Silk Out of Time?

James Jordan · 17 Dec 2002, 15:14 · from urth-v0212.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net>
Subject: (urth) Silk Out of Time?
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 09:14:53 -0600
Message-ID: <urth-v0212-2442 at digest.urth.net>
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At 04:19 PM 12/16/2002, Blattid wrote:
>Don Doggett wrote:
>
> > So again I ask, why did time stop on the Whorl?
>
>Ummm ... I don't think it did. Silk had an experience which
>took place outside of Time, i.e., in Eternity, the perspective
>from which the Outsider (=3D=3Dthe Christian God) views spacetime.
>Thus, while he experienced the passage of time in his personal
>consciousness, the "time" that passed for him had no meaning
>on the Whorl or, presumably, the rest of spacetime.
>
>Think of it like this. Silk (like the rest of us) watches
>spacetime occurring in an orderly fashion, rather like someone
>particpating in an interactive computer game, one where the
>player participates _as_ a character. Then the phone rings --
>the Outsider "calls," and the game goes into "pause" mode,
>while the Outsider tells Silk a number of things -- including,
>as it happens, some "spoiler" information about the game
>itself. When the call ends, the game comes out of "pause"
>mode, and continues exactly as it had been. No time has
>passed in the game, but no time has been skipped or lost in
>the game either; the time the player has spent on the call
>has nothing to do with the internal time of the game. Similarly,
>the seeming duration of Silk's enlightenment has nothing to do
>with the "passage" of "time" in the spacetime universe.

I'm not sure we're supposed to think time "passed" for Silk either. He had=20
an instantaneous and transcendent "moment" that sorted itself out in his=20
mind afterwards into its various components, some of which he could not=20
remember. This may not be correct, but I don't see any reason what it is no=
t.
         Moreover, if something happened to the ship at this moment, like=20
dipping through a black hole and coming out a white fountain (or whatever),=20
and everyone went "out of time," then everyone should have had a=20
transcendent moment.
         Time did not "stop" for anyone. Silk had an transcendent moment,=20
and the only way a temporal being can understand such a thing afterwards is=20
to sort it out into various pieces and temporal events.

Nutria


--=20

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