We all know about time. From birth to death, we know it is a straight line—advancing one second at a time. And in accordance with it, we manage our lives around it. For example, we mark our calendars, prioritize our tasks, and balance our work and life. We know that we cannot change the past, and the future is yet to be determined. But what if this is not the case?
What if time wasn’t linear as it is? What if, instead of a single unbroken thread, it can be looped, twisted, and even allowed for moments to be revisited or altered? What if it can be dilated and bent according to our needs?
In World Lines: From Space-Time to Apocalypse, time does not behave in the same way we expect. Most characters experience life in a straightforward fashion, but some—known as the “Alternates”—have world lines. This allows them to exist at multiple points in time simultaneously. They bounce in and out of different moments, sometimes appearing where they shouldn’t be, other times vanishing entirely.
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Normally, our world line is a simple trajectory forward, but what if it wasn’t? The implications would be enormous.
Imagine being able to visit your past self, offering advice, or correcting mistakes. Consider the possibility that déjà vu is not a mental trick but rather a genuine memory of a moment you are currently experiencing. In such a world where time is not linear, fate and freedom will become blurred. When you have to choose or make a certain decision, it will always be inevitable because your future self has already shaped your past. If so, think of the ancient civilizations that may have unlocked the ability to step outside of linear time and potentially reside alongside us. Their disappearance from history might not be due to extinction but rather an escape into another time or dimension.
The time effects could also precede our causes, leading to paradoxes that boggle the mind. Imagine inventing a technology based on a design you received from your future self—who invented it first? These kinds of temporal loops could redefine our understanding of physics, the very fabric of reality, and the universe itself.
In a nonlinear time, our perception of reality would be completely different. For example, we might experience time as a multidimensional space where past, present, and future coexist. Our consciousness might also be able to navigate this space, allowing us to experience different moments simultaneously, like the “Alternates” in World Lines: From Space-Time to Apocalypse. This could lead to a deeper understanding of the universe but also a profound shift in how we perceive ourselves and our place within it.
These are just a few possibilities, of course. The reality of a non-linear timeline, if it exists, is likely far more complex and mind-bending than we can imagine. Exploring these “what ifs by reading books like World Lines: From Space-Time to Apocalypse isn’t just a fun thought experiment; it challenges our fundamental assumptions about reality and encourages us to think beyond the confines of our current understanding of time. It serves as a reminder that the universe is full of mysteries, the most profound of which may be time itself.