NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC: The original Technomagic thread seems to have died in the forum wipe, so here we go again....)

Ah, the yearly funding review. Usually a very boring process, but every once in a while something extremely interesting came up.

They were in a tiny room consisting of a wooden table and a projector. On one side sat the Steward. On the other stood two of the techies from APL. The lights dimmed, and one of the techies started pointing at things on the screen.

"As you can see, this is a diagram of a standard-issue TELVIRDIS distortion generator. Some time ago, you may remember, there was discussion over whether or not it would be possible to torque the field into a fourth dimension, creating the possibility of time travel."

"Yes... but we already have time travel. And, as I recall, the concensus was that the torsion fields required would be worse than those on the original Spacebender."

"Yessir, we do technically have a limited form of time travel, but it will only allow the transmission of messages, not objects, and only during the time that the machine is operational. We can't go into the past, or the far future, and we can't use it to return to our starting point."

"I am aware. But isn't that why we gave you funding last year, to get around those problems?"

"Yessir, and we're very grateful for that, we've made quite a bit of progress, but the fact remains that any form of temporal travel using wormholes or light vortexes is limited to operation within the time of it's existance. The technology should be ready to install instaneous communications networks soon, but we've come across some other paths we'd like to explore. Consider this:"

The image on the screen changed, to show gravitational field diagrams.

"At the top left is the standard TELVIRDIS. This shows the distortions produced by a spacebender."
"Yes, I'm familiar with those. And the last ones?"
"On the left, a Kerr Microsingularity, which is what powers the SMECs. On the right, the gravity sinusoid of two interacting KMSs. Similar to a spacebender, you see, but without the harmful torsion fields."
"So, you've come up with a spacebender apparatus that won't kill its occupants. So what? We already have the TELVIRDIS."
"Exactly! The KMS apparatus cna be used in the same way as the original spacebender- to torque the TELVIRDIS into another dimension of travel."
"A time machine?"
"Quite so. But it would have limitations. The Novikov Consistency Principle would prevent us from putting it to anything but historical use. Now for the kicker- We think we can do away with the TELVIRDIS, and manipulate the Tipler gravity sinusoid to simulate passage directly through a KMS."
"And that means...?"
"Interworldline travel. If we can accomplish that, we will have unlimited access to any relatively close point in time, that is, within a hundred years or so, but on a different worldline. Consequently, the Novikov Consistently Principle will no longer be in effect."

"I like it."
"We though you would, sir."

A white-coated techie slowly walked down the cool concrete halls of one of the many labs in Down Under, runnin his hand along the cement casing of a very, very long supercollider. An announcement played over a speaker built into the wall- "Microsingularity genesis to commence in one hour, 32 minutes. Primary and secondary accelerators operational and standing by. All systems nominal." The techie picked up his pace.

Arriving in a white observation lab, with the ubiquitous glass walls, the techie plopped down in a swivelly chair and began typing on his handy Dvorak keyboard. Energy level graphs and false-color charts of particle paths adorned the screen, and he was flanked on the right by a large rack of metal boxes, holding oscilloscope screens, red digital readouts, and dials and toggle switches so numerous that you'd practically need a dedicated degree just to learn how to operate the darn thing.

With a stroke of the "Enter" key, the announcer voice came on once more.
"Charging accelerators. Activating ion chamber. Collider temperature at 10 K. 6K. 5K. 4.5K. 4K. 3.75K. Releasing beta particles. 10KeV. 50KeV. 125Kev. 300KeV. 500Kev. 1,000Kev...."

The synthetic voice continued to announce particle energies as the graphs on the computer screen rose higher and higher in relation to velocity. .1c. .3c. .5c. .7c.... Collision. Another graph registered an energy spike in the high gamma range, and particle path charts began going wild, like a deranged Life simulation, as the subatomic detritus of muons and heavy bosons flew into detection chambers. And then for the wait. Always the wait, while the computer continued firing more and more charged particles at the point of impact. Inevitably, this ended with a pronouncement of "Microsingularity dissolved".

"Kerr Microsingularity confirmed stable. Preparing for extraction."

The techie sat bolt upright. One thing was for sure- he would not be needing any caffiene pills today.

Now, it just needed to be made useful. The extracted artificial singularity sat in the center of a 10 meter wide block of steel, adorned with blinkenlights and vacuum sealed portholes, frost forming at the edges and at the joints where liquid helium flowed in from external pipes. Manipulating the gravity field required firing electrons at the KMS- but creating it required smashing together much larger particles, such as beta particles, which were positive, and a way must be found to alter the KMS's charge before use, so that those handy electrons don't end up causing it to lose it's charge and escape the confinement field.

