Stopping Time

misakyra

I'm working on a story that's set in a world where stopping time is a learnable skill, which has gotten me thinking about how objects and people would be manipulated.

The best way to explain this is with an example. Say I'm trying to make an ice sculpture, but I'm terrible at it and the block of ice keeps melting before I finish. Then say I stop time. If I leave the block alone, it obviously won't melt. But what happens when I start chipping at it? Does it stay inside normal space/time and fail to melt, or does my interacting with it bring it into whatever side-dimension I'm in, and make it subject to the same laws of physics I am? If it's the latter, how much interaction brings it out of space/time? Would picking it up be enough, or would it stay in normal space/time until I break pieces off? Lastly, does my interaction bring it out of space/time indefinitely, or does it return to normal space/time when I stop interacting with it?

What would the pros and cons of each situation be? Which one do you think would be more challenging for someone in that situation? Discuss.

Victor Frost

Dude, it's fiction; You decide the rules. There are implications for each, and, depending on how you want the story to progress, you need to decide which one fits best.

Luke Burrage

What is the mechanism used for stopping time? What are the limits of that mechanism? How can it know what you are interacting with?

If it is purely mechanical, set a distance limit out from the device/person and have all time inside that volume stop. If the ice is within 20 cm of your hand, it joins your time, so part of the ice can be manipulated and the rest stays frozen. Later in the story this could be used in interesting situations. EG: a spray of bullets are shot at your protagonist who is pinned against a wall, they stop time, then look about and find a bullet stopped very, very close to them. If they move, the bullet will enter their field and may kill them as it returns to normal speed (relative). How do they get out of the situation.

If the mechanism is based purely in the mind you can say "whatever I am subconsciously thinking about will also stop". It cant be conscious thought as only the thing you are looking at will stop, and parts of your body you aren't thinking about will slip out of synch with other parts of you. But then if it is subconscious you would end up stopping time but including things you really don't want to be thinking about at all. EG: Bullets.

If you have a combination of the two above approaches, you could have a mechanically defined edge of the field to include your full body, then your conscious mind could extend the field in various directions and distances, to use as a tool, if you will.

"Interacting with" is too fuzzy a line to draw to bring things into your stopped time. Make some harder rules. Not only will your questions be answered but you'll find many new cool things to write about.

Norvu

Yeah, the rules are pretty yours to do with as you please. The more you define the rules for stopping time and interacting with things the easier it will be for your readers and also for yourself, it stops you from contradicting yourself in previous stories where certain acts are described as impossible, such as the first episode of Stargate SG1 where they travel back through the same wormhole they came out of, something that the rest of the series says is impossible.

Does time stop or just become infantesimally slow? If it's the latter you could have interesting situations where just touching a person out of sync with yourself could cause a huge impact, because the faster something travels the faster it gets. A hair travelling at 99% the speed of light hitting you would probably cause you to go "boom".

Alan

Only if your floating near a event horizon of a black hole.

Churba

Yeah, the rules are pretty yours to do with as you please. The more you define the rules for stopping time and interacting with things the easier it will be for your readers and also for yourself, it stops you from contradicting yourself in previous stories where certain acts are described as impossible, such as the first episode of Stargate SG1 where they travel back through the same wormhole they came out of, something that the rest of the series says is impossible.

Does time stop or just become infantesimally slow? If it's the latter you could have interesting situations where just touching a person out of sync with yourself could cause a huge impact, because the faster something travels the faster it gets. A hair travelling at 99% the speed of light hitting you would probably cause you to go "boom".

I remember The Flash uses this a lot - He doesn't hit people that hard, just really, really fast.

Apreche

I am infamous in discussions of stopping time. Once I tried to make a metaphor for "no harm no foul" by discussing rape in the context of time stoppage. It didn't go over so well. I just want to get that out of the way before some FRC person inevitably brings it up.

If I did actually have the power to stop time, I think what I would do is become the greatest athlete to ever live. I would participate in every sport ever, and win at every sport ever.

Walker

I am infamous in discussions of stopping time. Once I tried to make a metaphor for "no harm no foul" by discussing rape in the context of time stoppage. It didn't go over so well. I just want to get that out of the way before some FRC person inevitably brings it up.

If I did actually have the power to stop time, I think what I would do is become the greatest athlete to ever live. I would participate in every sport ever, and win at every sport ever.

You'd get disqualified pretty fast, I think.

Σπεκωσποκ

I am infamous in discussions of stopping time. Once I tried to make a metaphor for "no harm no foul" by discussing rape in the context of time stoppage. It didn't go over so well. I just want to get that out of the way before some FRC person inevitably brings it up.

If I did actually have the power to stop time, I think what I would do is become the greatest athlete to ever live. I would participate in every sport ever, and win at every sport ever.

You'd get disqualified pretty fast, I think.

Plus, I would imagine that, in a sport with direct competition, it would be rather hard to hide the fact you were stopping time.

misakyra

I am infamous in discussions of stopping time. Once I tried to make a metaphor for "no harm no foul" by discussing rape in the context of time stoppage. It didn't go over so well. I just want to get that out of the way before some FRC person inevitably brings it up.

If I did actually have the power to stop time, I think what I would do is become the greatest athlete to ever live. I would participate in every sport ever, and win at every sport ever.

You'd get disqualified pretty fast, I think.

