CAT IN THE BOX
                       --------------
           A FEARFUL TALE REFLECTING THESE TIMES
           -------------------------------------

                    Told by Terry Brawls

Well, Mr. van Kaam, you're not the first - and, probably, nowhere
near the last - individual to feel a modicum of confusion over
that old chestnut of SF: time-travel and its attendant paradoxes.

Mind you, the Trek-universe isn't exactly the kind of fictional
environment in which esoteric quantum-mechanical, philosophical,
and literary ideas are allowed out to play too late, and, indeed,
very often have to be in by 7 o'clock or straight to bed and no
supper. I feel it only fair to point out right from the start that
I find VOYAGER to be an utterly execrable programme; even the NEXT
GENERATION is better. DS9 is my fave. Keiko! Dax (those spots)!
Kira (those ridges)! Great actresses all.

Diversions, when writing, are so easy-come-not-easy-go, aren't
they? Let's face it, big and small-screen science-fiction has a
tendency to make a real mess when it comes to time-travel
scenarios, ranging from the slightly dubious if entertaining, to
the bloody awful and highly insulting. TV is so ubiquitous, and
therefore aimed at that all-important if disturbingly nebulous
'mass audience' that no-one really wants to be considered part of,
yet we're all too ready to impose membership of on that ultimate,
and rather large, social grouping - 'others'.

Which, I think, neatly explains - though doesn't solve - the
problem. I can't make up my mind whether scriptwriters and their
entertainment-executive compadres consider us stupid, uncaring, or
just unimportant. When they churn out product which is illogical
and/or plain insane, do they think
1) That we won't notice?
2) That we WILL notice, but just accept like happy consumers?
3) We notice, but can't verbalise our disquiet?
4) We notice, but - hell - they control sound and vision?

Dear SynTaxians, it is questions like these - all too common in
these terrible, desolate times - that can reverberate into distant
realms best left unexplored; there lurk serpents and despair. Let
us just stick to one little corner of the entertainment cow-pat we
know - yet may not necessarily love - as VOYAGER, and its
attempted treatment of one of SF's archetypal themes......

Right - let's get down to the nitty-gritty. Your main problem with
the 'Future's End' episode revolves around the principal objection
(in terms of common sense) to the very possibility that any kind
of time-travel could ever actually take place - the Big Paradox.
If we take the view that one day time-travel will be realised -
i.e. we deny that the concept is impossible - we come up with two
simple theoretical possibilities, each complete in itself, that
covers all the main points we're talking about......

 A) A traveller goes back in time and kills one or some of his/her
    ancestors. All of space and time, being contained in one, huge,
    linear, pre-destined 'mono-verse', cannot accept this, as the
    Big Paradox has just occurred - read Mr. van Kaam's article. At
    best, the hopeful perpetrator would PERHAPS "make waves", as it
    were; cause a slight flurry, soon to be forgotten, easily
    explained away by observers as just another weird phenomenon.
    Ultimately, though, the attempt would have to fail, for a great
    number of logically obvious reasons. Conclusion: point A is not
    the way.

 B) A traveller goes back in time and kills one or some of his/her
    ancestors. All of space and time, being a series of quantum
    effects that co-exist in an infinite strata of 'multi-verses'
    can easily accept this occurrence as it creates a whole, new
    reality in which the killer, though he/she will never be born
    into this reality, STILL EXISTS IN HIS/HER OWN. In fact, the
    killer (and the killed) actually inhabits a COUNTLESS number
    of separate universes, each one minutely different from the
    other  - we all do. Conclusion: point B is the key.

Says who, you all ask? Well, it all started with a scientist and a
lab quadruped. Not Pavlov's dog, but Schrodinger's cat. Erwin
Schrodinger, a physicist with an interest in philosophy and one of
the first quantum mechanics, imagined a basic 'quantum system'
consisting of a box fitted with a phial of poisonous gas and a
trigger attached to the phial. The trigger would be activated by a
completely chance occurrence - an either/or situation, in this
case the decay of a single atom of radium within the box. The cat
was in the box. I have no idea if it was wearing a hat.

