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Time is something that man
theoretically invented. It is something that we
defined, that we quantified. The cynical/pseudophilosophical/liberal
college student would say that it is that which we
use to keep track of our own decay. In fact, as
something that we supposedly invented, most would
say that time isn’t even real.
Yet, time is very real. That
which happened before now is differentiated from
what will happen later. Instinctively we know this,
as it is just how reality is perceived to us. Other
species are aware of time as well, if only on a
biological level (mating seasons come to mind, as
well as migration).
History is that part of time
which came before. Everything that has happened
before this time interval is history. Every detail
of history is encoded in time. If time was indeed
tangible, it would be almost like a giant memory
card, recording all that has happened down to the
very last electron movement.
In the past, time was thought
of as a circle. The seasons changed from summer to
fall to winter to spring to summer. However, a more
recent way of thought is that time is a line.
Neither representation is accurate on its own, so
perhaps a combination is more appropriate.

Those with knowledge of biology
will recognize the resulting shape. It is a single
alpha helix, commonly ascribed to the secondary
structure of DNA.
DNA is an interesting
structure. Genetic information stored in an elegant
double helix, which is wrapped into an alpha helix
and then into more complex structures. Biological
perfection if there is such a thing.
A strand of DNA is much too
large to fit into a single cell when at full length,
let alone the nucleus. But since DNA has its
structural folding patterns, such as the alpha
helix, all that information can be stored in one
microscopic nucleus because it is folded up.
So does all the information
encoded in time also fold in such a way?
Follow this so far? Time could
fold around itself in order to fit into the
universe.
Time travel is theoretically
possible in this model, although it would be very
specific. You can only travel to a time that is a
set amount of time before or after your current
time. You would simply be "jumping loops" of time.

Points of time line up, so all you must do is
transverse the gap.
Or, alternatively, if one could
understand the theoretical "distance" between time
loops one could jump from their current "location"
(point 1) to another (point 2) by finding the third
side of the triangle, A2 + B2
= C2, where A = radius of time loop,
while B and C are "lengths" that would have to be
determined somehow. Hopefully one of them is a
fixed universal time constant.

However, the risks would be too
high for a human to attempt to do this, even with
the proper machinery and calculations. The
slightest miscalculation and you could find yourself
off the time loop, presumably into oblivion. You
just no longer exist from that point on. Most
likely, though, you would simply wind up on another
time loop (more on this later). Also, the
calculations would be incredibly difficult to
determine. You would have to know not only the
radius of your time loop and one of the other
constants, but also other more complex equations.
Why? Consider that if time folds as DNA does, then
time must also have a tertiary and perhaps (though
not as likely) a quaternary structure. This means
that if you don’t know where your time loop is in
the tertiary structure, you could quite literally be
“shuffled off the mortal coil.” In the above
examples, the secondary structure is more or less
linear. However, in the tertiary structure, time
folds AGAIN, giving you something like this:

So, if you were on a time loop
at point A above, and wanted to reach the loop in
the past at point B, the simple triangle equation
wouldn’t work, as you would totally miss your mark
and either be wiped from existence or (more likely)
hit another point on an entirely separate loop,
perhaps trillions upon trillions of years from where
you wish to be.
Why is landing on another loop
more likely than being wiped from existence? With
the incredibly vast amounts of time in the universe,
not only is the “distance” between loops so
insignificantly small, but the alpha helix would
almost inevitably wind around itself so many times
that to see the whole of it would be analogous to a
white piece of paper covered in black ink due to a
pen and a spirograph run over it millions of times:
mostly filled up, but with a few pinpricks of white
still visible (diagram not shown due to lack of
spirograph). The chances of randomly hitting one of
the small specks of open space would be small, but
still there. Of course, unless you had some sort of
time loop blueprint or map, once you hit a random
spot it would be next to impossible to calculate
your way back.
Because time keeps recording
information, more and more space is required to
store it all. This could explain why the universe
seems to be expanding, as continually more “space”
is required. If this is the case, then this simple
piece of information tells us that the universe
expands more the more it expands.
You read that right. Think
about it. When the universe started, the first few
seconds it existed it was very small. Very little
time existed. However, it grew the more time
accumulated, and each new part of space created
meant that time had to encode more information. So
more space was required. This new area of space
also had information to be recorded, so more space
was required. You see how this works? As more
space is created to hold time, continually more and
more space will be required to hold it, which will
lead to more information that time must encode.
If we follow THIS bit of
information, we can also conjecture that the time
strands of time loops could also be continuously
becoming wider, or thicker, or just in some way
larger than even the segment the second before it.
They could increase in "size" as more information is
encoded. This could help accelerate the growth of
the universe immensely, as even more space would be
required than initially thought.

So, under this theory, does the
universe just continuously expand? Is there an
end?
I would say there isn’t so much
as an end but rather a return to the beginning.
Eventually, either by random chance or from the
universe hitting some barrier and therefore not
being able to expand, time will loop back into
itself and run into the open end that was started at
the beginning. Then time will become truly
cyclical. Everything will begin again and happen as
it already has. In fact, as corny as it sounds, all
of this has probably happened before. You’ve read
this an infinite number of times already, and will
always do so at this exact point of time. I will
create this theory the same dumbass way I always
have.
In a sense, we either do or did
have free will, on the first trip through time. But
after this first trip, we have fate.
Another thing to consider is
that, in nature, most things move into chaos without
some sort of guiding outside force acting on them.
DNA is no exception, as numerous biological and
chemical forces cause it to form the alpha helix and
all other structures. There is nothing to suggest
that there are such forces acting on time.
A force powerful enough to
focus time into folding would be incredibly strong.
We are talking more powerful than any force the
human mind could imagine or even think of. We could
never hope to even comprehend such a force, let
alone prove its existence. To believe that a force
of this magnitude exists could only be that: a
belief, based on faith, and not an entirely rational
one.
There is a name for such a
force.
God.
StretPharmacist is a lot like the Undertaker: A
gimmick that should have never gotten over, but was
taken to unbelievable heights. Also, he is
constantly injured. |