(urth) Hierogrammates, Briah and Yesod

Jeff Wilson jwilson at io.com
Tue Aug 10 22:43:12 PDT 2010


On 8/10/2010 11:42 AM, DAVID STOCKHOFF wrote:
> A universe's limits are definitely temporal. At very least, as you
> approach any theoretical physical edge, I'd expect a sharp curve in
> time, not space. I'm not sure how this would manifest itself. But...

In current and time-of-writing astronomical thought, there is no 
accessible edge of the universe, but that doesn't prevent Severian's 
untechnical general education from leading him to speak of one 
literally, or Apheta from answering him figuratively to avoid an 
unfruitful digression. The end of Ushas, the distant mountaintops beyond 
the shores of Urth, and the circle of Dis are all figures of speech, 
metaphorical, but asopted by the more sophisticated beings to 
communicate with the more primitive but no less necessary planetbound 
races from which they draw their crews, minions, test subjects, etc.

> When we look deep into the universe, we see the deep past rushing at us
> at the speed of light. If we were to move into that past at
> near-lightspeeds, we might experience an FTL rush into the future, like
> two cars speeding past one another at twice the speed of either one by
> itself. This might be what Severian sees ahead. I don't think it's the
> birth of Briah, but the death, because by the time you get to the edge
> of the universe, the past (birth) is long gone and so is the edge.

This is the reverse of universal expansion as discovered by Hubble, and 
still essentially in effect through the time of writing until now. 
Distant galaxies move away in (rough as we know now) proportion to their 
current distance.

Rushing head-on STL + STL to get FTL doesn't work due to relativity. 
Wolfe is allowing some exceptions, like the prohibition on accelerating 
to FTL, but seems to be keeping the time-dilation, Lorentz contraction, 
and other aspects of special relativity that prevent high speeds form 
being a simple vector sum:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity-addition_formula

> You would get into Briah from Yesod, and into Abaddon from Briah, by
> moving into the past. This is unimaginable, but then there are people
> who live backwards in time (even though they speak forwards), perhaps
> because they are from a universe that runs backwards. (Don't ask.) Or
> because they are outside time and can choose.

The FOB trio are on a life-long assigment to follow severian's timeline 
backward, but they move in hops like the rest of the time travelers. 
They personally experience time in the same moment-to-moment direction, 
even though they affect some reversed mannerisms, like B backing out 
through the doorway and saying hello as a means of saying goodbye. I 
can't figure out exactly why they do that, perhaps it's an ingrained 
part of their cover personas like wearing the masks all the time, and it 
may also be a comment on Vonnegut.

> Therefore, the universes may be arranged so that the overall future is
> beyond Yesod, but all coexist from an atemporal perspective (you can get
> to X from Y any time---it's never gone, even branches).

This is belied in the story by the disappearance of Master Ash.

> I am beginning to think that the Hieros are indeed our future and that
> their creators were the future Us, not a past race in a past universe.
> Thus, all Hieros and all white energy come from this future, moving
> backwards through time to reach us. Since this means no other universes
> or iterations are necessary, the whole rerunning of Briah theory (as
> opposed to merely intervening on Urth again and again) can be dispensed
> with. It's simpler.

It's also reversing the increase of entropy, violating the most firmly 
established physical laws we have.

> Does this make sense?

Lovely weather, isn't it?


-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >



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