Trust man to invent something that he doesn't totally understand or is not fully optimized. For instance, man made the internal combustion engine, which can only convert around 20% of the energy found in fuels for its use--plants are even more efficient, using around 40% of the solar energy it receives. And then, there's man's most notorious invention ever: Time.


Of course, the Hands of Time weren't made and set into motion by humans since humans weren't even there when Time started; but it was man who invented the Concept of Time and its corollary: the Law of Cause and Effect. And this is again one of man's unfinished "inventions" because when man invented the Concept of Time, he didn't explain everything about Time. The proponents of the Concept of Time, I think, only viewed Time as something that passed by. Something irreversible, and something that cannot be fast-forwarded. They hadn't thought of the possibility of traveling into the past or the future--although it is understandable as the first people to take note of Time lived way before Einstein. But this entry will not try to discuss any theories about how time travel could be done. Instead, I will only be questioning the infamous "Time Loop" and the occurrences of "Multiple Dimensions" due to the Law of Cause and Effect.


Time Loop. When I first read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I was so intrigued and at the same time confused with the way the Time-turner worked. You see, it describes Harry seeing himself saving himself... Ok let me rephrase that: Present Harry mistook Future Harry as the ghost of his Dad saving him from the Deatheaters. Won't this make a Time Loop. Because since Present Harry didn't know it was he who saved himself, he went back in time using the Time-turner to try see if it was his Dad; then he ends up saving himself. This will create and infinite loop, since everytime Present Harry is saved, he goes back in time to be Future Harry, to save Present Harry. Won't this infinite loop create some anomaly in the Time and Space Continuum? And let's not even begin to talk about Hermione, because her Time-turner experience is harder to explain. On second thought, let's talk about Hermione since her case is very special. You see, Hermione uses the Time-turner to go to classes that are in the same time slot. This ultimately means that in a specific time period there are more than Hermione. So if she needs to be in three classes, there are three Hermiones. Now let's see how she does this, and we'll see a very big problem. A, B, and C are Hermiones classes; and point X is where she does her Time-turner stuff (just suppose that she doesn't meet herself in point X). Now, Hermione A first goes to Class A, the when it's over, she goes to point X and goes back in time just after a Hermione A has gone into Class A. Now Hermione is Hermione B because she will go into Class B. Note that there are now two Hermiones: Hermione A and Hermione B. Then when Class B is done, Hermione B goes to point X to be Hermione C, note that at this time Hermione A also goes to point X to be Hermione B. Now, when Hermione C goes into Class C, there are already three Hermiones. Now with what I've just explained, how will Hermione ever go back to being one again??? If you have an answer, tell me. This is confusing me so much!!! And isn't what Hermione doing going to damage the Time and Space Continuum? It's like spelling "Hello" as "HHHello" since copies of an entity has been made.


Then there's the existence of multiple dimensions, or to be more specific, what people would call as alternate dimensions/realities/universes. I think that the concept of these alternate dimensions come from the proverbial "crossroads" we encounter during life. Being curious, humans always tend to think about what their lives would be right now if they had chosen one thing instead of the other. And then one might think that maybe, when the crossroad arrived in his life, his path in the Time and Space Continuum divided, creating to alternate realities after the crossroad. Which means somehow, in an alternate universe, he was living a very different life, but still the same person--well, biologically at least, fortune does change people psychologically. So if alternate dimensions are true, then the Space and Time Continuum must look very much like a very ancient family tree--with a lot of branches, with each branch maybe stopping or proceeding to more branches. Now, a single person makes almost an infinite number of decisions in a lifetime, where some other person's decision might affect that person's decision--these considerations alone make for an overwhelming number of possible alternate universes for a single person. Now, let us further consider that each person is a product of one combination of choices of his parents, and each of his parents a product of one combination of choices of his grandparents, and so on and so forth; where (since the number of choices in a person's life in close to infinity) the combinations of choices are infinite. Thus we can safely say that we will absolutely lose our heads if we try to count all the possible alternate realities from the beginning of time up to now. In other words, if alternate realities are true, there must be an infinite number of them, all with different stories for every person. For all we know, in an alternate reality, humans might not even exist, or dinosaurs may still be roaming the Earth. It's pretty strange, and it might freak you out if you really think about it. It's good mental exercise though...


Time must be one of the most ambiguous things in the world. Well actually, Time is what you take it to be. If you think that what I've written, or things similar to them, is rubbish, then Time for you is as easy as looking at your watch and finding out it's 3:47 PM or that you're 10 minutes late for an important meeting. But if you like thinking about things such as what I've written, then you agree with me that Time is a very complicated phenomenon. We've got so many questions about Time, and it's actually funny how we'll be getting those answers... Because ladies and gentlemen, as to the answers to our questions? Only Time can tell.


Note: "Time" here is the concept of the sequential relation of events. And even though "Time" was spelled with a capital T it does not, in any way, mean the magazine.

Note 2: I am expecting a lot of wrong grammar in this entry because I was concentrating too much on the Time Problems that I wasn't minding what I was writing... I usually missed typing words, thinking they've been typed already. Just try to understand as much. Sorry for the inconvenience.