| Ron arrived home from an unusual day of activities around campus, completed his homework, and retired to his dorm. His tachyons class professor had instructed him to discover a method to contact the past. As he relaxed in the seat of his computer he thought about his assignment and the prospects of time travel which his peers believed to be fantasy. Deciding that it would be interesting to discuss these matters with Andy now, he picked up the phone and dialed Andy�s number. Andy was an exceptionally intelligent graduate student who had done work on tachyons before and mentioned it to Ron. �Hi Ron,� Andy greet him. �Hi. I was wondering if I could inquire about your beliefs on time travel,� Ron replied. �Well personally, I regard it as an impossibility.� Andy said. �I regard time as an impossibility. If you consider the facts, humans have observed and defined time. What makes it real?� �Things change. The world is different now than it was a minute ago,� Ron contradicted. �You�re right, Ron-� Andy started. �So what are we debating about?� Ron interrupted. �Things change. The world changes. But does time change? Just because things are different doesn�t mean time is different.� Andy summarized. �Basically, what you are saying is that there is one time, one place where everything happens,� Ron replied. �Yeah, and that rules out time travel.� Andy concluded. �Thanks for showing me.� �Bye.� Ron was not convinced that time travel was impossible, because ever since his childhood, he had imagined and anticipated the day on which time travel became logically correct. He still clung to his supposedly impossible dream. Ron walked up Elm Street past a homeless bum sipping something out of a paper bag. He had not seen a bum in this section of campus in a while. The bum was perched in a cardboard box in an abandoned doorway like a jack-in-the-box. Ron passed another doorway and tripped over a leg that suddenly protruded from its hidden location. Ron looked back and saw a dark figure jump back to the doorway but soon stealthily creep out. This mysterious creature reminded him of a tachyon message which contains certain unexplained jumbles of letters. Ron began his ascent of the stairs to the library. He felt someone slap him on the back and saw the same dark figure disappear among the crowd. He was very puzzled by this unknown person�s behavior. As Ron walked through the crowded library on the following day and pushed his way through the unusually large crowd around a book signing, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked back and saw no one. He felt it again and again no one claimed responsibility. He sat down at the table nearest him and started his research on tachyons. �Tachyons can travel faster than light through time,� Andy sat down next to him and said. �So they do.� Ron returned. �Hey!� Ron shouted and looked down at his shoes. They were tied together. �What happened?� wondered Andy. �Someone tied my shoes together,� Ron answered. �It�s funny how many pranksters are around campus. �Yeah, happens to me too.� Andy assured him. No one said anything while Ron read his textbook but Ron had an idea forming in his head. �If we can send messages back through time, then why not do it?� he asked. �Well, by aiming the tachyons so they are sent out to a certain point in space, that is a certain point in time. Too hard to find the right time. And I don�t think time exists� Andy answered. �Well, why don�t you try?� �I have the equipment.� �Yeah?� �Maybe I will.� �Make it have to do with me.� �Fine. I�ll try tonight.� After anticipating the results for two days, Ron relieved his anxiety by another call to Andy whom he had been unable to reach previously. Did you send back the signal?� Ron asked Andy. �Yep, but no one dressed in black was treating you strangely on the day we talked in the library.� Ron recalled the events of that day: a boring lecture, an interesting class on quantum mechanics, and the dark figure in and outside the library. �Am I right?� Andy wondered. �No, I think some one did.� �Hey what?� �This may have worked.� �What? Who annoyed you?� �I dunno. Someone kept tripping and hitting me. I never really saw them. I don�t know who it was.� �I gave instructions to a friend to track you down. Now what to do then. I expected and implied to him to tell what he was told to do and surprise me by what else he did.� �So maybe time does exist.� |
| The Tachyon Figure |