Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"We're about 20 minutes away from the point where Clarke's law kicks in and technology becomes indistinguishable from magic."
- Peter Watts
 |
| Temporal Paradox | ||
| The paradoxical idea that making changes in the past results in changes in the present. |
As far as I know, this is the first use of the phrase, but not the concept. See the Vibranium Wall time machine from Ancestral Voices (1933) by Nat Schachner.
| "Don’t you think it would have been simpler just to send him back in time through a temporal displacer?”
Packer shook his head vehemently. "Not on your life. Our research teams that have been investigating the various problems of time travel and temporal paradox are very strict on that kind of thing. They’ve proved, statistically and definitely, that vast changes could be made to out present by even the slightest of alterations in the past..." |
| Technovelgy from The Toy,
by Brian Berry. Published by Planet Stories in 1954 Additional resources -
|
This is also called the "Grandfather Paradox"; probably the first (if a bit roundabout) use was in a letter in Wonder Stories October, 1932:
Contrast with the Dutch clock from what is probably the first time-travel science fiction story, The Clock That Went Backward (1881) by Edward Page Mitchell.
“A Flight into Super-Time” by Clark Ashton Smith is of the type that avoids scientific explanations (so that we can’t catch them up, if they make any errors) and merely uses the time machine as a medium to show us his ideas of the bizarre life that he imagines may exist on other worlds. Not that I’m knocking his stories (they really are entertaining), but I would like a little science mixed in with the imagination. On one point, I must congratu- late Mr. Smith — he is one of the few who have realized that if one travels in time, he would not remain stationary relative to the earth, but would stay in the same spot in space, while the sun (with the earth following) departed, until the machine were shut off. This would remove the killing-of-grandfather paradox.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Toy
More Ideas
and Technology by Brian Berry
Tech news articles related to The Toy
Tech news articles related to works by Brian Berry
| Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles |
| Centipede Robots Down On The Farm |
| Vipera Electric Skis From Frigid Dynamics |
| Pivotal Blackfly Electric Aircraft Lifts And Hovers |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
