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"I'm very taken by mythology. I read it at a very early age and kept on reading it. Before I discovered science fiction I was reading mythology."
- Roger Zelazny
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| Time Capsule | ||
| A hollow block of metal, impervious to the elements, used by time travelers to send messages to the future. |
Most time capsules were tossed in the ocean, apparently, then recovered (on the average) about 100,000 years later. They were then kept in the "Post Office" for as many centuries as were necessary.
| We use the Fed to house the vault somebody nicknamed the "Post Office" many years ago, no doubt because the vault is clogged with packages that are not delivered for years or centuries. The Post Office is one of those weird side-effects of time travel. It proves once more that paradoxes are possible, though only strictly limited ones. .. A time capsule is a block of very tough metal about the size of a brick. ..On the outside of the brick is a name and a date: "For __________. Do not open until _________." …Under no circumstances has one ever been opened before its time. .. Time travel is so dangerous it makes H-bombs seem like perfectly safe gifts for children and imbeciles. |
| Technovelgy from Millenium,
by John Varley. Published by Berkley Books in 1983 Additional resources -
|
The danger arises from the paradoxes of time travel; too many alterations in the past can disrupt the present; the timestream is described in this novel as being somewhat flexible, but not very. For example, if you went back in time, and took a can from a stack in the grocery store back to the future, there would be little disruption, despite the fact that a change was made. If you went back to the past and saved JFK, on the other hand, you would change everything.
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'The pitiless M rays pierced Earth and steel and densest concrete as if they were so much transparent glass...'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Nanny is different,' Tom Fields murmured... 'she's not like a machine. She's like a person.'
'We made a crude , small cell and were delighted - and, I admit, somewhat surprised - to find it worked.'
'...we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'The clothes and jewelery drew their tiny power requirements from her movements.'
'At the end of each appendage's eight fingers there are tinier appendages...'
'We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,' said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi.
