Recurring Themes in Science Fiction

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This blog was created for my expository writing class that the University of South Florida. This blog will contain five entries concerning the topic of reoccurring themes in science fiction. Here is a tentative list of the five blog entries.

1. Robots/A.I.
2. Space/Time Travel
3. Aliens/Invasions
4. Apocalyptic/Post-Apocalyptic Scenarios
5. The seemingly everlasting presence of the human race


For [professionally written] information on science fiction and fantasy visit:

Locus Online; The Website of The Magazine of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Field at www.Locusmag.com

Sep 27, 2009

Space/Time Travel

Space and time travel are definitely no strangers to science fiction. Although, in this day and age, we are now experiencing space travel first hand, time travel is still accounted as fantasy. One of the major arguments against time travel is the “grandfather paradox”. This idea asks what exactly would happen if you went back in time a killed your grandfather or prevented him from having any children. Would you still exist?


Amazingly so, with recent research, time travel (at least into the future) has been proven to be very possible – in theory. According to Einstein’s theory of Relativity, space and time exists together in four combined dimensions. The picture below is an example of one plane of existence in space.” This includes three dimensions. This would look like on a graph as the axis’ “x”, “y”, and “z”.

plane of existence

Time however adds a fourth dimension. Four dimensions are difficult to imagine. Understanding the concepts of Space/time travel can be very confusing. I myself am rathe mind boggeld over the subject. Since the purpose of this blog to to explain these topics to you, the reader. And since I, myself, even with research, cannot seem to put it all into the write words, I will refer to the professionals. Here is an excerpt from another website that I feel describes it quite accurately and simple enough to understand.


“Physicists usually suggest you think of spacetime as a rubber sheet stretched out flat. If there are no large masses around, the sheet stays flat, and so any object placed on it will move around in straight lines. But a large mass, such as the Sun, makes a dip in the sheet because it actually warps spacetime. Now any other object with smaller mass, like our Earth, moving about in spacetime rolls into the dip as it comes past the Sun. It appears 'attracted' to the large mass. This effect of warping spacetime is what gives rise to gravity.
The Universe is full of heavy objects exerting gravitational effects and the net result is that spacetime is not flat at all but curved. Everything, including light, has to follow curved paths in spacetime. We know Einstein was right about this because astronomers can sometimes see distant stars that ought to be masked by nearer objects such as the Sun. Instead of travelling in straight lines and hence being blocked, the light from the stars bends round the obstruction.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/exploration/timetravel/index.shtml



David Tenant, playing Doctor Who, also explains the existence of time and space in a less cohesive manner.



Let’s take a step backwards at regress to 1905. In 1905, Einstein discovered that time and space exists cohesively. His theory became known as the theory of special relativity. In 1915, Einstein announces his theory of gravity, better known as the general theory of relativity. In this theory, Einstein explains how matter can effect time and space through gravity. Both theories suggest that for anything traveling at or beyond the speed of light, time moves or passes at a slower speed/rate.

“Let us consider a simple example with numbers. A sprinter runs 100 metres in exactly ten seconds, according to the reliable and highly accurate timekeeping of the judges. Had he, however, carried his own very accurate stopwatch along with him, then, due to time slowing down very slightly for him, his watch would show a time of 9.999999999995 seconds. Of course, this is so close to ten seconds that we would never know the difference. However, scientists routinely need to measure times with this sort of accuracy. The difference between the runner’s and the judges’ watches is just five picoseconds; it is such a small time difference because the athlete is moving so much slower than light.”


http://www.scienceinschool.org/2009/issue11/timetravel



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