[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
looks as if we've really started something now, I'm afraid."
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The Honorable Graham Cuthrie, His Majesty's Minister for Advanced Technology
and Science, stared over Murdoch's shoulder at the screen and went over in his
mind the things that Charles had said. Then he took a sheet of blank paper off
the top of the desk beside him and drew a large cross from corner to corner
with a red broad-tipped pen. Slowly and deliberately he folded the paper in
two and tore it across, then placed the pieces on top of each other and tore
them again.
"There is an event," he declared. "The paper with the red X on it has been
torn up." He looked dubiously across the lab at where Charles was standing by
the workbench. On the other side of the room with Lee and Cartland, Professor
Norman Payne, Chairman of the Minister's Advisory
Committee on Advanced Research, and Dr. Catherine Hazeltine from the National
Physical Laboratory at Teddington stood silently watching with interest.
Cuthrie continued, "The event of my tearing this sheet of paper is now
established as part of the past. It's fact. Are you suggesting that it can now
be changed?"
Charles made no reply, but simply nodded at Murdoch. Murdoch composed a simple
line of text on the screen: "Do not tear the sheet that has the red X drawn on
it."
"You tore it at exactly ten seconds after eleven-seven," Murdoch said,
glancing back at
Cuthrie. "I'm setting this message to arrive at a point in time five seconds
before that. Whether or not anything changes will depend on whether or not the
'you' that exists at that moment decides to take any notice of it." Cuthrie
sniffed suspiciously. Without further ado, Murdoch turned back
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file:///F|/rah/James%20P.%20Hogan/Hogan,%20James%20P%20-%20Thrice%20Upon%20A%2
0Time.txt (92 of 130) [2/4/03 10:54:37 PM]
file:///F|/rah/James%20P.%20Hogan/Hogan,%20James%20P%20-%20Thrice%20Upon%20A%2
0Time.txt to the console and pressed the Transmit key.
Cuthrie took a sheet of blank paper off the top of the desk beside him and
drew a large cross from corner to corner with a red broad-tipped pen. As he
raised the sheet for everybody in the room to see, a line of text appeared
suddenly on the screen in front of Murdoch and caught
Cuthrie's eye. Cuthrie jerked his head up sharply in surprise and found
Charles watching him with a faint expression of amusement.
"Where the devil did that come from?" Cuthrie asked uncertainly.
Murdoch leaned forward to read the numerical data that had appeared along with
the text.
"From a point in time that was in the future when this appeared on the
screen," he said. "In fact, from just about now."
"But...how could anybody know that I was intending to tear it up?" Cuthrie
asked in a bewildered voice. "I never mentioned it in any way at all."
"I think that perhaps you're missing the point, Graham," Catherine Hazeltine
suggested.
"From what Sir Charles said earlier, you did tear it up...on a timeline that
has been reconfigured to the one we're all on now as a result of what is now
on the screen. Am I right, Sir Charles?"
Charles nodded but said nothing. Lee and Cartland looked as if they were
enjoying themselves as they watched.
"My God!" Cuthrie breathed, staring at the screen again with a new light of
sudden respect in his eyes. Professor Payne thought for a moment, and then
stepped a pace forward. "May I have that for a moment?" he asked. Cuthrie
passed him the sheet. Payne produced a pen from his pocket and scrawled a
large black circle on top of the red cross.
"That circle is now there," he told them. "I've drawn it. Fact. If I
understand you correctly, you're telling us that the event of my having done
that could be changed, even though it's happened. Very well. Show me."
"May I have that for a moment?" Payne said, moving a step forward. Cuthrie
passed him the sheet. Payne produced a pen from his pocket and poised his hand
over the red cross.
"Hold it!" Murdoch called out. Payne looked up, puzzled. "If you were thinking
of drawing a black circle, don't." Murdoch pointed to another line of text
that had just appeared. "It's telling you here not to." Payne gasped
incredulously and stood staring first at the screen, then at the paper, and
then back at the screen again, temporarily at a loss of words.
"You did draw one!" Catherine Hazeltine whispered. "It's happened again. This
is impossible!"
"Let me try something else," Cuthrie said, taking the pen and paper from
Payne's unresisting fingers.
"Before you do, let me just clarify what's happening," Charles said. "It's
futile to try and catch the system out by trying to set up paradoxes. All that
will happen will be that the timeline will reconfigure to a new one on which
all our memories and records -- such as what's drawn on that piece of paper --
will be fully consistent with the new events resulting from the information
impressed upon it. In other words you won't see a paradox however hard you
try.
"When you think about the problem, it makes sense. By definition a paradox
can't exist.
It's to be expected, therefore, that the logic that governs the process will
not permit one to exist. It's a strange form of logic when judged by ordinary
standards, to be sure, but then ordinary standards never took account of
anything like this."
"What it boils down to is that it's a waste of time trying to fool it,"
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Cartland summarized. "You won't. What we should be doing is thinking about how
to use it."
"Are you sure you're all right in here on your own?" Morna asked anxiously.
"It must be awfully boring for you sitting around all day. Mrs. Paisley is
preparing you some lunch -- turkey-
and-ham salad. It'll be ready in about five minutes." The RAF pilot, who had
flown the three visitors directly to Storbannon from London, grinned up from
the armchair in the library, from where he was watching a movie on the vi-set.
He was young, probably not much over twenty, and with boyishly styled hair and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
looks as if we've really started something now, I'm afraid."
