Strange story ideas.

[elfs]

In the real world, we remember the past as a straight line. No matter how many events were possible, only one set of events brought us to where we are right now. It is the future which is hazy: we haven't been to the future, so all we have are possibilities.

In the digital world, it is the future that is a straight line. Since one state proceeds from the previous, there is only one possible outcome. It is the past that is hazy: for a given moment, there is a collection of valid previous states, and for each moment backward in time, that collection explodes, exponentially, creating a vast and diffuse cloud of realities, all of which lead to now, and its determined, linear future.

I can't help but think this leads to a Greg Eganesque story in which an automata character can have hope, dreams, plans, and even sentience only if it's moving backward in time...

Comments

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

By your writing that, I can tell that you have a healthy brain largely untroubled by memory issues. I do too.

My housemate and best friend? Not always so much. I do not envy her world, one where the narrative line is about as broken as highway lane demarcations. Short periods punctuated by We're Not Really Sure. a lot closer to your digital machine view of history, i guess...

I'm not sure I really get your One Possible Outcome for the Future postulation. Sure it must stem from the current state, and we'll have a moment-by-moment record as it happens, but until the various waveforms collapse and unknowns resolve, i'm not sure how the certainty of The Next Thing can extend more than a nanosecond.