So, was it Goodbye-Tiddles-there's-plenty-more-where-you-came-from
or Goodness-how-did-you-get-in-there? There's the rub - you'd have
to actually look, either visually or by instrumentation, to find
out whether Mr. Cat was alive or dead. If you DON'T look, the
micro quantum-system - cat etc. - will be in a 'superposition of
states', i.e. neither determinedly dead nor alive. Basically,
what's being said here is that without interference from an
'outside' observer - outside the quantum-system - Mr. Cat & Co.
occupy two separate realities; one in which he's alive, and one in
which he's a martyr to science. Look, and it would be one or the
other; creating a new 'superposition of states' in which further
possibilities will emerge, and so on.

Think of our universe as one, big, quantum-system, where every
microsecond multitudes of either/or decisions are being made by
observers of all shapes and sizes, each resulting in an ever-
escalating number (but still nothing compared to infinity) of
serial, parallel universes that contain ALL possibilities......

Interestingly, one can even conceive of a religious justification
of the 'alternative universes' concept. If God represents the
ultimate creative force, then surely He/She/It isn't going to
settle for just one, boring, all-the-eggs-in-one-basket-style
kinda universe. No. Let there be a multitude of light, its name
Legion, giving life (which is simply the universe contemplating
itself) as many chances as possible to do its thing. Also, to get
a bit metaphysical, you've got all the explanations you need for
everything from deja vu and past-life experiences to ghosts,
dreams, prophecies and everything para-whatever. Think about it!

As you're reading this, every action you take, however seemingly
meaningless, disturbs the 'superposition of states' that is NOW
and produces an effect, the result of which is a new NOW; but the
NOW that COULD have been if you'd produced a different effect has
a separate existence elsewhen. Somewhere, Mr. van Kaam, you exist
in a universe that is completely identical to the one you're in
now, except that the coffee-stain on your desk is a centimetre or
so to the left. Others range from the amusingly different to the
wildly improbable, but never impossible. Ad infinitum, etc.

Yes, I know. Quantum mechanics seems to be ITSELF a series of
paradoxes, especially when applied to anything other than
simplistic, micro-environments...... and there are plenty of
scientists and scholars who refute the whole thing as just a big,
intellectual farce, worthy only of heads-in-the-clouds romantics.
Like me! I must admit that I rather like the audacity of the whole
idea; and, you must admit, it does provide AN explanation of the
Big Paradox that is both logical (!) and exciting.

So, to sum up (at last)! You're quite right - 'Future's End' is a
mess that simply doesn't work. It doesn't address the Big Paradox
on any level at all. Stupid and lazy scriptwriting, combined with
incompetent production equals farce, and, ultimately, something
that should never have got beyond the quality-control people - a
contradiction in terms when talking about TV SF in general, and
VOYAGER in particular! Hey! Trek! Leave those time-travel stories
alone!

Somewhere out there, there's a place where VOYAGER is a quality,
adult-oriented show that produces thought-provoking episodes to
delight the senses; consequently, probably, lowering its audience
figures to the level of the SO superior (in OUR reality) BABYLON
5, but that's life in the prole-sector. The 'Future's End'
instalment in this reality is written by people fully conversant
with current developments in the fields discussed here, resulting
in a script that has Braxton going back in time to NOT destroy
Voyager because it WON'T affect Braxton's own universe...... erm,
wait......no...... oh, let's admit it, this episode could NEVER
have been written in a reality like that. Nurse!

I'm off to corner one of the half-feral cats that run around my
neck of the woods; I just want to assure the more squeamish of my
fellow SynTaxians that it will all - of course - be completely
justified, scientifically. As the most sublime Ms. Bush once
paraphrased - "When you wish upon a star
               Your dreams come true...."

Here kitty kitty!

Terry Brawls
February '98
Scottish Superposition of States.
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