James is referring to a thing in a (lousy) Dr.Who story called
Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time - in other words,
through the bits between chronons (the smallest division of time
possible). I'm not sure that's scientifically kosher, but I'll leave
that to the physicists. Interstitial time certainly solves certain
problems - for one thing, how things can be sent "a microsecond" forward
in time and thus disappear for ever, as surely it would just disappear,
and then reappear a microsecond later!
On a related subject (deafening chorus of "Oh no!" from all corners of
IFIS), that TNG episode "Timescape", with Picard, Ro, Geordie and Data
(I think it was them - correct me otherwise) moving at a different time
rate to the Enterprise - in other words, thanks to armband-mounted
gizmos, they weren't affected by the extremely slow progression of time
which had happened to the ship. However, they were still able to move
things (eg. rotate a desk-mounted screen). I would have thought that,
since they are travelling through time much faster relative to the
Enterprise, that to make an object move at what would be a normal
acceleration for them would require a very, very great force, as the
object would be travelling through time much slower than the person and
so would actually need a much greater acceleration, or at least it would
seem so to the object pusher, who is travelling through time much faster
than... well, you get the picture. I know, it's just Star Trek, who
never get anything right ever in the entire history of the world, but I
want the physicists to help me out with this! Also, if the speed of
light is constant, wouldn't the observers being much "faster" through
time than the surroundings mean that light would be reaching them from
the surroundings at a slower rate? Would they perhaps be able to see
the individual photon bursts...? Or would everything just seem darker
(if the surroundings are slower), or get Doppler-shifted?
I think we should make this the last time we pester the physicists among
us for a while - they've got courses to do! Ain't that da trute, guys?
Still, it was nice for me to get to discuss physics for a change,
instead of just boring old mineral exploration... (but enough about my
disillusionment with my course!)
D.Chilard
P.S. TOMTIT is a blinking stupid acronym - did BIGRAT in Joe 90 stand
for "Blimey, It's Grotesquely Risible Acronym Time!"...? (Yes, I got
that from an early issue of SFX!)
P.P.S. Is anyone going to flame me for insulting Dr.Who's The Time
Monster? I sincerely doubt it...
Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time - in other words,
through the bits between chronons (the smallest division of time
possible). I'm not sure that's scientifically kosher, but I'll leave
that to the physicists. Interstitial time certainly solves certain
problems - for one thing, how things can be sent "a microsecond" forward
in time and thus disappear for ever, as surely it would just disappear,
and then reappear a microsecond later!
On a related subject (deafening chorus of "Oh no!" from all corners of
IFIS), that TNG episode "Timescape", with Picard, Ro, Geordie and Data
(I think it was them - correct me otherwise) moving at a different time
rate to the Enterprise - in other words, thanks to armband-mounted
gizmos, they weren't affected by the extremely slow progression of time
which had happened to the ship. However, they were still able to move
things (eg. rotate a desk-mounted screen). I would have thought that,
since they are travelling through time much faster relative to the
Enterprise, that to make an object move at what would be a normal
acceleration for them would require a very, very great force, as the
object would be travelling through time much slower than the person and
so would actually need a much greater acceleration, or at least it would
seem so to the object pusher, who is travelling through time much faster
than... well, you get the picture. I know, it's just Star Trek, who
never get anything right ever in the entire history of the world, but I
want the physicists to help me out with this! Also, if the speed of
light is constant, wouldn't the observers being much "faster" through
time than the surroundings mean that light would be reaching them from
the surroundings at a slower rate? Would they perhaps be able to see
the individual photon bursts...? Or would everything just seem darker
(if the surroundings are slower), or get Doppler-shifted?
I think we should make this the last time we pester the physicists among
us for a while - they've got courses to do! Ain't that da trute, guys?
Still, it was nice for me to get to discuss physics for a change,
instead of just boring old mineral exploration... (but enough about my
disillusionment with my course!)
D.Chilard
P.S. TOMTIT is a blinking stupid acronym - did BIGRAT in Joe 90 stand
for "Blimey, It's Grotesquely Risible Acronym Time!"...? (Yes, I got
that from an early issue of SFX!)
P.P.S. Is anyone going to flame me for insulting Dr.Who's The Time
Monster? I sincerely doubt it...