A room outside of time

[2WayParadox]

Now, I'm not a physicist nor am I a mathematician. But I do like to think about concepts and ideas that at least sound like they have something to do with physics.

A room outside time is a good example of this.

Let me first explain what I mean when I say a room outside of time. When you enter this room, your time in reality stops flowing and continues inside the room.

Another possibility is that when you enter the room, time stops to exist, but I reject that option. Time is needed for processes to occur. If time would stop to exist, then all that would happen in a room outside of time is you existing there suspended in time, never moving, or more correctly, never changing.

So that's my first problem with a room outside of time.

The second is how one would go about creating such a room. I'm looking for a fantasy/physics/magic explanation here. I guess you could say that it's a pocket dimension, but that feels like cheating. I won't accept the folding of space as a solution.

I was playing with the idea that when there is no matter or energy in a space, then there is no time in that room because there is nothing in the room that can express time through change. The problem with that is, that when a Magus steps into that room, he won't be able to survive because he requires energy from the environment to function. So being in the room would either gradually deplete his inner resources, or he'd need some kind of spell that makes it possible for him to function in that kind of environment.

Any suggestions on a concept to solve this problem? Maybe something analogue to a space suit?

 

[KC Trae Becker]

I have an area in my world that is timeless in a way. I'm still trying to figure out how it works, but it is different from the other dimensional areas that have time streams speeds that are fractals of each other.

In the almost timeless area, I figure characters going into it take a time bubble with them. They can not touch each other if they are from different time periods and time fractals. This seems similar to your space suit idea. If the time bubble a character came into the area in gets popped somehow, then that character becomes part of that timeless area and has a hard returning to his or her own time period or fractal or any other time for that matter.

I haven't figured out how permeable the membranes on the time bubbles are without getting popped, but I want items to be able to pass through them occasionally but not easily. I haven't figured out how the membranes would effect sound yet, but I want sound to pass through them, too, and relatively easily.

 

[2WayParadox]

A time bubble, hmm. Does that mean that time inside the bubble moves in the same way as outside the bubble (outside the timeless zone)? Because that would make the space pointless. However, if it hasn't been built and is instead a natural phenomenon, then it's not a problem. I'm guessing that zone is more of a space-crossroad then it is anything else.

But if the time bubble can be popped, then that suggests it's made out of material that can be popped. If it's nothing as physical as that, then resonance with bursts of cosmis radiation could be a better source of danger. The space you describe doesn't sound very stable after all.

My room outside of time could maybe be better described as a study outside of time. I support the idea of importing a limited amount of energy into this void place and use that to sustain the person. But as to what he can actually do inside the room, that's different. For example, he could read a book, since all the energy involved in reading (turning pages, processing the info, supporting the book etc) comes from the reader. However, as I'm writing this down, I realize that even this simple action would be impossible. Void of energy and matter means no light.

It's a dilemma. The absence of energy and matter make it timeless, but that very characteristic makes it virtually impossible to do anything useful in that space. I need to solve this issue somehow.

 

[KC Trae Becker]

Thanks, 2WayParadox, I suppose my timeless place is really just a place where time runs differently that everywhere else, because I want time to still occur.

I am treating the time bubbles as having a physical attribute that can be disrupted. Is that logical?

Perhaps you need time to run differently in your room, too. Have you read ever read Einstein's Dreams, by Alan Lightman? I recommend it if you haven't. It has lots of different ideas of how time could run differently and it's not very long.

 

[2WayParadox]

I take it that with differently you don't just mean slower

 

[Devor]

I don't think you're going to find a believable solution in physics. I think you're probably best off with a bit of hand waving, like how "pocket dimension" sounds good but doesn't really mean anything. But as a better example:

If time is like a string, your room is like a rubber band looping around it. You come in on one side of the rubber band (where time there starts) and you exit the other side of the rubber band (where time in the rubber band ends). But the rubber band is a circle that runs back to the same spot. It's like taking a little detour on the highway of time.

That's a lot of hogwash hand waving of course but the idea is that maybe it sounds good enough to go with for a story.

 

[2WayParadox]

Hmm, my magic system is based on energy, which roughly corresponds to energy like we know it, although I do have a dimension similar to the Ideal dimension (Plato).

So what I'm looking for is not an explanation of why it exist or how it works, I'm looking for how one's made by manipulating energy. It doesn't have to be believable, all it needs is a logic that intuitively works.

 

[BronzeOracle]

WARNING - hippy bomb being lobbed into discussion

One thing which I wonder is what time means for a sentient being, away from the physics (which is cool btw - I loved Interstellar). I wonder whether its something that causes change that tests and challenges us and helps us to grow, if we so chose. Some of us rise to the challenge and our heart opens, others retreat and our heart hardens. Most of us I guess are a mix of the two. So what does that mean for the being that exists outside of time? Do they now live in a challenge-less, hurt-less, regret-less, love-less state where their soul remains unchanged, un-grown, no wiser, like its kept in a display case? And does this mean that they too cannot affect growth in others?

 

[Penpilot]

As an aside, an example of a character in fiction that kind of lives outside of time, at least their consciousness does, is Dr. Manhattan from the Watchmen comic. They exist outside of time, so time's linear nature doesn't apply. They experience their entire existence all at once. At any one moment in their existence in normal time, they are conscious of all events future and past, but are unable to do anything to change what is meant to happen because of causality.

I'm no a physicist, so take what ever I say here with a mountain size grain of salt.

Time exists only in the universe. Before the universe there was no time. So if you step out of time, you step out of the universe and step outside the rules of causality. See Dr. Manhattan above.

If there's causality in that room then, there's time in that room. If you step out of the universe and time, then you step out of the rules of causality, and then like Dr. Manhattan you can experience/see your whole life in one instant. In doing so you glean the knowledge of a life time, and if you're able to step back into the universe, maybe you retain that knowledge. But now, the question becomes can you do anything with that knowledge. In a fatalistic universe, you can't, but your story doesn't have to be in that type of universe.

Any ways, my 2cents.

 

[KC Trae Becker]

I take it that with differently you don't just mean slower

No, the time fractals are already varying speeds of each other. This area need to have a sort of permanence about it.

I think I need to reread Einstein's Dreams. There were all kinds of different logical ways time could run in it. When I read it 10 years ago nothing screamed use me, but I didn't know what I was looking for then and my story has evolved vastly since.

 

[Panda]

These TVTropes entries might be useful: Year Inside, Hour Outside - TV Tropes Time Dilation - TV Tropes