Hence, it was being kept as ultra-low temperature, and fed only enough mass to keep it 'alive'- if it escaped, it would evaporate before any damage was done. Currently, it was just a fancy SMEC. But if the computer was fast enough at the switch- switching the confinement field to handle a negative object instead of a positive one, that is- a steady stream of electrons would soon neutralize the KMS and switch it over to the negative side. Then it could be bulked up, and fun things would take place.

The white-coated techie kept a careful watch overhis precious machines, gleaming grey manuments to the power of Man. He swiveled in his chair. He got up and paced for a moment. He chewed his pencil, ruffled his hair, tapped his clipboard. A LED turned on. His head snapped sideways at the sudden change. He walked over and inspected it closer. Something else was different... Aha! The graph was upside down! It flipped! Yes!

"YES! WaHOOO! It worked! The Smeggin' thing WORKED!"
The techie began to shuffle across the floor of the lab, kicking away little piles of used tinfoil, waving his hands in a victory dance.

"I.. made a negative Kerr... Micro-singularity! BOO-yah!"

He ran his fingers under a row of toggle switches, clicked his heels, and happily made his way out of the lab.
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KMS Field Control Test Summary:
A Kerr Micro-Singularity containing mass of 1,000 tonnes and charged to two megacoulombs was fed a stream of electrons at varying angles in an attempt to alter its rotary velocity, horizon separation, and the shape of its gravitational field. Initial velocity was sufficient to create a definite toroidal field. Results indicate that the required level of control is possible. Clearance is granted for dual-singularity experiments.
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Dual-Singularity Field Test #1
Two Kerr Micro-Singularities each containing a mass of 990 tonnes and charged to two megacoulombs were successfully confined in close proximity [3 meters]. Definite toroidal fields were generated as before. Clearance is granted to proceed with the attempt to generate a usable Tipler sinusoid.

Dual-Singularity Field Test #2
Two Kerr Micro-Singularities each containing a mass of 800 tonnes and charged to two megacoulombs were successfully confined in close proximity [1.5 meters]. Definite toroidal fields were generated as before, and succesfully overlapped to form a Tipler sinusoid.
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Dual-Singularity Field Test #3
Two Kerr Micro-Singularities each containing a mass of 800 tonnes and charged to two megacoulombs were successfully confined in close proximity [1.5 meters]. A Tipler sinusoid was generated as before. A beta particle stream was injected into an orbit passing through overlapping lightcones 10 nanoseconds into the past, while a control stream was fired on a parallel path outside of the positive time horizon of the machine. The test particles were detected 8.5 nanoseconds before their counterparts, with a dispersion of 2% observed at the collector. Clearance is granted to begin full-machine displacement tests.
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Gravity Distortion Time Displacement Test #1
Two Kerr Micro-Singularities each containing a mass of 300 tonnes and charged to two megacoulombs were successfully confined in close proximity [1.5 meters]. A Tipler sinusoid was generated as before. Electron streams were used to expand the negative time horizon to encompass a volume of 27 cubic meters for a period of 10 nanoseconds. The machine successfully traveled 22 seconds into the past, with a spatial displacement of 37 meters. The machine left the experimental area, nearly becoming embedded in the surrounding rock with effects similar to those of quantum teleportation.
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Gravity Distortion Time Displacement Test #2
Two Kerr Micro-Singularities each containing a mass of 300 tonnes and charged to two megacoulombs were successfully confined in close proximity [1.5 meters]. A Tipler sinusoid was generated as before. Electron streams were used to expand the negative time horizon to encompass a volume of 27 cubic meters for a period of 10 nanoseconds. 3 cesium clocks and 2 gravity sensors were used to coordinate additional spacebending. The machine successfully traveled 22 seconds into the past, with a spatial displacement of 3.5 meters from target.
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Gravity Distortion Time Displacement Test Summary
Tipler sinusoids have been successfully employed to simulate passage through a toroidal singularity. A basic formula for determining general spatial offset relative to time displacement has been derived, which can be used to cancel spatial drift via traditional spacebending. A suitable system of clocks and gravity sensors has been created to account for planetary drift.

The techs were, to say the least, excited. Someone flipped open a switch cover, and toggled the metal bar underneath. The assembled physicists and engineers stared intently through the plexiglass barrier at a truck-sized mass of metal sitting in the middle of an otherwise empty testing room. Suddenly, the image began to distort, as though the entire machine were contained within a large perfectly transparent lense. Telemetry screenes registered a local gravity of approximately 2 gs within the machine- until they went blank, that is, which was exactly the same time that the entire machine vanished.

A few moments later, the machine returned. A full two hours had passed on the internal chronometer. Later information exchange would verify that, yes indeedy, the machine had been present at beta site for two hours prior to the test. Reverse and fast forward- both worked perfectly.