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Letter: Moment in time

Published 16 June 2001

From Jon Stern

In Michael Brooks’s article about time travel
(19 May, p 26), Ronald Mallett
talks about creating a “closed time-like loop” time machine that would allow
travel back to the moment it was switched on.

The exact moment such a machine came into being would be recorded and
remembered as a landmark in human history. Time tourists from the future would
inevitably want to travel back to it. Suddenly a vast mass of people from
different future ages would appear at the entrance of the machine, presumably
attempting to occupy the same space. I’m not quite sure what the effect of this
would be, but I suspect that it would be bad for both the machine and the
travellers.

Laguna Beach, California

Issue no. 2295 published 16 June 2001

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