical elementary particle that travels only at speeds
exceeding that of light. According to the theory of relativity , the speed of light is the limiting
velocity for all ordinary material particles. Particles having nonzero rest
mass can approach, but not reach, the speed of light, since their mass would
become infinite at that speed. On the other hand, particles with zero rest
mass, such as the photon and the neutrino , must always travel at the speed of
light; they cannot be brought to rest or even slowed down. Theorists have
argued that since nothing in principle prohibits the existence of a third class
of particles that travel only at speeds exceeding that of light, such
particles, called tachyons [Gr. tachys, swift] may exist although no
evidence for them has been found. In the terminology of the theory, the
particles that travel only at the speed of light are called luxons, and those
that travel at lesser speeds are called tardyons. Like the original theory of
relativity, the theory of tachyons has several aspects that appear to
contradict common sense but that are fully self-consistent. For example, a
tachyon must have an imaginary (in the mathematical sense) rest mass, or proper
mass, and it must travel faster rather than slow down when it loses energy.
Solution 6 - The Next Generation Radio Signals
We mainly use
analog systems (radio waves) for radio broadcasting, and now more and more we
are using digital (signals made of strings of 0 and 1). Which means that the
day we turn 100% digital, we will no longer be sending any signals in space for
other potential civilizations out there to receive or hear. What is the future
preparing for us? Another way of broadcasting? We could have the characters
working on a special radio in order to invent a new way of communicating. Since
that way of broadcasting could be used in the future, your characters could get
messages from the future. For
example they could work on the development of an advanced signal
processing technology. This could be linked to the next solution (7) as to how
they would build that radio.
An example
about some principles this new radio could be based on: if the Earth was to
explode, people on planet A from another system would see it in 10 years.
People on planet B would see it in 20 years because this is the time it would
take for the image to reach them at the speed of light. Now, the people on planet
B are quite bright, they invented a telescope powerful enough to see in space
very far. If they adjust their telescope, they could see the Earth exploding
almost instantly, even though the image would normally take 20 years to reach
them. They could decide to adjust their telescope to only catch the image in
ten years, so they would see the explosion at the same time as the people on
planet A. Basically, by adjusting your telescope, you can see in the past and
the future. I am working at the moment on a similar system but for
communications. Fibre optic or optical networks at the moment are using light
as a mean to communicate. If the light is on, it is 1, if the light is off, it
is 0 (binary language). By flashing that light they can transfer data at a very
fast rate, virtually at the speed of light. Now, these transmissions (including
emails, data, video streams) could be intercepted with a radio-telescope
instantly, and we could communicate with people on planet B instantly instead
of waiting for the light to reach us. You see, it is the way we are
transmitting data today that has changed. And by manipulating the
radio-telescope, we could also manipulate at which time period we wish to communicate
with the other planet. We could also communicate with ourselves in the past or
the future by sending a signal to the other planet instantly and readjusting
the focus (the time) at which the other planet sends the signal back to us. If
the planet is 20 light years away from us, we could communicate from the present
to 20 years back and 20 years in the future. You could also play with
relativity and gravity in order to slow down or accelerate a signal, and would
not need a receiver and transmitter on another planet 20 light years away. This
will be discussed next.
Solution 7 - Slowing down and accelerating Signals that are always
there in the Air
Can people
in the future send a message that gets slowed down or bounced around so that it
arrives in the past?
Since time and
space are relative, it means that the time a signal is sent or received is
unclear. You could receive a signal before it is sent because time is relative
and changing. Time is changing depending on the speed we are going at and the
gravity surrounding us. We are always moving through space at relative and
changing speed via new surroundings where there is more gravity or less.
Therefore we could pick up signals from the future or the past with the right
radio.
That radio
would need to slow down a signal or accelerate the transmission to readjust it
to our actual relative space-time situation. We will need to slow down
considerably the transmission to receive a message from the future, or
accelerate it considerably if it comes from the past.
Another idea
in the slowing down a signal solution. This calls for my own theories about
the universe that my friend William Taggart
shares. First of all particles are already going faster than the speed of
light, people have just not realized that yet. So no need for Tachyons
particles, they are all going faster than the speed of light. The thing is, we
do not realize they are going faster than the speed of light because relatively
particles appear to reach us at the speed of light, the speed at which any
signal travels at.
