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"This category [science fiction] excludes rocket ships that make U-turns, serpent men of Neptune that lust after human maidens, and stories by authors who flunked their Boy Scout merit badge tests in descriptive astronomy."
- Robert Heinlein
 |
| CTC Computer (Closed-Timeline-Curve Time-Travel) | ||
| A device that used time travel to perform computations. |
| But Nilis had assigned her to another part of the project, the development of his "CTC computer" as he called it, his closed-timeline-curve time-travel computing machine. Nilis made it clear that he considered the CTC-processor work just as important as experiments with the Xeelee ship, and she had to accept the assignment. |
| From Exultant,
by Stephen Baxter. Published by Del Rey in 2004 Additional resources -
|
I have room for one more enigmatic quote:
Closed timelike curves were theorized by Kurt Gödel in 1949. Here's a link to a 2002 article on Computers with closed timelike curves can solve hard problems. Good luck.
Thanks to Winchell Chung (@nyrath) of Project Rho for the suggestion on this item.
The curves in time had served their purpose - and had rendered their own existence unnecessary. It was another peculiar advantage of a time-travel computer. If it worked correctly, it never actually worked at all a- and so it should never wear out.
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CTC Computer (Closed-Timeline-Curve Time-Travel)-related
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- The Time-Traveling Quantum Computer
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'A worker replaced by a nubot... had to be compensated.'
'... forcing the energy transfer which allowed him to regrow his lost fingers.'
'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.'
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.'
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.'
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