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The Honorable Graham Cuthrie, His Majesty's Minister for Advanced Technology
and Science, stared over Murdoch's shoulder at the screen and went over in his
mind the things that Charles had said. Then he took a sheet of blank paper off
the top of the desk beside him and drew a large cross from corner to corner
with a red broad-tipped pen. Slowly and deliberately he folded the paper in
two and tore it across, then placed the pieces on top of each other and tore
them again.
"There is an event," he declared. "The paper with the red X on it has been
torn up." He looked dubiously across the lab at where Charles was standing by
the workbench. On the other side of the room with Lee and Cartland, Professor
Norman Payne, Chairman of the Minister's Advisory
Committee on Advanced Research, and Dr. Catherine Hazeltine from the National
Physical Laboratory at Teddington stood silently watching with interest.
Cuthrie continued, "The event of my tearing this sheet of paper is now
established as part of the past. It's fact. Are you suggesting that it can now
be changed?"
Charles made no reply, but simply nodded at Murdoch. Murdoch composed a simple
line of text on the screen: "Do not tear the sheet that has the red X drawn on
it."
"You tore it at exactly ten seconds after eleven-seven," Murdoch said,
glancing back at
Cuthrie. "I'm setting this message to arrive at a point in time five seconds
before that. Whether or not anything changes will depend on whether or not the
'you' that exists at that moment decides to take any notice of it." Cuthrie
sniffed suspiciously. Without further ado, Murdoch turned back
Page 123
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
file:///F|/rah/James%20P.%20Hogan/Hogan,%20James%20P%20-%20Thrice%20Upon%20A%2
0Time.txt (92 of 130) [2/4/03 10:54:37 PM]
file:///F|/rah/James%20P.%20Hogan/Hogan,%20James%20P%20-%20Thrice%20Upon%20A%2
0Time.txt to the console and pressed the Transmit key.
Cuthrie took a sheet of blank paper off the top of the desk beside him and
drew a large cross from corner to corner with a red broad-tipped pen. As he
raised the sheet for everybody in the room to see, a line of text appeared
suddenly on the screen in front of Murdoch and caught
Cuthrie's eye. Cuthrie jerked his head up sharply in surprise and found
Charles watching him with a faint expression of amusement.
"Where the devil did that come from?" Cuthrie asked uncertainly.
Murdoch leaned forward to read the numerical data that had appeared along with
the text.
"From a point in time that was in the future when this appeared on the
screen," he said. "In fact, from just about now."
"But...how could anybody know that I was intending to tear it up?" Cuthrie
asked in a bewildered voice. "I never mentioned it in any way at all."
"I think that perhaps you're missing the point, Graham," Catherine Hazeltine
suggested.
"From what Sir Charles said earlier, you did tear it up...on a timeline that
has been reconfigured to the one we're all on now as a result of what is now
on the screen. Am I right, Sir Charles?"
Charles nodded but said nothing. Lee and Cartland looked as if they were
enjoying themselves as they watched.
"My God!" Cuthrie breathed, staring at the screen again with a new light of
sudden respect in his eyes. Professor Payne thought for a moment, and then
stepped a pace forward. "May I have that for a moment?" he asked. Cuthrie
passed him the sheet. Payne produced a pen from his pocket and scrawled a
large black circle on top of the red cross.
"That circle is now there," he told them. "I've drawn it. Fact. If I
understand you correctly, you're telling us that the event of my having done
that could be changed, even though it's happened. Very well. Show me."
"May I have that for a moment?" Payne said, moving a step forward. Cuthrie
passed him the sheet. Payne produced a pen from his pocket and poised his hand
over the red cross.
"Hold it!" Murdoch called out. Payne looked up, puzzled. "If you were thinking
of drawing a black circle, don't." Murdoch pointed to another line of text
that had just appeared. "It's telling you here not to." Payne gasped
incredulously and stood staring first at the screen, then at the paper, and
then back at the screen again, temporarily at a loss of words.
"You did draw one!" Catherine Hazeltine whispered. "It's happened again. This
is impossible!"
"Let me try something else," Cuthrie said, taking the pen and paper from
Payne's unresisting fingers.
"Before you do, let me just clarify what's happening," Charles said. "It's
futile to try and catch the system out by trying to set up paradoxes. All that
will happen will be that the timeline will reconfigure to a new one on which
all our memories and records -- such as what's drawn on that piece of paper --
will be fully consistent with the new events resulting from the information
impressed upon it. In other words you won't see a paradox however hard you
try.
"When you think about the problem, it makes sense. By definition a paradox
can't exist.
It's to be expected, therefore, that the logic that governs the process will
not permit one to exist. It's a strange form of logic when judged by ordinary
standards, to be sure, but then ordinary standards never took account of
anything like this."
"What it boils down to is that it's a waste of time trying to fool it,"
Page 124
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Cartland summarized. "You won't. What we should be doing is thinking about how
to use it."
"Are you sure you're all right in here on your own?" Morna asked anxiously.
"It must be awfully boring for you sitting around all day. Mrs. Paisley is
preparing you some lunch -- turkey-
and-ham salad. It'll be ready in about five minutes." The RAF pilot, who had
flown the three visitors directly to Storbannon from London, grinned up from
the armchair in the library, from where he was watching a movie on the vi-set.
He was young, probably not much over twenty, and with boyishly styled hair and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]