I think a
soon to happen revolution in communication is that signals are travelling at
speeds faster than the speed of light. We would then need to slow down
considerably the transmission to receive a message from the future, or
accelerate it considerably if it comes from the past. Once we grasp this,
instant communication anywhere in the universe and no matter the time it has
been sent at, will no longer be something impossible. In theory, all signals
are there in the air anywhere in the universe. With the right radio you could
adjust those received signals, slow them down or accelerate them and you would
have a real signal from the past or the future. A bit like a telescope finding
images from the past or the future. You could call that radio a Relativity Radio as it is picking up signals
from the relative universe we are living in.
You could
still use this solution with Tachyons particles if you are not comfortable with
the idea that particles are usually already going faster than the speed of
light.
Solution 8 - Quantum Communications
Great article
about it in New Scientist:
www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991346
At the moment
the latest ideas are quantum computers and quantum communications. That is
quite real and really weird. Those quantum computers are using computers in
parallel universes in order to process data at the highest speed possible. It
uses the probability of all the locations of all the photons involved
(Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle). That may sound impossible, and I don't
think they yet realize what is happening, but it is real and in less than ten
years we will have the first quantum computers.
Well, you
could say that the characters, following the progress of quantum computers and
quantum communications very closely, invented the new quantum radio. That radio
would be capable of receiving all possible signals ever sent and that could
ever be sent because it takes into account the infinite possibilities of the
quantum world. So some messages they could get may have never been sent, and
even, they could receive messages that will only be sent in the future. Since
the future is only an infinite amount of possibilities, these messages might
not be reflecting the present timeline as the future is not yet set in stone.
That is how weird the quantum world is and it is kind of proven.
I think this
is your best bet. I did extensive research on the subject and if you decide to
take on this avenue, I will get you links on the Internet so you can learn
more. Here is what I found quickly, but this is not good enough:
www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/20011219_quantum.shtml
http://rleweb.mit.edu/qcmc/
(a conference on the subject)
http://eve.physics.ox.ac.uk/NewWeb/Research/communication/communication.html
At the moment
the only use for quantum communication is for cryptography but in 20 years it
could be much more. That is why our smart characters can invent it by mistake
while using a quantum computer in its early age of testing. They will invent
the first ever quantum radio and they have to make certain that the message
they receive from the future is related to them. It is quite possible that the
message is related to an alternate reality for which they have no connections
with. This is why the future is in movement and all possible futures exist.
They can go on the assumption that all possible futures exist and decide to
prevent that possible future to ever exist in the first place. And hear
afterwards that they have changed the future.
From my own
theories though, I think that since particles can go faster than the speed of
light in the first place, the quantum computers are using particles that simply
are going faster than the speed of light, speeding up the processing time. So I
do not believe that these particles are exactly in parallel universes, though
as I explain in my report about parallel universes,
you could still interpret it this way. They are using particles that can appear
to be at many different places at the same time when in fact it is only in as
many places at the same time as the times it is crossing the speed of light.
So, if a particle is going at 10 times the speed of light, the computer can use
that same particle 10 times in order to process much faster. It is like taking
advantage of our limitations in our ability to measure the real location of a
particle at a given relative adjusted time. I might still be wrong though.
Solution 9 - Two Times co-existing - Passing in a
particular area with an ordinary Radio
As you might have read
in the reports Time
Travel and Invisibility,
many different times could be already co-existing in the same space and your
characters could just happen to go through a particular area with a radio and
suddenly pick up messages from the future. So they know that passing there with
a radio or that by putting a radio or a TV at the particular place, they
receive messages from the future. Since they know by now that different times
co-exist around here, they would not be at a lost to explain how this
phenomenon is possible.
They could find out
that where the gravitational fields are stronger or weaker in certain spots, it
means that if they put a radio there they could receive signals from another
time. If the gravitational field is stronger, then it would be a time from the
past (more gravity means time has slowed down and it is the past). If the
gravitational field is weaker or lighter, then it is the future, because time
is running faster. By simply identifying those spots and putting a radio there,
they could pick up signals from the future or the past related to their
timeline. They could also change the future. Don't forget that in the past they
were not using AM or FM, you will need to find out when we have started to use
those frequencies.
Solution 10 - Using a wormhole to send a message
(Stargate SG-1)
1969 (season 2,
episode 221)
www.stargate-sg1.com/home/episodes/s2.html
Synopsis: Through a
solar flare, the SG-1 team are propelled back in time to 1969, landing in a
top-secret military facility. Carrying a letter General Hammond gave her,
Carter is searched by a young Lieutenant who is astonished by the letter's
contents. As the team is transported for further interrogations, the Lieutenant
helps them escape and tells them the letter appeared to be from him many years
in the future. Desperate to find the Stargate so they can return to the
present, the team seeks out Catherine, who they believe may know its location.
