Retroactive appointment (was "Re: Appointment")
Uncle Buck
>11:15 a.m.
>Saturday, December 31st, 2005.
>World's Fair Park.
>Foot of the Sunsphere.
>Forever confidential.
Okay, nobody asked, but I confess - this was me. Which is of course why I
answered when someone questioned where in the world it might be. Now I've
decided to take this concept a bit further, but under my more commonly-known (in
certain forums) Usenet name.
Starting today, I am going to begin scheduling "retroactive appointments". This
means that at certain times, I will begin observing my environment in a fairly
specific way for any possible sign of any sort of empirical effect generated at
a point in time other than the one I am presently in. This could be in the form
of actual time travellers, perhaps messages being projected across the forehead
of the person I'm looking at, voices on the wind, basically just "whatever". I
figure that either time travel of some sort is possible or it isn't, and if it
is, those working in the field need a source of experimental data. I might be
able to supply them with a point in time towards which to aim some of their
experimentation.
What I will do is go out on this retroactive appointment, make note of the
observations I'd made while at the meeting site and then post a report of my
observations here, and possibly on a blog as well. There are some things I will
make note of each time - a five-sense snapshot, for one, where I take a moment
to note everything I can about what I'm seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or
feeling. This will probably become more refined as I go along so that the
specific type of data I'm likely to detect will become more precisely known for
the benefit of anyone wishing to try sending such data to the time and space in
question. Then I will make note of a few random observations, as well, as a
sort of "control".
These won't be regularly recurring appointments. In order to thwart any
possible attempts by my fellow "now-dwellers" to pull a fast one, these
appointments will appear random and sporadic to the outside observer (and
perhaps even to myself). I trust that to a future-dweller, there will be no
difficulty in predicting these appointments since they've already occurred.
That way nobody can set me up, at least not without resorting to extraordinarily
ludicrous and impractical methods.
It is my intention to do this in the most scientific and logical manner of which
I am capable - any guidance on how to best facilitate this and to improve the
reliability/quality of my data would be greatly appreciated. Like much that is
scientific and logical, I expect that my reports will probably be incredibly
boring for their sheer mundanaeity since they're not likely to contain any
actual "encounters". Though if there _are_ any encounters, and I'm not for some
reason prohibitted from sharing them, I will. And of course, if any actual
encounters take place, and I for any reason am not permitted to share them, you
will never know. ;-)
My first report is actually a "half-report" since I hadn't fully intended to do
this when I went out walking this morning. But when I was walking my dog this
morning, I had thought about this and decided to make that my first
"appointment". So here it is:
What?: Retroactive appointment
When?: Sunday, January 29th, 2006 at roughly between 10:15 and 10:30 a.m. (I
will be more cognizant of the exact time the next time, as I wasn't fully
planning to do this at this point)
Where?: World's Fair Park, Knoxville, TN, near Rachmaninov's statue by the
railroad tracks, at the base of the Sunsphere and also next to the pedestrian
bridge.
Report: Not much to report, as I wasn't as observant as I plan to be on future
appointments. But I did notice one unusual fellow who bid me good morning on my
and Ginger's way across the pedestrian bridge. He had shoulder-length
silver/gray hair, a mustache and blue eyes. He was dressed in a dark jacket and
looked somewhat like he might be a homeless man, but he seemed much more healthy
and alert than most of Knoxville's homeless I run into from time to time. I
also took some pictures on my binocular/camara and saw a man in the man part of
the park that I didn't really pay much attention to except to note that he
seemed to be waiting for me to finish taking my pictures before he would proceed
through the area.
Who knows? Maybe some trivial little detail - insignificant to me and anyone
else reading - will be just what some future-dwelling scientist is looking for.
One can't know until one tries, and even then, it's not guaranteed.
I welcome all input on this concept, though ask that if at all possible
criticism be done in a constructive way. Thanks for your time. :-)
The TimeLord
wrote in <kvppt1h0gnfnip24j...@4ax.com> in
alt.sci.time-travel:
[...]
> Starting today, I am going to begin scheduling "retroactive
> appointments". This
[...]
> at, voices on the wind, basically just "whatever". I figure that either
> time travel of some sort is possible or it isn't, and if it is, those
> working in the field need a source of experimental data. I might be
[...]
> I welcome all input on this concept, though ask that if at all possible
> criticism be done in a constructive way. Thanks for your time. :-)
Even though your "retroactive appointments" concept is better thought
out than others that have been posted here, there is a problem with
the concept itself. It assumes that time-travellers will want to
reveal their existence. It is far more likely that they would not want
to.
The example I cite is that I can invite Frenchmen to a barbecue. If they
don't show up it doesn't mean that there are no Frenchmen. They might
have not gotten the message; or they might just hate barbecue. Then again,
they might just not want to be around Americans. At any rate, absense of
evidence is not evidence of absense.
--
// The TimeLord says:
// Pogo 2.0 = We have met the aliens, and they are us!
Uncle Buck
Actually, I'm not doing this to try to prove or disprove anything, though if
that happens it would be a most welcomed result. All I'm really trying to do is
provide one possible venue for temporal-related studies to research. A
scientist from the future might want to try putting something completely
inconsequential in my path that they, from reading my reports, will know that I
will notice and make note of, just to see how good their aim is. I need not
even realize that the inconsequential thing in question is temporally anomalous
for my intended purpose to be fulfilled. Their goal need not be to
"communicate" with me, I'm not doing it for that purpose.
In fact, if anything I'm operating under the _assumption_ that no
future-dwelling person will ever try to communicate with me through these
retroactive appointments. Granted, if it ever were to happen I'd not turn away
the offer. But I try to be rational and scientific at heart, and so I do this
for a purpose which is perhaps "out there" and such, but I consider it practical
just the same. :-)
I'm also somewhat doubtful that anyone from my own very specific future could
communicate with me - at best, I'd meet someone from further on along the future
direction of an alternate time line. It's an abstract thing, why I suspect
this, and I'm not quite sure how to put it. I'll state it this way: "What eye
can see itself directly?" ("directly" meaning "not as in a reflection"). If
you contemplate that question, and come to some kind of understanding of the
"answer" on some level, apply that abstract "knowledge" to the concept of
timelines. Then you'll understand what I suspect to be the nature of the
relationship between various parts of the same timeline.
--
L8r,
Uncle Buck
************************************************
"'True Perfection' would not be sadistic enough
to create anything other than its exact equal."
************************************************
Bonus sig:
"Every Buddha just needs some Buddha to love..."
Uncle Buck
:-) Who knows where (or when) it might lead? ;-)
Robert Axelrod
interesting and possibly worthwhile. I will try to do some observing myself
and report
back anything interesting.
regards
Robert A.
"Uncle Buck" <Uncl...@SpamMeNot.com> wrote in message
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