Plus, I would imagine that, in a sport with direct competition, it would be rather hard to hide the fact you were stopping time.

Only if you use the time stop to make something impossible happen. If you go from last in a race to first, then yeah, you'd get caught. But if you're a close second and move the person in front of you back and yourself forwards, you might get away with it. You would also have an endless supply of practice time, and thus you might not even need to cheat at all.

Jason

I would think that in a stopped-time environment, you would not be able to move anything but yourself. Of course, that would require moving air particles, which would cause a problem. Wouldn't everything be immutably fixed in space if time stopped, since the two are the same thing? And if there is friction from moving things around, but time is stopped, how is conservation of energy maintained?

Loganator456

I would think that in a stopped-time environment, you would not be able to move anything but yourself. Of course, that would require moving air particles, which would cause a problem. Wouldn't everything be immutably fixed in space if time stopped, since the two are the same thing? And if there is friction from moving things around, but time is stopped, how is conservation of energy maintained?

Yeah, It would definitely slow the speed of molecules so the temperature would drop, wouldn't it?

Apreche

Plus, I would imagine that, in a sport with direct competition, it would be rather hard to hide the fact you were stopping time.

It would be very easy. See, what you would actually do is stop and unstop time constantly, thus effectively making "bullet time". You know, like the Matrix. Then you would move very slowly and carefully, but in real-time you would be moving very fast.

So let's say I was in a foot race. i would stop time, move my leg forward further than the other guy moved his leg forward. Unstop time, rinse and repeat until the race was over.

If I was playing baseball, I would stop time right before the ball got to the plate. Everything else would be in slow motion, but even if I swung the bat slowly and carefully, in real-time it is moving faster than anyone has ever swung a bat ever before. I'll hit a home run, even if they try to intentionally walk me.

If it's football, I'll be the running back. I'll take the hand off from the QB. Then as I march down the field, everyone will be moving in slow motion. I can easy dodge all attempts to tackle me and make it to the end zone.

Archery will be super easy. I stop time when the arrow is about a foot away from the target. Then I walk over and put it in front of the bullseye. I'm already ok at archery without cheating, so I should be perfect with time stoppage.

If it's F1 racing, again, I'll basically be driving in slow motion. Everyone else will be sweating their balls off going at insane speed. For me it will feel like a Sunday drive. I'll be able to push the car down the perfect line every lap. I'll be able to drive incredibly close to other cars without hitting them.

Walker

Some of those could work if you didn't get winded after one push up.

Anastius

Yeah, the rules are pretty yours to do with as you please. The more you define the rules for stopping time and interacting with things the easier it will be for your readers and also for yourself, it stops you from contradicting yourself in previous stories where certain acts are described as impossible, such as the first episode of Stargate SG1 where they travel back through the same wormhole they came out of, something that the rest of the series says is impossible.

Does time stop or just become infantesimally slow? If it's the latter you could have interesting situations where just touching a person out of sync with yourself could cause a huge impact, because the faster something travels the faster it gets. A hair travelling at 99% the speed of light hitting you would probably cause you to go "boom".

The same would probably apply to air molecules as well. Moving at all would result to, basically, explosion.

Cremlian

Some of those could work if you didn't get winded after one push up.

Well he would have all the time in the world to catch his wind between steps :-p

Tasel

Something I'm surprised that hasn't come up would be age. Now depending on your mechanics of time, it could effect you differently. You are either set with one of two situations. One would be something where you step out of time itself. In this case, you don't age as time itself doesn't exists in a traditional sense. Sorta like stepping up a few dimensions or something and looking down on the so called "4th dimension". You would have the ability to manipulate things in the lower space, but yourself not directly in in. The other would be being within the timeline, but just everything outside ages at a different rate. As such using this ability over along period of time would greatly cause those that stop time to age much faster than those around them (relatively of course).

Apreche

Tasel, we're just going to pretend that if we have technology to stop time, we also have technology to prevent aging.

misakyra

I actually thought about the age thing too. The way I'm writing it, there are physical rules, but there's also a really strict ethical code. One of the rules is about not stopping time too often, or in too long stretches, because it makes you age faster. They have technology to reverse small amounts of it (up to a about a year), but if you stop time for the equivalent of several years, they can't (and won't) make you your same age again.

lackofcheese

I actually thought about the age thing too. The way I'm writing it, there are physical rules, but there's also a really strict ethical code. One of the rules is about not stopping time too often, or in too long stretches, because it makes you age faster. They have technology to reverse small amounts of it (up to a about a year), but if you stop time for the equivalent of several years, they can't (and won't) make you your same age again.

How can that be part of an "ethical code"?
Surely it is the right of every person to make that kind of choice; ethics would only come into it if it harmed others...

misakyra

I actually thought about the age thing too. The way I'm writing it, there are physical rules, but there's also a really strict ethical code. One of the rules is about not stopping time too often, or in too long stretches, because it makes you age faster. They have technology to reverse small amounts of it (up to a about a year), but if you stop time for the equivalent of several years, they can't (and won't) make you your same age again.

How can that be part of an "ethical code"?
Surely it is the right of every person to make that kind of choice; ethics would only come into it if it harmed others...

My bad. I should have explained it better. I wasn't thinking in terms of a greater moral sense. Since the ability is designed and controlled by a company, they view stopping time for personal reasons as a misuse of company equipment. But you're right that it wouldn't harm people in the greater scheme.