Hitchhiking to see her in New York, they are picked up by Michael and Jenny ,
two friendly flower children on their way to Woodstock. They immediately warm
to the team's fugitive appearance. Carter discovers that Hammond's note
includes the date of the next solar flare and they race to the Stargate before
their chance of leaving the past is lost for good.
Full and better description at this URL:
www.gateworld.net/sg1/s2/221.shtml
General Hammond is acting a little strange as
SG-1 prepares to disembark on a standard mission to P2X-555. He hands Captain
Carter a note, telling her not to read it until she's on the other side of the
gate.
Sam agrees, and the
Stargate is dialed. Carter had to make additional calculations in the computer
system -- the wormhole travelling between Earth and their destination will come
unusually close to the sun this time of year. With the extra gravity accounted
for in the computer's planetary drift calculations, SG-1 disembarks on their
next mission.
After stepping through
the gate, though, the team finds themselves immediately back in the gate room
on Earth. A few seconds later, reality begins to warp. The gate and the SGC
disappear, and SG-1 finds themselves in a missile silo standing where the gate
room use to be. A rocket is about to be test fired right over their heads,
until Teal'c disables it with his zat gun.
SG-1 is immediately
taken into custody by base personnel. Carter concludes that the gravitational
pull of the sun caused the team to slingshot back in time -- decades, so it
appears, to a time when the lower levels of Cheyenne Mountain were used for
missile testing.
Carter demands that
they do nothing to change the past or tell anyone who they really are, since it
might change the timeline in ways they can't begin to understand. Their goal is
to get free and live out the rest of their lives in obscurity.
O'Neill is
interrogated, and gives up nothing to the base commander. The team -- believed
to be Russian spies -- is put on a truck and sent from Colorado to New Mexico
for further examination.
Meanwhile, a young
lieutenant has discovered the note placed in Sam's vest pocket. It reads,
"George -- Help them," and includes two dates and times.
The soldier arranges
for a flat tire during the team's trip to New Mexico. He approaches them in the
back while the driver changes the tire. Carter notices the nametag on the
officer's uniform: it is George Hammond, their commanding officer at the SGC in
1999.
The team convinces
Hammond to listen to his future self and help them. They overpower the guards
and escape, after destroying all of their technology. Jack is not content to
give up on getting home; the mission is now to locate the Stargate and find a
way home.
In fact, years ago
Carter was prompted by Hammond to research alternative uses for the Stargate --
including time travel. She theorizes that establishing another wormhole to
P2X-555 can send them back, so long as they time their trip at the exact moment
of a solar flare. This seems impossible, since solar flares cannot be
predicted. By the time a flare can be confirmed on Earth, it's already too
late.
But Hammond, having met
them in 1969 and knowing they would be lost in the past, has given them the
information they need: the two dates and times written on the paper pinpoint
the minute of solar flares. The General must have used Sam's own research to
find a way for them to get back; then he looked up the dates and times of two
solar flares in 1969 and wrote them down.
All will be for naught
if SG-1 cannot find the Stargate. In 1969, it is sealed up in a government
wharehouse somewhere. Catherine Langford's father is dead, and she has
not yet assumed a position as head of Stargate research. But Daniel knows that
she is living in New York.
The team hooks up with
a couple of travelling hippies. The two, Michael and Jenny, are driving their
bus to a concert in New York before Michael has to join the military and be
shipped to Vietnam. O'Neill, Carter, Jackson and Teal'c join them in their
cross-country trip and convince them to help.
The team has about one
week to find the Stargate. Once in New York, O'Neill and Teal'c are dropped off
at an observatory to confirm that the first time and date do in fact pinpoint a
solar flare. Meanwhile, Jackson and Carter locate Catherine -- who's father
discovered the Stargate in Giza in 1928.
Posing as the son of a
German archaeologist with whom Dr. Langford was once associated, Daniel proves
his knowledge of the top-secret "Doorway to Heaven" to Catherine. He
convinces her to tell him where the Stargate is now -- a military armory in
Washington, D.C.
With the solar flare
confirmed and the Stargate located, SG-1 makes the trip to Washington. They say
their goodbyes to Michael and Jenny, with whom they have grown close. The team
zats the small number of guards, and powers up the Stargate by connecting it to
a car battery.
Teal'c dials the
Stargate and establishes a wormhole, but SG-1 is discovered and comes under
fire from the guards who have stumbled upon them. O'Neill is forced to order
the team through the Stargate a few seconds too soon.
