The Vineyards

One day my mother walked by my bedroom door and saw me sitting in front of the computer, looking pensively at a turned off monitor. She asked what I was thinking.

If the computer was enveloped in a bubble and in this bubble time ran faster than outside, how would the computer behave? If turned on, would it use power at a faster rate, increasing consumption outside the bubble as if a more electrically demanding device had been plugged?

Likewise, what would happen if it was connected to the internet? If a download was made, would this download be slower inside the bubble because the server outside, where times flows more slowly, is unable to send data at a rate sufficient to meet the demands of a time-accelerated computer? Or would the download inside the bubble run at normal speed (from the point of view of an observer also inside the bubble) and the server sending data would "catch up" later, long after the bubble computer had the entire file downloaded?

Taking that further: time inside the bubble flowing faster means it will reach tomorrow before common time outside the bubble; would a news site visited by this computer show tomorrow's news? Could e-mails be received, inside the bubble, that have not been written yet? Assuming that, would the computer sometimes inexplicably run out of power, because sometime in the future there will be a blackout?

These examples all share the same core issues: is the future predetermined, so that coming in contact with it from an outside point of view will show precisely what will happen, inexorably?; and how do two lines of time flowing in parallel at different speeds interact?

Unable to enlighten any of my considerations, my mother laughed, commented I concern myself with the most unexpected things, and went on her way.

From xkcd, original here.

Posted by Etienne at April 6, 2007 05:44 PM