Re: [DL] Time Machines

["Wangenstein " <wangenstein@mad.scientist.com>]

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> > Okay.
> > Does anyone have any thoughts on mad scientists in the Weird West or
> > Hell on Earth inventing time machines and traveling to each game
> > setting?
> > I understand the perils with time travel, as related in The Collegium,
> > page 109, but does anyone have any thoughts on a mad scientist inventing
> > a ghostrock-powered time travel device? Any theories?
> >
> > Marshal Eric
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> 
> I apologize for the lateness in responding to this message; I'm just now
> getting around to erading a month load of digests.

S'okay, it's a neat topic. Of course, I have my own idea about the usefulness of time travel.

This is my thought: the Earth is moving; the solar system is moving; the galaxy is moving; etc. Which means that the Earth will be several thousand miles away from where it was when you started this sentence. Which means that if you move about ONLY in time, then you will reappear either behind or ahead of where the Earth has been/will be, depending on your direction of time travel. Of course, it also means that, in Back to the Future, Doc Brown's dog Einstein would likely have frozen to death in the icy vacuum of space, one minute's distance behind the Earth, and not returned.

However, this does make time travel rather suitable for getting around some of the nasty restrictions of Faster-Than-Light travel. If you go back in time far enough, chances are that SOME planet, solar system, etc. was in the exact location where the Earth is now. Of course, in the present, that planet is many, many lightyears away. But in the past, that planet is right next door, astronomically speaking.

In fact, maybe that _could_ work as a method for travel between Deadlands and Lost Colony. Now, I don't know where Banshee is supposed to be, nor how far away the Earth would be from it's position in the 1870's and (insert LC's current year here, it escapes me). But, it would be a reasonable explanation for travel between the two, if Banshee happened to be close enough to the DL Earth's current position to make manitou-inspired space travel (modified diving bell, anyone?) feasible in the 1870's...

Derek D. Bass
Etheric Musings - The Science of the Sons of Ether
http://www.steamenginechaos.com/mage/ether.htm
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