They do find themselves
on Earth again -- in the Cheyenne Mountain gate room. But now, they are far
into the future. The place appears deserted, and large cloths cover objects in
the room.
An older woman enters
the room, and knows them all by name. Happy to see them again (and to see them
looking so young), it is Cassandra, the young girl that the team rescued
from a world invaded by the Goa'uld ("Singularity"). She hugs Captain
Carter, but must rush them all back through the Stargate.
Finally, SG-1 emerges
in the gate room back in 1999. General Hammond welcomes them home, and tells
them that he's been waiting for this to happen since he met them. When he saw a
large cut on Sam's hand, he knew the time had come; it was the same cut he had
seen on her hand when he took off her handcuffs in 1969. ALYSIS
-Carter states that the
wormhole will take them close to the sun at this time of year -- within 70,000
miles. The computer's drift calculations had to be updated to take into account
gravitational space-time warping. What does this mean?
The SGC's list of
Stargate addresses was taken from the Goa'uld's ancient map left in a cave on
Abydos ("Children of the Gods"). Planetary
drift (under the expanding universe model) would, after many thousands of
years, render some addresses invalid. The computer recalculates these addresses
based on a fixed planetary drift model and, in some cases, changes a symbol or
two to "update" the address to a given planet.
At this particular time
of year, according to Carter, the direct line between the Earth and the team's
destination takes them close to the sun -- and the added gravity could throw
the wormhole off track. When recalculating the address based on planetary
drift, this extra gravity would have to be taken into account -- though the
final Stargate address dialed might not be any different because of it.
-An alternate
explanation is the timing factor, which Daniel mentioned. While the increased
gravity from the sun might not change the seven-symbol Stargate address, it
would require that the team wait until they were in correct alignment with the
sun before gating -- to avoid complications like time travel. The extra time
that they waited would have been countered by the solar flare, which could not
have been predicted.
-SG-1 was thrown back
in time not because the computer failed in its gravitational calculations, but
because a solar flare erupted on the sun the moment that the team passed by it
while travelling through the wormhole. This caused the wormhole to
"slingshot" around the sun -- a theoretical means of time travel
(and, incidentally, the same means used by the crew of the Enterprise in
"Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home").
-For a few seconds, the
team appeared to occupy both time periods simultaneously. The time dilation
affect of the slingshot around the sun did not take affect until after the
wormhole had reconnected to Earth's Stargate. Otherwise, the wormhole would
have connected to the boxed-up gate at the military armory in 1969. After SG-1
completed the slingshot, the time dilation took affect.
-Captain Carter warned
the team against changing anything in Earth history because of the Grandfather
Paradox. This principle states that if you go back in time and kill your own
grandfather, you would never be born -- and therefore unable to go back in time
to kill your grandfather, in which case you would be born.
The time travel theory
that is implied here (and in many science fiction shows) is that alternate
universes exist for every moment of time. SG-1 could travel into its own future
because somewhere, in some dimension, all the intervening moments had occured.
On some "version" of Earth it was decades past 1999. You would not
"blink" out of existence if you went back in time and killed your
grandfather, because you would be travelling to a different version of reality.
The reality from which you come would remain the same (though getting back to
it after altering the past would be a problem).
The paradox aside, it
should suffice to say that altering the past can have tremendous ramifications
on the future.
-O'Neill gave two false
names during his interrogation: James T. Kirk and Luke Skywalker. The major who
was questioning him was not familiar with Star Trek, which aired from 1966 to
1969 but did not gain widespread popularity until the 1970s. As for Star Wars,
it would not hit theaters for another 8 years.
-After the first Abydos
mission ("Stargate" the movie), General Hammond
asked Carter to explore alternate applications for the Stargate -- including
time travel. She determined that if a wormhole came close enough to the sun at
the exact moment of a solar flare, the magnetic field of the flare could
redirect the wormhole closer to the sun. The increased gravity could slingshot
the travellers around the sun and back to Earth.
-General Hammond likely
asked Carter to research the potential of using the gate for time travel
because he knew that the yet unformed SG-1 would be trapped in 1969, and would
need a way home.
-In order to go forward
in time instead of backward, Hammond had to locate flares on the opposite side
of the sun. This alone does not seem to fit the above time travel theory very
well. Not only would the direct line between Earth and P2X-555 have to take the
wormhole close to the sun again in 1969, but it would have to do so on the
opposite side of the sun in order for the 1969 solar flares to affect the
wormhole.
