'It'll never work,' Perny said.
She had found Wizard Prang in the Glory Hole, among his
collection of old wheels and things. The mousetrap was
a conventional mousetrap, fixed to the top of a box. The bait hung inside
the box. When the mouse took the bait, the spring trap went off, releasing
the cover of the entrance hole to the box which now snapped shut, thanks
to the elastic.
'It may need a little tuning on site,' the wizard
admitted. 'Another little visit to Silica Brick' his
apprentice commented. 'What about my elastic time paradigm?'
Wizard Prang drew Perny's attention to the cupboard on
the other side of the Glory Hole. It ran the whole width of the wall, at
eye level, and it had sliding doors. He had drawn a horizontal line marked
at regular intervals. One door closed off the left hand opening, and the
next overlapped it. So most of the junk in the cupboard was exposed.
The wizard had set up some kind of diagram that covered
the two doors. He had drawn a horizontal line marked "Time" across them
both. It was marked at regular intervals, like a calendar.
'Why does time on this scale start at 7?'
'Time has no origin,' said the wizard, 'so 0 is
impossible, and 1 suggests philosophical priority. As I have mentioned
before, 7 is a magic number plus or minus 2.'
The numbers ran 7, 8, 9, 10, and then the line disappeared
under the second cupboard door. But the line resumed on that, together
with the interval marks. There were five of them, unnumbered.
'Why the break at the two doors?' Perny asked, having
noted that the whole series could have been fitted onto a single door.
'Ah,' Wizard Prang explained, 'the first door is what we
usually call "the past" and the second represents "the future". So the
left edge of the second door is NOW. If we slide the second door to the
right, we shall be advancing in ordinary clock time watching every
moment called NOW joining the past; and uncovering "the future" as we
go.' 'Got it,’ Perny said emphatically, as well she
might.
It was simple enough. An inelastic scale for sure.
'Now look at the line above the scale, which represents
our experience of reality as distinct from the abstract account of it
that clocks provide.' 'Abstract?' said Perny. 'Clocks
work by physical pendulums or the precise vibrations of quartz crystals
they are not abstract, for heaven's sake.' 'There you
go with your paradigms again,' the wizard said. 'All such things are
abstractions from our experience which have led to the construction of a
model named "the real world".' 'If that's only a
model, how is it that anyone ever catches a train?'
Wizard Prang regarded his apprentice with obvious disfavor.
'The train schedules belong to the model,' he said.
'Stationmasters connive in it.' Perny pouted. 'So
does everyone else.' 'Indeed yes. That's why we speak
of a paradigm. A paradigm is a model that has consensus. It is
convenient that this is the case. But "convenience" is just a mode of
abstraction.'
Perny was tired of all this and had noticed the elastic.
It was tied tautly round two pegs that coincided with the first two marks
on the scale. It then ran loosely over pegs coinciding with the interval
marks 9 and 10. Then it disappeared behind the second door. Just before it
vanished a little mannikin hung from the elastic.
'Here you see a depiction of experienced time running
parallel with clock time,' said Wizard Prang. 'Between times 7 and 8,
however, we have experienced something thoroughly unpleasant.'
He put his finger on the, taut elastic fixed between the
pegs corresponding to interval marks 7 and 8, and pressed down. The
elastic stretched, deforming into a V shape in which each arm of the V was
the same length as the original clock time space.
'In elastic time, the time we experience, whatever
happened has taken twice as long as the clock testifies.' The wizard let
go, and the elastic returned to its straight line. 'That's consensus,'
he said: 'we agree with the clock, and so do most other people. But
there's often some deformation, isn't there? We say "can it possibly be
tea time already?" and "the day is dragging" and suchlike.'
Perny was struck by this. 'Well, unless I could
guarantee to guess the time correctly, which I can't and I certainly
wouldn't bet on it time is deformed for me to some degree always.'
Wizard Prang watched her while she saw the point.
Sometimes he could see cogwheels and gears grinding squeakily around in
her head, as now. Sometimes things moved in her (what things, though?) at
the speed of light or very nearly. And that was like being struck by bolt
lightning for him. Wizard Prang enjoyed his shishya.
'Time really is elastic!' beamed Perny.
'Watch this,' said the wizard.
He took hold of the taut elastic at the unfixed point,
where it ran across peg 9. Then he stretched the elastic until his fingers
encountered peg 10. Then he gently returned them to peg 8.
'You just covered two intervals of the clock, but it
felt like only an hour's worth of experienced time. Elasticity again.
And, this time, a blissful experience.'
Perny had slid over the peak of her enthusiasm.
'It only amounts to saying that the experience of time
passing is a subjective phenomenon.' 'You scatter "onlys"
about your thinking like confetti,' the wizard admonished. 'Once
something is explained especially if it's done elegantly people want to
say "Oh, is that all?" Note that reaction: it is defensive of the
existing paradigm. When you hear yourself saying "only" I advise you to
substitute a word of opposite colour.' 'They're only
onlys.' Perny resorted to archness when she felt she was losing too much
ground. 'What do you mean, opposite colour?' 'I like
that skirt and it's only twenty pounds. What?! They expect twenty pounds
for that?' 'I see,' Perny said. 'So what is this
little man doing?'
The mannikin had been made by the wizard out of a weight
that had once belonged to a set of weights for an old fashioned green
grocer's scales. It had a dumpy, trapezoid shape for a body and a ring
with a break in it on top served as a head. It had been given a little
verisimilitude by the paper arms and legs stuck on to its body. The little
fellow was hanging on the elastic by the ring which was its head by the
skin of its teeth, as Wizard Prang put it.
'Here you are, NOW,' the wizard explained, noting that
the mannikin was hanging on the elastic just where it passed behind the
second door. 'Now we are going to disclose the
future,' he continued, 'by sliding the second door slowly to the right.
Both the time scale and the elastic continue behind the door, of course.
I want you to tell me what you expect to see as the door moves, taking
the cursor called Now, which is the door's left hand edge with it.'
'We have to move the little man with the cursor, I
suppose,' said Perny thoughtfully. 'No,' rejoined the
wizard. 'We shall cheat. We are going to look at his future, leaving him
in his present NOW. So what shall we see?' 'Well, I
can only suppose that we see a continuation of the time scale, and the
elastic running parallel above it ... but it will have to have a peg at
the end to hold the elastic in place. Unless, that is, you have decided
to kill him off before time runs out.' 'You asked me
to explain how the future could possibly affect the present, remember?'
The wizard slowly slid the door to the right. The final
peg that Perny had predicted was in place all right, corresponding to the
time scale number 15. It was, however at least a couple of feet higher
than the earlier pegs in the past. Perny gasped.
'What's going on?' she asked. 'As you
can see, the trajectory of the future has changed. The track is going up
from NOW at about sixty degrees. Clock time remains ticking over, as
before. But because of the slope, experienced time is longer over each
clock interval than it was.'
Perny thought this over.
'Well, yes, I can see that experienced time is different
from clock time, and that you could design a future like this which you
have. But I don't see what that's got to do with time being elastic. You
would have got the same effect by just drawing the line behind the door
at an angle. Anyway,' Perny went on triumphantly, 'the future may be
unpredictable, and we knew that anyway. You said it affects the
present.' 'Watch carefully.' Wizard Prang instructed.
He unhooked the mannikin. The elastic
was fastened to pegs 7 and 8, and also to peg 15. But there were no
fastenings in between. The elastic sprang into a straight line between 8
and 15. The wizard replaced the mannikin in its former NOW position, at 10
on the clock scale. Its weight pulled down the elastic again.
'If the future were not as we happen to know it to be,'
he said, 'and if it did not affect the present, your little man or you
yourself would not be where you are now.'
The two returned to the cottage.
Silica Brick was sitting on the stone wall by the stream. Her pose could
be called provocative. She had come to enquire about
her mousetrap. Wizard Prang gave it to her, and showed her how it worked.
Ms. Brick was captivated. But she said: 'I'm really
awfully stupid, Wiz. Please call in and check that I've set It up
properly.'
The wizard winced at the Wiz, but inclined his head in
acceptance.
'Shall we say Thursday, after dinner? We could have a
drink.' Perny did not come on Thursdays. 'Charming,'
said the wizard. 'I'll be there.' 'White wine and
water?' Perny sounded a little proprietorial sour, as well.
'Oh yes,' simpered Ms. Brick. She glanced at Wizard
Prang. I've got in some Sancerre ...'
'Where were we?' asked the wizard when she had left.
'Defining the future as our memory of desire, I
believe,' said Perny crisply. 'And noting that the future influences the
present.' 'Have you understood?' he asked
solicitously. 'Ping,' Perny said: 'I just got it,'
She tidied up a little, and came round to her favourite
place.
'The business in the Glory Hole,' she started; '... that
was a model, right? It used the dimension of time, and two dimensions of
space. But there are really three dimensions of space, so it has to be a
simplification.' 'Yes, it is barely a model. It was
meant to start a train of thought that would knock a hole through your
paradigm. You are still stuck with the notion of four dimensions, I
gather.' 'How does that matter?'
'For instance, I tied the elastic to the pegs with knots. Topologically
speaking, a knot has to have three dimensions. You couldn't tie a knot
in a four dimensional piece of string or elastic.'
'Why not?' 'Think about it. If you pulled on the ends
of the string, the knot would just pull through.'
She thought about it.
'Death of a knot. just as well there aren't five
dimensions, to include time of course,' she said.
'Just as well indeed. In fact there are ten to include certain...
elasticities of time.’
Perny looked at her teacher.
'Are you sure there are ten dimensions?'
'Yes within the paradigm that I am stuck with.'
'Don't you really know everything at all?'
'Let's say,' said Wizard Prang, 'that I have somewhat
enhanced my degree of ignorance.’ 'Death of a knot.
Pingless,' Perny mused: 'What's the meaning of death in elastic time?'
'What do you think?' he asked her.
'There will always be that last peg.' Perny said after some reflection,
'Death is the only sure thing in anyone's life.’ 'But
it isn't,' the wizard said calmly. 'Death isn't a
sure event?' 'No, no,' said Wizard Prang: 'death
isn't an event in anyone's life. Your death is an event in someone
else's life. As far as you are concerned, it doesn't exist.’
Lost in thought, Perny poured herself a tumbler of her
special brew. Then she sat down. The wizard replenished his own wine and
water.
Round about dawn, Perny asked: 'Do you know about your
own death?' 'Yes,' the wizard answered quietly.
He always seemed to be awake if she spoke during the
night.
'Do you know when?' 'Yes.'
'How old will you be, and will your death be peaceful?'
Perny asked, after a time.
The first birds were tuning up for their chorus.
'I can't tell you those things,' he replied.
'They are secrets then?' 'Oh no,'
the wizard said: 'they have no meaning.' 'The
questions have no meaning?' 'No just the answers.'
|