2010
(season 4, episode 416)
www.stargate-sg1.com/home/episodes/s4.html
Synopsis : It's 2010 and a lot
has happened in ten years. The Goa'uld have been defeated and diseases such as
cancer have been wiped out. Earth's saviors are an alien race known as the
Aschen. Their advanced technology has not only ensured the planet's safety, but
it has won them the respect and friendship of all humanity.
In spite of vast medical advancements however, Samantha Carter and her husband
Joe are unable to conceive a child. The Aschen doctors insist Samantha is fine,
but Dr. Fraiser's tests reveal something very different. The Aschen have been
lying all along.
Carter's investigation reveals an insidious plot by the Aschen to wipe out the
human race through a process of slow attrition, but dealing with this alien
threat seems virtually impossible. The Aschen have become entrenched in Earth
society. They hold the reins of power. Challenging them would mean certain
defeat. Finally, SG-1 comes to realize that there is still hope…ten years in
the past.
Full and better
description at this URL: www.gateworld.net/sg1/s4/416.shtml
Here is a short
excerpt:
Carter and Fraiser take
their discovery to Daniel and Teal'c. With no other option available, Sam
conceives of only one way to save the human race from the Aschen: send a
message 10 years into the past to prevent the alliance from ever happening.
They've learned how to
do it already: use the Aschen computers to predict a solar flare. By dialing
the proper Stargate address (taking the wormhole's path close enough to the
sun, and on the correct side of the sun) at the proper moment, the flare will
cause the wormhole to bend back on itself and return to Earth -- along with a
time dilation. The magnitude of the flare will allow them to pinpoint the
approximate time in the SGC's history.
Ten years in the past,
Hammond orders the iris opened -- and a crumpled piece of paper falls through.
The wormhole disconnects, and the team enters the Gate room. O'Neill recognizes
his own handwriting and signature, telling them not to go to P4C-970 -- the
world where SG-1 was to soon make first contact with the Aschen. Though no
other information is given, Hammond orders the destination permanently removed
from the dialing computer.
It should be noted
first and foremost that, because history has been changed and SG-1 will not
make first contact with the Aschen on P4C-970, this future will not come to
pass. While some elements may remain unaffected, much of what we learned about
SG-1 and the planet Earth after the year 2000 must be rewritten.
2001
(season 5, episode 510)
www.gateworld.net/sg1/s5/510.shtml
SG-1 returns from a
mission with the best news General Hammond could hear: they've completed the
SGC's standing orders to acquire technologies that can defend Earth from the
Goa'uld. Though their first mission to P3A-194 revealed only a farming town,
the Volians have introduced them to their friends -- a technologically advanced
race that wants to establish a treaty with Earth, and share their technology.
They are called the Aschen.
The team prepares to
return to the planet with an ambassador -- a young man named Joseph Faxon, who will represent Earth's
interests and establish formal diplomatic relations with the Aschen. He's a bit
out of place, wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase to the farming
planet. Samantha Carter likes him
right away.
They are met near the
Stargate by Borren, a humorless Aschen who greats them coldly and takes them to
a transportation platform, which sends Borren, O'Neill, Carter and Ambassador Faxon to one of
the massive Aschen harvesters moving a few hundred feet over the surface of the
farmlands (which automatically harvest the Volian fields and deliver the crops
through the Stargate to the Aschen homeworld).
Dr. Jackson and Teal'c, under orders to "dig a little
deeper" and find out more about the Aschen, go to speak with a local
villager named Keel. He has nothing but good things to say about the Aschen,
telling them that he was even raised by an Aschen family. They use their technology
to help the farmers.
On board the harvester,
Borren introduces the delegation from Earth to the Aschen ambassador, Molum. He
has good news for them: the Aschen offer not only their advanced technology
(including a bio-weapon that targets an enemy's specific genetic pattern, and
could no doubt win the war against the Goa'uld), but membership in the Aschen
Confederation. It is a group of worlds whom the Aschen have united together,
and with whom they share technology.
They ask relatively
little in return. The Aschen have discovered very few Stargate addresses, and
request that Earth shares the secrets of gate travel (addresses obtained from
Abydos and the Ancients' library) with them. They also require that any treaty
with Earth must be with all of Earth; the Stargate's existence must be revealed
to the world.
O'Neill is uneasy with
the negotiations, especially when Molum expresses concerns that Earth's
population growth is unsustainable.
On Keel's farm, Teal'c
and Daniel have offered to remove iron root from the ground. But what they find
is a massive iron pillar sticking out of the ground. They partially unbury it
and climb down, discovering a huge underground city -- a city far more advanced
than the Volians are now. It was equivalent to the United States in the early
decades of the 20th century. The Volians have not always been farmers.
O'Neill, Carter and
Faxon return to the SGC, where Hammond gives them even more unsettling news.
Before they left, Carter programmed the computer to try and pinpoint the
location of the Aschen homeworld (using the location of the Volian planet and
some assumptions about stellar drift). They were unwilling to divulge the
information until after the treaty is signed, as they have no iris or other way
of protecting themselves.
Now, the computer has
determined that there is a one in four chance that the Aschen homeworld is
P4C-970 -- a planet that Hammond ordered locked out of the dialing computer
seven months ago, after receiving a note through the Stargate warning them not
to go there ("2010"). Blood on the note tested
positive as Colonel O'Neill's, and the reigning speculation is that the note
was sent from the future.
O'Neill and Carter return
to the planet when they learn that Jackson and Teal'c haven't checked in yet.
The two have found a series of old newspapers in the library of the buried
city. While Daniel can't completely translate the headlines, the photographs
speak volumes: one shows a group of rioters.
SG-1 returns to Earth,
and Daniel nearly finishes translating -- but there is one word he can't figure
out. Shortly after the Aschen arrived, there was a flu pandemic. The Aschen
distributed a vaccine that saved them -- but it apparently had a side effect.
"Vaccine causes _______" is the headline on the final newspaper,
implying that the paper was shut down the very next day.
As Daniel points out,
the Volians went from a thriving metropolis of millions to an agrarian
civilization of thousands -- after the Aschen supposedly saved them.
With diplomatic efforts
proceeding to the next level, Colonel O'Neill decides to visit the President.
But when he arrives in Washington, D.C., he is intercepted by Senator Kinsey. He rebuffs Jack's attempts to
convince the President not to pursue relations with the Aschen. In fact, Kinsey
himself has been put in charge of the final stages of the negotiation -- and
expects that this treaty will propel him to the presidency himself. And the
supposed "note from the future" be damned.
O'Neill returns to the
SGC, defeated. But the team has one more plan: Jackson writes the untranslated
word on a piece of paper, and gives it to Sam. Only she will be allowed to
accompany Ambassador Faxon to the next meeting with the Aschen, at the order of
Senator Kinsey. She takes advantage of the few minutes she has in gate room
with Joe to fill him in on the plan.
On board the harvester,
Faxon hands Molum a laptop computer -- which contains the Stargate addresses
for 10 different worlds, as a gesture of good faith in the continuing
negotiations. Molum is quite pleased. But Sam hands the piece of paper to
Borren, and asks him to translate the word written on it:
"sterility."
Molum is surprised, and
realizes that the Aschen plan to conquer Earth has been foiled. Carter
confronts him, but he takes the Stargate addresses and leaves her and Joe
locked up in the meeting room.
Carter hears the Stargate
dialing on the surface below, and sees that they are dialing Earth. She ties a
rope to the harvester and repels down, hoping to escape with the ambassador.
(The gate is programmed to turn horizontal for the harvester.) The gate is
activated and Carter transmits her iris code -- just before she sees a massive
bio weapon emerge from the Aschen harvester. She yells up to Joe, telling him
to follow her -- but he is struggling with Borren, and tells her to go without
him.
Reluctantly, Sam cuts
the rope and falls into the Stargate, flying out the other end and ordering the
iris closed. The Aschen attack is averted, though Ambassador Faxon is lost.
Kinsey is livid,
believing that O'Neill and company deliberately orchestrated events against
him. But the team thanks Major Carter for a job well done.
Could you
change the future if you knew the future? No one knows, but in theory you could
because of the parallel
universes and the Many-Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. If
someone invent a time machine and someone goes into the past to kill that guy
before he invents his time machine, it is not a paradox (despite what has been
said about this) because on a parallel timeline, the guy invented that time
machine. You could go in the past and kill your father before you were born
because then you only create a different timeline. On the original timeline,
you were born from your father.
The movie Time
Machine from the novel by H.G. Wells does not go against this idea. He cannot
change the past, his girlfriend dies but only because he is the reason why she
dies. If he had not been the reason his girlfriend died, he would have been
able to prevent her death. By not creating his time machine, she would have not
died in the first place. So he could still save her by going in the past and
prevent himself from building that machine and hence create a new timeline in
which she would not die. Again, it is not a paradox and the machine would exist
in the original timeline.